Shit.
This was messy. And the perfect example of why locals should stick to drinking at Mattie B’s. It kept the drama contained. I didn’t need this in my life. I wasn’t even on the damn schedule.
I sighed long and loud.
Kayla grinned. “Bet you wish you’d kept on going to your apartment instead of checking up on us. Too bad you’re paranoid and anal retentive.”
She totally ignored my glare and patted me on the chest before returning to where thirsty customers waited.
“Sorry, boss,” Sasha muttered when she breezed by. “And sorry about your dinner.”
“My what?” I spun around to where I’d left my saag paneer and felt my jaw drop open.
Drunken Barbie Bonnie was going to town on a samosa frommytake-out container. Flakes of fried dough littered the shiny bar top as she closed her eyes and moaned around a mouthful, “Ermahgerd, I loooove these.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
Kayla was right. This was what I got for being a control freak. Work-life balance, my ass.
I approached the little dinner thief and plucked the appetizer out of her hand. “These are mine.”
She squawked, a wrinkle forming between her brows. “I already bit off it. Can’t I finish it?”
“No, you may not.” I popped the lid back on the Styrofoam box. “When the cops catch someone in the middle of robbing a bank, Clyde, they don’t just let them finish the job because they already started.”
“It’s Bonnie,” she corrected. “The other half of the duo.”
I shook my head. “No, Clyde fits you better. You’re trouble.”
Bonnie eyed me suspiciously, or maybe she was seeing double and trying to figure out which one of me to focus on. “You’re not how I thought you’d be.”
I tucked away the rest of my food—Jesus, did she already eat all my pakora?—then tied the bag closed.
Leaning forward, I placed my elbows on the bar and met her gaze. It was slightly more focused. “Oh, yeah? And how did you think I’d be?”
Her eyes were interesting—bright honey brown with a dark ring around the outside. Not something you saw every day. The frown she was trying her best to commit to looked strange on her face, like her muscles weren’t used to the shape, flitting inadvertently toward a smile when she wasn’t paying attention. Whatever lipstick she’d had on at the beginning of the night was long gone, and now her lips just looked soft and full and pink. She had a slight gap in her front teeth that was oddly endearing.
Then I remembered she’d swiped the dinner I’d been looking forward to and resumed scowling.
“I thought,” she mused drunkenly, “you’d be less concerned with legalities.”
I felt my brows climb high on my forehead, an uncomfortable weight settling in my stomach. At one time, I wouldn’t have beenconcerned with something as minor as theft or even breaking and entering. But I’d left those days behind. I hadn’t been a delinquent teenage asshole in a very long while.
But it did make me curious about what she meant by that and how the hell someone who was publicly intoxicated was staring down her nose at me from atop her high horse.
It just went to show you that small towns had long memories. Once you were labeled a loser, it didn’t matter how many successful businesses you owned or operated; you couldn’t shake the convenient brand in the end. Not that anyone, aside from my grandmother, really knew I owned Magnolia.
Bonnie didn’t do the polite thing where you looked away once you’d dredged up someone’s embarrassing past. She kept her gaze right on me. “You were two grades ahead of me. I had a free period in the afternoon to help with the yearbook, and Mrs. Crowder’s window looked out over the practice field and the field house.”
I nodded, knowing where this was going. It wasn’t shame churning around in my gut, but it was close enough.
“You’d skip out of last period nearly every day,” she said conversationally, no malice or judgment in her tone, a small smile tilting her lips. “I’d watch you get on your motorcycle and roar off down the street. A real lone wolf.”
Then Bonnie cupped her small hands and held them above her ears and let loose a high-pitched howl that had every head turning in our direction.
I fought a laugh as I looked down at the wood-grain surface. But I brought my attention back to her when she said quietly, “Youdidn’t know I existed. I was just a sophomore, and you were Mister Badass with your leather jacket.”
“Still have that leather jacket,” I said.
