Bounty(160)

He pulled me into his side.

I looked up at him.

“Babe, folk at that table over there know you,” he said quietly.

Of course, Deke had noticed.

“They’re takin’ pictures, tryin’ to be cool about it,” he went on.

Shit!

“Maybe not somethin’ you wanna do but think it’d mean a lot to them, you went over, had a word before our steaks get here,” he advised.

I felt my mouth drop open.

Deke looked to my mouth then back to my eyes.

“Your call, you don’t want to,” he said.

“You’re okay with that?” I asked.

“Be more okay with that than them getting a picture of you shovin’ a huge bite of steak in your mouth, somethin’ you might not like, and that shit’s all over Twitter or whatever by morning.”

I’d feel better about that too.

“I, well, if I go over there, honey, they’ll want pictures and other people might notice and it might get around that I’m, well…me.”

“You are you,” he pointed out. “So be you, give ’em you, and get back here before our steaks get here because you won’t want to eat yours cold.”

My mouth didn’t drop open then.

I just stared.

“Is everything okay?” Nina asked.

Deke looked her way and did it sliding out of the booth. “Jussy’s got some fans here. She’s gonna go see to ’em.”

I cast an uneasy glance at Nina and Max as I slid out behind Deke, wondering if they’d be annoyed at possibly having their dinner delayed, our night interrupted.

But Max was just looking at me benevolently and Nina was looking over her shoulder. She’d clearly caught the table where the patrons knew me because she was waving.

They were waving back.

Okay, not annoyed.

I took my feet next to Deke and looked up at him.

“I’ll try to be fast,” I assured.

“Do what you gotta do,” he muttered, his head coming down to do what he often had to do.

Touch his lips to mine.

They were almost to their destination when I whispered, “Baby, they could be taking pictures.”

His head halted its descent and his gaze lifted from my lips to my eyes before he whispered back, “You mine?”

Oh yes.

I was.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Then who gives a shit?”

He asked that and didn’t allow me to respond. He went in for the lip brush, hand on my hip giving me a squeeze.

When he pulled away, I wanted to grab him on either side of his head and yank him back. When I’d accomplished that, I wanted to kiss him hard.

In absence of that, I wanted to smile at him huge to tell him how much his reaction to this scenario meant to me.

And last, I wanted to tell him I loved him.

I didn’t do any of these things.

Instead, I gave him a look that I hoped shared all of that, a small smile curving my mouth, lifting my hand to trail my fingers along his at my hip.

He caught them, twisted them in his for a beat before he gave them an affectionate tug and let them go.

I looked to Max and Nina. “Be back.”

“We’ll be here,” Nina replied brightly.

My smile to her was grateful, I turned it on Max and then I moved on my high-heeled boots through the restaurant to the table.

The women were nearly bouncing in their chairs.

Both men were standing by the time I made it to their table.

I spoke with them. I signed two cocktail napkins, personalizing them. And I stood and scrunched together for four pictures, one taken by a waitress.

Other patrons watched, none gawked (fortunately) and no others approached or cast certain kinds of glances that would mean I’d be taking a tour of the restaurant that would last an hour before I went back to my dinner with Deke and our friends.

We were undisturbed through steaks, more beverages (for Nina and me) and desserts.

But when it came time to pay the bill, it was the manager who showed, looking at me and saying, “It’s our pleasure you joined us, Ms. Lonesome. So much so, The Rooster is covering your meal.” He slightly bowed to me, Deke and then to Max and Nina before he looked again to me. “Please come again.”

He then glided away.

“Um…” I mumbled to the table at large. “Weirdly, that comes with the territory, the people most likely to be able to afford steak dinners in nice restaurants get them for free.”

“Free food at The Rooster. Never wanted to be famous, suddenly I want to be famous,” Nina remarked, again smiling at me. “Do you get designers sending you free clothes?”

Her manner made it easy not to be embarrassed by an embarrassment of riches.

“When I was touring, yeah.”

“Okay, now I definitely want to be famous,” Nina decreed.