Daisy and the Dead

by Bale, Sarah

  I was so blessed to have people in my life that knew me so well that they could see through the acts I put on. I’d been more stressed over the book than I had been with the others in the series.

  I grinned. “At least we can have some fun tonight.”

  “Do they know we are coming?”

  I nodded. For over a year, Amy and I visited a male dance revue in Dallas called Heat. For me the appeal came from sitting at a table and watching incredibly hot men dancing without the discomfort I felt at a normal club. None of the men were ever pushy, which I also liked. I think Amy liked going for the same reason. Heat was our safe/fun spot.

  Right away we each picked out our favorite dancers and we even liked a few of the same ones. I felt like a fraud going there sometimes, though. Most women went to experience every aspect of the club, which also included lap-dances and private dances. I’d yet to do either because of my own body issues. I mean, why would they want to dance on me when there was someone smaller and cuter to dance on?

  Made sense, right?

  Amy and I joked each time we went that we’d get a dance even though it had yet to happen. I wasn’t sure why she hadn’t gotten one, unless her shyness stopped her. Despite the fact that we hadn’t got dances some of the entertainers recognized us and we became “friends” on social media sites, which is how they knew we were coming.

  I really enjoyed how the dancers acknowledged us, making us feel like we were special. Jeremiah called the attention ‘stripper game’ but I didn’t care. It was still nice to feel singular.

  “Did Maverick say he was going to be there?”

  I grinned before I could stop myself. “Of course.”

  Maverick was my favorite dancer. The first time I saw him dance I was in awe. He was… amazing. And I didn’t just mean his looks. His tall, muscular body put most people’s form to shame and when he danced it was easy to imagine other things that he probably did just as well.

  His tan skin and dark hair gave him an edgy look. But it was his eyes that killed me. They were light brown with flecks of gold. I felt like I fell under a spell when I looked into them. A soft sigh left my lips. He was the stuff romance heroes were based on.

  “Are you going to get a dance from him?”

  I blinked and then shrugged. She asked me this question each time. I would reply yes and ask her if she were getting a dance from her favorite, Ryder, and she would say yes, too. Of course we had yet to back up our big talk.

  She pulled her cell phone from her purse. “I’m going to call Lori. I still feel bad for leaving her behind, but she said she had some work to do.”

  I remained silent as she talked to Lori. From the side of the conversation I could hear, Lori was tweaking her article while Amy gave her ideas, which Lori didn’t think would work. Interesting. I was pretty sure Lori already turned in the article, but I didn’t share that bit of information with my traveling companion.

  I knew my friend even if her own sister couldn’t see through her act. Lori was up to something.

  When Amy got off the phone, she said, “Well, I hope once she finishes the story then that’s the last we hear about the cowboy. Even Mom is tired of hearing about him.”

  She frowned like she just ate something sour. Did her sister talking to the cowboy bother her that much? Strange.

  “I’m not so sure that will be the end of him.”

  I spoke to Lori several times over the last few days and knew she’d been texting the cowboy. A lot.

  “Oh, I think it will. Besides, she deserves so much better than him. And I would hate to think that she has waited twenty-two years to sleep with someone who didn’t deserve her.”

  I agreed with Amy in that aspect, but I also knew how Lori felt. She wasn’t getting any younger and with each passing year explaining why she was still a virgin became more difficult. It was sad to say, but people thought you were lying when you claimed your virginity after a certain point. And knowing people judged you got old real fast.

  I sighed and said, “Well, just don’t get mad at her if she does get the chance and takes it. I know I would.”

  “You say that, but would you really?”

  “Yes.” I answered firmly.

  There were no doubts in my mind. All I needed was someone who halfway liked me back to get the deed done. I could be happy with that. And, at this point in my life, I wasn’t looking for a serious relationship.

  “Well, I wouldn’t. I’m still holding out hopes for Prince Charming.”

  What a cute dream, really - The whole concept of a Prince Charming sweeping you right off your feet, falling madly in love with you, and then whisking away on a white horse. Unfortunately that dream was also a lie. I wanted to hold out for my knight in shining armor as much as the next girl, but waiting was getting pathetic at this point.

  “Hey, have you heard this song?” I asked, changing the subject.

  I didn’t want to spend the rest of the three-hour drive talking about the one thing I couldn’t control – my lack of a sex life. Amy was more than willing to let me change topics, too, so I guessed she felt the same way.

  We arrived to the club around eleven. After learning the hard way, we didn’t show up before this time unless the club was hosting a special event. Otherwise we risked being the only ones there. Being the only patrons wouldn’t be a bad thing if we took advantage of the lap-dances or private dances, but since we didn’t our early arrival made us stand out in an awkward way.

  The valet stumbled over himself helping Amy from the car. She wore a short blue dress and heels that made her as tall as me even though all I wore was jeans, a cute top, and my sandals. I didn’t know how she managed to walk in her heels.

  Even when the valet took the keys from me his eyes were on her. She didn’t even notice, though, as she walked through the front doors. I smiled at him as I followed her. Poor guy. He’d have to a lot more brave if he wanted to catch her eye.

  We paid the cover charge and the loud bass from inside the main room shook the floor.

  “Have fun, ladies,” the female attendant said right before we opened the door.

  It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darker lighting in the room. The club kept the lights low to set the mood, one of several things they did to keep women engaged. A waiter wearing white pants and no shirt walked up to us with a grin. His chiseled chest stood out, each muscle clearly defined. Yummy.

  “Welcome to Heat! I’m Valentino. Do you ladies have a reservation?”

  “No, we don’t.” Amy answered.

  He said, “Well, follow me.”

  He led us across the crowded room to a table near the wall. You could barely see the stage from this viewpoint. This wasn’t going to work at all. We wouldn’t be able to see our favorites when they danced.

  I shook my head. “Oh no, baby. We sit closer than this.”

  He laughed. “So you’ve been here before then? Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”

  Had I really just said that out loud? He led us closer to the main stage and found a small table to the side. Perfect. We could see everything from here.

  “Can I get you ladies anything to drink?”

  Amy said, “I’ll take a water and she’ll have an amaretto sour.”

  After being friends for six years we knew what each other ordered anywhere we went. Hearing her order for me still made me smile, though. Amy hadn’t drunk alcohol since we’d got trashed on my twenty-first birthday.

  When the waiter left I leaned over and said into her ear, “I hope we haven’t missed the good acts.”

  The good acts were, of course, the dancers that we came to see. Amy wasn’t listening, though. She messed around with her phone with a frown on her face.

  “What’s going on?”

  She glanced up. “Lori hasn’t texted me back yet. I didn’t say anything at the hotel, but I’m starting to get worried. I hope she’s okay.”

  “Maybe she decided to go meet up with her cowboy.” I replied with a gri
n.

  She shook her head. “Don’t even say that! She wouldn’t do that. She may talk a big game, but I know my little sister.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with her, so I looked around the room. My body tingled with awareness when I saw him. Maverick danced on one of the smaller tabletop stages and I debated going over to say hello to him. That was probably the hardest part for me, to be honest. He was so cute that talking to him became difficult for me - especially when all he wore was his red shorts that left little to the imagination and not much else.

  Amy saw him, too, and said, “Let’s go say hi to him before he gets swamped with females.”

  As one of the more popular dancers Maverick usually had a line of women waiting to talk to him and tip him.

  “Maybe we should wait?”

  She already walked toward him, so I had no choice but to follow. He grinned, as we got closer, and hopped down from his stage.

  “Hello, ladies. I thought you weren’t coming in until tomorrow.”

  He talked to both of us, but his eyes were on me. My stomach fluttered right before he pulled me into a tight hug.

  I replied, “We’re celebrating.”

  “Oh yeah? Did you finish the book?”

  I loved how he always remembered the things we talked about. There were some people I saw regularly who didn’t even know I’d been working on another book.

  “Yup. I turned it in yesterday.”

  He squeezed me tighter and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks. Thinking was impossible while pulled against his rock hard body. Part of me wanted to close my eyes and get lost in his warmth. The other side wanted to run my fingers over his chest, feeling his muscles. These were dangerous thoughts to have, though.

  “That’s great news,” he said, breaking the spell he put over me.

  He turned to Amy and hugged her next. I’m not going to lie – when he hugged me first I felt special, even though I probably wasn’t. More than likely he hugged fifty girls a night, but when it came down to Amy and me he always picked ME.

  “You two have fun. Come and find me if you decide you want a dance.” He said the last bit with a wink.

  We giggled and went back to our table. Our drinks were waiting and I took a sip of mine. Maybe I would take him up on his offer. Later… of course.

  The next hour went by in a blur. We went to the main stage to tip our favorite dancers and drank in-between. I watched from the table as Amy walked up to one of the dancers and ran her hands down his chest before tucking a dollar in his G-string. Sighing, I took another drink. While I loved going to Heat sometimes being there felt useless.

  None of the guys even gave me a second glance with Amy around and I wasn’t sure why. I was just as outgoing as her, except when I talked to Maverick and then I became a shy, awkward mess. The only difference was our size and I hated to think that my weight was the issue. I wasn’t that much bigger than her for crying out loud.

  My phone vibrated and moved across the table as a text message came through ending my silent pity party. I picked it up and saw the message was from Lori. Strange. Why was she texting so late? She always went to bed by midnight. I unlocked my phone and gasped.

  -LORI: Dear Amy, Stace, and Jer. I lied about working tonight. I was with my cowboy… and I’m no longer a V.

  “Holy shit!”

  The words left my mouth before I could stop them. Several people looked my way, but I hardly noticed. I replied to Lori’s text message privately.

  -ME: OMG! Are you ok? How was it?

  -LORI: It was ok. I’m just glad it’s over with.

  She didn’t seem happy, but it was hard to tell over a text.

  -ME: I can call you if you want?

  -LORI: No. I’m going home, to bed. Just make sure Amy is ok, please.

  -ME: Okay.

  I looked around. Amy headed toward the table with her phone clenched in her hand. Oh, this wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “Did you see the freaking text from Lori?”

  “Yeah, I did. I’m excited for her-”

  “Don’t even encourage her. I can’t believe her nerve. I mean she sent a text… to me! I deserve more than a freaking text. I’m her sister for Christ’s sake.”

  I grimaced.

  “Come on Amy. She’s probably going through a lot of emotions right now and didn’t want to have to tell us three times.”

  I tried to be logical for Amy’s sake, but I felt that Lori sent a mass-text for just this reason. She didn’t want to face her sister’s wrath. Amy shook her head and stormed away, heading toward the ladies room. Great. I looked at my drink. If she weren’t back by the time I finished then I would go find her.

  My phone buzzed again and I was scared to see whom texted this time.

  -JEREMIAH: Holy shit. Did Amy’s head explode when she heard?

  -ME: No, but she’s in the bathroom right now. No telling what she’s doing…

  -JEREMIAH: You going to talk her off the cliff?

  -ME: I’m getting some liquid courage first.

  -JEREMIAH: I don’t envy you. PS- I have a story to tell you when you get back.

  -ME: Please don’t tell me you lost your V-card, too!!!

  -JEREMIAH: LOL! Not quite.

  -ME: Oh shit… my drink is almost gone.

  -JEREMIAH: COURAGE MATE!

  -ME: Thanks ya jerk.

  I took one last sip and then my drink was gone. Awesome. Time to see what the damage was in the ladies room. I couldn’t explain the deep feeling of dread I felt in my body when I stood. Whether Lori meant to or not, she’d changed things within our group forever.

  About the Author

  Sarah Bale's family always knew she was destined to write romances when they saw the elaborate stories she created for her Barbie dolls as a child. Throughout middle school the writer inside Sarah began to bloom. At fifteen she penned her first book, which will never see the light of day if she has any say.

  When Sarah isn't writing she enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She resides in Oklahoma and doesn't plan on leaving any time soon.

  You can find her at:

  www.SarahBale.com

  Twitter: @Sarah_OKC

  @sarah_OKC

  www.SarahBale.com