Chapter 15 #2
Someone bumped her hard, sending Leah sideways into Zoe.
Regaining her balance, she turned to find Sydney Jane’s narrowed eyes on her as she danced with Betsy Regal.
Back in school, both had been trouble, especially SJ, who’d hunted men like sport even then.
With time and distance, Leah had learned SJ’s bravado came from a bad childhood, just like hers.
But that didn’t give her the right to come after Leah.
“Sorry,” SJ said, a mocking smile on her painted lips.
“Still rocking the same look, SJ? Good to see some things haven’t changed,” Leah said. She never backed away from confrontation.
“Why’d you come home, Leah? There’s nothing for you here,” SJ hissed.
“SJ!”
They both turned to find Phoebe standing behind them.
Hands tugged at Leah, pulling her into the crowd. She didn’t look back, instead diving back into something she’d always loved: dancing.
For a while, she even convinced herself she was happy, surrounded by those she’d grown up with and others who had shaped her when her father hadn’t. If a piece of her was still missing—a piece that had once loved this too—she could live with it. Leah always did.
“Shots!” someone shrieked, and once again they all headed to the bar.
Leah used to hold her alcohol, but she hadn’t touched a drink in months, so her head was feeling light, but she needed this. Hudson was asleep and with good people. He’d be safe until she picked him up tomorrow.
You can do this.
“I need food,” Birdie said, slumping onto a bar stool beside the one Leah’d fallen onto.
“Shisken sticks,” Zoe slurred into her sister-in-law’s face, wafting pink punch fumes over them.
Leah closed one eye and focused, her head suddenly spinning. “What is a shisken stick?”
“Awesomeness,” Zoe answered.
“Don’t you mean shisken strip?” Leah asked.
Zoe shook her head. “Dee thinks sticks sound fancier, because an English professhor passing through Lyntacky told her that’s what he’d call them.”
“This town is weird,” Leah muttered.
“I’ve only just seen that,” Cill said, looking up.
Dutifully the others did, too, and there, hanging above them, was a large inflatable phallic symbol.
“Dee had it modeled on mine,” Red said, smirking.
“It’s a penish,” Phoebe whispered.
“It is,” Leah said, steadying her as she pitched forward. “A Danish version of one by that pronunciation.”
“How come you’re not slurring?” Zoe asked her.
“I’m feeling it. I just still know how to speak,” Leah said.
“How about you all sit,” Red said, coming around the bar. He then nudged them onto stools.
“Aww, I love you, Reddy,” Nina said, now swinging her legs, as her feet couldn’t touch the ground.
“Only on girl’s night, but I’ll take it.”
“And you, Bradford,” Zoe cried as the tall man for every job appeared with a tray loaded down with empties. He smiled as Nina and Zoe kissed him, completely unfazed. “You should strip for us and dance, then we can throw money at you.”
“Oooh, yes, or put it down his shorts like you see in movies,” Libby added.
“Run while you can, bud,” Red said, and Bradford did exactly that.
“Your mom’s got the moves,” Leah said, pointing to the dance floor, where Robyn Duke, Meadow McAllister, Birdie’s mom, and Linda were dancing.
“She got that from me,” Zoe said loudly.
“Pretty sure that’s the other way around,” Red said. “But sure. Now it’s chicken sticks and fries time,” Red added.
“Yay!” Birdie punched the air.
“Oh a shisken stick is a chicken stick,” Leah said. “I love those and haven’t had them yet shince I got back.” Her vision was going. Holding up a finger before her eyes, she saw two.
“You.” Zoe jabbed a finger into Leah’s waist, hard.
“Ouch! Why did you do that?”
“Should have come home sooner,” Zoe added carefully, enunciating each word clearly, or at least she thought she was.
“I had to go,” Leah said, and suddenly there was a lot of movement, and they all staggered together to stand before her. Zoe, Nina, Birdie, and Phoebe. Cill was there behind them, and Libby too. All of them looked at Leah through unfocused eyes.
“Why?” Nina demanded.
“I think she’s really shad and hiding it,” Birdie said.
“Sad?” Red interpreted from behind the bar again. “And I agree, she is,” he said, looking at Leah.
“I’m okay,” she insisted, refusing to cry again.
“You and my brother should be a thing,” Zoe said around a mouthful of shisken stick.
“Agree,” everyone including Red said.
And just like that, she felt the tears. For months Leah kept them down for Hudson. Fought not to lie down somewhere and cry for what she’d lost. Her best friend and the only family member who gave a damn about her.
And now there was the complication of Dan Duke and the realization she could easily fall in love with the man all over again, even if she still blamed him for ruining her life. The alcohol was messing with her head.
“You guys are drunk. Sit, and eat shisken sticks,” Leah said, forcing a smile onto her lips. “I need a bathroom break. Don’t eat them all.”
She then ran down the hall, past the bathrooms, and out the back door as if hell was dogging her footsteps.