“Oh, it was definitely touch-and-go there. If a member of your family hadn’t been around at every possible moment, I definitely would have shown you a thing or two I can do with my mouth.”
“The night’s still young.”
“I thought you were tired.”
“I lied.”
“Well good, ’cause we gotta make up for some lost time. It’s one thing when I can’t see you and I just have to deal with all of my fantasies of breaking into the ranch again, then finding my way to your office and finding a nice comfortable spot under your desk so I can—”
“You know I have an office back at the house.”
A devious smile spread out over Lily-Grace’s beautiful face. “Well, maybe we should let Jenny and Ned finish this night alone. It would probably be good for them to have some more one-on-one time.”
“Agreed,” Jesse replied just as Ned came walking through the door. Jenny emerged from the restroom and they stopped to talk by the bar. From the look on Ned’s face, the call he’d received wasn’t a good one.
“I gotta go. My babysitter has food poisoning and my nine-year-old thought she could play nurse,” Ned said when they came back to the table.
“No problem. You take off, I got this covered,” Jesse offered.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll walk you out.” Jenny grabbed her jacket and her purse, then walked with Ned out to the parking lot. Jesse settled the check and he and Lily-Grace followed. They walked out to Jesse’s truck just as Jenny was waving goodbye to Ned.
“You get that second date?” Lily-Grace yelled across the parking lot.
“Shhh!” Jenny laughed as she power walked over to where they stood. “We’re gonna try for next Friday night. Next time we’re all together we gotta go to Claim Jumpers. I gotta move. I gotta dance.”
“Ehhh,” Jesse groaned.
“You were just there with Fetu,” Lily-Grace pointed out.
“I thought you’d be eager to show off your sick dance moves,” Jenny added. “Vinny told me you’re quite the legend on the dance floor.”
“Vinny witnessed one lackluster dance-off between me and Chris at a birthday party. While the music at Claim Jumpers is good, I prefer to express myself in a more controlled environment, where less of my own employees might be in attendance to witness my greatness.”
“Fair.” Jenny laughed. They said their good-nights and waited until Jenny was safely in her Subaru.
“Am I ever gonna see these sick dance moves?” Lily-Grace asked once they were back in Jesse’s truck.
He pulled out his phone and paused a moment, considering how badly he was willing to embarrass himself for this woman. He went to the video his cousin had sent him from the wedding, then handed over his phone. He stared out the windshield, as the words to “Crazy In Love” came through his phone speakers.
“Is that Amanda?” Lily-Grace squealed.
“Yeah. Only person who can match me on the dance floor.”
“Please send this to me. I need it. I need this footage with me at all times.”
Jesse held his hand out for his phone, and once she’d placed it back in his palm he pulled up the video of him doing the “WAP” choreography in Miss Leona’s living room. The wedding footage was nothing. Lily-Grace needed to understand what she was really getting into here. She needed to understand him as a man. He handed the phone back and waited as the edited lyrics to the ode to juicy genitals filled the car. Lily-Grace replayed it three times before she put the phone back in sleep mode and stared at him.
“Your thoughts?” he said.
“Jesse. What do you expect me to say? I mean, I’m stuck on the fact that you landed that split, but even more puzzled on how all eight feet of your legs didn’t kick a hole in Miss Leona’s ceiling. But let’s come back to the split.”
Jesse started his truck and pulled out of the parking lot. “You can thank my football-playing days for that.”
“I mean, I hope there’s more where this came from. A lot more, and I hope I get to see it in person. It doesn’t have to be at Claim Jumpers. I’ll go fullWedding Crasherswith you if it means I can witness this gloriousness for myself.”
