Chapter 15
The Rollaway was transformed for Girls’ Night. Leah walked in through the doors and stopped. The place was almost unrecognizable from the one she’d spent hours dancing, flirting, and drinking in before leaving Lyntacky.
A disco ball hung above the dance floor between the strings of lights, and everywhere Leah looked, she saw pink. Bows, shirts, and balloons. The sock wall was still there and had pink ribbons tied around the toes of some of them.
Then there were the two men in the sea of women. One of them was Red, who was with his wife, Dee. The oddest couple she’d ever met, who were deeply in love. He wore a tight pink shirt, as did the tall thin man to his right behind the bar. On the front of their shirts were the words “Honorary Girl.”
“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was playing loud enough from the speakers to make her wince. She saw Robyn Duke and Linda from the diner dancing with Nancy from the Circle Left boarding house, bar, and restaurant.
“Get to the bar, girl,” Nina said, nudging Leah in the spine.
“Leah, it’s sooooo good to see you!” Priscilla was already there, another old friend, and by the enthusiastic greeting, it was clear she had been enjoying happy hour a lot. Married to Jed Knox, Cill was the masseuse at The Gnat.
“Right, line them up, Red,” Zoe said, slapping the bar.
“Hold your broomstick, Zoe,” Red said. “I’m just making Dr. Hannah’s peachy keen.”
“She’s still drinking those?” Leah whispered to Birdie.
“Always.”
“Broomstick? You feeling brave tonight, Red?” Nina asked.
He flashed her a smile and then saw Leah.
“No way. I wondered when you’d find your way back in here.” Red leaned over the bar, wrapped a beefy arm around her, and hugged. He smelled of beer and cinnamon, which was odd, but also nice.
“Sorry, I’m late. But I made it!”
The latest addition to the Duke family arrived at the bar. Libby Gulliver, the blonde, blue-eyed partner of Ryder Duke.
“Don’t tell me you created another chocolate flavor just to piss your daddy off?” Zoe asked.
“Something like that,” Libby said.
“Daddy?” Leah asked. She’d met Libby but not really talked to her.
“My daddy is Caldwell Candies,” Libby said to Leah. “But I’m better at making chocolate than any of his chocolatiers.”
“I love chocolate, and the stuff Ryder gave me that day was amazing,” Leah said, wondering what it would be like to have so much money, like Libby’s family, you didn’t have to think about it when you were in a store.
“Thanks, and we couldn’t be friends if you didn’t,” Libby said with a smile. “And seeing as this bunch likes you, I have to too.”
“Is that a rule?”
“Absolutely,” Birdie confirmed.
Leah liked the idea of having more friends, even if she wasn’t really good at interacting with them. More friends meant more people looking out for Hudson too.
“Ladies. How the hell are ya!”
“Dee!” everyone greeted the woman who stepped behind the bar.
“So there’s a pink punch that has champagne and vodka in it, with lemonade and pink shit too,” she said, flicking her platinum blonde bangs with a long, pink-tipped nail.
Her pink baby doll shirt was open to the navel, and she wore a white leather bustier beneath. With her long eyelashes that Leah was sure she felt a breeze from when she blinked and a full face of makeup, the woman looked as she always had: Exactly who she wanted to be.
“Hey there, Leah, I heard you were back,” Dee said, reaching over the counter to pat one of her cheeks. “Good to see you, honey, and I’m real sorry to hear about Cassie.”
“Thanks, Dee.” She didn’t flinch, wince, or cry, which Leah took as a win.
“You need to bring Hudson in to enroll him in my practice, plus I’ll need your full medical history from the past seven years.”
Leah turned to find Dr. Hannah behind her, sipping on her peachy keen. She still wore her standard uniform of plaid skirt and knitted beige cardigan, but she did have a pink scarf wrapped twice around her neck. Short and solid, Lyntacky’s doctor was not someone you ever messed with.
“If you could tell me who your doctor was, I’ll get your notes sent over,” she added.
“I’ll get on that, Doc.”
“Next week,” the woman said, waggling a finger at Leah. “Get it done,” Dr. Hannah added before wandering off.
The woman had set her first bone, and taught her about contraception. The sex talk she’d then delivered was something Leah would never forget.
“How old is she now?” Leah whispered to Nina, who had been hotly debating with Red the pros and cons of which shots they should drink first.
“No clue. Ninety maybe?”
“What? She’s in her late sixties at the oldest,” Zoe said. “She was young when she gave us those sex ed talks but just looked old wearing all that tweed and wool.”
“So,” Red said loudly, clearly out of patience with the shot selection happening.
“Right. Let’s go with tequila,” Cill said.
Red muttered something they didn’t hear.
“Hey,” Nina said, which had him looking at her. “If you really are an honorary woman, you would have said that out loud.”
“Thank fuck they’ve finally made up their mind,” Red said with a grin. “Who knew there were some benefits to wearing this shirt?”
A row of glasses was lined up on the bar and filled with tequila. Zoe counted down, and they threw them back. The firewater burned Leah’s throat, and she only just managed to bite back the gasp.
“For this round, no hands,” Nina said.
“Ah, what?” Libby asked.
“You can’t use your hands,” Cill added.
Leah smiled. They’d often done this in their youth.
“Hands behind your backs, ladies,” Red said, pouring more tequila into the shot glasses.
Libby started slurping the contents of her glass with her tongue like a puppy. Phoebe tried to suck it up, and when it hit the back of her throat, she coughed.
“Amateurs,” Nina said, disgusted. She put her mouth over the glass and picked it up with her teeth, then drank it in one gulp.
Leah and Zoe did the same.
“You couldn’t have told us that trick first,” Libby groused.
“Not my fault the poor little rich kid didn’t get this kind of education in her youth,” Zoe replied.
Libby opened her mouth and clamped her teeth around the shot glass in front of her. She then straightened, and the contents ended up down her front.
She took the glass out of her mouth and slapped it back down on the bar. “Again, Red.”
It took her three attempts, but with coaching from Zoe and Nina, Libby eventually got it.
“Aww, I’m so proud,” Cill slurred.
A glass of something noxious and pink was handed to Leah, whose head was already reeling from the shots. She sniffed it, then gagged.
“It will put hairs on your chest!” Dee yelled.
“Something I’ve always aspired to have!” Leah yelled back because the music volume had increased.
“So. Have you seen Dan again?” Zoe asked Leah.
“No.”
“And?”
“And what? He’s a cop and your brother. I thought you would know that about him,” Leah said.
“Very funny,” Zoe said. “I don’t know exactly what happened between you two, but it wasn’t good. He wasn’t the same for months after you left.” Clearly the alcohol had loosened Zoe’s tongue even more.
Leah didn’t like that the thought of Dan upset made her feel bad.
She had admitted to herself that maybe he’d had no choice in arresting her father, but still, he could have given her a heads-up about what had been about to go down.
Yes, he’d been a new cop, but also her boyfriend.
What happened had been traumatic for Cassie and Leah.
“I don’t want to talk about this, Zoe.” She went for honesty. “You are my friend but first and foremost Dan’s sister. I don’t want this between us.” It must be the alcohol that had her speaking that way.
Zoe frowned. “I was sure I’d get it out of you.”
“Nope.”
“Let’s dance,” Libby said when a song started playing she loved.
Leah checked her phone, but there was nothing about Hudson. Was he okay? She wondered how parents coped. Not knowing how he was doing was hell.
It felt good to be dancing again, Leah thought after two songs and a few more drinks, even if she was still worried about Hudson.
“Leah, look at this,” Birdie said, coming to her side an hour later. She was holding out her phone, and on it was a picture of Hudson fast asleep next to Ally, who was still wide-awake, reading. Bobby was on her nephew’s other side doing the same.
Hudson had blankets up to the chin, which was how he always slept, and beside him was his favorite bear. The one she’d given to him when he’d been born. The picture made her smile.
“Sawyer said he’s out, so you don’t have to worry any more,” Birdie added.
When Hudson fell asleep, nothing woke him, a fact she was grateful for now.
“So you can relax, and put your phone back in your pocket, and enjoy yourself like you used to,” Nina said.
Why that comment annoyed her way more than it should, Leah wasn’t sure, but it did. “My life is not like it was. I lost my sister and am now raising her son.”
Nina, who had been sucking on her pink drink while swaying to the music, shot her a look.
She then lowered the drink to the table beside her and grabbed Leah’s shoulders.
Leaning in until her eyes were inches from Leah’s, she said, “I’m so sorry you lost Cassie.
” She then hugged her close. Grabbing her shoulders again, she added, “Have you cried and grieved yet?”
“What?” The words had her stumbling back a step and out of the grip Nina had on her. “Wh-why would you ask me that?” Suddenly, it felt like there was a whooshing sound in her ears, and her knees felt weak.
“For Cassie. Have you had time to let out some of the pain and sorrow, Leah?”
She tried to force words past her lips but managed nothing.
“You haven’t, have you? I can see it in your eyes, even if mine are a bit fuzzy.” Nina leaned in close again so their faces were inches apart.
“You can’t see anything in my eyes,” Leah said, backing away. “I’m dancing.” She then threw the entire contents of the vile pink drink down her throat and gagged, but she kept it down.