“Oh I know… but I didn’t hear that.” I slurp my drink, feeling a little drunk now. “I heard she’s super sweet and everyone lives her. Isn’t that right, Doreen?”
“Oh we all love you alright,” she replies while giving Brandon a warning look. “That’s why we’re all here for you, looking after you.”
She zaps a bit of fun out of the game, I start to wish I didn’t bring her into it, but th
en Brandon gives me a playful wink as if we’re on the same side. Us against them. I like it. It makes me want to sidle closer to him, to wrap my arms around him, to kiss him…
“What do you have planned now?” he asks me thickly. “Do you have anything that you usually do once you finish singing a set?”
“If I did, I’ve already broken it by sitting here and drinking with you. One drink is my standard, now I’ve had a couple, so I guess all routine is gone.” God, it’s freeing to say that. I didn’t realize how constricted I felt by the rut I’m in until that very moment. “It looks like anything is possible.”
“It is… the only thing we’re constricted by is the small town we’re stuck in.” When I gave him a look he quickly retracts that sentence. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just presume there isn’t another bar we can go to.”
Okay, admittedly he has me there. “No, I suppose not,” I drawl slowly. “But there are other things we can do. You just need to use your imagination.”
His eyes become heavy and thick with lust. I have him exactly where I want him. “Oh yeah? Well my imagination has thousands of ideas.”
Of course he does. This is a man who knows exactly what he’s doing in the bedroom. The fantasy of his fingers all over my body, exploring every damn inch of me, might just about to become real. I shiver and smirk before sliding off my chair and making it absolutely obvious that I want to go. This is all fun but I want more. My body has been asleep for far too long and now it’s awake again. It needs to find some serious satisfaction and since it looks like I’m not going to get my ‘alone time’ anymore, I might as well have some ‘together time’ with this seriously sexy stranger. After all, how often does the opportunity for that to happen come around?
“Are we going?” he asks me happily.
“That depends.” I lean across the bar and stare intently into his eyes. “Are you finished here?”
“Oh I’m finished.” He stands up without hesitation. “I’m ready, let’s get out of here.”
And then in his commanding way he stalks from the bar, leaving me with absolutely no choice but to follow him.
Chapter 4 – Brandon
“So, what are the chances of me getting to see your place then?” I ask Lola cheekily as we leave the bar. I know I wanted to take her back to my motel to dirty the place up with her, but now that I’ve spent just a few moments with her I think she might be too good for that. Not for the being dirty part, I still want to see if she has that part in her, but the motel bit. It just seems to seedy for someone like Lola. “Or is that me pushing it a bit?”
Without answering me, Lola snakes her fingers through mine and she drags me along behind her. With any other woman the fact that she’s holding my hand might feel weird and possessive, but Lola just has this way about her that simply feels playful and fun.
“I see, you’re going to be like that, are you? Fine, I don’t mind.”
“You don’t mind?” She spins around and smirks at me. I feel like her blue eyes are piercing into my soul. “So you don’t mind letting go of control then?”
“Are you always this perceptive?” I can’t help but ask. “It’s a little weird that you can see things about me without us even talking much.”
It’s mostly weird to me that she cares. If I think back to all the meaningless experiences that have come before, I realize that’s been a two way street. I haven’t cared about learning anything about the girls, just like they haven’t me. They haven’t wanted to know what goes on deep inside me, they simply care about my name, my reputation, and my bank balance. Shedding that here in this small town, even if it’s just for a short while, is surprisingly fun.
I never thought I wouldn’t want to be a Heath-Smith, but as it turns out, for now I don’t.
“I am quite perceptive,” she says quietly, changing her tone for just a moment. “I knew that Mom was sick way before she did. I kept begging her to go to the hospital but she never would. Not until it was too late anyway.” Her eyes fix on the ground as we walk, but still she doesn’t take her hand away from mine. I wasn’t expecting this vulnerable moment from this cool and spunky girl, but surprisingly I don’t mind it. Maybe this trip will end up bringing out a whole new side to me. “I also knew that Rory would be gone long before he did…” Suddenly she glances up as if she’s just remembered I’m here and she’s horrified at herself. “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to get all heavy then, I don’t know what happened to me…”
“No, it doesn’t matter.” I need to put her out of her misery quickly before she falls into a pit of guilt. “Actually, when Doreen was warning me away from you she said you’ve had loss and heart break. How long ago was it?” I need to know to work out how I should behave.
“Four years, so a long time ago.” She gives me a weak smile and a bit of a giggle. “Long enough ago that Doreen doesn’t have to treat me like a child anymore.”
“Oh I think she just cares about you… to be honest, this does seem like the sort of place where everyone’s a bit like family. In a good way.” I think!
“And yet you want to come along and want to build all over it,” Lola says, but with a hint of teasing so I know it isn’t about to descend into an argument. “Just bloody marvelous. It’s always the big city types that want to wreck everything, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. We have no soul or heart, all we want to do is make money out of everything.” I say this as a joke, but actually it’s much closer to the truth than I’d like it to be. At least for my father, if not me. I’ve never cared too much about making heaps of money but that’s because I’ve always had it. “Anyway, it might be an improvement, you’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you? In two months you might change your mind completely.”
“Hmmm, we’ll see about that one. I don’t think I’ll agree until I’ve seen it for myself.”
“Or maybe you won’t be here… maybe you’ll be a famous singer by then!”