“The hell he did,” she snapped in outrage. And an outraged Sylvia was nothing you ever wanted to mess with.
“He absolutely did. We got into this big shouting match right there in the middle of the aisle with all these people I don’t even know watching like we were putting on a show or something.”
“That’s small-town livin’ for you, sweets. Everybody knows everybody else’s business. Don’t worry, you’ll eventually get used to it.”
I collapsed back onto mat with a pained groan, staring up at the gorgeous blue sky and puffy white clouds. “This is just sad. I’m a thirty-three-year-old divorcee whose husband couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and threw me over for the other woman. Then the best sex of my life turned out to be the biggest asshole I’ve ever met. Maybe I’m cursed or something.”
“Oh nonsense. There’s no such thing as curses.”
I turned my head and looked up at her, lifting a hand to block the sun. “Yeah? Then what do you think the problem is?”
“You’re simply crap at picking good men, that’s all,” Sylvia stated almost amiably before sucking in a gasp like she’d just had a lightbulb moment. “Oh! You know what? You should really meet my neighbor,” she insisted, like I wasn’t in the middle of a crisis.
“Sylvia,” I groaned, “another guy is so not the answer.”
“But I think this one may just be. He’s a great man.” She waggled her brows. “And I get a sense he’s quite accomplished in the sack.”
“And how would you have a ‘sense’ about something like that?”
“You get to be my age, you just know about these things.”
I looked back to the sky and let loose a laugh. It had started off slow and quiet but built in speed and sound until tears welled in my eyes and spilled down my temples into my hair. Man, did it feel good to laugh like that after the shitty twenty-four hours I’d had.
“You’re gonna be just fine, darlin’ girl,” Sylvia said, giving my knee a pat. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna finish my vinyasa. And I could really use a glass of iced tea.”
My laughter trickled off into giggles as I pushed up from my mat and started toward my back door. “On it. Be right back.”
I skip-walked down the cobblestones, feeling lighter than I thought possible a few minutes ago. The second I pushed the back door open, I heard my cellphone go off. Moving to the counter, I pulled it from its charger and swiped to answer, holding it between my shoulder and ear as I moved around the kitchen. “Hello?”
“Hey, babe. It’s Nona. From the flower shop the other day?”
“Oh, yeah, I remember. How’s it going?” I asked as I grabbed a couple glasses from the cabinet then headed for the fridge to get the pitcher of iced tea.
“Everything’s good. I’m calling because there’s gonna be a live band playing at The Tap Room tonight, and I wanted to see if you’d be interested in going.”
“What’s The Tap Room?” I asked as I poured the tea and moved to put the pitcher back into the fridge.
“It’s the best bar in town. You’re gonna love it, trust me. Say you’ll come. I know it’s really last minute, but it’ll be a lot of fun. And Eden and I can introduce you to the rest of our friends. You’ll fit right in.”
Fitting in with a new crowd in my new town sounded nice, especially considering I didn’t have a single friend in the world to speak of. Who was I to turn down a shot at making some new ones?
“You know what? That sounds great. What time should I meet you guys?”
“The band goes on at eight. How’s that sound?”
The corners of my lips began to tilt upward and excitement bloomed in my belly. “Sounds awesome. I’ll see you there.”
“See you then, doll.”
I hung up and set my phone down so I could grab the glasses of iced tea.
“Sure did take you longer than I expected,” Sylvia said as I made my way to her through the garden.
“Sorry. Nona called while I was in there. She invited me to a ladies’ night tonight.”
Sylvia took one of the glasses from my hand and sipped while lifting a dainty brow. “Is that so? Well it looks like this day’s takin’ a turn for the better after all, huh?”
I sure as hell hoped so.
“Now help an old lady off the ground, would you? I still have a few miles in these hips of mine. Be a damn shame to break one now.” She shot me a wink as I grabbed her hands and pulled her to standing. “Know some gentleman who’d be real disappointed if I was put out of commission.”
God, my aunt was nuts. And I absolutely loved it.
Chapter Seven
Hayden
I wasn’t sure what to expect from a bar in a small mountain town, but I was pleasantly surprised to find The Tap Room was huge and cool as hell.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped through the doors was that the place was packed to the gills. The second thing was the scent of beer in the air. The moment that malty, almost sweet smell hit my senses, it was like déjà vu. For a split second, I was transported back to that pub in Richmond.
At the reminder of that night, my breasts grew heavy and a shiver trailed up my spine.
Maybe tonight we could find a man to replace all those memories of Micah, the devil on my shoulder queried before I smacked her off. That was a mistake I had no intention of repeating. Especially in the place where I lived. If there was anything I’d learned from that one and only encounter, it was that I really wasn’t the kind of woman who could pull off a one-night stand.
The nights were getting chilly with fall touching down, so I’d decided on a pair of thick black leggings and a red and black checkered button-down that I tied in a knot right above my belly button, showing the baring hint of skin in the front, but the tail in the back came down low enough to partially cover my butt, making me feel a bit less exposed. My calf-high, lace-up booties with thick three-inch heels were cute, but in a cool as hell, edgy kind of way.
I’d given my locks a break from the flatiron and curling iron lately and discovered I loved the natural wave in my hair. It was wild, and it was another part of me my daughter had inherited, so I’d let it air dry tonight, hanging halfway down my back in wild, thick waves. I’d done my makeup a bit on the smokier side for more of a night time look without going too over the top, and to top off the whole ensemble, taking it from casual to casual with a touch of spice, I had gold bangles on my wrists and long, wide chandelier earrings dripping almost all the way to my shoulders.
All in all, I thought I looked pretty good, so I felt good as I stopped a few feet inside the bar and scanned the area for Nona and Eden.
I spotted their familiar faces a few seconds later, waving at me from a cluster of tables right at the edge of the dance floor, facing the stage.
With a big smile, I made my way to them, noticing the group they were with was much bigger than I’d expected.
“Hey!” Eden cooed, shuffling around the tables, belly first, in order to get to me and pull me into a hug. “So glad you could make it. When Nona said she’d called you I got really excited.”
“I’m excited to,” I replied, returning her embrace. “I appreciate you guys inviting me.”
“Of course,” Nona said, taking Eden’s place and giving me a quick squeeze. “Let’s get the introductions out of the way really fast, then we’ll get you a drink.” She shifted us so we were facing the group with her arm slung casually over my shoulders. “Ladies, this is Hayden, the newest resident of Hope Valley. She’s in need of a new crew, so I invited her to partake in ladies night. She’s Sylvia’s great-niece. Hayden, you know Eden already. This here is Tessa, Gypsy, Tempie, Sage, Roxanne, Dani and Rory. Rory owns this place, but she took the night off so she could hang without a bar between us. And that’s McKenna,” she said, pointing to the last woman. “She owns a burlesque club just outside of town called Whiskey Dolls. That’ll be where we do our next ladies’ night. We try to alternate.”
I was overwhelmed and
wasn’t sure I was going to be able to keep everything straight when the woman who’d been introduced as Rory spoke. “Don’t worry about not getting all that on the first night. It can be a little much.”
She looked like a rock and roll hippy with a colorful scarf wound through the beltloops of her jeans and another one tied into a headband, tangling with her long, sleek black hair. She was wearing scuffed cowboy boots and a form-fitting tee that stated, “The only way to tap it is hard and fast.” Her smile seemed genuine, as did the looks I was getting from the rest of the ladies, but I wasn’t ready to lower my guard just yet. Once burned, twice shy, and all that.
“I hope you’re right,” I said on a laugh as I grabbed an empty chair and sat down. “And I apologize in advance if I screw up any of your names.”
“Don’t sweat it,” the blonde I thought might be Gypsy said. “Our group grows in number every year. You’ll get who’s who squared away soon enough. By the way, I totally dig your style. It’s very . . .”
“Mountain bling,” a woman with long mahogany hair almost as wild as mine chimed in. I recalled that Nona had introduced her as Sage. And I dug her look. It screamed biker babe through and through. Ivy would have flipped.
“Yeah, that’s the perfect way to describe it. Mountain bling,” Gypsy agreed. “It’s working for you in a serious way, hon.”
My cheeks started to heat as my smile grew even bigger. “Um . . . thanks.” I looked down at my top, giving one of the ends of the knot a little tug. “I tossed pretty much everything in my closet right before I moved here and bought all new clothes.”
That garnered looks of appreciation and curiosity from the women in our group. I let out a grateful sigh when a waitress stopped by, and I quickly ordered a Blue Moon.
“So, what prompted the move to Hope Valley and a brand new wardrobe?” the older woman with bright, fire engine-red hair, asked. I believed she was Roxanne. If I had to guess, she was somewhere in her mid-fifties. She was sporting blue eyeshadow and an extreme amount of cleavage in her skin-tight shirt, and somehow, she made the crazy look work. She was sitting beside Sage, and had the same biker babe vibe, but in a well-seasoned way.
I snatched up the beer the waitress had just set down and took a hearty gulp. “Well, um . . . I kind of needed a change . . . after I caught my husband having an affair.”
“Oh honey,” the brunette by the name of Tessa said, her gaze turning sympathetic. “I think you’re gonna need something stronger than beer tonight.”
“With my best friend,” I quickly added. The group went silent, some of the women slow blinking in shock.
Gypsy was the first to shake herself out of her stupor. “Definitely something stronger than beer,” she said, turning in her chair and waiving down our waitress. “Tonight calls for shots.”
“Shots!” the rest of the women—excluding Eden, of course—shouted in unison. And I suddenly got the impression that the night was about to ramp up in a serious way.
* * *
“What a heinous bitch,” Sage snapped as soon as I finished regaling the group with the story of my marriage’s demise. “I mean, there’s a special place in hell for women like her.”
“Amen to that,” Tempie declared. “Karma always comes around in the end though, so she’ll get hers one of these days.”
“To karma!” Nona prompted, lifting her glass high.
“To karma!” we all repeated, clinking our glasses together before sucking back more booze.
The night seemed to move at warp speed after that. Three Blue Moons and two shots of whiskey later, I was feeling nice and floaty. The band had been amazing, so good that some of us had danced for an entire set before the burn in my thighs forced me to take a break. The Makin Hardware Store Guys—terrible name, but the men could rock—were currently on a break, so we were back at our tables, drinking, chatting, and laughing so much and so hard my abs were getting a serious workout.
These women were absolutely nothing like my so-called friends back in Richmond, and it had taken no time at all to loosen up. Hours later, I felt like I’d been a part of this group for years.
“Wait, wait, wait.” I waved my hands to stop McKenna, mid-sentence. We were sitting near the end of our cluster of tables and leaned in close so we could hear each other over the din of music and other conversations happening all around us. “So, your club used to be a strip club until it went under because some bad dude was selling drugs and happy endings out of the back rooms? That’s when you and your man bought it and changed it up?”
“Yup.” She lifted her cocktail glass toward her lips to suck back more of her mojito but missed the straw the first two tries. Needless to say, we were all a bit tipsy.
“And you and Gypsy were dancers there when it was a strip club?”
“Yeah. But Gypsy wasn’t just a dancer. She was the headliner. You should’ve seen her! That girl can move.”
I leaned back in my chair. “That’s . . . so . . . cool!”
McKenna’s chin jerked back, like she hadn’t been expecting that kind of reaction from me. “Really?”
“Hell yeah! You know, I took one of those pole classes at a gym back in the city thinking it would be really easy and fun, but I’ll tell you what . . . that shit is hard! It takes some serious skill to do what you guys did. And in full hair and makeup like that? While looking sexy?” I blew out a raspberry and shook my head. “Me and the rest of the women in that class were flopping all over the place like fish out of water. There was nothing sexy about it.”
“You know, Whiskey Dolls still has some poles for a few of the numbers the girls do. If you want, I could teach you.”
My eyes bulged out as I shot forward and grabbed her hands in mine. “Really?”
“Yeah, totally! It’ll be fun.”
I let out a squeal that drew the other women’s attention. “What’s going on down there?” Dani, the sweet, beautiful owner of Muffin Top—the best coffee and pastry shop in the whole US of A, according to my new friends—asked.
“Mac’s gonna teach me to pole dance,” I answered, doing a little hip roll in my chair.
“Oh Lord.” Roxanne rolled her eyes. “With her face, those legs, that ass, and all that hair, you teach that girl to work a pole, the single men in this town are likely to spontaneously combust.”
A giggle bubbled up and burst past my lips before I could stop it. After years of being made to feel like I wasn’t good enough, compliments like that made my chin lift a little higher.
“Ooh! We should totally set Hayden up with someone!” Nona insisted. “Hope Valley is the perfect place to find a hot, single man.”
“No, no,” I cut in. “Really, that’s not necessary. I’m not looking for a relationship at the moment.”
My words fell on deaf ears. “My vote’s Dalton,” Sage announced. “He’s fine as hell. He’s got that sexy country boy vibe, and his deep voice is like velvet.” She shivered playfully. “But if any of you tell Xander I said that, I’ll deny it to the grave.”
“What about West?” Gypsy asked. “He’s got that boy next door thing going for him.”
“If the boy next door knew how to rip your panties off with his teeth,” Rory added, earning a high five from Gypsy and a laugh from the rest of us.
“Really, guys. The last thing I want right now is a relationship. I want to get Ivy settled and make sure she’s handling these changes okay.”
Eden leaned across the table and placed her hand on top of mine. “No one says you can’t do both. You can do that and have a little fun for yourself. You’re a hot, young woman. You deserve some fun.”
“Hey, you know who’d be good for her?” Dani asked, pulling everyone’s attention away from me.
I used that to my advantage and stood from my chair, moving toward the bar to order another drink instead of waiting for the waitress to come around and have to listen to my new friends pick out a guy for me.
Standing at the bar, I rested my elbows on the top and waited fo
r the bartender to free up so I could wave him down and place my order.
“Hi, there.”
I turned and looked to my right to the man who’d just come up to the bar beside me. “Hi.”
“You’re new here, aren’t you? I’ve never seen you before.”
“Man, is this town that small?” I asked on a giggle, making the man smile. He had a nice smile with straight white teeth. He was also good-looking. Not on Micah’s level, but more on par with Alex.
He shook his head good naturedly. “Sorry, that probably sounded pretty weird, huh?”
“Nah. It wasn’t that bad. And yes, I’m new. Moved here about two weeks ago.”
“Well, welcome to Hope Valley. Hope you’ve been enjoying it so far. I’m Greg.”
I turned more toward him and gave his hand a shake, the warm fuzziness I was already feeling thanks to my tipsy state making this handsome guy’s attention feel pretty damn nice. “Hayden. And I am, thanks. This place is really great.”
He took a step closer, making his interest known. There was no spark of attraction on my part, but there was no harm in a little innocent flirting, right? It was fun. “So, Hayden, I’ve got two questions for you. First, what is it you do here in Hope Valley?”
“I’m working over at Divine Flora. What’s the second question?”
“The second question is . . .” He took another step toward me, closing more of the distance. “Can I buy you a drink?”
I opened my mouth to reply. The plan was to politely decline, however, before I had a chance to do that, a deep, husky voice spoke from behind me. A voice I recognized, and one that caused arousal to flood through my body. “That’s not gonna happen.”
Well shit.
Chapter Eight
Micah
It was well after ten by the time we finished our clandestine debrief with Linc and the small team he’d put together to assist with the Callo investigation. The central topic—as well as the biggest concern—discussed in that meeting was one Ms. Charlie Belmont.
Love to Hate You: a Hope Valley novel Page 6
