Page 40 of Revived

“What?” I shrugged my shoulders, wondering at her response.

“The rock star brought me to do country line dancing at a place named, Knockin’ Boots?” Her laughter continued. “Was that both a date night, and invitation for later all rolled into one?”

I glanced up at the bright yellow name painted on the brick wall. Well, shit. She had a point. “I promise, it was nothing like that, but it was the only place I could think of where I might not be recognized.”

“You got that right, partner,” she attempted to pull a ridiculous country accent as she said the words. I rolled my eyes at her and offered my arm once more.

“Come on, funny girl, let’s go see if they have a bull in here to ride,” I offered, which only caused more giggles on her part. It took a moment for the words that came out of my own damn mouth to sink in.

“Keep on digging that trench deeper, Gabe.”

“Fuck me!” I hummed the words out in damn near a whisper, but she heard them, and laughed harder.

“That’ll do,” she teased, before dragging me by the hand to the door. Mel then surprised me by paying the cover charge to the bouncer who was working the door.

“Hey, I was going to get that.”

“Nope. I owe you for all the laughter,” she tucked an arm around her midsection then. “I think I got a full ab workout in.”

“Glad you’re finding our date night so amusing.” Okay, I was sulking just a tiny bit as the words came out, but this was definitely the opposite of what I’d expected when I took her out.

Mel leaned up on her toes and planted a kiss right on my cheek, near the corner of my mouth, before slipping back down to her normal height. “I needed this so much,” she told me. “Thank you, even if some of that was totally unintentional.”

Well, hell, I couldn’t argue with that. “Come on, let’s go get a table, and some drinks.”

“Okay, but you brought me here, mister. I expect to line dance at some point.”

“Do you know how to line dance?” I asked her, wondering if that was something new to learn about Mel.

She laughed heartily. “Not even a little bit.”

“Oh great, so we can look like fools together out there.”

She glanced around. “That’s okay, this looks more like Chevy’s crowd anyway, they’ll probably think we’re someone’s drunk parents.”

“Well, technically,” I started to say, and stopped myself short. Mel wasn’t a parent, but I was. The problem is, I had been about to say, “Well, we are.” It was the first time I really acknowledged that Mel had taken on that role with Chevy, in a weird way, not long after he came into my life. When I grew quiet, she leaned into me again, the both of us standing to the side of the only empty table in the place.

“It’s okay, Gabe,” Mel told me as she placed her hand on my chest. “I knew what you meant, and even though he’s Kendra’s, I think of him as mine too. He’s my boy in a different way, but I’d claim him any day of the week, if I was able.”

“I think he’d like that,” I told her, knowing that was exactly how I felt too. She fit into the brand new family we’d all stumbled into and there was no imagination strong enough to will her out of the scenario.

“Hey y’all, what can we get you to drink?” A young waitress wearing a jean skirt, cowgirl boots, and a cropped button up top that was tied in a knot just below her breasts asked us. Then when she glanced up to see my face, her jaw dropped. I figured she could see the pleading look in my eyes because she guppy-fished, taking shallow breaths for a moment, and then smiled brightly. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. This is amazing though,” she whispered. “I couldn’t get tickets before they sold out, but at least I got to say hi to you.”

“Tell you what, you keep my being here a secret tonight, and I will make sure you have two backstage passes waiting at Will Call for you tomorrow night. You can hang out with Mel here at the side stage.”

Her eyes grew exponentially wider. “Are you serious?” I nodded. “No one will ever know,” she whispered then put a finger up in the universal ‘wait a minute’ gesture. “Be right back,” she told me and then trotted off.

“What do you think that’s about?” Mel asked.

“I guess we’ll see in a minute,” I told her, though I had my phone out, ready to send the 911 text that Phoenix was waiting for. He and several other men were posted up nearby, just in case things went down. I wasn’t going to have Mel mixed up in a fan riot if I could help it. Most often, people were respectful. Sometimes, they got out of control. Our waitress came back wearing a bright smile and holding a black Stetson hat.

“Here you go,” she offered as she held the hat out to me. “Used to belong to my boyfriend, but since he couldn’t keep it in his pants, he doesn’t get this back,” she told us, far too cheerfully, considering.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yes, sir.” She bobbed her head up and down as she spoke the words, as if to emphasize them. “It will help, especially if you keep the brim pulled down low.”

“Thank you,” I glanced at the name tag she wore, “Tracy.”

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