Page 109 of The Brave and the Reckless

“Please teach me your ways,” I said as I inspected the perfectly sharp winged eyeliner in a tiny compact mirror.

“If you stick around, I will,” she said with a certain note of challenge. She wasn’t the most talkative person, but she also left little room for nonsense.

“I’m planning on it,” I said.

“Good. Then let’s go. I don’t want to be late.”

“Late for what?”

“Saloon night.” She snatched her bag and nodded for me to follow.

That didn’t make sense. Every night could be saloon night if you wanted it to be. It wasn’t a Wednesday either, so it couldn’t be time for another burlesque show from the Stallions unless they’d changed the schedule when I was gone.

We walked out to the parking lot, and I forgot all about the saloon. Noah waited for me, perfectly drenched in the bright colors of the sunset, looking like a picture-book cowboy in his hat and a plaid shirt he’d rolled up to the elbows. Those tanned forearms with the veins running down to his knuckles belonged in a museum. Noah could make me stop dead in my tracks any day, but this casualversion of him was quickly becoming my favorite. Vivi kept walking and said she’d save us a seat, but I couldn’t even glance her way to thank her.

“Hi cowboy,” I said, unable to resist the smile Noah put on my lips.

“Hi princess.” He lifted his arm for me and let me nestle against his side. “How did it go?”

“Turns out, I forgot to quit when I left.” I filled him in on all the details on our way over to the saloon. I’d just finished explaining about the accidental sex tape and how he might get suspended over Christmas for it, and how Renee made it sound like she’d always expected me to come back, when we reached the park’s main entrance.

I stopped short at the crowd that had gathered in the square outside the Rattlesnake. The saloon was crowded, too. Guests spilled out the door, packed into a tight formation of heads and shoulders. And out here, people were putting down picnic blankets and fold-out chairs. That couldn’t all be for the Stallions. Especially not considering the number of middle-aged men who, demographically, usually steered clear of the saloon during their shows.

Noah had to wave his cast-member badge at a lot of disgruntled people who were trying to squeeze closer to the Rattlesnake’s doors. Noah kept one arm braced around my shoulders as we shuffled through and up the stairs to a staff section that was almost as packed as the public section.

“What’s going on?” I asked when we made it to the table by the balcony where many familiar faces were already waiting. Including Zuri and Sinan, who usually preferred the table in the back.

“Adriana got us Brooks Monroe for one night only atthe Rattlesnake Saloon,” Zuri explained after drawing me into a long, perfect, warm Zuri Hug.

“Seriously?” I turned toward Adriana. For once, she wasn’t standing behind the bar. She leaned against the railing in a floaty dress, her curls falling free, her arms and neck decked out in enough gold jewelry to turn her into a disco ball whenever one of the stage lights swung her way.

“It was getting really expensive, buying everyone drinks to make them like me. I figured this would do. Brooksy still owed me a favor.”

Brooksy.

I knew she’d been the opening act on his last tour, but from the way she talked, I’d assumed she’d completely left that part of her life behind. Apparently, she hadn’t left country legend Brooks Monroe behind though.

What kind of favor did you have to call in to get a superstar like him to give a concert in your hometown?

I narrowed my eyes at Adriana. “Is that favor why you’re so dressed up?”

She flipped me off and turned away, but I still caught a glimpse of the grin tugging at her lips.

Vivi had kept her word and saved us a seat. One. Singular. Noah didn’t go off to look for another chair or make a show of offering it to me like a proper gentleman. He just wrapped an arm around my middle and pulled me into his lap. We hadn’t actually talked about how we wanted to handle us being together in public, but after everything, even one minute of pretending that we weren’t seemed like too long. I wanted as much of him as I could get. So I settled against him and folded my fingers over his hand resting on my thigh.

“All right, pay up, suckers.” Sinan stretched his hands across the table, palms up. One after another the people around us were taking out their wallets or fishing money from the back of their phone cases.

“No, you didn’t,” Noah grumbled behind me, his fingers tightening around my thigh.

“What’s happening?” I asked louder and signed the question, certain that Sanny hadn’t heard Noah. Stacks of cash were building in Sanny’s hands.

“He made a bet about us. They all did,” Noah explained, then asked louder. “What did you put your money on?”

“Austin, will you do us the honor?” Sanny grinned as he smoothed the bills out.

“The winning bet was– drumroll please…” Austin pulled out his phone and waited until someone finally drummed their fingers against the table before he read the aforementioned bet out loud: “Noah and my sister will be together by the end of summer season, like together-together, so that trumps Vivi’s hookup. Betting $50. And you just saw who took the bet. There was an emoji system for different tiers. I’m not getting into that.”

Austin shrugged as if gambling via emojis on someone’s love life wasn’t even a little crazy.

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