Page 67 of Wingwoman
“Yeah,” the guy she was dancing with echoed. “Boooo!”
“Sweetie,” Viv tried again, “come on now. These girls here are paying to see the men dance. They don’t care about how tight your tush is.”
Hope fanned her face. “She’s right,” she said to the male dancer.
“It’s working,” Maggie whispered as Hope headed toward the steps.
“Mama could convince a rooster to become a feather duster,” Julianne said proudly.
“That’s right,” Vivian said as Hope took her hand, helping her down the stairs. Unfortunately, the male stripper who’d been instigating the whole ordeal followed Hope down the stairs too.
“Mama’s got you,” Vivian added.
My spine went stiff. “Uh-oh.”
“Oh no,” Maggie whispered as we exchanged glances.
Julianne looked at us curiously. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Look, I don’t know a whole lot about Hope,” Maggie said. “But I know she’s not someone who warms up easily or quickly. And she doesn’t consider your mother hermama.”
I was already on my feet, working my way through the crowd toward Hope. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I had a gut feeling it was nothing good.
“Oh, is this your mama?” The dancer asked. “I’m Drake—”
“She’s not my mother,” Hope snapped. “She’s my dad’s flavor of the week.”
Vivian blinked, pulling back like she’d been slapped. “Young lady, you may not agree with me all the time, and hell, you may not even like me, but you willnotdisrespect me. Because like it or not, I’m marrying your father and we will be family.”
Everyone in the audience became eerily silent except for a few low whistles and the thump of the music.
Shit, shit, shit. She was drunk. Way drunker than I had realized. And I knew that even though shedidfeel this way about Vivian, she was going to regret saying it aloud.
I was almost there, dodging and weaving my way through the crowd.
“You will be as much my family as my dad’s other four wives are,” Hope snapped, swaying on her feet and stumbling back into Drake.
His hands found her arms and I watched as he stroked—fucking stroked her—like a goddamned cat.
I could kill him.
Drunkenly she batted his pawing hands away, but it didn’t deter him. Instead, he found her waist, pulling her back against him.
Once more, she pushed off of him to try and take a step forward, but he held on tightly as Hope spoke. “It’s great that my father found some semblance of a paternal instinct with your girls. But when I was a kid? He was a dad solely on paper. I basically raised myself. So don’t stand there and feed me shit about us becoming a family. My dad knows nothing about how to be a family.”
“I’m really sorry to hear that,” Vivian said quietly. “But your daddy is a different man now that he stopped drinking. Something you might consider heeding yourself.”
“Don’t tell me how to be.”
“Hope!” I called out, finally making it to where they stood. “Come on,” I offered her my hand. “Enough. You really want an audience for all this?”
She blinked, awareness registering in her gaze for the first time like she was waking from a dream.
Around us, the music got louder. The dancers took focus on the stage. And the audience members who weren’t part of Vivian’s bachelorette party forgot all about us and the fight that had nearly broken out before their very eyes.
I twitched my fingers, coaxing her to take my hand.
To choose to end the night.
