Chapter 17
Dan walked into the bar and was hit on all sides by noise and the color pink. It was everywhere.
“Last shots of the night!” Red roared from on top of the bar, where he had his large feet planted between glasses. “Then you all are going home. It will take me days to get this pink glitter out of my hair.”
The women all cheered and whistled at him.
“Take it off!” Dan’s mother yelled. She then placed her fingers in her mouth and whistled loud enough to make everyone wince.
Dan walked to where she stood. “Hey, Mom, your Uber’s here.”
More cheers went up as JD, and Phoebe’s brother, Caleb, arrived through the front door. They were here to drive more of the women home.
“Here’s my baby,” Robyn Duke said, pinching his cheek. “Isn’t he handsome in uniform, June?”
“So cute,” Bart’s sister said. Her eyes were crossed.
“It’s Raining Men” started playing, and everyone cheered louder. His mother grabbed one hand and June his other, and then Dan was on the dance floor, surrounded by women.
If you didn’t time your arrival just right and entered the Rollaway too soon when on taxi duty, you ended up paying the price, which he was.
Hands patted his ass, and he noted JD and Caleb had been dragged in as well. Fox was doing shots at the bar with Betsy. Bart was starting a conga line.
“You’re a saint for handling this, man,” he said to Bradford, who was dancing with Phoebe, Libby, and Cill.
They were trying to stuff money down his jeans, but he was just taking it out and handing it back to the women. “I get lots of tips,” the man said, smiling.
Dan danced and kept his eyes on the doorway, watching for Leah’s return. When she walked in, her eyes went to him and then away.
“Honey, that girl is sad,” his mother whispered loudly in his ear. “You need to make her happy again.”
“Not happening. That is over and done with, Mom, like I’ve already told you and every member of our family,” he lied.
After what happened in the Reynoldses’ kitchen, nothing was done between them, no matter how much Leah wanted to believe otherwise.
They had history, but now it was more than that…
he just wasn’t sure what label to put on it yet.
It was always amazing to Dan that his mom, who was everything that was responsible in her daily life, could come so undone at Girls’ Night. He wasn’t sure what Red put in the drinks, but pretty much every woman in here was shit-faced.
“Right! You’re all leaving now. Outside in an orderly fashion,” Red said from behind the safety of the bar as the song finished.
The women ignored him.
“Shots, shots!” they cried.
Dan sighed and left his mother after kissing her cheek and telling her to behave. Leah was seated beside Nina at the bar now, and they were having what looked to him like a heated conversation.
“Excuse me, ladies,” he said, moving between them.
Dan then stepped up and onto the bar. Whistling loudly, he waited for the noise to stop.
When he had silence, and all eyes were on him, he said, “Listen up, the law is speaking.” Some blew him kisses; others smiled.
“Those who want rides, outside now, or you’ll be spending a night in the cells. ”
“Don’t you think he’d make a wonderful stripper in his uniform?” Nancy from the Waffle Place yelled.
“I taught you in school, Deputy Dan. You’ve turned into such a lovely boy,” Maybelline Tricker added. “Couldn’t write worth a damn, and always in trouble, but so polite,” she added.
And that was the trouble with working in the town that had raised you. You got no respect from the older generation.
“Let’s get moving, ladies!” Dan called.
They gave him some good-natured booing and then gathered their bags and headed out the door for the next part of the leaving ritual.
“He’s not the boss of us,” Leah said to Red. “I need another drink.”
Red shot Dan a look. He shook his head.
“Let’s go,” he said to Nina and Leah, who were still at the bar when he jumped down. “Get in the van.”
“I don’t need a ride,” Leah said, stone-faced. “I need a drink.”
“You planning on walking all the way back to your house?” Dan asked.
She huffed out a breath.
“Move it, ladies.” He placed a hand on each shoulder and turned them toward the door.
Leah shrugged his hand off, but Nina turned and threw herself into his arms. By the time he’d wrestled her off him, Leah was out the door.
“We’ve discussed this. It won’t work, Nina.”
“Right, right. I sometimes forget because you’re sooooo hot, and I’ve had too much to drink.” She planted a kiss on his cheek. “You should get back with Leah. You’re a great couple, and she needs you.”
“Not happening,” Dan said, nudging her to the door.
“Play the music, Tripp!” June Matilda said.
The women were now all congregating in the middle of the street.
Sighing, Dan pulled out his phone, knowing no one was moving until this was done. This, too, was part of Girls’ Night.
“Shouldn’t you have that ready to go?” JD asked, sounding testy. “They do this every time.”
“Your phone not working, pretty boy?” Dan snapped back.
“What’s crawled up your ass?” JD asked. “People expect me to be an asshole like your brother, but not you, Deputy Dan.”
“Shithead,” he muttered, searching his music. He found the song and turned up the volume for the Grapevine Twist.
The women, even drunk, all formed groups. Dan saw a few odd looks from tourists, but they were soon dragged into a group.
Dan, JD, Red, Bradford and any other man who had collected their woman, watched as they stumbled through the steps like it was the first time, and they were wearing boots too big for them, and hadn’t been dancing these steps since their first day of school.
“It’s painful to watch,” JD said.
“So painful,” Dan agreed. He then stepped left, catching Cill as she stumbled back after walking into a giggling Linda. Each of the men had to rescue dancers over the next few minutes.
Leah, Dan noted, was in the group as far away from him as she could get.
“She asked me to take her home,” JD said.
“Who?”
“Leah.”
Dan wasn’t sure why that annoyed him as much as it did. “Sweet.”
“Is it, though?” JD asked him. “Sweet, I mean. Because you look like someone took your mom’s last slice of chocolate pecan pie, and it would be the only slice ever left in this world, and—” The breath whooshed out of JD’s mouth as Dan jabbed his elbow into his side.
The rumble of engines had Dan stiffening as beside him JD did the same.
“What the hell would the Bandits be doing in town at this time of night?” There were at least ten bikes, and they stopped in a line across the street.
Dan walked forward.
“No, Dan.”
“It’s all right, Mom, I got this,” he said as she grabbed his arm. “I’m a cop, remember?” He nudged her back to Dr. Hannah, who looked spitting mad and was shooting daggers at the bikers.
“What do you want?” Dan asked Grill, the man who was straddling the middle bike, a huge machine with gleaming chrome and shiny black paint. Had that been his signature on that document?
“Well now, little Duke, we heard there were some ladies in town needing entertainment.” He smirked at Dan.
“That’s Deputy Little Duke to you,” Dan said. “And these women don’t want anything from the likes of you, so clear off.” He felt JD move to his right and Red to his left.
“Aww, that’s cute, a show of strength from the town wimps,” Grill said with a smirk, his words making the other bikers laugh.
Dan wanted badly to bring this man down, and he would do everything he could to achieve that.
“You go on and turn that bike around now, Grill. It’s the only thing you’ll be riding in this town tonight.”
The words had been spoken by Dee from behind Dan.
“Do you know what I’ve always noticed about men like that Grill?”
Dan identified that voice as June Matilda.
“What’s that, Junie?” Mrs. C. said.
“They put up a fierce front, but underneath they’re just scared, lonely, sad men who struggle to make a woman happy.”
“We’ve got this now, thanks, ladies,” Dan said as JD snorted.
“What the hell did you say to me?” Grill roared.
“Well now, clearly he’s not too smart either,” Dr. Hannah said. “Maybe if you speak more slowly, Junie.”
Grill actually growled, deep in his throat.
“Look behind you,” JD said into Dan’s ear.
He turned and found all the women lined up behind them.
“Hello, sweetheart,” one of the bikers said suddenly. “I’m Reek.”
Turning Dan saw Leah had moved to the front line.
“Want a ride on my bike?”
He leered, and Dan felt the bite of anger. But before he could speak, Leah did.
“I’ve never been impressed by men who have to intimidate people to make themselves feel important.”
Reek’s smile fell. “You watch your mouth, little lady.”
“And here’s me looking six shades of worried,” Leah drawled in that tone he’d once loved. Sassy Leah hadn’t come out to play since she returned. Dan found himself smiling at her words.
“What are you smiling at, pig?” Grill glared at Dan.
“Leave town, Grill,” Dan said. “But before you go”—the smile fell from his lips— “I’ll warn you that if you ever speak to her, or any of these women, like that again, I’ll make you sorry.”
“Aww, my hero,” June Matilda sighed.
“Fuck you, Duke,” Grill snarled.
“Language, young man!” Bart roared.
“Now which one of you ladies wants a ride?” another biker asked.
“Me.”
Dan turned and saw SJ with a flirty smile on her face.
“SJ, you move a foot in their direction, and I’m dropping you,” Phoebe said.
“I do believe I’m a little bit scared of my sister right now,” Caleb added. “That was her mean voice.”
What surprised Dan more than Phoebe’s words was the fact that SJ did as she was told.
“That’s a no, so leave,” Dan said.
“No Duke gets to tell us what to do. Especially the youngest, who is a pig,” Grill hissed. He then got off his bike.
Dan moved out of the line and met him in the middle.
“If anyone hurts my baby, I won’t be happy.”
“It’ll be all right, Mom,” Zoe said from behind him. “If he touches my little brother, I’ll break his face.”
“That’s my girl,” JD said.
Family, Dan thought. You can’t live with them or without them. He stopped before Grill. The biker was big, but then so was Dan.
“Not sure what had you leaving your cage tonight, Grill, but we don’t want you in Lyntacky. So you and your friends need to leave town, and this time stay out. This is ladies’ night. They’ve had fun, and now they’re going home. For them to do that, you need to move those bikes.”
“I think the problem is, these boys have no direction,” Mrs. C. said. “My son’s like that. Useless as the g in lasagna. Find a direction, boy,” she said, stomping closer.
“Go back, please, Mrs. C.,” Dan said.
“Boredom in the young, I’ve always said, is going to be the ruination of society,” June said, joining Mrs. C., who had ignored his warning and was now standing beside Dan.
“You need to find yourself a purpose, young man,” Dr. Hannah agreed, joining her friends. “And get off your cellphone. It’s not good for posture.”
Dan could hear the muffled laughter of JD and Red.
“And you”—Mrs. C. jabbed a finger at Reek—“should know better at your age. Go home, you old fool, I’m sure getting those leathers on can’t be easy for someone of your advanced years.”
“We’re starting a literacy class for anyone who didn’t learn enough in school this week. It’s held in the library on Thursday evenings,” Dan’s mother said. “Maybe you should all enroll because it seems to me you need something to occupy your time other than this skullduggery.”
“That’s an excellent word,” Dr. Hannah said.
“Jenny found it in a book and said she’d always wanted to use it,” Robyn Duke said. “I’ll be able to tell her tomorrow that I did.”
“I can read!” Grill snarled.
“Really? That does surprise me,” LouJean said.
“Ladies, you really need to move back,” Dan said, knowing that no one would listen to him. Grill was looking a little tight around the eyes now. “Leave, or I’ll let the women have you,” he added.
Grill sent him a look that said this wasn’t done, and then he and his buddies got on their bikes, revved the engines, and roared out of town.
“I think you should start a new crime-fighting force and enlist all of them,” Caleb said, waving a hand at the women, who were all chatting like they’d just had book club and not a run-in with a mean biker gang. “Send this bunch in to defuse any situation.”
“You could be onto something,” Dan said, looking for Leah. He found her getting into a car with Fox and Betsy.
Shit.