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CHAPTER20
SEVEN YEARS
“Journey? They’re really breaking out the oldies,” I said with a nostalgic smile. Classic rock still dominated the playlist, and not much had been upgraded at The Pit since my last visit. Best barbecue joint in town and it hadn’t changed in all these years. The walls were the color of the sauce and still decorated with wooden wagon wheels, knotted ropes, and antlers from a dead animal. I never liked staring at animal parts nailed on a wall because the last thing I wanted was to be reminded of what I was actually eating.
Austin lifted the yellow plates off the tray and set them on the wooden table. I had sent him on a mission to order my dinner because I was curious if he would remember what I liked.
“I don’t know how you can eat that,” he remarked, wrinkling his nose at my plate.
I popped the fried okra in my mouth and grinned. “Because okra is good for you.”
“Deep fried?”
It was bustling in here. The families had already vacated and the atmosphere changed, becoming more rowdy. Several groups of single teenage girls sat in clusters while the guys spun around in their seats, whistling and flirting with them.
Some things never change.
I took a bite of my rib and wiped my hands on the paper towels they put on the table. I tapped my finger against the edge of my plate, looking around the room.
“Something wrong with your food?” he asked, eyeing my hand.
Austin had rolled his short sleeves over his shoulders because the ceiling fans did nothing to cool things down. A few of the women were gawking at him, and the tats were working in his favor.
“I hope you know all the women in here are sizing you up for dessert,” I pointed out while sipping my draft.
Austin laced his fingers together with a lazy grin spreading across his face. “I hadn’t noticed.”
On cue, a woman’s black heels clicked on the floor and stopped at our table, just to my left.
“Well, well, Austin Cole. Been a long time since I last saw you, honey. I hardly recognized you with all the tattoos.”
There was a soft vibrato in her voice—the kind a woman uses for dirty talk, which must have been on her mind by the way she slowly twirled her necklace between her fingers. I didn’t have a clue who she was, but I wondered if the two of them had been intimate, because his eyes slid up her body and met with hers as if he were remembering something.
“Life’s treating you good, Bonnie. You still live around here?”
She jutted her hip in the painted-on jeans that threatened to rip apart if she bent over.
“Mmmhmm. Just up the road a ways. Where you been hiding all these years?”
I began to feel invisible, because Bonnie was hitting on Austin like I was nothing more than restaurant décor. It shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, but I stopped eating and looked out the window.
“Had to get away and live a little,” he answered.
“I’d love to hear all about it,” she said with a lift in her voice. “I remember when you used to come in here with those troublemakers back in high school. Shoot, I can’t even remember their names anymore.”
And then, all of a sudden, Austin’s hand slid across the table and rested on mine. He still kept his eyes on hers, engaged in conversation, but he held my hand and stroked my fingers with his thumb. A flush of heat touched my cheeks and I turned to look at Bonnie and caught her smoky eyes staring at our hands.
“Did you ever settle down?” he asked. “Kids?”
Which threw a wet towel on her parade of whoredom. “I married a few times, but I just got the one kid. He’s with his grandma now. You got kids?”
“Seven,” Austin replied with a straight face.
“Lord have mercy, you’re kidding me!” She looked horrified.
“Always wanted a football team,” he said with a wink. “Just divorced the wife, so I’m looking for someone to fill that spot and help me achieve my dream. Are you a team player, Bonnie?”
I spit out my beer and quickly set my glass down before I spilled it.
