Page 66 of Wingwoman
I’m fine.
Hitting send, I blinked back the tears, then snatched both lemon drop shots that Shawn had slid toward us. I downed them both, one after the other. The sickly sweet lemon flavor burned my throat and as I slammed the empty shot glasses down, I wiped my eyes, happy for the distraction. Happy that most people here would assume the tears were from the shots and not from my stupid broken heart being trampled over and over again by the same asshole of a man.
“Uh, one of those was mine,” Drake said.
“Aren’t you on the job?”
A smirk lifted his mouth. “In my line of work, drinking on the job is not only allowed… it’s encouraged.”
“Fine.” I waved my hand at Shawn again. “Two more lemon drops, please,” I said, then turned back to Drake. “I promise this time one of them is for you.”
He studied me carefully, concern morphing his once jovial expression. “Are you sure? You went from ordering only water to doing three lemon drop shots and a martini in the course of five minutes.”
My eyes found Josh and Julianne once more across the room. They were touching. Innocently touching, sure. But still… her hand draped on his forearm was enough to make discomfort churn in the pit of my stomach.
“Well,” I said to Drake, “if you’re going to be a bear, you might as well be a grizzly, right?”
He blinked, seeming to try to comprehend that, then a slow smile spread across his face. “I like that. Feel like dancing?” he offered me his hand.
The shots worked quickly and a nice tingly feeling surged down to my toes.
I looked around the club, not seeing any area with a designated dance floor. “Here? No one’s dancing. Other than…” I gestured to the stage where several half naked men were gyrating. “You know.”
Drake’s grin widened. “Oh I know. Come on. It’ll be fun.”
With one hand, I grabbed my martini. With the other, I dropped my hand into Drake’s.
I have no idea why I trusted him… but I did.
He gave my hand a little tug and I fell into his lap, our bodies pressed against each other’s. I gave a very not sexy grunt and tried to right myself back to my feet. But he merely smiled down at me.
“We dance close here at the Splash Zone, darlin’.”
And everything else that happened after, I had Drake to thank for it.
Nineteen
JOSH
Hope was dancing.
Hope was dancing on the stage…
With multiple strippers.
“What do we do?” Maggie asked, staring, jaw agape just like me.
“Stick some dollar bills down her leather skirt?” Matt offered, holding up fanned out two-dollar bills.
That’s right. Around here, the strip club ATMs only give out two-dollar bills. So if you ever see someone paying for a coffee with those…? Well, you can take one guess where they’ve been.
“Seriously,” Julianne chimed in. “Should I grab her ass down from that stage?”
“I haven’t known Hope for long,” I said. “But I’m pretty sure ifanyof us try to drag her out of here, it will only make her want to stay longer out of spite.”
On cue, Vivian leaned on the stage, tapping Hope’s bare calf. “Come on, darling. We’re heading home.”
Hope pushed her bottom lip out. “Boooo!”
