Page 79 of Five Mountain Daddies

I get a beer and settle in, but I don’t have long to wait. Amelia shows up about ten minutes after I do, looking a little nervous. She spots me and walks right over as I turn toward her, a smirk on mylips.

“Welcome,” I say toher.

She sits down quickly. “Is it a good idea, meetinghere?”

I shrug. “Probably not. But I doubt most of these guys will recognize you. And anyway, so what if theydo?”

She chews her lip. “I’mcorporate.”

“Yeah, you are. We don’t have to beenemies.”

She sighs and orders a club soda. I notice that she’s not drinking, but I don’t think anything of it. “You’re probablyright.”

“Listen, just trust me. Okay? This isfine.”

She nods again and gets her drink, sipping it. She looks stressed, even more stressed than she normally does, which is confusing. I thought we had a good thing finished and ready to go, but there’s clearly aproblem.

I don’t push her. She’ll come out and say it when she’sready.

“You guys come here a lot?” she asks me, though of course she knows the answer to thatquestion.

“Only miner bar in town,” Isay.

She grins at me. “Any bar’s a miner bar if the miners drinkthere.”

“Good point.” I sip my beer. “I guess this is a corporate barnow.”

“We’re taking it back.” She laughs to herself and takes another big drink. “Look, we have totalk.”

“Okay. Let’stalk.”

She looks nervous, like whatever’s on her mind is seriously paining her. Just as she’s about to talk, though, Vernon suddenly comes up from behind her and sayshello.

They shake hands, a little awkwardly, but Vernon quickly introduces her to a bunch of the other guys. I can tell it’s making her uncomfortable, but I knew the boys would be good tonight. The real troublemakers are down in the mine right now, anyway. I wouldn’t bring her here if I thought any of them would be around to sayshit.

“So what brings you to our little shithole?” Vernon asksher.

“Can’t be the company,” Booneadds.

“Or the drinks,” a young guy named Mikeshouts.

The boys all laugh and she grins. “Just talking business withSamuel.

“Business, huh?” Boone grins at me. “A little unusual,huh.”

“She does things her own way.” I shrug a little bit, like I can’t controlshit.

He winks at me. “Sure, boss. Well, we’ll leave you to it.” Boone pushes the other guys away and Amelia groans as theyleave.

“I saw that look,” she says tome.

I laugh softly. “I have areputation.”

“They all think we’re… youknow.”

“Aren’t we?” I cock my head ather.

“No,” she says quickly. “Definitelynot.”

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