The Hotter You Burn

Harlow clutched her chest. “The warm tingles are overwhelming. Tell me. Is this love? This feels like love.”

Brook Lynn snorted.

“Our waitress can’t be more than twenty,” Harlow said. “I didn’t go to school with her, wasn’t ever rude to her, so why does she loathe me?”

“Haven’t you heard? She and Scott are dating.” Kenna swiped up the last roll in the basket. “Bet he’s ranted and raved about you. My guess is she called him the moment you arrived and that’s how he knew to come here.”

Can I never catch a break?

“Forget about her,” Daphne said. “I want to know what you’re going to do about Beck.”

There was no need to think about it any longer. “Nothing,” she replied, then sighed as depression settled heavily on her shoulders. “He made his choice, and it wasn’t me.”

“He’s just confused,” Brook Lynn said.

“He’s fighting his feelings for you,” Kenna added.

Hadn’t girls been telling themselves those kinds of lies since the beginning of time?

“Plus, have you really put much effort into winning him?” Jessie Kay asked. “I haven’t seen you go to the house to flash him. Not once. And when I secretly checked his text messages a few nights ago, I didn’t see one dirty picture of you. From other girls? Yes. Like, a lot of other girls. Seriously, I had no idea so many in this town were of the Fatal Attraction variety.”

“I want names,” Harlow growled.

Jessie Kay smirked at her. “I think smoke is actually curling from your nostrils.”

Kenna slapped her friend’s arm. “You shouldn’t tease her about the dirty pictures.”

“Ow.” Jessie Kay frowned at the redhead. “I wasn’t teasing.”

“Well, you’re tormenting her.”

“Am not!” Jessie Kay’s frown deepened. “I’m just trying to light a fire under her, get her spurred into action. Unlike you two, who want to throw her a pity party.”

Had she put much effort in? Harlow wondered. He’d stayed away from her, sure, but she’d stayed away from him, as well. He hadn’t called or texted her, but she hadn’t called or texted him, either.

The thought instantly lightened her mood, and though she was trembling, she withdrew her phone. “All right, girls. I’ve never gone X-rated before. Help me?”

Jessie Kay rubbed her hands together. “Darlin’, you came to the right place.”

Brook Lynn, Kenna and Daphne groaned.

“One day, when you look back over your life, you’ll realize this is where things started to go horribly wrong,” Brook Lynn said.

“Don’t listen to the haters.” After a bit of table wrestling, Jessie Kay managed to stuff a napkin in her sister’s mouth. “These gals were tutored by me, and look at them now. All three of them are in healthy relationships.”

“Despite your tutelage,” Kenna muttered.

“Tell them, Daph,” Jessie Kay said.

“She has helped me nail down Brad Lintz,” Daph admitted with a sigh.

A Glass Pass survivor, as well as the owner of Lintz Automotive, and the sheriff’s son. Good. He deserved a happy ending.

“For this to work,” Jessie Kay said, “we’ve got to call that Dorian guy, like, right now. He’s a key ingredient to my—I mean your—success. I’m only ever always thinking of you. So do it. Call him and tell him to come to Two Farms.”

“But—”

“Aw, you’re shy. That’s so cute. No worries, I’ll do it for you.” Jessie Kay swiped Harlow’s phone, scrolled through her contacts and found the right number. She placed the device at her ear, waited. “Dude! Even your voice is pure sex. But listen. I’m Jessie Kay, Harlow’s best friend. You and I made eye-babies the other day. Yep....Yep...Mmm, keep talking. I mean, no, no, stop talking and listen. We need you to come to Strawberry Valley right now. Two Farms. It’s a matter of life and death. PS, don’t tell Beck.” She hung up, pulled at the collar of her shirt. “That boy is dangerous.”

“And we need him...why?” Brook Lynn demanded.

“You’ll see. Now. The next part is a bit tricky. We’re all gonna have to be a little tipsy.” She signaled their waitress. When the pretty brunette dragged her feet to their table, she said, “Bring us that big bottle of Macallan locked behind the bar.”

The girl’s eyes grew big and round. “But that’s...almost a thousand dollars.” She whispered the last, as though scandalized.

Harlow nearly had a heart attack. “We do not want that bottle. Not now, not ever.”

Jessie Kay hiked her thumb at Kenna. “We do, and it goes on her fiancé’s tab. He can afford it.”

“He can,” Kenna agreed.

“And don’t you dare open the bottle and bring it to us in glasses,” Jessie Kay added. “You’ll just pour it into another container before it ever reaches us and fill our glasses with the cheap stuff. I used to work here. I invented that trick. We want the bottle unopened, and no glasses. We’re doing this old-school.”

“What?” Daphne said. “With that fancy bottle? Why?”

Jessie Kay got real serious real fast. “We’re going to have ourselves a good old-fashioned ho-mance and share the bottle. It’ll bond us. Whiskey sisters for life.”