"Thank you, ladies. It's been a pleasure."
JoLynn snapped one last picture as Shane, oozing charm, said farewell to his new fan club-the royal court of the Lampasas Spring Ho! Festival, decked out in full formal regalia. She slipped the camera inside her backpack and zipped it closed.
"Y'all be sure and watch the show." His plug followed the girls' giggling chatter as they began to disperse. "Saturday nights at ten-thirty. Tell your friends."
"Nice work, man." Curtis zipped up and clipped a camera bag closed, and hefted the thing up onto his shoulder by its strap.
"They were nice girls." Shane stood, hands on his hips, watching them go with a contemplative smile. One threw a coy little look back at him over her shoulder, diverting as much attention as possible to the delicate, heart-shaped tattoo on her bare shoulder. "Except for that one. I think she slipped me her number before she left."
JoLynn rolled her eyes. "I guess she didn't notice you're old enough to be her father." Shane fished around in his shirt pocket and extracted a slip of paper. "Nah. There's no way I could have a kid that age. She'd had to have been born when I was..." His voice trailed off as he glanced skyward and did the math. "Never mind."
A satisfied chuckle erupted before JoLynn gave any thought to stopping it. Mel gave a little, unladylike snort as well. Then she zipped up another equipment bag and handed it to JoLynn, who turned for the path to the Suburban and ran right into Shane.
"Jealous?" His deep, low voice and mischievous blue eyes sent an indescribable kind of tremor through her. He moved one arm toward her and she tensed, anticipating, hoping that he would slip it around her so she could feel his warmth. But he only took the equipment bag from her and hooked it over his shoulder.
JoLynn cast a sideways glance at Mel, whose eyebrows arched upward, seeming to ask the same question. "No." Her answer sounded overly defensive, and spoke as much to Mel as to Shane. "But I think our friend, Freddie, might be."
Shane's grin only widened. "Did you see her tattoo?"
"That little old heart was nothin'." Curtis threw out the assessment as he walked past, loaded down with equipment like a pack mule. "You should get JoLynn here to show you her tattoo. Now there's a work of art."
Shane's grin vanished for a second as shock registered on his face.
JoLynn met his stare with a level one of her own, immensely satisfied by his reaction.
"Wait a minute. You have a tattoo?"
She sidestepped him and fell in behind Curtis and Mel who followed the path along Sulphur Spring toward the bridge that would take them across it, and from there on to where they parked the Suburban.
He turned and followed right on her heels.
But she refused to answer. Let her tattoo be a source of mystery for awhile. At least there was something he hadn't been able to find out before Truman hired him. She put on her most mysterious smile and continued in silence to the SUV where they loaded their equipment, and Curtis glanced back and forth between them looking like he was proud to have started something and couldn't wait to see how it played out.
"So." JoLynn unfolded a brochure and began perusing the festival information. "The fireworks display starts at nine-thirty. We should definitely get some footage of that. That gives us a couple of hours to get something to eat and look around a bit."
She tried to ignore Shane's persistent attention as they checked out the food vendor booths, made their purchases, and carried them along the path beside the river until they found a shady place to sit and eat. But his interest was unwavering, and although she never actually caught him in the act, she couldn't help feeling as if, every time she looked away, he was examining every exposed patch of skin as if trying to spot the tattoo in question.
"So, what is it? A heart, or a little butterfly?"
JoLynn coughed. "What are you talking about?"
"A dolphin? No, a white dove."
She glanced at Curtis. He was laughing.
"Oh, I got it. It's a Celtic knot."
"Oh, my word!" Exasperation finally got the better of Mel. "Yes. She has a tattoo. Why don't you just show it to him?"
"You first, Miss Smarty Pants."
"Hold on." Shane held up both hands and shook his head as if confusion was about to overwhelm him. "So, you both have a tattoo?" He paused for a moment, during which his smile returned, more wantonly than ever. "Do they match?"
Mel laughed, gathered her brown curls into a ponytail and turned her head to reveal the small four-leaf clover tattooed on the left side of her neck, close to her hairline. Shane examined it closely then turned to JoLynn, clearly expecting a similar revelation.
"Don't look at me like that."
"Come on, JoLynn."
"Why does the possibility of me having a tattoo intrigue you so much?"
"Because I never would have pegged you for that kind of girl."
"And what kind of girl is that?"
"The kind with a tattoo."
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what kind of girl he did have her pegged for. But on second thought, she didn't really want to know. At least not right here in front of the others.
"So what was it, some sort of girls-gone-wild spring break trip to Fort Lauderdale?"
She could see the wheels spinning. He might as well have one of those little cartoon bubbles above his head, illustrated with her in cut off shorts, a bikini top and cowboy boots, dancing drunkenly on top of a table near the beach. That's exactly what he was imagining if the smile was any indication.
"South Padre, actually." Curtis wiped his mouth, wadded up his paper napkin and leaned back on the grassy slope they'd found in the shade of a large tree, propping himself up on his elbows. "It was like a full time job trying to keep the two of them out of jail."
"Curtis!" JoLynn tossed her wadded up napkin at his head. A glance back at Shane told her that his little cartoon bubble popped, but was now reforming. Probably to include a straw cowboy hat as well. And maybe some chaps.
"No, no." Curtis continued. "Now I think we need to have it all out. This is a prime example of the assumptions you two have been making about each other since day one. Shane's here now. It's been a month. The show's good and strong. Let's clear the air. Show us the tattoo, girl."
"Assumptions?" JoLynn glanced at Shane. What kind of assumptions had he made about her that Curtis would know about? What kind of assumptions had he made about her that Curtis didn't know about?
"Assumptions." Curtis sat up and draped an arm over one knee. "Like that JoLynn isn't the kind of girl who would have a tattoo. Or that Shane is a hillbilly just 'cause he's from Tennessee. Or that the cameraman never gets the girl's phone number."
"That's not an assumption." Mel rolled her eyes. "It's a fact."
Curtis grinned brilliantly at them, and fell silent for a minute. The pulsing drone of cicadas underscored the sounds of festival goers all along the little river. Somewhere in the distance a country band played and a crowd cheered. Nearer, a baby cried, and a mocking bird shrieked overhead.
"Or..." Curtis' voice broke the silence among them. "How about JoLynn's assumption that you and Truman worked some kind of deal for you to swoop in, overhaul the show and then take her place."
"What?" Shane sounded offended by that, and more than a little shocked. He turned to her. "Why would you assume that?"
Her defenses went up. "What was I supposed to think? I didn't know you. No one consulted me about hiring you, or anyone for that matter. The decision was just kind of dropped on me from nowhere. I had no idea what to expect. It felt like an ambush."
"Remember, she didn't know you yet." Mel added. "Besides which, we all kind of wondered about it."
"All of you? I don't have any deal with Truman. There's no deal...I would never..."
"Before you get all high and mighty on us..." Curtis' raspy voice quietly commanded their attention again. "Let's not forget your original assumption that JoLynn was nothin' but a spoiled rich girl."
JoLynn felt her jaw drop and she gasped, every bit as offended as Shane sounded just seconds ago.
He had the decency to look ashamed of himself.
"You think I'm a spoiled rich girl?" Anger and injury contended within her. All her life she'd fought to overcome the prejudices of people who expected her to be a certain way because of her father's business, or her family's money. Some expected her to be an overindulged, spoiled brat, and maybe as a child she had been. There was certainly a time after her parents' split that they'd tried to make it up to her by giving her every little thing she wanted. But that only lasted until the second marriages and new families came along. Then reality hit hard enough to knock any spoiling right out of her. Suddenly she became the baggage from the first marriage.
Even as a teenager and young woman she'd battled against this idea people had that her preferred pastime would be shopping, or laying around by the pool texting all her rich, beautiful friends with a blingy-collared chihuahua on her lap.
She fought hard to convince her father to allow her go to college in central Texas-hundreds of miles away from her West Texas home-so that she could forge her own way and make her own friends without anyone knowing or caring that her grandfather had made a literal fortune manufacturing oil refinery equipment, and that her father inherited the business and made it prosper even more.
Even Mel and Curtis, her best friends, didn't know until her father presented her with the keys to the Suburban as a graduation present. They might have known a little about her family; where she was from, what her father did for a living. But they had no idea-could hardly even fathom after finding out-that she came from such an affluent family.
But Shane apparently put his journalistic skills to work and did a little research, discovering the company's financial standing as well as her family's. And he judged her according to that information alone. Without even knowing her.
"No." His voice, soft and remorseful, broke through the defensive wall she'd just begun constructing. He apparently took Curtis' point to heart. "That's not what I think you are. It's what I mistakenly assumed you would be. I'm sorry."
People making that particular assumption about her always irritated her. But for Shane to have done it, even before they knew each other, hurt her feelings in a way that suddenly disturbed her. His contrite smile softened her heart and she forgave him with a nod, swallowing down the ache in her throat.
Curtis was right. They had both made unfair assumptions.
"There now. Isn't that better? The air's all clear and I can feel the trust increasing." Curtis rose and brushed lawn debris off his jeans. "You're officially initiated. I think I'll go ask around and see if I can figure out the best place to get some good footage of the fireworks."
JoLynn watched him go, his lean frame swaggering off in a way that totally contradicted the fact that he'd always been the intuitive, mellow peacemaker of the group. The first to expose conflict, or even potential conflict, so it could be dealt with and put aside. A natural mediator. All this she knew about him, and yet he was still, after all these years, a mystery in so many ways.
She cast a glance at their newest member. He, too, was mellow. But in a totally different way. Maybe mellow wasn't quite the right word. A grin slowly lit his features, as if he couldn't be more pleased she was looking at him. No, not mellow. Smooth. With his Miss JoLynn this and that, and his southern accent that was more of a drawl than the twang she was accustomed to.
"Does this mean I have to get a tattoo now?"
"Yes." JoLynn flashed him a grin. "The Texas flag. Right over your heart."
Shane leaned closer. "Is that what yours is? The Texas flag?"
JoLynn narrowed her eyes but couldn't stifle a laugh.
"And are you going to make me guess where it is?" Shane turned his attention back to the crowd that strolled along the river, but the smile lingered as JoLynn continued to observe him. "'Cause I don't mind taking a stab at it."