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She took my hand and my stomach cramped with disgust.
Then we followed the shadow to the basement.
It wasn’t until dark that I heard the loud holler of Crisis and realized I’d been lost to the rainbow of colors all day.
I plopped my brush into the jar of murky gray water then went into the kitchen to see Crisis with Emily in his arms swinging her around. Logan stood close by, arms crossed, looking none too pleased that another man had his hands on his girl. I could see by the way his muscles twitched that he was barely tolerating it, and if Crisis didn’t let her go soon, Logan was going to do something about it.
“Our girl is getting married,” Crisis yelled to me as he placed Emily back on her feet.
I smiled at Emily and then caught a glimmer of the ring and gasped. “Damn, missy.” I went running over and grabbed her hand, staring at the magnificent ring on her finger. It wasn’t just a rock; this was a ring with two delicate horse shoes sprinkled with tiny diamonds. To connect them together sat a beautiful cut diamond. It was perfect for Emily. Subtle, but it held so much meaning. The abused horses healed Emily just as much as she healed them, and Logan had given that to her.
“It’s perfect,” I whispered. Then I glanced up at Logan who looked real proud of himself. “Fine. You did good, sexy. You can marry her.”
Logan laughed and Emily looked up. I saw her body sag as she watched her soon to be husband. She really loved him. It was the most beautiful sight, watching the two of them. They read one another so well, as if Logan knew how Emily felt better than she did herself. He knew what she needed from him and he gave it to her.
“Avalanche,” Crisis announced. “This calls for drinks. Where’s Ream and Kite?” He took out his phone and started texting.
“I’ve got Georgie,” I said and hugged Emily again before I fished out my phone and texted her. Then I called my brother and told him to save us the usual table, to which he groaned and complained that the band was too popular now and he’d need to call in more security for the night. Then I bitched and complained that he hadn’t been to the farm in weeks to see me. He shut up.
I sent Lance a text too. We didn’t have plans tonight, but he liked knowing what I was up to. I thought it was nice and it was, but nice … well, nice was just nice. I told him we were going to Avalanche to celebrate Emily and Logan’s engagement but didn’t invite him, even though any normal girl dating some guy would. But with the way Ream was acting, throwing Lance into the mix was pulling the pin from the grenade and dealing with that on a night that was for Emily … I wasn’t taking the chance of it being ruined.
Ream’s car was gone and Crisis complained that ‘my boyfriend’ wasn’t responding to his texts. I smacked Crisis hard on the shoulder for the boyfriend wisecrack and was silently glad that Ream was AWOL. Alcohol … emotions teetering on a tight rope and a volatile history … well, it was safer Ream wasn’t joining us.
We made our way through the crowd to our reserved table near the stage. It was busy as usual and I noticed Matt had a few security guys around I didn’t recognize.
I stopped to chat with Molly, one of the waitresses who’d been at Avalanche for three months. Cute girl with bright red hair, obviously dyed since she had black roots. She had pale skin with freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose and brilliant blue eyes—too brilliant. I suspected she wore contacts. No one had eyes that blue.
Molly was twenty-four and I remember Matt nearly didn’t hire her because she looked sixteen and he thought she was using fake ID. It was only when the tears fell and she begged that he decided to give her a chance. But first he took her driver’s license and had it checked by the Ministry of Transportation to make sure it wasn’t a phony.
A few weeks ago Brett told me Molly had escaped an abusive relationship and had moved here from Vancouver with nothing except the clothes on her back. She supposedly lived in a rundown house in a rough part of the city with a couple of unsavory roommates. Brett had offered to find her something a little safer, but she refused to take any help.
Kite smiled and winked at Molly on his way by. “Hey, lovey.”
I smiled when I saw her hide her face in a curtain of hair like she usually did. She mumbled something back to him, although it was too soft to hear over the music. I didn’t know how she managed getting through a night at Avalanche she was so shy and easily embarrassed, and the regulars were relentless with their teasing.
“Looking appetizing as usual.” Crisis smacked Molly on the butt and sent her staggering forward. I had to help steady her and the tray of beers she held.
“Crisis,” I chided.
He held up his hands. “What? She looks hot. Girl needs to hear it.” Before I could say anything else, he was already weaving through the crowd.
We chatted a few minutes more before I saw her look over at the bar and then she quickly made her excuses, stumbling all over her words and darted off. I glanced at the bar and caught Brett watching Molly and he was frowning. Brett rarely frowned. I searched for Molly and saw her serving a bunch of guys, and one of them had his hand on her arm.
Interesting. Was Brett hot for Molly? I’d never seen him with a girl, and he took plenty of numbers from working Friday and Saturday nights. The guy was a mystery, a successful real estate tycoon, hot, charming, and rarely lost his cool. He could have any girl he wanted, but he chose to serve them drinks at a bar instead of spending his weekend nights taking them to fancy restaurants.
