Page 5 of Rope Me In

I shake my head. The lie I made up was silly at best. “Nope, all good to go now. Sorry I took so long.”

He stares at me for another beat before he nods then waves at me to follow him down the small bathroom hallway toward the main room. “I’ll show you around before Gavin gets in. You’llshadow him at the bar tonight and help him with anything he needs. Eventually, if you feel comfortable, you can start helping customers on your own.”

“Great.”

“Oh!” He snaps his fingers, stopping once we reach the bar top. “Kade will be in tonight. It’s his first night back teaching line dancing after a little hiatus, so it’s going to be a packed house. Just a fair warning.”

“Thanks.” I smile.

“I know you said on the phone you have some experience bartending, but as I mentioned, the city folk can get a little handsy and demanding. Especially when we get busy and they have to wait to be served.”

City folk. His verbiage makes me want to laugh. When I thought about where I would go after I made maybe the dumbest decision of my life earlier this week, I never would have dreamed I’d end up in Randall, Texas. But as I doom-scrolled through social media with a ninety-nine-cent meat stick in my hand from the mini-mart and tears streaking down my face, I came across a shirtless man on a mechanical bull. He was cute—and too young for me but old enough—so I stopped to take a closer look.

It was then I realized it was an ad for a job as a bartender, a smart way to get people’s attention, if you ask me. When I looked it up, I saw it was only a couple of hours away. Far enough that I could pretend the city didn’t exist but not far enough that I had to worry about moving to a different state or changing my driver’s license. It too meant I didn’t have to deal with the anxiety of figuring out how to pay for expensive big-city apartments or how to make my meager savings last for more than a couple of weeks.

“I can handle people from the city,” I say.

Jake eyes me, his gaze discerning. “You from there?”

I swallow, my throat now dry. I was born in a suburb outside of Dallas then moved to another suburb called Lynn with mymom and her new husband, Greg, after my parents divorced when I was five. They still live in that same suburb, in the same house, and my dad lives in California with a girlfriend that is half his age whose name I don’t know. But I don’t want to tell Jake that.

“Yeah,” I say instead. “I look like it, don’t I?”

He chuckles, a warm sound that reminds me of a nice hug. “If you get yourself a pair of cowboy boots and a hat, maybe some worn jeans, you’ll fit in better.”

I answer with a smile instead of commenting on how cliché that would be. At least the people in this town are real cowboys and ranchers, unlike the people I came across playing gigs at bars and clubs in different cities who like to play pretend. I’ll have to order a pair of cheap boots or see if the Delgados’ daughter, Lyla, has an extra pair for my wide calves and size-nine feet. But I imagine getting quick shipping to a town like this isn’t a thing. I should also be saving my money, not spending it on something to help me blend in.

I hold back a sigh. All these thoughts have me annoyed at myself for not packing better. I have boots and a hat among my belongings somewhere in Derek’s storage unit, but my exodus and new life here in Randall wasn’t exactly well-thought-out.

“Well, then, I guess I don’t need to explain city folk to you,” Jake says. “Most of the people are fine, but when we get bachelor parties, the men can get kind of rowdy. The bachelorette parties do, too, but most of our bartenders don’t care if they get handsy—especially Kade.” He smiles to himself like he just told a funny inside joke.

“I can handle myself,” I affirm. And that’s the truth. If I can handle Derek getting drunk after shows and acting like a fool at three am, then I’m not worried.

“If anyone gets to be too much, yell for me, Kade, Gavin, or Stu. We’re the crew that works most weekends,” Jake says.

“I can do that.”

Jake gestures to the long bar top we’re standing in front of. It’s placed along the wall near the back so I can see the entire layout of Night Hawk, from the small stage and dance floor to the padded mechanical bull pen. The place isn’t huge, but it’s large enough to fit a couple hundred people and has the kind of kitschy country charm that makes me smile. There are even peanut shells on the floor that crunch beneath my feet when I walk.

“Typically, Gavin will work the right side of the bar and Stu will work the left. If I’m not in the back doing paperwork, I’ll take the tables or sub for Gavin when the mechanical bull is running. When Kade is here, if he’s not teaching line dancing, he goes where he’s needed, floating between tables, the bar, and sometimes, the bull. Once you get the hang of the place, I’ll float you as well. But as I mentioned earlier, tonight you’ll shadow Gavin, and he’ll direct you.”

“Got it,” I say, awkwardly giving a thumbs-up to the information. Jake looks at my thumb, the ghost of a smile teasing at the corner of his lips. I try not to blush with embarrassment at my weird reactions to things.

With my anxiety and the aftereffects of Derek’s constant belittling, I’m not that great with people. I know how to turn on a certain set of social skills, especially when I’m onstage playing or when I get comfortable with someone, but one-on-one with new people or in new group settings? I get awkward. Especially with people I’m trying to impress. Thankfully, Jake brushes off my awkwardness and continues to show me around.

“That right there,” he says, pointing to a brown-and-white spotted mechanical bull, “is our pride and joy, Tornado.”

“Fitting name.” I grin.

“Thanks. He makes us a lot of money—he’s the whole reason we’ve even got all these wedding parties coming here. Well, that and the shirtless mechanical bull riding my friend, Blake, convinced us to add in once a month.”

“Smart,” I say, trying to make conversation and be a normal person.

“That she is. The bull already was bringing in a big crowd, but add in shirtless cowboys, and now we’re at capacity almost every weekend.”

“That’s great.”

“It’s why we needed the extra help and why I’m grateful you applied so quickly. It’s hard to find consistent workers in such a small town. Most of the folks here already have their hands full with their own ranches and family businesses.”

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