I was pretty buzzed, but not so far gone that I didn’t look around at the giggling crowd with embarrassment.
“What? He’s way too young for me.”
“He’s around my age,” Ginger protested. “I think he was a year behind me in school, which makes him twenty-five. He’s sexy, single, and has been looking at you like you’re a rare steak and he’s king of the jungle.”
“No he has not … And that makes him seven years younger than me. He’s practically a teenager,” I argued, leaning back against the wall so I don’t fall over.
“Pshaw,” she replied, slurring her unintelligible words. “He’s so not a teenager. That man will make you see stars … I’ve heard good things.”
“Oh my God! You’re crazy,” I said, then pushed of the wall and ran out of the bathroom and away from the knowing glances coming from the peanut gallery.
“Hey, babe,” Landon said as I stepped out into the open bar. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, things are great,” I said, suddenly nervous in his presence.
I looked him over as if with new eyes, and was surprised to feel my body respond as I drew my gaze up the long, young, toned length of his body, stopping to grin at his full lips.
“I was just telling her that she should go home with you tonight,” Ginger announced, coming up from behind me and swinging an arm around my shoulder as she grinned up into Landon’s surprised face.
His expression quickly turned from surprised to cocky as he tipped the rim of his cowboy hat to me and said smoothly, “You definitely should.”
I was momentarily dazed by the deep tenor of his voice, which I felt all the way down in the bottom of my belly.
Oh my, I thought. But what I said was, “I’m too old…”
The corner of Landon’s lips turned up and he replied, “You’re gorgeous.”
I let the compliment wash over me, cleansing some of the wounds that had been open since Ricky’s death. I couldn’t believe I was actually considering going home with this guy, but I really was.
“How about I grab us a drink and we can figure out what you want to do next,” Landon offered.
I gave him a slight nod, unable to find my voice, and turned to watch him walk away. His backside was fantastic.
“I met trouble, the day I met you,” I said to Ginger once my tongue dislodged from the back of my throat.
“Sug, I was the best thing to happen to you in years,” she countered, then pulled me in for a hug, and I had to admit, she was probably right.
I was about to say the same to her when we were suddenly interrupted by a very handsome, very angry, Bo.
“Tell me it isn’t true,” Bo demanded, causing Ginger and I to jump apart and look at him with startled expressions.
“What?” Ginger managed, her voice coming out as a squeak.
“Tell me you aren’t a stripper,” he spat.
I saw Ginger’s eyes go wide, then narrow. Her back straightened and she crossed her hands over her chest, thrusting her hip out, as her voice went icy.
“Why does it matter?”
Bo ran his hands through his hair, then down his face, his frustration evident.
“Candy said she heard from Nancy, who heard from Cheryl, who heard from Jean, that you’ve been stripping since I left Vegas … Tell me it isn’t true!” he shouted, this time causing the people standing around us to stop and turn our way.
Ginger’s body went rigid as she responded, her voice low and dangerous, “How dare you … You have the balls to come up on me, make a scene, and judge me for things I had to do after you took me to Vegas to chase a pipe dream, then bailed on me a few short days later? Seriously? What I do, or did, is no longer your business. You made sure of that. And you have no right to try and make me feel ashamed for what I’ve had to do to make ends meet.”
Bo’s posture softened as some of the anger seemed to leave him, and his voice was quieter when he argued, “You didn’t have to do anything … You could have come home.”
“Fuck you,” was Ginger’s response, before she whirled past him, stormed through the bar, and left with the door slamming behind her.
“You’re an asshole,” I told Bo after he turned his attention away from the exit.
“Seriously, not cool, bro,” Landon agreed as he came up behind me.
Bo’s eyes flickered from my face to Landon’s, then he turned swiftly and followed Ginger out the door.
“Do you think she’s okay?” I asked Landon after Bo was out of sight.
“Yeah, she’ll be fine. There are always fireworks when those two get together,” her sister, Jean said from behind us.