Page 58 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
“I’m feeling it. I just still know how to speak,” Leah said.
“How about you all sit,” Red said, coming around the bar. He then nudged them onto stools.
“Aww, I love you, Reddy,” Nina said, now swinging her legs, as her feet couldn’t touch the ground.
“Only on girl’s night, but I’ll take it.”
“And you, Bradford,” Zoe cried as the tall man for every job appeared with a tray loaded down with empties. He smiled as Nina and Zoe kissed him, completely unfazed. “You should strip for us and dance, then we can throw money at you.”
“Oooh, yes, or put it down his shorts like you see in movies,” Libby added.
“Run while you can, bud,” Red said, and Bradford did exactly that.
“Your mom’s got the moves,” Leah said, pointing to the dance floor, where Robyn Duke, Meadow McAllister, Birdie’s mom, and Linda were dancing.
“She got that from me,” Zoe said loudly.
“Pretty sure that’s the other way around,” Red said. “But sure. Now it’s chicken sticks and fries time,” Red added.
“Yay!” Birdie punched the air.
“Oh a shisken stick is a chicken stick,” Leah said. “I love those and haven’t had them yet shince I got back.” Her vision was going. Holding up a finger before her eyes, she saw two.
“You.” Zoe jabbed a finger into Leah’s waist, hard.
“Ouch! Why did you do that?”
“Should have come home sooner,” Zoe added carefully, enunciating each word clearly, or at least she thought she was.
“I had to go,” Leah said, and suddenly there was a lot of movement, and they all staggered together to stand before her.Zoe, Nina, Birdie, and Phoebe. Cill was there behind them, and Libby too. All of them looked at Leah through unfocused eyes.
“Why?” Nina demanded.
“I think she’s really shad and hiding it,” Birdie said.
“Sad?” Red interpreted from behind the bar again. “And I agree, she is,” he said, looking at Leah.
“I’m okay,” she insisted, refusing to cry again.
“You and my brother should be a thing,” Zoe said around a mouthful of shisken stick.
“Agree,” everyone including Red said.
And just like that, she felt the tears. For months Leah kept them down for Hudson. Fought not to lie down somewhere and cry for what she’d lost. Her best friend and the only family member who gave a damn about her.
And now there was the complication of Dan Duke and the realization she could easily fall in love with the man all over again, even if she still blamed him for ruining her life. The alcohol was messing with her head.
“You guys are drunk. Sit, and eat shisken sticks,” Leah said, forcing a smile onto her lips. “I need a bathroom break. Don’t eat them all.”
She then ran down the hall, past the bathrooms, and out the back door as if hell was dogging her footsteps.
Chapter 16
Dan parked the Slatters’ van out in front of the Rollaway. Girls’ Night was always a big one, and they took turns taking the women home if their partners weren’t available.
He’d talked to his uncle about what he’d heard in there a week ago, but without more information, there wasn’t much they could do about it. Dan knew this, but it still worried him that Leah and Hudson could be the people the man had been talking about.
“I’m almost afraid to go inside,” JD said from his position leaning on the hood of his vehicle when Dan got out of the van. “I got a text from Bradford, who said they were trying to get him to dance in his shorts so they could put money down them.”
