Page 25 of Rest In Pink

Okay, so maybe I’d been overdoing the t-shirt and jeans bit. “I have a date.”

“With Vince?” she said.

“How do you know about Vince?”

“Everybody knows about Vince,” she said.

You know, I’d be okay with my life being an open book if people would quit reading out loud from it.

“Later for both of you,” I said and headed down the hill to JB’s Bar and Soon To Be Grill.

* * *

JB’s Bar, currently run by my old high school buddy Jill Barclay, is located just around the corner from the Red Box. Basically, my stomping ground in Burney is about fifty feet of storefront that will supply me with food and drink.

When I got there, Vince was at the bar, having a serious talk with Jill, while her bartender Gabe pulled beers for the few regulars there and her little waitress Dani delivered drinks to tables. Vince talking to Jill happens a lot. He makes sure the bar is safe before she closes most nights, although she’s taken to calling to tell him when things are dull so he doesn’t have to stop by, which I appreciated.

I slid onto the barstool beside him. “Hello, sailor. New in town?”

He looked down at me. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I already have a date for tonight. Hot looking broad in a t-shirt. Seen her?”

Jill grinned at me.

I sighed. “That’s a real shame. I have bows.” I hiked up my skirt to show him the bows. And my thighs.

“Stockings?” he said, one eyebrow lifting. “That’s new.”

“With bows.”

“So, I see.” He was trying to be cool, but I could see the bows had gotten to him.

Men. Such simple creatures.

I smiled at Jill. “How’s it going, honey?”

“It’s going. Your tenderloins are just about ready. You really going to try them?”

“You said you needed guinea pigs. You really going to try to add food to this place?”

“It used to be JB’s Bar and Grill, so it wouldn’t be anything new. We’ve got all the equipment.” She shrugged, losing her smile. “Gotta stay competitive.”

She went down the bar then, apparently to do something grill-ish with the tenderloins, and I looked at Vince. “She’s unhappy. What’s going on?”

“She just told me somebody wants to buy the bar,” he said. “Some company called Vermillion Inc. that Cash represents.”

“Vermillion Inc? What idiot names a company Red Ink?”

“Cash? Anyway, Jill’s dad is thinking about selling. Cash is offering a lot of money, but it’s contingent on the ferry going in.”

“A lot of money for a bar in Burney?”

“Cash is on the Porters to sell the garage, too.”

“That’ll never happen,” I said, knowing full well how Will and Patsy felt about the family garage.

“I checked around. It appears to be happening all over town.”

“God,why?” I said, unable to think of a reason anybody would want to invest in this backwater village.

---