Page 53 of Tainted

“I could dance circles around you if I wanted to, Babygirl.”

“Prove it. Let's shake things up like a tornado in a trailer park!”

I wanted to smile but had to preserve some of my cool after how I acted earlier.

“Check, please!” I threw my arm up, and she quickly yanked it down. “You’re too deep in character right now.”

Zara fell back into her seat, welcoming the air circulating the bar. There were even a few strands of hair sticking to her big ass forehead from all her dancing.

“You sound like my Dad,” she smiled, reminiscing. “But Mom would still be tearing up the dance floor right now.”

“Why does Shana like country music so much?”

She smiled. “Mom’s a country girl at heart. I spent my summer here with Nana, but hers were spent in the country with her Grandma. She’s always loved music, and they only had one station back then, so it was country or nothing.”

“Who’s your favorite?”

“Tanner Adell. She’sthatgirl.”

“What’s so special aboutTanner Adell?”

Zara gave me a dramatized look of disbelief before explaining. “Some things just are, and Tanner, being that girl, is one of them.”

Discussing Tanner Adell somehow made Zara think of whisky, and now she was flagging the waitress down to order a round. I was still learning how Zara’s mind worked, so I didn’t make the connection.

The hours grew late, and I got tired of sharing Zara with the random friends she made on the dance floor. Everybody loved Zara. She had that personality that sucked you in, and right now, I wanted it all to myself. We made our way toward the exit, andI had never been happier to leave, country music fading in the distance.

“You can’t tell me those songs didn’t make you feel good?” Zara insisted, backpedaling so she could see my reaction.

“I’m not planning on going to aHoedown,but it was aite.”

“Whatever. Everybody can’t be a walking testament of happiness. Sometimes, life gets hard.”

“That’s what you think of me?”

“I don’t know what to think of you sometimes,” she admitted.

Charley’s Juke Joint must have mixed some truth serum in those shots. Zara usually kept her inner thoughts tucked under lock and key. When she did share, it often came out discombobulated and hard to decipher. Tonight, they floated freely between us as we walked to my car.

“Damn, I got you the night off. Fed you and suffered through country music, and you don’t know what to think of yourFairy Godfather?”

“I think you like it that way.”

“Did you find the answers you were looking for in my closet?” I asked, opening the car door.

“It actually left me more confused.”

“Why?” I asked after walking around to the other side and joining her.

Zara shook her head, declining to explain.

“Thank you for today. It was nice of you, Kenyon.”

“It’s no sweat, Babygirl.”

“It is, actually. Why did you do this for me?”

“Maybe I just like making people’s day. So are we cool now?”

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