Page 6 of John Wilder Gets Schooled
She said it was some bar called Easy Rider over in Brodnax, and before I could even ask how we were getting there, she added, “Don’t worry about who’s driving. My husband will drop us off and pick us up so nobody has to stay sober. That’s also tradition.”
“Good thing too,” Alan added. The gleam in his eye suggested that he was planning to make the most of tonight.
“We’ll collect you around eight,” Dana said. “What’s your address?”
“I’m staying at Goosey Gardens,” I said. The place had neither a goose nor gardens, and really, that told you everything you needed to know about it.
Dana winced. “Really?”
“It’s only temporary,” I said quickly. “I put an offer in on a house last week, and since it’s empty it should close pretty quickly.”
“You bought a house? In Goose Run? After aweek?” Dana stared at me, wide eyed—which was pretty rich since she lived here too.
“It was two weeks,” I said, “and I’ve always wanted a place of my own. And I like Goose Run. It’s small but it’s close to everything, and honestly, given that my rental options are either Goosey Gardens or Mrs. Craddock’s Room and Board with no pets and no visitors, I figured I might as well buy something.”
Dana laughed. “That’s fair. Let me know when moving day is, and I’ll get my husband to come over with his pickup.”
“Thanks,” I said. Something loosened in my chest at the offer. These were good people, and I was making the right choice in settling here. “Though I’m not sure I have enough stuff that I’ll need a pickup.”
“Well, just in case.” Dana gathered up the paperwork she had spread in front of her and stood. “I’ll see you tonight. And fair warning, we can get a little wild.”
“Oh, I think I can handle it,” I said, grinning.
I mean, it was drinks with a bunch of middle-aged elementary school teachers.
How wild could it possibly get?
This shit waswild.
I’d expected a quiet bar and a beer or three. Maybe a cocktail.
This was not that. The bar was heaving with bodies, the music was loud but it slapped, and Dana kept shoving shooters at me. Had I mentioned she was impossible to say no to? I tried once, after the fourth shot, and she laughed in my face and told me I needed to toughen up if I wanted to make it as a teacher and to drink up.
So I drank up.
I switched to beer when the floor started moving, but I was still pretty wasted when, a couple of hours in, the music stopped suddenly.
I made a sad noise, but Dana grinned at me. “Don’t worry, it’s just time for the ent-en-entertainment,” she shouted into the quiet.
“Entertainment?” I blinked owlishly at her.
“Entertainment!” she agreed before slurping on the straw of a cocktail that was the size of a fishbowl and bright aqua. “You’ll see!”
I eyed her cocktail and decided that I needed one. I staggered over to the bar and ordered through pointing and repeating “The blue fish!” until the barman nodded his understanding, and a minute later I was twenty bucks poorer and in possession of my very own giant aqua cocktail.
Dana hustled over and grabbed me by the arm. “Come on, we want good seats!” Before I could ask what for, she was half dragging me across the room and elbowing her way through the crowd. The next thing I knew my ass was in a seat.
“What’re we lookin’ at?” I slurred before taking a sip of my cocktail and then a second bigger sip because it was fucking delicious.
Oh, there was a stage in front of us. It was pretty small, and it was empty.
“You’ll see,” Dana repeated, a wicked gleam in her eye. I looked around for the other teachers but they were all still over by the bar. Alan raised a glass in my direction but made no move to join us. The lights dimmed, and a cheer went up from the crowd. I cheered too, even though I had no idea what I was cheering for.
Then the pumping bass of “FLEX” by Todrick Hall started to play, a couple of footlights lit up the stage, and the cheering got louder. I found myself leaning forward in my seat, anticipation coursing through me. And then the curtains parted, and my jaw dropped at the sight of a man dressed in a fireman’s uniform, because holy hell, even wearing pants he was gorgeous. His face was shadowed by the brim of his helmet, but I was too busy looking at the rest of him to care.
Long blond hair flowed out from under his helmet, and the fabric of his uniform was stretched tight over thick thighs that had me itching to reach out and run a hand up and down them. When he strutted to the front of the stage and turned his back on theaudience, I was treated to the sight of a muscular ass and broad shoulders as he shimmied to the beat of the music. Next to me, Dana elbowed me in the side.
“He’s so hot!” she said, echoing my own thoughts, and I could only nod dumbly in time to the music.
