Chapter 43
Blood in the Water
SLADE
Sutton’s on Thanksgiving night is its own kind of reunion.
Half of Marble Falls comes home for the holiday and ends up here by ten o’clock. The place is filled with my old classmates, neighbors, kids I went to school with who moved to Bozeman or Whitefish or further and come back once a year looking slightly different but somehow exactly the same.
The jukebox is playing 90s country, every booth is full, and the bartender is moving like he’s got six arms trying to keep up.
I know almost everyone in this bar. A year ago, that would’ve felt suffocating. Trying to make small talk, trying to pretend I’m interested in any of them when I’d rather be at home doing my own thing.
Tonight I’ve got my wife on my arm and I don’t mind any of it at all.
My gaze skims across the bar. Tanner is already holding court there, surrounded by admirers as usual, but his eyes keepgoing to Cassidy, who seems completely unaware of him as she looks through the jukebox options with her brother.
Also as usual, Walker and Sadie are making out in a dark corner, oblivious to anything else around them.
“I love this place,” Lila breathes, eyes catching on the rainbow Christmas lights that John Sutton traditionally puts up on Thanksgiving Day.
I try to see it through her designer’s eyes. The twinkle lights and neon signs cast a rosy glow over everything inside. The walls are plastered with John Sutton’s collection of vintage signs, old railroad posts and Old West saloon warnings to be “Beware Pickpockets and Loose Women.” It’s all dark wood and red leather barstools and rainbow light. I suppose in a certain light, it could be charming.
“Ooh,” Lila says, “there’s a photo booth. Let’s go take some pictures.”
She drags me inside the cramped booth and arranges herself on my lap. My cock jumps as she wriggles atop me and I band my arm tight across her.
“Keep bouncing on me like that, sweetheart,” I murmur in her ear. “See where it gets you.”
She reaches a hand in my pocket and my dick twitches hopefully again. But she’s only pulling out my wallet with a cheeky grin on her face before she feeds a bill into the machine.
“This is what happens when you don’t get a prenup,” she teases. “I’ll bleed you dry via photo booth strips and whiskey shots all night long, cowboy. Won’t be a penny left in this wallet.”
I stroke her hair gently. “Everything’s that’s mine is yours.”
Her eyes soften. Then the machine starts its countdown flashes and Lila straightens on my lap. “Quick,” she says, “smile for the camera.”
I’m not much of a natural smiler by nature, and doing it oncommand feels even less natural. But then Lila kisses my cheek, and that does bring a real smile to my face. Then, because I can’t resist, I tip her face back towards me and kiss her on the mouth, heedless of the machine whirring and flashing away in the background.
When the machine spits out the photo strip, Lila plucks it away.
“Oh,” she murmurs. “That’s really cute.”
I look at the triptych. The first photo is me with my usual stern, serious look, while my beautiful wife beams next to me. The next, her sweet kiss is pressed to my cheek and my face is transformed by it. There’s a look of profound happiness on my face that honestly startles me to see.
The last one is the two of us kissing passionately, the camera forgotten.
It feels like a good summary of our entire relationship.
“That’s a keeper,” I tell her.And so are you.
We kiss again before she tucks the photo strip carefully into her purse. I take her hand and we push back out into the noise of the bar.
“All right,” I say, “since we’re here, let’s get you the full dive bar experience.” I steer her toward the pool table in the back. “You ever play pool?”
She shakes her head as I rack the balls and hand Lila a cue, which she immediately holds incorrectly.
I step in behind her, hand over hers, adjusting her grip. “Like this, baby.” I have to murmur it right in her ear to be heard above the din of the bar.
