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“Honey, you know what that means?” Wanda addressed me while pointing at Amaryllis as she walked away.
“No idea?”
“She likes you. Bunco as her partner is like a kiss from the pope in this town.”
I looked at the others, and they all nodded.
“You’re part of Elmer after that,” Cameron added.
“There’s no escape.” Gabriel sat with his head resting on his folded arms on the table. Poor guy was slurring so badly that he sounded more American than French.
“Hey there, winners!” Jameson, Leroy, and a few of the Blue Star cowboys approached the table.
“Jameson!” Cameron jumped up and gave him a hug. “I used to babysit this guy.” She reached up and tried to give him a noogie. It was a big fail as the cowboy stood a good six inches taller than Cameron.
“Dance with me?” Jameson held out a hand to Cameron, who nodded and followed him out to the floor.
“Rae, you willing to take a spin with me?” Leroy asked.
“Wanda, you okay here with what’s left of Gabriel?” Never leave your World Series trivia expert stranded; those skills were priceless. I’d lost more than one trivia game over that category.
“Go dance, honey. We can let him sleep. I’m dancing with my man.” Wanda waggled her fingers at Melvin, who was making his way in our direction. She glowed with excitement. Aww, senior citizen love was cuter than puppies.
“Are you sure he’s okay here?” I looked at Gabriel passed out on the table.
“It’s Elmer, nothing will happen. Come on.” Leroy pulled me onto the floor in time for the music to change to a slow song.
“So, what do you think of The Pub?” he asked.
“Solid dive bar. Ten out of ten, I’d come here after a hard day.” Better than sixteen dollars a drink at a trendy downtown Chicago lounge.
“Yeah, that sums it up. You’ll have to stop by during the day and check out the swimming hole. Pro tip, wait until school starts; the kids screaming will totally ruin a good day drinking buzz.”
“Solid advice. I don’t imagine you guys get much time for day drinking. Atley keeps you busy. It seems like there are a million projects going on at Blue Star.”
“We get more down time in the winter, too cold to do much but feed the animals.” He gave me a crooked smile that said he loved his job.
“Then I’ll have to plan on coming dancing this winter to give you guys something to do. It looks like all of you made it out tonight. Well, except Atley.”
“He’s here.” Leroy spun us so I could see Atley alone in a booth in the corner, nursing a beer.
“Oh, yes.” My half gasp, half answer was hardly loud enough for Leroy to hear it over the music.
A shiver of something wicked raced down my spine. Atley’s gray eyes seemed to glitter with white-hot sparks from under the brim of his hat when our gazes met.
“He’s normally a little more fun than that. But he said a meeting today didn’t go well.”
Shit. The meeting at the winery had to be what had him sitting alone and staring daggers at me. Now that I knew he was there, I felt his eyes on me. Pulses of awareness raced back and forth between every erogenous zone I had in rhythm with the music.
“Is he ever fun? No, that’s not the right word. Relaxed, and you know, talkative?”
Leroy chuckled. “He’s not one to waste words. But ask him about horses and he’ll talk for hours. Need someone to brainstorm a solution to a problem, like fixing a broken water pump in one-hundred-degree heat? Atley is all ideas and good ones. In a crisis, no one is better. That’s why he’s a good ranch manager. No bullshit, pardon my French, all work ethic.”
“Sounds lonely.”
Leroy and I made another circuit around the floor. Atley wasn’t at his table anymore. The growing anticipation in my stomach faded, and when the song changed to a faster one, I was ready to try out my newly learned dancing skills with Leroy.
I put Atley’s brooding posture and intense stare out of my mind as Leroy and I danced to a country song even I knew:I’ve Got Friends in Low Places. The whole bar sang along, shouting the chorus as the dance floor filled with couples showing off their best spins and twirls. Even me and Leroy.
