“Well that’s good because I don’t really have anyone else to hang out with around here.”

“Didn’t you have friends before you left?” Irene asked.

“They were mostly people who wanted to be my friend because I was a Bonner. No one I’d want to try to rebuild things with. They wouldn’t remember any of it anyway,” Kaden said. “I usually kept to myself.”

“Well, now you have me.”

He smiled up at her lazily, and she leaned a little closer to him.

“Now I have you,” he said.

It took everything Irene had not to kiss him. Why do I always fall for a Bonner? she thought.

She let out a soft breath. Her eyes strayed to Kaden’s lips.

“Don’t you have a job you need to get back to?” she asked.

“I teach. Except for a few in-service days, the summer’s all mine.”

He said it like he meant to say all yours.

Irene rested her hand on his and twined their fingers together.

This is not a good idea.

He propped himself up on his elbows until they only had a few inches between them. She could smell the bourbon on his breath, and she didn’t have to kiss him to know she’d taste it like sweet honey on his tongue. With just a hint of smoke and wood.

“And how do you plan to spend this summer?” She moved closer until she could feel the whisper of his lips against hers. “After the funeral.”

Kaden blinked up at her, and his eyes went wide. He sat up, bumping his forehead against her chin. The butterflies scattered. He shot to his feet.

“Shit,” he said. “The funeral.”

Irene groaned. “What time is it?”

Kaden crawled over to where they’d left their things and fished his phone out of his pocket. “Service starts in fifteen minutes.”

Irene grabbed her overalls and ran to the edge of the riverbank, tugging them on as she went. “We need to go!” she shouted across the water.

Kaden came up beside her, his shirt on backward and inside out. His hair dripping onto his shoulders, soaking through the cotton.

“I am… This is not good.” Kaden dropped his head into his hands. “I’ve definitely had too much to drink. How… I can’t… I can’t wear this. Who thought this was a good idea?”

“This is fine,” Irene said. “It’s fine.”

“How are we going to get there?” Kaden swayed on his feet.

“Lucky for all of us,” Clem said as she climbed up out of the water, “I stopped drinking a few hours ago.”

Chapter 16

Addison