Several of the truckers sitting around us took notice of the performance. Well, I guess I should say they mainly took notice of the hot little number in the white sundress intertwining herself with the douchebag she was singing with.
Not enjoying the way I was feeling about what I was seeing, I rose out of my chair. “I gotta go take a leak,” I muttered before escaping to the bathroom. What the hell was wrong with me? Why did I give two shits about Abby performing with AJ? I mean, she had made it damn clear she wasn’t going to give any of us the time of day. As I washed my hands, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
“Get a grip, dude. You do not want to get entangled with her,” I muttered.
“Huh?” some guy in a stall asked.
“Nothing,” I grumbled before exiting the door.
Thankfully, when I came back from the bathroom, Abby and AJ were no longer singing and had rejoined the table. Since the appetizers had arrived, we started attacking them. Abby did a pretty good job putting some away as well. Once they were devoured, we waited anxiously for our main courses to arrive. I cut my eyes over to where Abby twirled the straw in her Diet Coke. A question popped into my mind, and I acted on it. “So Abby, you’re twenty-one and legal, don’t you drink?”
“No, I don’t,” she replied, before taking a dainty sip of her Diet Coke.
“So caffeine is your only illicit substance?” I implored with a smirk.
With a shrug, she replied, “I guess so.”
“Ever tried a beer?”
She eyed my frothy mug and wrinkled her nose. “No, thank you.”
“Oh come on. Just try a sip.” I slid my beer closer to her. When she nibbled her lip, I couldn’t help goading her some more. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid to try it?”
Abby snapped her gaze up to mine, and the fire that flashed in her eyes made me shift in my seat. Damn, how was it possible for Miss Priss to affect me with just a look? I could only imagine that with the proper stoking, that flame could be scorching in the bedroom.
Without a word to me, she reached over and grabbed my mug. She licked her lips as I leaned forward, silently daring her to continue. She took in a mouthful before her eyes widened, and she turned away from me to spew out the beer. “Oh.My.God! How do you drink that? It tastes like horse pee!” she exclaimed, swiping her hand across her mouth.
AJ and Rhys chuckled at her response. “You been drinking a lot of horse pee lately, Angel?” I questioned, as I took my beer back.
She scowled at me. “No, I haven’t. I haven’t even been around a horse since I got thrown from one when I was ten and broke my arm.”
“You need to get back in the saddle.”
Abby shot me a withering look. “And let me guess. You’re the man to teach me?”
I ignored her dig at the innuendo of teaching. “Well, I did grow up on a farm, and I do have six horses—well, my mom and I do.”
Abby’s disdainful expression slowly faded, and she eyed me with curiosity. “You still live at the farm with your mom?”
“When I’m not touring, it’s the only place I want to be.”
“No big city, swinging bachelor pad and wild parties?”
I grinned and shook my head. “Nope, give me backwoods bonfires, mudding, and fishing over all of that.”
“Hmm, I wouldn’t have pegged you for a boonies kind of guy.”
AJ snorted. “You won’t get any more boonies than where Jake grew up in Ball Ground, Georgia.”
Abby’s brows furrowed. “But I thought you guys knew each other as teenagers?”
“We did. After my mom and dad divorced, he left and moved to Atlanta. I’d visit him on weekends, and AJ’s family lived next door. ”
AJ nodded. “My family has always been city dwellers. We don’t do backwoods. Rednecks aren’t real tolerant, ya know?”
I laughed. “Oh please, that’s so not true.”
“Yeah, right. You don’t know how many times I got the ‘You’re not from ‘round here are ya, boy,’ ” AJ drawled in his best hick voice.
I smacked his arm. “I call bullshit, AJ. My redneck family are some of the best people you know and don’t deny it.”
AJ grinned. “Okay, so maybe I enjoyed being in the boonies a little too much with Jake.”
“Yep, I taught his sissy, city boy ass to hunt, fish, and rope cattle.”
Abby’s mouth gaped open. “You have cows too?”
“Naw, my Papa does.”
AJ nudged Abby. “Did you hear that? Every once and awhile, Jake will slip up and sound like a total country bumpkin.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”