Dell:

Wednesday, June 24 — Sorrel Bend, Colefax

By Wednesday, Dell had heard about you being back in Sorrel Bend from approximately everyone.

You’d turned up sometime over the weekend. That was the story, anyway. In a town like Sorrel Bend, coming home after being gone long enough to be interesting apparently counted as breaking fucking news. Mitch had mentioned it over breakfast Monday. Witt had dropped it into the family group chat with all the subtlety of a brick through a window. Then Flora had asked Dell whether he’d heard, while watching him for about three seconds longer than necessary. He had. Obviously. He just hadn’t seen you yet. For years, you had existed somewhere safely outside his actual life—attached to memories of campus hallways, oversized hoodies, headphones, limbs he hadn’t quite known what to do with and a version of himself he preferred not examining too closely. Now you were apparently walking around Sorrel Bend again.

Great.

The summer kickoff had taken over several blocks downtown ahead of next week’s Homestead Days, turning an otherwise ordinary Wednesday evening into controlled chaos. Strings of lights hung overhead. Kids ran between temporary carnival rides while music spilled from a small stage farther down the street. The air smelled of grilled meat, fried dough, popcorn and enough sugar to kill a horse. Corn dogs. Funnel cake. Cotton candy. Local vendors. Games nobody over twelve should take seriously. Which naturally meant Ott and Witt were currently taking one very seriously.

Ott:

Witt:

Ott:

Dell stood a few feet behind them, hands buried in the pockets of his black jeans, wondering—not for the first time—why he’d said yes to coming. Black sneakers. Black tank top beneath an oversized charcoal hoodie he’d left unzipped. Silver chains at his throat. Piercings catching flashes of carnival light. He looked considerably more like himself than the version of Dell Bascome most tourists expected from rodeo posters. Then he saw you. Dell stopped. There. Not a rumor passed around Sorrel Bend. Not somebody’s guess who came back over coffee. Actually fucking there. His pale blue-gray eyes stayed on you through the crowd. Apparently recognizing you wasn’t going to be a problem.

Witt:

Dell didn’t look away.

Witt:

Dell:

Witt:

Dell finally looked at him. Witt’s grin was unbearable.

Dell:

That only made it worse. Dell turned his attention back toward you— and his expression changed. Someone else had approached you. A man Dell vaguely recognized but couldn’t quite place through the crowd. Probably already several drinks past whatever amount would have made him tolerable. At first Dell stayed where he was. You could handle a stranger flirting with you. Then you tried to move away. The guy moved with you. Another exchange Dell couldn’t hear. You shifted again. The man’s hand closed around your wrist. Dell’s hands came out of his pockets.

Witt:

Dell was already moving. The crowd parted surprisingly easily when six-foot-five of tattooed Bascome moved through it. He stopped beside you and closed one hand around the stranger’s wrist. Not violently. He didn’t need to. His grip tightened just enough for the fingers to open. Dell removed his hand from you and let go.

Dell:

The guy looked him over, irritation briefly outweighing common sense.

Stranger:

Dell took one slow step forward. The space between them disappeared. Up close, there was very little left of the skinny boy Sorrel Bend used to push around. Dell stood half a head above him, shoulders broad enough to block you completely from view, tattooed arms loose at his sides. No raised voice. No clenched fists. That was probably the part the man should have worried about. Dell tipped his head slightly.

Dell:

The stranger scoffed, but Dell caught the brief flick of his eyes toward the brothers behind him. Wrong calculation. He didn’t need them anymore. His pale eyes returned to the man’s face. Cold. Patient. Waiting. The stranger took a step back. Dell didn’t. Another. Only then did Dell shift just enough to put himself fully between you and the man.

Dell:

This time, he did. Dell watched him disappear into the crowd before finally turning around. And somehow that was worse. Because now you were right fucking there. Up close. His eyes met yours. Paused. Then dropped to your wrist. His jaw tightened at the faint redness beneath the stranger’s fingerprints. Dell reached toward it instinctively— and stopped before touching you. His hand hovered for half a second before he pulled it back and rubbed the back of his neck instead.

Dell:

From behind him came the unmistakable sound of Witt choking on laughter. Dell closed his eyes. He was going to kill his brother. Later. When he looked at you again there was the faintest crooked pull at one corner of his mouth.

Dell:

A beat.

Dell:

His gaze betrayed him once more, dropping to your wrist before returning to your face. The man who’d just made a drunk stranger back away without raising his voice suddenly seemed to have misplaced several basic conversational skills.

Dell:

9:17 PM — Wednesday, June 24 Location: Downtown Sorrel Bend, Colefax