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Chapter One
“Ican’t believeI let you talk me into this.”
Noelle stood inside the doorway of Grey’s Saloon, her younger sister, Holly, beside her, already swaying to the music as Cole Swindell sang about all the ways he wanted to see his girl.
“Come on, Noey! This is a great way to get to know people in town.”
“A bar? You think our best chance at making new friends will be at a bar?”
Holly rolled her eyes. She did that a lot lately when talking to Noelle. “It’s aSalooon, sister. Not a bar.”
Noelle looked around. She’d learned a little bit about Marietta since moving there with Holly, but not too much about Grey’s Saloon. It was on Main Street on the back side of her dance studio, so she’d seen it, was aware of its popularity, but she had yet to come inside. It lived up to its name. There was a battered bar along one wall with booths along the other. With tarnished mirrors and scarred floorboards, Noelle could picture it in its heyday of women, drinks, and an occasional gunfight.
“You can dress up the name all you want. A bar is a bar.”
“Whatever.” Holly took her by the arm. “There’s two empty barstools down here. Come on.”
Noelle let her sister drag her toward the other end of the bar, away from the action at the center, but closer to the dance floor. The song was upbeat and the music a bit louder than where they’d stood by the door. She had to lean in close to Holly as they claimed their seats and set their clutch purses on the bar. “I’m not sure about this, Holl. I told you before we left the house, I’m not up for this.”
Her sister turned so they sat on the barstools with their knees touching. “You’re ready.” She lifted Noelle’s face to hers with a gentle hand under her chin. “I promise. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think so.”
Noelle nodded, not trusting herself to any other answer.
“I’ll have a whiskey soda and she’ll have a glass of white wine,” Holly said to the bartender who had come down to take their order. He nodded and turned to make their drinks.
Noelle turned a bit on her seat to look around. A few booths were full: one with couples on a double date from the looks of it, and a group of guys out on the town for the evening. She recognized one as a dad of one of her students. The man beside him glanced her way, but she turned back to Holly to avoid making eye contact. She wasn’t here looking for a man, that was for sure. In fact, she questioned yet again why she sat on a barstool, in a saloon, on her one night off when she’d much rather be soaking in a bubble bath and reading a good book.
“Don’t do it.”
“Don’t do what?”
Holly scooted the glass of wine closer to her that the bartender had just put down. “Just take a sip and relax.”
“I’m relaxed.” She obeyed and took a sip.
“No you’re not. You’re thinking about all the things you’d rather be doing than be here and I’m telling you—again—you have more than enough time in life to prune yourself in a tub and read.” She took a swig of her whiskey and lifted an eyebrow.
Noelle shook her head and fought back a laugh. “Uncanny how you do that.”
“It’s a gift.”
“Reading my mind is a gift?”
“Yes. One bestowed upon me to keep you from wallowing or overthinking or holing yourself up away from the world.”
“I don’t do any of those things.” Noelle’s attempt to defend herself fell flat because, damn it, her sister was right.
She sipped her wine as Holly rolled her eyes again, snagged a peanut from the wooden bowl in front of her, and popped it in her mouth.
“I’m not much of a drinker,” Noelle said as she took another sip of wine.
“Yet another thing I’m painfully aware of about you. One glass of white wine. That’s it. No more. The occasional few sips of scotch during the holidays. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t go out and be with people and dance and have some fun. Right?”
Noelle took a deep breath in and let it out.Dancing.Yes. She loved to dance. And had been doing it since she could walk, maybe even before then. On instinct, she rubbed her right thigh.
Holly noticed and put a hand on her arm. “You okay? You hurting?”
Noelle shook her head. “No. Sorry. I’m fine.”
