Page 21 of Hot Times in Heart Falls, Vignettes Vol 3

“I suggested that, but Ginny says she’s staying put because Dusty and the little girls are still in the house. Plus someone needs to keep things rolling around the place since we all know Wendy is mostly useless.”

It was hard to see his friends suffering, but it wasn’t as if Tucker could give Caleb marriage advice. His parents were no shining example of how a marriage should work.

That had been the Stones and the Hayeses. People gone far too soon who had left a lasting memory.

Luke’s phone went off. He glanced at the screen and his expression folded into a frown as he answered. “Ginny?”

Tucker couldn’t hear her words, but Luke’s reaction said enough.

He took a sharp breath. “Fuck. Stay put, and keep Dare there. I’ll be out as quick as I can.” Luke hung up and met Tucker’s gaze. “They’re not at the cottage like we thought, watching movies and crying. They’re at the pub, and Dare is three sheets to the wind. Ginny can’t get her to stop.”

2

Ginny Stone was all for people taking charge and going after what they needed. Especially her best friend, Dare, who more than deserved to be a little wild and outrageous if it soothed the demons that rode her every February tenth.

Okay, Ginny also had demons on this anniversary day, but she’d had her brothers to turn to. Dare had lost everyone.

But the night was not going as planned.

They hadn’t set out to do anything illegal, and hoped to stay on the correct side of immoral, but now the aforementioned wild and outrageous from Dare was tilting hard toward trouble.

Which was to say Dare wasn’t up on the bar dancing. Yet.

It had started simply. They were both old enough to be in the pub, even though the owner and bartender, Rex Matter, had given them both the evil eye for a few minutes.

Did he think they were simply going to dance and not drink? What did it matter? The more ladies out on the floor, the greater the chances some of the cowboys would stick around in the hopes of a dance, drinking as they waited.

Ginny slid up to the bar, hauled there by Dare, and once again wondered if Rex had been on the receiving end of a series of lectures to watch out for my sisters or else from the Stone patriarchy.

“Evening, Rex,” Ginny said with a bright smile.

Rex didn’t pause in drying the glass in his hands but dipped his chin politely. “Ladies. Your brothers lurking nearby?”

Ginny forced the smile to stick. “Just us. We’d like to start a tab.”

He eyed them before bestowing another nod. “What’ll it be tonight? Iced tea? Pop?”

“Whiskey.” The word shot out of Dare like a warning shot across a ship’s bow. Quick, with attitude.

Ginny didn’t blame her friend. The bartender had seemed one step away from suggesting Shirley Temples.

Rex raised a brow, meeting Ginny’s gaze. “You?”

“The same.” Although whiskey wasn’t her favourite, she’d do one shot then redirect the party in a safer direction. For the sake of her pocketbook if nothing else.

Dare waited until they both held tumblers of the amber liquid before raising hers in the air toward Ginny. “Tonight we toast our families. Starting with your mom.”

Oh God. Ginny’s throat tightened.

Her friend’s gaze locked on hers. “She always told us to do the next thing. I remembered that so often in the days after the accident when I wasn’t sure how to get out of bed. I still wake up thinking it at times.”

Memories threatened to take Ginny out at the knees. Deb Stone offering that all-knowing smile to the girls as they tried to jump ahead faster than they should. “One step at a time,” Ginny gave back to Dare.

They clinked glasses, then Dare upended hers. The liquid seemed to vanish from sight, and suddenly the tumbler was on the counter and Dare was looking at her expectantly.

Ginny lifted the glass and sipped.

Fire rolled over her tongue and down her throat, but the burn was good and eased the hurt of memory. Still, she took her time, making a face at Dare when her friend crossed her arms over her chest.