Page 120 of On the Line
A loud cheer peppered with wolf whistles and catcalls went up, and the guy grinned. “That’s what I like to hear. So how many of y’all are here for a bachelorette weekend?” He asked.
Berkley’s hand rose to the air immediately, as did the hands of several other women scattered around the club.
“How about you gorgeous ladies come up on stage and we’ll give you a little something extra to celebrate your last days of freedom?”
Berkley was all for it, rising from her chair before the guy had even finished speaking. Lexie couldn’t help but laugh, reclining in her seat and watching as her friend hopped on stage, the height difference between her and the guy comical.
The girl was tiny.
“My, my, you are a pretty little thing. And I think I recognize you. Were you and your friends at Jack’s earlier?” He asked.
Berkley nodded and pointed at Lexie and their table. “We were! Why didn’t you tell us who you were?”
“Wanted it to be a surprise,” he said with a wink. A moment later, the other bachelorettes joined them on stage, and two other heavily muscled and oiled men emerged from the back with chairs for them all.
“I’m Bobby, by the way,” he said to the crowd. “I’ll be your host for tonight. I hope you enjoy the show.”
Lexie can confirm they did, in fact, enjoy the show.
Verymuch.
Afterward, they hung around the club for a few drinks, and were just packing up to leave when the dancers emerged from backstage.
“Y’all are still here?” Bobby drawled as he walked up to them, clad in jeans that hung low on his hips and the same tee he had on earlier. His palm settled low on Lexie’s back, and she found herself annoyed by the familiarity in the touch.
“It’s a bachelorette weekend,” Lexie said with a shrug, stepping away from Bobby and resting her arm across Berkley’s shoulders. “We’re just about to head out, though. Long day and all that.”
“No, don’t go yet!” One of the other guys said, walking up behind Bobby. “Come get a drink with us.”
“We could get a drink here,” Lexie reminded him, gesturing to the full bar behind her and the cocktail in her hand.
“We hate drinking where we work,” he said with an eye roll. “Let’s go somewhere more fun. How about Jason’s bar? Or maybe Blake’s?”
Lexie’s face must have betrayed her confusion because, with a chuckle, Bobby said, “Jason Aldean and Blake Shelton.”
Oh, duh. Country singers, Lexie thought, mentally smacking herself.
She turned to her friends. “What do you guys think? More drinks, or back to the condo?”
She desperately wanted a shower and a soft bed, and she wasn’t a fan of the way Bobby was looking at her, but when Berkley said, “Drinks!” Lexie had no choice but to oblige. This was Berkley’s weekend, after all. What Lexie wanted didn’t matter.
And so the group of them, ten in all, wandered out in the late night Nashville air and made their way back to Broadway which, despite the hour, was still teeming with life.
“So which is it?” Bobby asked Berkley. “Jason or Blake?”
“Jason!” She shouted, and Bobby smiled indulgently.
“Jason it is,” he said, gripping her hand and towing her forward. Berkley reached behind her and snagged Lexie’s wrist a second before she was lost in the crowd, pulling her along with them.
Jason Aldean’s Kitchen and Rooftop Bar was a multilevel space packed to the gills with people. Each level had a small stage and was standing room only, with people sucking down bottles of beer or cocktails sweating in their hands—or sloshing all over them.
Bobby guided the group through the crowd on the main floor until they bellied up to the bar, signaling the bartender closest to them.
“Bobby!” She yelled, walking up to give him a complicated handshake over the bar top. “What brings you in? Didn’t y’all have a show tonight?”
She noticed Lexie and Berkley standing there, Bobby’s arm slung casually over Lexie’s shoulders, the other guys and the rest of their friends standing behind them, and quirked an eyebrow. “I see. Picking up strays again.”
Strays?Again?
