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Like mean-mean.

She makes you feel two inches tall just for being a man. It doesn’t matter what you do for her, she’ll still hate you.

She’ll thank you, but she’ll still hate you.

It’s trust issues. I have my own with my father, who first bailed on my mother and me when I was three, then kept trying to come in and out. But Bobbie Jo has suffered more emotional abuse than I have, and I get it.

It’s why I just try to ignore it.

But these little stories Adeline is playing with are just gossip.

“Ya listen to Agnes and Maebelle’s yappin’ too much, AK.”

She shakes her head. “You forget…Bobbie Jo is one of my oldest friends.”

“And she told you this?”

“No.”

I roll my eyes. “Ya know better than that crap.”

“Not all of it is nonsense, Dodger. I promise.”

“Bullshit.”

“Swear.”

“Where’s the noise?”

She pouts a little. “Well, I’m only just tellin’ ya the truth.”

“Noise.”

“Dodger,” she coos lightly. “Can’t we just converse for a second before you go into cop mode? You know I like⁠—”

“Don’t tease me, AK, or I’d think you called me this late at night to seduce me.”

Her face spreads with shock. “Seduce you?”

“Noise.”

“Dodger, if I wanted to seduce you, you’d know.”

“Noise.”

“Use that intuition of yours, Dodger.” She’s closer to me now, so much so that my skin breaks out in goosebumps and my spine mindlessly straightens. “If you think that’s why I keep callin’ you to come over, maybe I am.”

She’s messing with me again.

And her brother, Briggs, would kill me if I touched her. He’s a professional MLB player. He swings bats for a living at over a hundred miles an hour.

Rolling my eyes with a long inhale of patience, I turn on my heels and look at her placidly. “Where’s the noise, AK? Or I’m leavin’. If you need someone to talk to, call your friends.”

“Aren’t you my friend?”

“We went to school together.”

“So? I’d call you my friend.”