Epilogue
JAMESON
M y angel was no doubt free from her cage.
Leah Mae stood chatting with Cassidy over by the cake table. Her long lavender dress looked like a dream on her, showing all the lines of her willowy body. I’d been staring at her for hours and trying to keep my hands in appropriate places. We were at a wedding, after all. But it wasn’t easy.
The day had finally come for Clay Larkin and Betsy Stirling to get hitched.
And they’d done so, on a warm July evening in true Bootleg Springs style.
The ceremony had been here, at Gin Rickey Park, right out in the sunshine and fresh air.
Afterward, they’d served moonshine and sweet tea in mason jars, along with a table full of food that could have fed an entire town—which was a good thing, because the entire town was here.
Leah Mae drifted through the reception with a beautiful smile on her face. Her honey lemon skin glowed in the sun, her blond hair shining like spun gold. Those red lips were almost more than I could resist.
What could I say. I loved my girl .
She’d been working hard since the fall when we’d started putting plans for her boutique in motion.
June had helped her work the numbers and had been thrilled to invest in her little venture.
‘Thrilled’ being a relative term. It was hard to tell with June Bug, but I was pretty sure she’d been excited.
Leah Mae had spent her time taking business classes online and working out the details of her boutique—everything from the decor to the items she’d sell.
Scarlett and my brothers had helped us renovate the store.
Leah Mae had done the ordering, focusing on other small up-and-coming designers who fit her style.
The whole place was fun and kinda funky— what Leah Mae called vogue with a country twist .
She’d named it Boots & Lace. It suited her perfectly.
Her mom and stepdad had come out to visit in the spring. I reckoned they hadn’t been too sure about Leah Mae settling down in Bootleg. But after seeing the store, and spending a few days with her, it seemed to have changed their minds.
I’d been happy to meet them and sent them on back to Florida with a small sculpture I’d made. It was a rose made out of thin sheets of metal, meant to remind them of their daughter. Leah Mae’s mom had gotten a bit teary when I’d given it to them.
The grand opening of the store had been a smashing success. Locals loved it, and tourists were already discovering it. Leah Mae’s Instagram following had helped some, and people had come from hundreds of miles just to shop in her store.
I was so damn proud of her, I hardly knew what to do with myself.
I’d been just as busy. Since my installation in Charlotte last fall, demand for my work had gone right crazy.
My smaller pieces sold out in days, and I was still booked solid for the next year with larger commissions.
Dee was thrilled, I was doing what I loved, and making a damn good living. Couldn’t ask for much more.
Well, I could. And I was fixin’ to.
“Come on, Jame,” Bowie said, sneaking up next to me. He took a quick look around, like he was afraid of being caught. “It’s time.”
I grinned and nodded. We crept away from the reception, heading toward the lake. Devlin, Gibson, and Jonah were already there, standing around Gibson’s Charger.
Devlin glanced around. “Tell me again what we’re doing?”
“Proper send off,” Bowie said. “For Clay and Betsy.”
Gibson popped the trunk and we pulled out some bags and a wooden platform.
“You sure this is everything?” I asked.
“Should be,” Gibson said. “Let’s get this set up.”
“Yeah, before Scarlett notices I’m gone,” Devlin said.
“She knows already,” Bowie said. “It’s not Scarlett we need to worry about.”
Devlin put his hands on his hips. “This is illegal, isn’t it?”
“Only if we get caught,” Gibson said, and started pulling fireworks out of the bags.
“That’s not how the law works,” Devlin said, but laughed when he said it.
I didn’t worry about Devlin’s reluctance. Just reached into my inside pocket and pulled out the diagram. Gibson closed the trunk, and I spread out the paper so we could all see it.
“Here’s how it all goes together,” I said. “The order is important, so don’t mess it up.”
“You sure this is going to work?” Jonah asked .
“Yeah,” I said, although I wasn’t positive. “I reckon it’ll be a sight regardless.”
We all got to work, sorting the fireworks into the right order and fastening the mortar tubes to the platform. Gibson was in charge of the sparklers, and he wound them up in a tight bundle with electrical tape. Jonah double checked the placement of everything, consulting the diagram I’d drawn.
“This looks good,” Jonah said.
Bowie looked over his shoulder. “Yep. I think we got it.”
I tied fuses together and added the starter fuse that would make the whole thing work. When it was finished, we all stepped back and looked at our handiwork.
“Let’s get her lit and launched,” I said.
We put the platform in the water. I checked the line of fuses one last time, then lit the end. Gibson and I pushed it off, letting it float out in to the dark waters of the lake.
“Go,” I said, waving everyone off. I’d made the fuse long so we had time, but we needed to scatter before this thing blew.
I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my dress pants and walked quickly back to the park.
“There you are.” Leah Mae walked over to meet me. “Where’d you run off to?”
I slipped my hands around her waist and kissed her nose. “Nowhere.”
She grabbed my hand and tugged. “Dad and Betsy are leaving. We need to go see them off.”
The wedding guests had all gathered under strings of white twinkle lights. Jimmy Bob Prosser waited in his big Ford pickup. The bed was decked out with quilts, and the back had a big Just Married sign. Strings of beer cans hung from the back bumper .
Clay and Betsy walked through, carrying a wicker basket between them with a red and white checkered napkin. People clapped and congratulated them. Some put baked goods and mason jars filled with moonshine or canned preserves into their basket. A little Bootleg send-off to start their honeymoon.
I glanced over at Gibson and caught his eye. He tipped his chin. Should be any second now. I slipped my arms around Leah Mae and pulled her close.
“What’s—”
Whatever she was going to say was lost in the first loud boom over the lake. A spray of green sparks burst in the air, followed by blue. Then white. A fountain of silver and gold lit up the sky. The wedding guests clapped and cheered. Clay put his arm around Betsy as they watched the little show.
The last firework went off in a burst of color. After a second of quiet, the crowd started clapping and cheering again. I cleared my throat and moved my hands up to cover Leah Mae’s ears.
The sparkler bomb went off with an enormous boom and the wedding guests went wild. Fists rose into the air, cheers went up, and Clay Larkin laughed, hugging his bride.
Leah Mae turned her face toward me and spoke quietly into my ear. “Did you have something to do with all that?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
We watched Clay and Betsy get up into the back of Jimmy Bob Prosser’s truck.
They waved at their guests, all smiles. Clay blew a kiss at Leah Mae.
She put her hands across her heart, smiling like the sun, with tears glistening in her eyes.
The cans clanked and rattled as they drove off into the darkness, ready for the first night of their new life together .
A wave of nervousness swept through me. Lighting a bunch of illegal fireworks didn’t get my heart rate up. But this? I patted my suit pocket. This was enough to tie me up in knots.
With the guests of honor gone, the reception started to break up.
Leah Mae made the rounds, thanking people for coming.
Shaking hands, having her cheeks kissed.
I drifted back toward the cake table. There was still cake to be had, and although I’d already had a piece, it wasn’t right to let such a fine confection go to waste.
I took the little box I’d been carrying out of the inside pocket of my suit and felt the shape of it in my hand.
Wasn’t sure I’d be using it tonight. I’d been carrying Leah Mae’s engagement ring around with me for a solid week, wondering how I was going to ask her.
I hadn’t wanted to compete with her daddy’s wedding, so I’d waited.
Held onto it, hoping I’d know when the time was right.
Now that her dad was off with his new bride, the ring felt like it weighed a million pounds. It was begging me to give it to her.
But I was nervous as all hell about it. I didn’t know the first thing about proposing to a woman. I wanted to do it right—Leah Mae deserved a perfect moment—but I was afraid I’d get tongue-tied and mess it up.
I must have been so lost in thought, I wasn’t watching where I was going. I bumped right into my sister, just before I reached the cake table.
The box tumbled out of my hand and landed on the ground.
Scarlett reached for the box. I bent down and snatched it away, shoving it back in my pocket, but it was too late. She’d seen it. She knew.
Her eyes widened. “Is that a—”
“No. ”
“Yes it is, that’s a—”
“Okay, yes.” I stepped closer. “Keep your damn voice down.”
She opened her mouth and by the breath she took, I knew whatever she said next was going to be neither quiet, nor subtle. I clapped my hand over her mouth before she could ruin my life.
“Scarlett Rose, don’t you say a word. If you tell a soul I have this, I swear I’ll tell everyone…” I paused, because that wasn’t the threat it had seemed when I’d first started saying it. Scarlett wasn’t exactly the secretive sort. I slowly released her.
“You’ll tell everyone what?” she asked, an amused sparkle in her eye.
“Well… I reckon I don’t know. Damn you for not having any secrets I can use for blackmail.”