“Still recovering from our last night out.” Kat and I were here a couple weeks ago, and the tequila shots didn’t sit so well the next day, especially when having to ride Havoc and working with four rescue horses. We made it a habit to come to the bar twice a month and stay at the condo, so we could see Matt. Matt was so busy with Avalanche that we rarely saw him now. We’d also go see Georgie who recently wasn’t making it out to the farm as often to see us.
“So, you saying no more tequila tonight, sweetie?”
I tilted my head and raised my brows. Brett laughed and poured me a shot. He was nearly always serving at Avalanche. Kat swore Brett only worked there to pick up chicks, as during the day he was a real estate tycoon. It was hard to imagine the blond with the unruly curls and dashing blue eyes wearing a business suit.
I put down a twenty. “Nice try, Emily.”
“It’s a tip.” Matt insisted we get our drinks for free, but I still tried to pay whenever I was here. The bar was kind of like therapy for me, being around men, dancing and losing myself to the music. The first dozen times we’d come here it had been disastrous. The second I felt a man near me I felt the fear, the terror that I’d be kidnapped and then forced into that world again. I’d have given up if Kat hadn’t continued to push me to come back again and again. We’d dance and she’d keep close to me and talk to me or sing and make me laugh. Slowly over time the terror lessoned until I began looking forward to going out and dancing again.
“Don’t need the money. Where’s Kat?”
I gestured to the dance floor, and Brett glanced over then rolled his eyes and shook his head which unleashed a curl that dangled in front of his face. I followed his gaze and saw Kat rubbing erotically against some guy, his hands up under her shirt.
“She’s going to land herself in deep one of these times. And I’m betting it’ll be tonight.”
“Why’s that?” I asked. Kat was always a flirt, but there was something in the way she treated men that I thought was different in the last couple years. It wasn’t like she enjoyed their attention, although she certainly looked like she did. It was more … like she needed it and yet hated it at the same time.
Brett shrugged while pouring a rum and Coke. He plopped a lime in it then slid it to a young guy a few seats away from me. “Just a feelin’ is all.”
I noticed he was still watching Kat. “Why don’t you date her?”
Brett threw his head back and laughed. “Not touching that sweet ass. Number one, don’t want or need a relationship. Number two, overprotective brother, and number three, she belongs to Ream. And he’s back. I’d like to keep my teeth.” What? Ream? The guy from Logan’s old band? I’d never met him, but had heard his name when I researched Logan on the Internet back when we met and Logan had mentioned Ream was a friend of Deck’s.
Brett leaned forward, propping his elbows on the bar. “Better keep a close eye on your girl tonight. She stirs up too much trouble with Ream here … He won’t like it. Don’t think she even knows he’s back yet. The band has kept it hush-hush.” The band used to have a large fan base in Toronto a few years ago, but she’d thought they’d stopped playing when Logan went to Mexico. Maybe they’d found a new lead singer. Brett took another order and moved down the bar.
Before I had a chance to ask, Kat bumped me with her hip and grabbed the guy’s beer next to us and chugged half of it. She ran her finger down his shoulder as he stared at her open mouthed. “Thanks, babe.” Her voice was sultry and sweet, and it was enough to have the guy drooling instead of complaining.
“Ream? You’ve been seeing Ream?”
Kat’s face fell for a brief second before she covered it up with a half-smile. “We hooked up, Emily—briefly, really brief, like not-even-worth-mentioning brief. When you and Sculpt … Well, when you were gone he was around. Helped out, you know with moving to the farm and shit. I was upset, and he listened. Then you came back; I wasn’t freaking anymore, and we hooked up then unhooked. End of story.” She threw her arm over my shoulders. “Come on, let’s dance. It’s lonely out there.”
“Kat? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“It was nothing, Eme. Besides, you didn’t want to talk about anything to do with Sculpt.”
She was right. I would’ve freaked if she’d mentioned Logan or anything to do with Logan. “Did you sleep with him?”
I knew immediately she had, because she completely ignored me and started jumping up and down dancing. Kat handled problems like a kid. You know when a parent is telling their kid to stop doing something or to put their toys away and the kid just sits their pretending not to hear them, but you know damn well he or she does? That was Kat.
“Come on, missy, we need to let loose tonight,” Kat grabbed my hand and yanked me through the crowd to the dance floor.
I liked to dance, and I was good at it. I could close my eyes and let myself go. The music thrived in me, and my body moved easily to the beat. Kat was more of a wild dancer, jumping around, swinging her arms and singing out loud. And if that wasn’t enough to draw attention the slinky, red dress certainly did.
My eyes closed as my body moved back and forth, hips swaying, hands sliding up and down my sides as I lost myself to Avicii’s new song. Heat surged into my back and I was about to turn around when hands settled on my hips. It wasn’t unusual to have a guy come up behind and start dancing with you, and if he could dance and didn’t push the boundaries then I was okay with it—well that was a lie. I still felt uncomfortable, but the images of what happened at Raul’s dining hall had faded and I no longer freaked out when a guy touched me from behind thinking he’d suddenly strip me down.