Page 3 of Thirst Trap
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Jake
“I dare you.”
I shoot a look to Trent, making sure I heard him correctly.
“You what?”
“You heard me,” he says, though, in all honesty, I don’t know if I did hear him. We’re in the middle of a downtown Nashville bar on a Saturday night in June. I can barely hear myself think.
“Let’s pretend I didn’t,” I say, taking another swig of my beer. Because if he did say what I think he said, I’m going to need the backing of some liquid encouragement.
“I said,” he begins, looking over to the bachelorette party, then looking back at me, “I dare you to go over to that bride and show her Officer Sexy.”
Nope. He said exactly what I thought he said. Though I have no clue why one of my buddies is daring me to give a lap dance to a woman I’ve never met.
Actually, I do know why. It’s Trent. Trent is “that guy” of our friend group. He’s the guy who talks the biggest but has zero game. He’s the one to come up with the shenanigan but will never go through with it. If I had to guess, he noticed one of the women in the group, likely a redhead, and he wants to talk to her, but he won’t make the first move. Therefore, he needs me to break the ice. With a lap dance.
That and he wants the chance to get Officer Sexy on video. He’s still pissed he missed it the one and only time it has happened.
“What’s going on?” Knox says, reappearing from lord knows where with a girl on his arm.
“I dared Jake to go show that bride over there that Officer Sexy is in the house,” Trent says, tilting his head toward the group of women.
“Can’t you just go over and talk to whoever you want to?” Knox asks, confirming my theory. “One of these days, we aren’t going to be around to get women for you.”
“What?” Trent says, acting shocked at the accusation. “That’s not it at all. Though that redhead is pretty cute. I just think it’s been a while since Officer Sexy has made an appearance and it’s due time to break him out. What better way than for an about-to-be-bride?”
I roll my eyes at the nickname, and now I really don’t want to take the dare. I’m not in the mood. Hell, I wasn’t even in the mood to come to Nashville tonight. I would have been just as happy grabbing a beer at The Joint, the only bar in Rolling Hills, our hometown about an hour south of Nashville.
But Trent whined so much, Knox and I finally gave in. Though by the way this girl is latching onto Knox, I doubt he’s complaining much.
“Yeah, Officer Sexy,” Knox says, egging me on. “Go show them how you earned the name.”
“It’s bad enough when he says it,” I say, shooting a thumb in Trent’s direction. “When you say it… well, it’s downright dirty.”
“Yeah it is,” Knox says, wagging his eyebrows. “Or should I say dirty dancing?”
Sometimes I regret learning to do the worm for the fifth-grade talent show. Or maybe it was taking dance lessons in seventh grade to impress Missy Fischer. Either way, those two events had a major impact on the fact that I’m now in a Nashville honkytonk seriously contemplating giving a woman I don’t know a lap dance.
That and I’ve never been shy. Trent was the smart one. Knox was the athlete.
Me? I was the outgoing one.
And I never turn down a dare.
Never.
That is how Officer Sexy started in the first place. A dare.
I picked up an overtime shift one night, and I got a call that there was a disturbance at The Joint. Being the dutiful police officer I am, I hightailed it over to the bar. Only when I walked in, I didn’t find a fight—I found Daisy and Doris Abernathy each sitting on chairs with balloons tied to the back of them. I learned when I arrived that it was their ninety-fifth birthday party, and all they asked for was a dance from their favorite Rolling Hills police officer.
I wasn’t going to do it. I’m a respected police officer and member of the community. I speak every year at career day, coach Little League and make sure I volunteer each year at the annual summer festival.
Then I heard the three words I’ve never been able to resist.
“I dare you.”
