Epilogue
Bailey
E ight Years Earlier…
My mother walked beside me on the sidewalk as we headed back to the truck with our bags. She’d brought me to the market to pick out a few snacks for my movie night at the Bronsons’ tonight. I’d gone a little overboard but I didn’t want to show up empty-handed.
They never expected me to bring snacks, but I always did anyway.
We’d set up the projector in the backyard and lay on blankets as we watched the movie.
Reed, Lennon, Callan, and Beck were my best friends.
Lettie was too, but the title wouldn’t stick.
That girl was too beautiful to let slip out of my hands.
She was so fucking sassy, I couldn’t help my smile every time she opened her pretty mouth.
We grew up together, and while most people would think that would warrant her to be like my little sister, she was far from it.
I didn’t miss her little glances. She had a crush on me, and every time her cheeks beat red when she watched me swim in the creek in my boxers or stack hay shirtless, I fell a little harder.
A little farther into the chokehold Lettie Bronson had on me.
The day she turned eighteen, I’d show her. Not a second later. I’d wasted too many seconds of my life pausing, hesitating, and not living in the moment.
I couldn’t plan how I’d tell her. I’d overthink it, and end up chickening out. It’d have to be spur of the moment with Lettie. Then I knew I’d show her with no second thoughts.
An old man sat on the corner of the intersection under a white pop-up tent. He had a hand-painted sign that read “huckleberries for sale.”
I gestured to the stand. “Is it alright if I get some for tonight?”
I was nineteen, but was too scared to drive my grandfather’s truck he’d given me in his will.
I was terrified of wrecking it, so I opted for my mom to drive me whenever I needed to go into town.
If it was on the backroads, I felt more confident.
But with the crazy tourists in town, I didn’t want to risk even a scratch on the door.
“Of course.” My mom followed me to the stand and I pulled out my wallet.
“How much for a bucket load?” I asked the man who’s wrinkles were set deep in the freckled skin of his face .
“Ten dollars,” he stated.
My mom raised her eyebrows. “A bucket load? Why on earth would you need a bucket of huckleberries?”
“No reason. Just like ‘em.” But I knew exactly what I’d do with them.
Reed and I loved playing pranks on Lettie, and this was the perfect one.
The man handed me a tin bucket filled to the rim with huckleberries. I was honestly surprised he actually had a bucket, but maybe people asked for them like this on the regular.
Maybe everyone had a girl back home they loved to annoy.
Or people just liked making pie by the dozens.
Whichever.
The bucket swung from my fingers as we continued on our way to the truck. Once there, I set the bags of snacks in the back and set the bucket at my feet in the passenger seat to ensure it didn’t tip over on the way home.
About twenty minutes later, my mom pulled up in front of the Bronsons’.
“Have fun, sweetie,” my mom said, giving me a smile.
I leaned over to press a kiss to her cheek. “See you tomorrow.”
Grabbing my belongings, I hopped out, making my way up the porch steps as my mom drove off, heading to our ranch next door.
“Thank God, you’re here,” Reed said as he opened the door before I could knock. “They’re driving me up the damn wall.”
“Lettie one of them?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“When isn’t she?”
I held the bucket of huckleberries up, a smirk on my face. “I’ve got just the thing.”
Reed eyed the contents, a devious look in his eyes. “This’ll be perfect.”
Or royally piss her off. Either way, she’d be fuming, and a red, angry little Lettie was just the way to start off the night.
We headed in, Reed taking the bags of snacks from my hand and laying them out on the table on the back porch. I hid the bucket behind the barbeque grill, making sure I had easy access to it.
As if on cue, Lettie ambled out through the sliding back door wearing jean shorts and a white tank top. She could sense I was here, she always could. Her piercing blue eyes darted to me, then instantly, a frown formed when she saw my smile.
“What are you up to?”
I shrugged. “Just excited for the movie.”
Her frown deepened. “We watch Fast and Furious every Saturday. It’s nothing new.”
She came around the table as Reed was pouring M&M’s into a small bowl, pulling a chair out as she reached for a bag of chips.
As soon as she had her back turned to me, I pulled the chair away, replacing it with the bucket.
Right as it was in place, she plopped down, but instead of the hard wood cushioning her, it was the huckleberries, rupturing red juice all over her.
“Bailey!” she screamed, instantly grabbing the table to pull herself up.
Her ass was covered, the liquid oozing down her legs. I couldn’t contain my laugh, Reed breaking into a fit snorts and wheezes.
She turned to me, her face the same shade of red as her backside. “I’m going to kill you!”
“Might want to wash yourself off first, Huckleberry. Might slip and fall trying to catch me.”
Something like a growl came out of her throat as she hefted up the bucket, and before I could react, she was tossing the contents at me.
The berries splattered all over my stomach, staining my shirt, but I didn’t care. It was an excuse to take it off, right in front of Lettie.
As I lifted it over my head, her cheeks turned an impossibly darker shade of red, putting the huckleberry juice to shame.
Oh, yeah. This was definitely worth it.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she said, her voice still full of anger, but something else, too.
She turned around, stomping off with her little red ass.
It was cruel of us, really. But I’d do anything to get her attention.
The pranks were never enough to make her hate me. I couldn’t fathom the thought of her cutting me out of her life, so while we pranked her every so often, I always made up for it.
Because if I didn’t, I risked losing her. And a life without Lettie was not something I ever wanted to experience.
She made me feel alive with just her presence in the room.
I was always searching for her, even if I wasn’t meaning to.
Even in my sleep, she was always on my mind, invalidating the concept that she was my first thought in the morning, and my last before bed.
She was in my dreams. Hell, she was my dreams.
And I’d do anything to make those dreams a reality.
I just had to wait.
She’d be mine one day.
I was sure of it.
The End