Page 32 of Dare to Dance
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be an ass in there. I’ve got a lot of shit going on.” I didn’t know if this was the right time to tell her I didn’t want to see her anymore, but I couldn’t lead her on. “Look, you’re a beautiful girl.”
She searched my face. “But?”
“I can’t date you anymore. You want a steady relationship. I’m not that guy. I’ll still train you, but nothing more.” She’d been one of my clients, which was how I’d met her in the first place. I couldn’t drop her as a client. Jay would have my hide. Besides, she needed to keep up her self-defense classes, especially if she was planning to frequent dives like Firefly.
“Does it have something to do with that redhead waitress?” Her eyelashes, which were thick with mascara, fluttered as though she was holding back tears.
“It does, and it doesn’t.” It was time for the truth. “I’d been thinking about calling it off with you before tonight.”
She stuck out her chin. “So have you been dating her too?”
The drizzle started to turn into a steady rain.
“No.”
“Let’s go,” one of Penelope’s friends called.
“I can’t change your mind?” she asked. “Don’t answer that.” Her bottom lip trembled before she lifted up on her toes and kissed me on the cheek. “You have my number if you change your mind.” Then she hurried back to her friends.
I followed, but at a slower pace. I hated to hurt her feelings, although if I knew Penelope, she wasn’t the type to give up.
“I’ll be back,” Kody said before he escorted Penelope and her friends down the street.
I slipped into the club and commandeered the same barstool. The band was packing up, and people were saying good-bye to each other.
The bartender glared at me as he wiped a glass. I raised an eyebrow then scanned the room again. Norma and the other waitress were collecting empty glasses from tables as Bob Seger’s Night Moves blared from overhead speakers. But no Ruby. I bounced my knee, trying not to blow a gasket.
“What’s your problem?” I asked the bartender.
He shuffled over. “My problem, man, is you. The waitresses don’t need men like you drooling at them.”
I bit my tongue.No trouble. Jay will have your balls on a skewer.I itched to erase the disgusted look off the bartender’s face, though.
Norma glided up. “He isn’t any trouble, Pete. I know him.”
He nodded lazily at Norma as he continued to pierce me with daggers.
She tucked a strand of her short blond hair behind her ear. “Ruby ducked into the bathroom.”
I liked Norma. The first night I met her, I’d gotten the sense that she was trying to tell me something without coming out and saying it. Whatever was going on with Ruby, it wasn’t Norma’s responsibility to tell me.
“You look a lot better tonight than you did when I first met you.” I scanned her pretty features, wanting to know more of her and Ruby’s story. “What changed?” Gone were the dirt and grime under her fingernails. Her hair was shiny and clean, and her skin glowed like Ruby’s.
“Norma, a customer needs you.” Pete flicked his chin to a man sitting at a table near the wall, who had his hand raised.
She licked her lip ring. “Got to run.”
I kept an eye on my watch as the secondhand ticked by. One minute turned into two, then five, then ten. A bathroom stint didn’t take that long unless Ruby was sick. My gut was telling me she wasn’t in the bathroom. Maybe she was in Tommy’s office, trying to save her job. He’d fired her when we were in the hall, although she’d said she would finish her shift. Then again, she had walked out on me before.And you left her behind without even blinking an eye.Oh, how I loved my subconscious. Anger pushed through the guilt poking at my stomach.
As I hopped off the barstool, Pete picked up the phone on the wall. He was probably alerting Tommy. Fuck if I cared. I had some unfinished business with the fucker, anyway. First, I wanted to make sure Ruby was okay. I headed in the direction of the restroom. I’d barely made it to the hallway when heavy footsteps thudded behind me.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Pete asked.
I whirled around. “Are you serious? Last I checked, this was a public place. I have every right to take a piss. Unless of course you want me to relieve myself right at your feet.”
Pete stood two inches shorter than me, but he was built to fight with muscular arms and a chest that would no doubt have power behind a punch. “Leave now. Or else the cops will escort you out.”
I glanced past him. “I don’t see any cops.”
