“Oh, my God,” Sophie says. “Is Gentry high? Emily, get out your phone.”
“Don’t call anyone,” I say. “No one can know about this or CPS will take you away and put you in an orphanage where they make you scrub floors every day until a really rich bald guy shows up and adopts you and I’ll never see you again.”
“Are you recording this?” Sophie asks.
“Turn it off,” Levi says sternly.
Why does his stern voice sound so sexy?
“Because you like me and you don’t want to admit it,” he says, his warm breath wafting deliciously over my hypersensitive skin.
“Can you read my mind?” I ask. If he can read my mind, he’s definitely my soul mate, and I can stop being sensible and just marry him already.
“I can’t read your mind,” he says, chuckling. “Sophie. Emily. Stop recording now, or I’m going to record you sleeping and post it on SnapPhoto.”
“Oh, that’s a good threat,” I say. Levi would be a great dad. But I need to be careful about my thoughts because he can read my mind.
“Alright,” Levi says. “Brodie, I think it’s time we get Gentry home.”
“Can we stay?” Sophie asks. “Eden and Ivy want to take us to a natural spring tonight.”
I try to lift my head off Levi’s shoulder to ask Liza if it’s okay, but it’s too heavy. “If it’s okay with Liza,” I say.
“It’s fine with me,” Liza says. “I’ll go with them and let Alex sober up with his family.”
“Hey,” he says. “Don’t you want to stay with me? I really need to talk to you about the money. We should just make our own.”
“Come on, girls,” Liza says. “Let’s go now before things get really weird.”
“Are they going?” I ask Levi because I still can’t lift my head.
“They left like three minutes ago. Did you fall asleep?”
“I’m so relaxed. Why can’t I be this relaxed all the time? I don’t even care that I’m going to be a horrible nurse.”
Levi gives me a nudge. “Think you can get up?”
“My head is too heavy.”
“Come on, Gentry,” Brodie says. “Stop being dramatic and get your ass up. I want to take you to the farm so I can get back here before Daphne decides to do something crazy with her stoned family.”
“We’ll be fine,” Daphne yells, way too loudly. “We’re just going to check out this cool swimming hole Alex found.”
“No,” Brodie says. “No swimming holes until I get back.”
“Okay, baby,” Daphne calls, but her voice sounds really far away.
“I’m blaming you for this, Grammy Hester,” Brodie says.
“She’ll be fine,” Grammy Hester says. “You worry too much.”
I laugh at the idea of Brodie worrying too much. Brodie’s the good-time guy. He doesn’t worry.
“Alright, chucklehead,” Brodie says. “Get it together.”
“You go with Daphne,” Levi says. “I’ll take the car home, and you can bring it back in the morning.”
“I’m not letting you drive stoned,” Brodie says. “In case you can’t tell, Hester only buys the strongest shit.”
