Saving You

by Jessie Evans

  Brandon shrugged. “That’s only six years. Doesn’t seem like such a big deal.”

  “But you think I’m crazy,” Lucy said.

  “No, I don’t,” Brandon said, smiling. “You’re different. But in a good way. An interesting way. I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

  “And I’ve never been out on a date with anyone like you,” Lucy said. “I’m more into beta males.”

  Brandon frowned. “Beta males? Like…feminine guys?”

  “Sort of,” Lucy said. “Guys who aren’t afraid of their emotions. Guys who don’t mind letting a woman take the lead if she’s more qualified or in the mood to be the boss on a given day. Guys who aren’t a full foot taller than I am.”

  Brandon frowned harder. “You’re discriminating against me because of my age and height. Isn’t that illegal?”

  “I’m not discriminating,” Lucy said, vaguely troubled by the notion that she was, whether she liked to admit it or not. “And besides, I’m not an employer, I’m a girl, and all’s fair in love and war.”

  Brandon sighed, nodding as he grabbed the bread and pink box and tucked them inside his coat to stay dry. “Gotcha. Forget I asked.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lucy called after him as he stomped toward the door, feeling awful for hurting his feelings. “I’m not myself this morning. I didn’t mean to—”

  The door closed behind him, cutting off Lucy’s apology. She watched Brandon run through the rain to the firehouse across the street with a miserable feeling in her stomach. But this time, the misery had nothing to do with psychic phenomenon.

  It was the feeling a girl gets when she realizes she’s let a perfectly decent guy—a guy with hidden depths, a sweet smile, and eyes that seem to be searching for answers, even if they aren’t the answers he expects to find—slip through her fingers.

  Chapter Two

  “Neither storm nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night shall stay this bachelorette party from the completion of its course!” Maddie thrust her fist into the air, doing her best to rally the spirits of the seven women gathered at Icing after closing the next day, each one looking more damp and pitiful than the last. “Who’s with me?!”

  “Isn’t that the post office motto?” Kitty, Faith’s friend, flipped her dripping brown ponytail over her shoulder and swiped her running mascara from beneath her eyes. She was the wettest member of their party, having walked from her apartment with a faulty umbrella, but the rest of the ladies weren’t faring much better.

  Aria March’s jeans were wet to the knee, while her sister Melody’s hair was standing up in a frizzy blond poof. Maddie’s sister, Naomi, was barefoot after slipping and falling trying to cross the slick concrete outside in heels, and Faith—the bachelorette—was wearing camouflage duck-hunting galoshes over her skinny jeans and looking less than ready to party.

  Lucy was the only member of the group still dry, and that was because she lived above the bakery and hadn’t been forced out into the torrential downpour yet.

  “It is the post office motto,” Maddie said, holding her dripping umbrella as far from her body as possible, determined not to get her black cowboy boots any wetter than they were already. “But I think it works. We can’t let a little rain ruin our fun.”

  “It’s more than a little rain,” Faith said. “The city council ordered two hundred giant sand bags to be delivered overnight. If the rain doesn’t blow through, they’re going to start sandbagging Market Street to keep the river from flooding the east end of downtown.”

  “My grammy and grandpa are from Pottsville, and they’ve already evacuated,” Lucy piped up. “They’re going to stay with relatives up north until the river goes down. They had two feet of water in their backyard this morning.”

  “And I heard the police might be closing some of the county roads as early as midnight tonight,” Aria said—privy to such things as the wife of Summerville’s Chief of Police. “Nash was talking it over with the mayor when I left the house.”

  “I really don’t mind cancelling,” Faith said. “I’m working another seventy-two hour shift at the station starting Monday, anyway, and if the rain keeps up I know we’ll be busy. I should probably get my rest.”

  “But that’s thirty-six hours away! You’ll have plenty of time to rest.” Maddie loved that Faith was so committed to her job, but even hardworking firefighters deserved a chance to cut loose and party every once and awhile.

  “Come on, y’all. Don’t wimp out on me now,” Maddie pleaded. “There are fancy pink drinks waiting at The Horse and Rider and they are not going to drink themselves. And cake. Did I mention cake? And appetizers and scandalous bachelorette party favors?”

  “I appreciate it so much, Maddie,” Faith said. “But we could stay here and eat cake if that’s easier. I don’t need a big party.”

  “But Maddie planned a big party,” Naomi said, piping up as Maddie was about to burst into tears. “And I think she has a few surprises already waiting at the club. Surprises that have been paid for in advance and might be getting a little…chilly waiting around for us to show up.”

  “Ohhhh…those kind of surprises.” Aria smirked and lifted a thin, auburn brow. “I was telling Nash I was too tired from being up with the baby last night to enjoy this party as much as I would like, but if there are those kinds of surprises waiting, I say we jet. I haven’t seen a stripper since Maddie and I lived in Paris.”

  Kitty’s eyes widened. “No! Strippers? Really?” Her grin grew wicked around the edges. “I’ve never seen a stripper. I think I’ll laugh, is that okay?”

  “It’s totally okay.” Maddie decided to forgive Naomi for spilling her secret now that the company was looking more eager to get going. “That’s part of the fun. And these are funny strippers, not gross ones,” she hurried to assure Lucy, who had a nervous expression on her face. “Mick made me promise not to hire anyone who was going to try to rub his junk all over Faith.”

  “I bet those were his exact words, weren’t they?” Faith said as she reached for her discarded umbrella. “Such a charmer, that boy of mine.”

  “All right, y’all. If there are people waiting, we should get going,” she continued. “I’ve never seen anything close to a stripper except the night the guys at the station took it off for the Hunk-for-a-Month auction and that was like looking at my brothers half naked. I’m thinking it will be a lot more fun with men I don’t know.”

  “These guys are from a company out of Atlanta, so we won’t know a soul,” Maddie said, herding the group toward the back door, where she’d pulled her mother’s van into the alley. “Everyone can leave their keys here, if they’d like. Naomi and I are driving to and from the club.”

  The women shuffled through the back hallway, murmuring excitedly among themselves, and Maddie felt the tension tugging at her shoulders begin to melt away. She didn’t care if Noah was going to be able to sail his Ark through downtown Summerville in a few days if it didn’t stop raining, she had gone all out to give her future little sister-in-law a bachelorette party she would never forget and she intended to enjoy this evening.

  Even if her own fiancé thought she was taking things too far with the strippers and penis-shaped lollipops in the favor bags.

  Taking things too far. Ha! This from the man who had practically invented the phrase, and who had been the raunchiest stripper at the Hunk-for-a-Month charity fundraiser last January, by far. Just thinking about how shameless Jamison had been on the catwalk was enough to inspire a fit of giggles even now, months—and many other scandalous memories—later.

  Besides, if Maddie was wilder than she used to be, it was Jamison’s fault. He brought out the naughty in her as much as a triple shot of whiskey.

  Speaking of whiskey…

  Maddie leaned over to where Naomi was buckling herself into the van’s passenger’s seat. “Are you still good to drive everyone back here and take me home?” She started the van. “If you’re not, that’s fine, I just want to know before I tell the bartender
to make me a double Jack and Coke to soothe my frazzled nerves.”

  “I’m fine to drive,” Naomi said as Maddie carefully pulled down the alley, rain coating the windshield in sheets. “I won’t be having more than one drink. Jake’s at the station tonight and I’m on solo Noelle duty. She’s been starting to sleep through the night, but it’s not a sure thing and I don’t want to be buzzed getting up to make a bottle at three a.m. Babies and hangovers don’t go well together.”

  “Doesn’t sound like a good mix,” Maddie said. “That’s why I’m getting all my partying out of my system before November.”

  “You and Jamison still going to start trying around Thanksgiving?” Naomi asked.

  Maddie nodded, but kept her squinted gaze firmly on the road as she guided the van through the parking lot and out onto Main Street, where water rushed in twin rivers down either side of the street. “Assuming Jamison still wants to have babies together after the past few days. He’s been such a turd about the bachelorette party. He would barely speak to me tonight when I was getting dressed, and usually he can’t resist this tube top.”

  Naomi chuckled. “He’s just protective of Faith. He still considers her a kid, and thinks strippers are going to scar her for life.”

  “She won’t be scarred for life,” Maddie said with a frustrated sigh. “He’s being totally ridiculous. And if her fiancé doesn’t have a problem with strippers, I don’t see that Jamison has any right to put his oar in.”

  “When has that ever stopped him before?” Naomi asked, laughter in her tone.

  But Maddie didn’t feel like laughing. Until now, Jamison had always been a vehement supporter of her wild side. He said he loved that Maddie was a sweet, hard-working, hard-loving woman, who wasn’t afraid to let her hair down and get a little crazy now and then. He’d gone skinny dipping with her in the creek behind their house last week, for goodness sake—who was he to get prudish about men bumping and grinding in a speedo?

  “I bet he’s jealous, too,” Naomi added as Maddie did a U-turn at the end of Main and pulled into a parking spot in front of The Horse and Rider. “I’m guessing he doesn’t like the thought of you looking at other guys.”

  Maddie rolled her eyes as she shut off the van and reached for her umbrella. “That’s ridiculous. Jake isn’t jealous.”

  “No, but Jake has the confidence of at least four men,” Naomi said, affection for her husband obvious in her voice. “He’s positive I’m not going to see anything better than what I’ve got waiting at home. And we’re an old married couple now, too. That helps. I bet Jamison will be more laid back after the wedding.”

  Maddie frowned, but before she could tell Naomi she didn’t want to wait until after the wedding for Jamison to lighten up, Faith stuck her head between the van seats.

  “Speaking of weddings,” Faith said. “I have a surprise for you, too, Maddie. So don’t run off without telling me.”

  “You didn’t have to get me anything,” Maddie said, grinning. “I was happy to do this for you. Every girl should have a big send off with friends.”

  “I know, but you’re getting married a week after me and Mick,” Faith said. “I think you deserve some bachelorette fun, too.”

  Maddie waved her hand as she unlocked her seat belt. “I had my bachelorette party before my first marriage. I’m all about marriage do-overs, but one bachelorette party was enough for me. I’m too old to wear goofy hats.”

  Faith shot her a narrow look. “Goofy hats? No one mentioned goofy hats.”

  Maddie grinned. “It all awaits you inside, my sweet baby-sister-to-be.” She turned in her seat, seeing the rest of the ladies in the van grinning, umbrellas already in hand. “We ready to make a dash for the door?”

  The women let out an enthusiastic whoop as Kitty reached for the sliding door and the party dashed through the hammering rain toward the bar. They made it into the cool darkness of The Horse and Rider without anyone slipping on the sidewalk and ten minutes later were ensconced in a gigantic circular booth, sipping pink Lady Slippers while Faith opened her party gifts and Ghost Town Double Wide—the Rider’s house band—played a set of girl-power-inspired country songs.

  Melody March, the lead singer for the band, was amazing on stage and by the time Ghost Town neared the end of their set, the entire party was dancing in the middle of the floor, shimmying and shaking while couples wheeled around them, grinning at the women cutting loose. Even Faith—in a bright orange construction cone hat that warned “caution, bachelorette on the loose”—was up and moving to the music with a big grin on her face, a fact Maddie considered a major triumph after hearing Faith talk about how much she hated dancing for the past three weeks.

  And then the band took a break, the curtain on the stage closed, and the bar backs hustled out to set up platforms that extended from the center of the stage and would serve as the makeshift catwalk.

  “Oh my God,” Faith said, already blushing as the girls crowded around her, ushering her to the end of the catwalk, where a chair had been set up in her honor. “I have to sit up on stage?”

  “You’re the woman of honor,” Maddie said, shooing her up onto the catwalk.

  “I’m going to die of embarrassment!” Faith cast a panicked glance over her shoulder, but before Maddie could respond, Willy John, owner of The Horse and Rider, spoke out over the sound system—

  “Ladies and gentleman, you were told when you entered the bar tonight that there would be some very special, adult-only entertainment on display this evening,” he said, the humor in his voice leaving no doubt how amused he was to be hosting male strippers for the first time in The Rider’s history. “So get ready to put your hands together for The Johnsons, here to help Faith Miller celebrate her bachelorette party! Congratulations, Faith!”

  The room burst into applause, feminine shouts, and a few enthusiastic whoops from the more intoxicated patrons.

  As the lights went down and the ruckus grew increasingly loud, Willy John’s voice—offering the male patrons a safe haven in the back room where the game was on—was almost too faint to be heard.

  Club music thumped through the room, a stark contrast to the country western that had echoed through the space before. Moments later, the curtain parted with a whoosh and a cowboy clad in nothing but a speedo, chaps, and a cowboy hat came strutting across the stage and down the catwalk. Women crowded around both sides of the platforms as the cowboy wiggled and writhed, stopping to do a few pushups halfway down the catwalk and let one of the bolder members of the audience feel his flexed bicep.

  By the time he reached Faith, she was laughing so hard her chair was shaking. And when the cowboy ripped off his chaps with an enthusiastic thrust of his pelvis, Faith covered her mouth and giggled even harder, making the cowboy grin as he did a dance just for her.

  He kept to his word, however, and made no bodily contact with the bachelorette, and a good thing, too. Judging from how red Faith’s face was getting, she would have spontaneously combusted if the man had actually touched her.

  The cowboy was followed by a construction worker, a cop—who was a gymnast as well as a truly amazing dancer—an Egyptian Pharaoh, and a firefighter who did some very interesting things with the hose he carried as a prop. Faith giggled the entire time and all the other party-attendees seemed to be having an equally entertaining experience. Everyone was smiling and laughing, Melody got up the nerve to stick a dollar in the construction worker’s hat, and Kitty took things a step further—slipping a crisp five into the side of the cop’s briefs and laughing hysterically as the man paused to do a few extra thrusts in her direction.

  By the time the firefighter—the last act—strutted back down the catwalk to join the other men in a finale dance, Maddie was certain the strippers had been a huge hit and wished Jamison could have seen how much fun everyone had. He hadn’t believed her when she’d said she was hiring strippers primarily for laughs, but the tears streaming down Faith’s smiling face as she stepped off the catwalk at the end of t
he show were a testimony to Maddie’s belief that nothing gave a girl a good giggle like a bunch of semi-naked men dancing in tight underwear.

  “Damn, that was fun,” Faith said, sucking in a breath that emerged as another laugh. “I haven’t laughed that hard since my cousin dressed up in drag for Mardi Gras.”

  “Yay!” Maddie clapped her hands as she and the girls headed back to their booth for another round. “I’m so glad you enjoyed it.”

  “I loved it,” Faith said, looping her arm through Maddie’s. “I will never, ever forget it. Thank you so much, Maddie.”

  “You’re welcome, little sis.” She turned to pull the taller Faith in for a hug. “Now, should we have another Lady Slipper, or would you prefer a cold beer after all that hot stripper action?”

  “Actually,” Faith said, swiping the last of the tears from her face. “I think you should go get your present before it’s too late. It’s waiting in the manager’s office down the hall from the bathrooms.”

  Maddie’s brows pulled together. “Why in the manager’s office?”

  “It was too big to bring out to the table,” Faith said, a naughty twinkle in her eye that made Maddie laugh.

  “It’s not a blow up man doll, is it?” Maddie asked. “Jamison will freak out if I bring home anything more raunchy than a penis lollipop.”

  Faith’s smile widened. “Just go and see. We’ll be here when you get back.”

  Maddie narrowed her eyes one last time, but finally started toward the bathrooms. “You guys be good while I’m gone,” she said as she backed away. “Or at least good enough.”

  The other women lifted their glasses and Naomi called out. “We won’t cut the cake until you get back.”

  With a thumbs up, Maddie hurried past the stage, where the bar backs were disassembling the catwalk. Top-Forty country music was playing over the sound system until Ghost Town Double Wide took the stage for their second set, and a few enthusiastic couples were already spinning around the edge of the dance floor.