Page 82 of Home Field Advantage
While we wait for our drinks, I can hear Mindy’s laughter echo around me. It feels like all the sound has drowned out to nothing but their conversation.
“We should get together outside of school sometime,” Mindy says.
“Maybe.”
“Is your wife around?”
It’s odd that she’s asking that particular question. It makes me feel even more disgusted by the whole thing. If you’re going to flirt with someone and have your hands all over them, you should at least determine if they’re married.
I see movement from the corner of my eye as he holds up his hand. “No wife.”
“Oh, that must be so hard,” Mindy says in a sympathetic tone. “You have my number. You know, just in case you need anything or help with Sage. I mean, you can always use it if you need some company, too.”
He shifts next to me, and I feel it before I see it. His eyes are on me, but I refuse to look and acknowledge it. Dallas leans on the bar with both elbows now, facing me, knowing I’m standing inches from him. I don’t want to see the look in his eyes. I don’t want to get myself trapped in his orbit while Mindy stands right there.
But I feel him turn away again.
‘I’m good,” he says to Mindy. “But thank you.”
And then he walks away.
Not even waiting for a response from her.
No passing glance in my direction.
Tucker slides out drinks across the bar, and I take another long sip, turning my body to Lily. She has a smug grin on her face.
“What?”
“That man fucking wants you.”
“Oh, Christ. Nan is on top of the bar,” Lily says, laughing so hard you can barely understand her.
Blair and I look up and see she’s standing there with a microphone in her hand while the music from the karaoke machine blasts through the speakers. Griffin is shaking his head on the ground behind her, and if smoke could come out of someone’s ears literally, it would be fuming right now. I can tell he’s nervous that she’s going to fall face-first off the bar.
Nan sings the lyrics of “Can’t Fight the Moonlight”,at the top of her lungs.
My stomach hurts from laughing so hard at this point as she continues, shaking her hips as if she’s a twenty-year-old working at theCoyote Uglybar.
She brings her hand to her ear, signaling for everyone to join her in the last part. “Can’t fight the moonlight.” And the entire bar erupts with the final words of the chorus. She points to where Lily, Blair, and I stand. “Get up here, girls.”
I shake my head, waving my arms to say no while Blair jumps up and down with her arms in the air, ready for this moment.
“I think I said it already, but it’s worth saying again, this is the greatest night ever,” Lily shouts. “Let’s go!”
“Hell yeah,” Blair says in approval, making her way behind the bar. She pauses to give Griffin a pair of puppy dog eyes that beg for him to help her on top of the bar. He visibly groans, but helps her up anyway after pressing a kiss to her forehead.
She moves in sync with Nan, swaying their hips side to side with their arms around each other. Everyone is having the time of their life watching them up there.
Lily tugs at my wrist. “Let’s go up there, Pop.”
“Oh no. I can’t, Lily.”
She turns to face me. “Poppy, you’re having the most fun I’veever seen you have. If you’re worried that other people will see you up there and say something about you being a teacher, you truly have nothing to worry about. Besides, I just saw the fourth-grade English teacher beeline it for the bathroom, covering her mouth to puke. No one gives a shit.”
I do. I say to myself.
Glancing around the bar, she’s right. The way she always seems to be. No one cares right now. Everyone is dancing, grinding their hips against each other to the music as if Seven Stools is a nightclub all of a sudden.
