Page 124 of Small Town, Big Storm
“But, really, it barely hurts.”I fish into my back pocket and pull out the marker Holly insisted I carry around.“Want to sign my cast?”
“Heck yes, I do!”She takes the pen and scrawls her name with a flourish.
“I wanna sign too!”
Clover groans.
But Shep just leans close, boxing her in as she finishes her signature.
More scowls, but she executes some sort of jujitsu move that has him jumping back and her sliding free.“Full debrief later,” she commands as she passes Shep the marker and he bends over my arm to take his turn.
I salute.
She glares at Shep’s back and walks over to her place, using the side gate to exit the yard instead of hopping the fence like Shep had.
“I want the full debrief later too,” the man in question says.
“So you can torture Storm with your intel?”I ask.
“Nah,” he says.“You’re doing that enough by giving him blue balls.”
I choke for the third time in the last quarter hour.Then start laughing.“You are utterly and completely incorrigible, Shepherd Hall.”
He grins.“I am that.”Then he sobers, those brown eyes uncharacteristically solemn.“And I’m truly sorry about what happened.I don’t hurt women.Ever.”
Something about the way he says that…hell, it makes my heart hurt.“Shep, honey,” I begin.“It was an accident.I’m not upset.I promise.”
“Well,Iam.And I’m going to find a way to make it up to you.”
Shit.
How he might do that has worry bubbling up in my belly.“You don’t need?—”
He snaps his fingers, his eyes lighting up.“I’ve got it!”
“Um…you’ve got what?”
“How I’ll make it up to you.”
“Shep—”
He caps the marker, passes it to me, then holds up his hands, pointing at himself and smiling broadly.
“Um,” I say again, my stomach sinking.
Why do I feel like whatever Shep is up to is going to be a nightmare?
“Meet Sully’s Bar’s newest bartender!”
I blink.
His fingers wiggle.
“It’s me!”
Thirty-Three
Storm
