Mindy 6
I didn’t go home that night. Instead, I stayed in one of the provided cabins… alone. I had to think this offer through, which I did for what seemed like the entire night. If I got any sleep at all, I couldn’t feel it. I must have looked at the time on my phone at least once an hour.
And when morning light washed through my room, I was no closer to deciding than I had been the previous night.
Part of me wanted to do it, wanted to take Tammy’s offer and make it work for me. Make it work for her and Jimmy. I knew I could not only run Dirty Coyote, but I could improve its revenue as well. I had some ideas… like naming some of our in-house drinks after some of the bands and charging a bit more for them. I also thought holding a dance contest ever couple of months would bring in more customers on our slower nights… not that Dirty Coyote had very many slow nights, but still, it would be fun. We could get local businesses to sponsor the contests and offer a grand prize worth a few thousand dollars. Locals would love it, and so would the folks in Cricket.
And why we didn’t serve our own beer was a mystery. The folks at Last Call would certainly be willing to brew up a Coyote special. Plus, there were a few more ideas percolating that I knew would be game changers for the place.
But the other part of me, the part that wanted to open my own dance studio, didn’t want anything to do with running an entire dance hall. The thing was, Dirty Coyote wasn’t just a dance hall. Folks planed weddings in this place, and private parties. Then there was all the food and liquor that had to be ordered. Not to mention the upkeep of this place.
What exactly would I be in charge of doing? Everything? I couldn’t do everything and still hope to open my own dance studio any time soon.
“I’m overwhelmed,” I said to myself in the bathroom mirror. I had finally rolled out of bed, and turned on the shower, hoping to wash away all my self-doubt. It was then I remembered my mantra once again… I don’t do overwhelm.
I said it out loud to the concerned face in the steamy bathroom mirror. “I don’t do overwhelm.”
She didn’t seem convinced.
I pushed my shoulders back, stared down at all those confused emptions, and this time, I screwed up my conviction. “I don’t fucking do fucking overwhelm.”
I fucking believed it this time.
That got me going, I finished getting dressed, and even put on a little makeup. I’d brought an overnight bag just in case I ended up spending the night with Dion, never dreaming I would be considering spending the night with Arlo… not that we did… spend the night together, but we most certainly could have. If Tammy hadn’t laid all of this on us, we could be sleeping together right now in a tangle of blankets and glorious limbs.
Thing was, after Tammy laid all that on us, no way could we sleep together. We needed to take a breather and seriously consider this opportunity. If, in fact, it was an opportunity or just a delay tactic.
Arlo’s band was just getting some major recognition, and I knew none of them wanted to screw that up, especially Arlo. I’d heard that this whole idea of taking a six-month break had been all his idea, so it had to work for them, or he would never live it down.
This offer might require more time than he was willing or capable of giving. They came here to write their next album, not have Arlo run Dirty Coyote’s talent agenda.
But Arlo was a big boy, in more ways than just his age. I felt certain he would come up with the right decision that would do right by Dion and Jackson and still help Tammy and Jimmy out when they needed it most.
As I pulled on a pair of clean stretch jeans that I’d slipped out of my overnight bag, I knew that whatever I decided, couldn’t be influenced by whether or not Arlo joined me in this crazy endeavor. It had to be because I saw it as a way to learn how to run a large-scale business. I knew this experience would benefit me in the long run, and not because it would bring me closer to Arlo and Dino. Running a business on this scale was exactly what I wanted to own one day.
Jackson and I weren’t even close to having any kind of a relationship, and that was fine by me. Not that I was actually in a relationship with either Dino or Arlo. At the moment, it was just sex, pure hotter-than-a-branding-iron, sex. And I loved it… at least for the time being.
As far as a long-term relationship went, I didn’t see the possibility at the moment. I mean, yeah, there were a lot of group relationships in this area of the world, but it didn’t mean I could be in one, nor was I sure I wanted to be in that kind of over-the-top relationship.
Seemed like a lot of men to keep satisfied. I’d already had sore lady parts with just one man; what would it be like with two? Or even three?
Holy shit!
“I can’t even imagine,” I said, as I grabbed my purse, along with my small overnight bag, and walked out the front door. The sun hit me squarely in the eyes, causing me to stop walking so I could search for my shades. I usually kept them in the side pocket of my soft-pink Michael Kors bag. One that had seen better days. If this thing worked out, and if there was any real money involved, I intended to go online and buy myself a new bag.
I so deserved it.
I found the shades, slipped them on, unlocked my SUV, and shoved everything inside. Five minutes later, I walked into Dirty Coyote for a meeting that could potentially change the course of my entire life.
“PLEASE READ EVERYTHING over carefully,” Jade Whitaker said as we sat at an oval table in a conference room backstage. I knew Jade from Last Call. She came in every Friday night after work for a glass of wine and a mess of spicy wings. She always sat at the bar, alone. I got the feeling her law firm took up most of her time. Never once had I seen her with a guy. Didn’t know what was up with that, but Jade didn’t seem to be looking, either. If a guy tried to hit on her, she’d get rid of him before he could get his name out. She simply wasn’t interested.
Jade was a tiny, petite woman around my age, maybe a bit older, with long blond hair, and an attitude that told me she was all business… her client’s business. She was one of those tough, no-nonsense lawyers who always got the job done, no matter what that meant.
“We don’t want anybody second guessing these documents,” Tammy said, as she sat next to Jade. “This shouldn’t take long, but if it does, that’s okay too. We want everyone to be happy, or at least content with the terms.”
I had no idea this large room even existed before this meeting. Somehow, I thought we would be meeting at the main bar out front, or in Tammy’s office or Jimmy’s, but not in a designated conference room. And speaking of Jimmy, he was missing from all of this. I wondered just how much rest he needed. I hadn’t actually seen him since my first interview, and that was only in passing.
Of course, he could be anywhere. This dance hall was way bigger than I’d originally thought. Even more reason for me to be apprehensive about taking over.
There were several people seated around the table I didn’t know, and a few I’d only recently met. Tammy read my mind and asked everyone to introduce themselves.
“I’m Colt Johnson, the current bar manager. I order all the liquor, do all the scheduling of the bar staff, and try to make Tammy and Jimmy’s lives a bit easier. Hoping to keep that going while they get the break they deserve. I’m here to help.”
I’d met Colt once before, but only in passing. Now that I saw him up close, I realized he was far too handsome to be working behind a bar. And that smile… holy hell!
As he spoke, and I stared at his strong chin, those deep blue eyes, and a wicked smile that could give a girl a wet dream if he tossed it her way. I knew CindyLou Geller, who also sat at the table, must have a difficult time, not wanting to jump his bones every other minute. They were in one of those plural relationships, she, Colt, Scotty, and of course, Mickey. All three of them had killer bodies and faces that could stop a girl dead in her tracks.
I’d never seen so many good-looking people in one place. It felt as if Tammy and Jimmy had put out a request: only the most beautiful people need apply. I tried my best not to be so shallow, but I couldn’t help noticing that all the men in this room were drop-dead gorgeous, and the women were so striking they made me feel like the runt of the litter. Yes, Tammy was older, and wore big hair and tight clothes, but there was no doubt, the woman still could make a person do a double take on that flawless face of hers. I wondered how this happened. How the hell could all these pretty people also be a group of the most competent people around? Tammy and Jimmy sure knew what they were doing when they hired all these folks, but did they know what they were doing when they asked me to run this place with Arlo by my side?
The jury would be out for a very long time on that one.
“Hi, I’m Daniel Green, the head chef.” I hadn’t met Daniel yet, and I knew just by looking at his kind eyes, that we would hit it off. Daniel had an English accent, looked as if he might be in his mid-thirties, and reminded me of a young Denzel Washington. The two men even had the same beautiful smile.
“I take care of all the private parties and weddings that are booked through various local events planners, mostly June Maplewood, from Cricket,” he said with a deep, baritone voice. He wore a long-sleeved steel gray t-shirt that showed off a muscled chest. I figured his second home had to be the local gym. “My kitchen staff is used to creating down-home dishes, to high end cuisine. No need to give the kitchen or its staff a second thought. We’ve got everything covered.”
“Daniel has only been with us for six months, but when he says he has the kitchen covered, he means it,” Tammy said, looking extremely happy when she gazed over at him. “His staff can handle anything, and he’ll give you plenty of warning if and when he has to hire more folks to handle an event.”
“Thanks Tammy, you’re the best,” he said, before we moved on to CindyLou.
“As some of you know, I have a lot on my plate,” she began. She wore a black Beatles T-shirt, that I envied. I had always been a big fan, mostly due to my mom who told me stories of how she and her friends never had enough money to afford tickets to their concerts but would always find a way to sneak inside. “While I was honored that Tammy discussed running this place with me, I knew I wasn’t the right person for the task. Whereas I know in my heart that Mindy will do an excellent job, and I am more than willing to help her with everything and anything she needs. I hope you’ll take the position, Mindy. We’re all here to support you as best we can. Emma, over at Last Call, can’t say enough good things about you. She’s sorry to lose you, by the way, but she knew she couldn’t keep a talent like you for very long… not without a huge promotion, which she couldn’t do at Last Call. I’m hoping you take this position, and so is everyone else at this table. And let me just say it one more time, we’re all here to help whenever you need it.”
There was a momentary awkward silence when everyone’s attention fell on me. Even Arlo held his breath for an answer.
“How could I refuse?” The words tumbled out of my mouth so fast I hardly recognized my own voice. “Just so we’re clear… I’m going to need a lot of help. Especially in the beginning. So I intend to pull y’all into my web.”
“You’ll get quite a bit of training from me, doll,” Tammy assured me. “So don’t you worry about a thing. Jimmy and I won’t leave until you and Arlo feel confident with the reins. Now let’s get to work.”
And for the next two hours we came together like a well-oiled team and everyone pitched in, even Kieran, the twenty-something sound guy discussed his music picks for the next week. To my complete delight, I learned that these kinds of meetings took place every Monday morning, at the same time. They or rather, we went over what happened last week, which included who played on stage, what private parties took place, what was the drink specialty at the bar, what music played whenever a band wasn’t onstage, what worked, what didn’t work and what were we still not ready to give up on. We even discussed my dance lessons, down to how many folks took the lessons, and did it have any positive impact on our customers, and what did that positive impacts translate into.
Things then went into dollars and cents, cost verses revenue. The meeting was so detailed that some of it went right over my head, while most of it stuck. All I knew was I had the night off, but tomorrow I would shadow Tammy from six p.m. until closing at two a. m.
My thinking I could drag my feet with finding an apartment just vanished. I needed to move ASAP, even if it meant I would be living in one of Tammy’s cabins for a while. Plus, I had to give Emma at Last Call my notice that I was leaving, like very soon. Or I could hire someone to take my place at Last Call, for the dance lesson part, and still hang onto my business plan. She or he would be my first employee. Did I have time for all of that, plus learn everything I needed to learn to run Last call?
OMG!
My head was swimming until I reminded myself… I do not do overwhelm.Fuck no!
Once the meeting ended, and Jade Whitaker showed us where to sign, I felt better about the entire business venture. She and Arlo were deep in conversation while I signed everything, then Arlo and Tammy moved to the end of the table to chat. I didn’t know what it was all about, but I just kept signing. I even felt elated about it. The monthly salary more than compensated for the task, which, if I were frugal, meant I could open my own business even sooner.
I was born to do this… to take over Dirty Coyote for the next year and make it even better and more efficient than it already seemed to be. I wanted to make Tammy and Jimmy proud. Wanted them to feel relaxed on their hiatus, like they’d left their baby in good hands… my hands… and Arlo’s, of course.
I could do this… we could do this!
And when it was all over, I’d be a fucking business maven.
As we all filed out of the room, Arlo took me aside and asked me to meet him at Sandy’s Coffee Bake Shop just down the block on the right. I had no idea what he was talking about, but any place that had the word bake in its name, had to be my kind of coffee shop.
“Sure,” I told him, then headed out the front door, and up the street.
I found the shop without any problem. There was a short line outside the front door of people waiting to be seated. In situations like these, I always headed straight for a counter, if they had one… which they did. I took one of the two empty seats at the far end, and almost immediately, a tattooed woman, around my age, asked what I’d like to drink.
“A mimosa,” I told her, without knowing if they even served such a pleasurable drink.
“We have several, but my favorite is made with pomegranate liquor,” she said with a lilt to her voice.
Like I said, this was my kind of coffee shop. There were booths mostly, even in the center of the place, and everything was either white, orange, grass green or burgundy. It had the definite ambiance of a coffee shop, but with a western feel to it.
“Bring me that one,” I eagerly told her. “And a coffee, with cream and sugar, please.”
“You got it, babe,” she said, and I had to smile at not only her cowgirl accent, but at the fact that she called me babe. I loved this place already. Loved the fact that I was surrounded by ranching folks, and cowboys… plenty of cowboys.
And there was one in particular headed my way, only this cowboy wasn’t who I was expecting.
“Mindy,” Jackson said, as he tipped his hat my way.
“Jackson.” He took the stool next to me. “I was expecting Arlo.”
“He couldn’t make it.” Jackson wasn’t much on facial expression. He seemed more like a man of grunts and very few words.
“So, he sent you?”
I didn’t understand any of this. Why would Arlo send Jackson when Arlo and I had a lot to talk about, namely what we thought of the two-hour meeting this morning.
“Don’t look so surprised. I know a thing or two about the music business as well.”
My confusion gained more and more traction with every full sentence that came out of his mouth.
“I don’t know what that means.”
He finally turned and looked at me, like he wanted to have an actual conversation. “It means, Arlo can’t take on Jimmy’s duties. As much as he wanted to work with you, and as much as Tammy counted on him to work with you, the three of us talked it over last night and decided it would be best if I took his spot.”
“When you say the three of us, who might you be referring to?”
“Arlo, Dion, and me. The three of us.” He spat out the words as if I should have already known this information, but I thought he was referring to himself, Arlo, and Tammy.
The cowgirl delivered my drinks, then looked over at Jackson. “Something to drink?”
“Coffee. Black. Sugar. Glass of water. Thanks.”
And off she went to fetch his drinks. His gaze fell back on me.
“Why?” I asked, wondering why Arlo had suddenly changed his mind about this without talking to me first. He could have at least mentioned it this morning before the meeting.
“Arlo and Dion write most of the lyrics to our songs, plus most of the music. I come in when they get stuck and need a new perspective, which hardly takes any time at all. I play bass, keyboard, and harmonize. When they go into full-on creative musician mode, like they will be soon, I mostly hang around all day, do a little research on what bands are hot, and which bands are up and coming. Also, what songs are trending. That kind of helps them write our new songs. That’s usually how I participate, at least until we put it all together and play what they’ve written. The only reason Jimmy and Tammy wanted Arlo is because he’s family… distant but still family.”
“Why didn’t he tell me all this before the meeting?”
“He didn’t want to influence your decision.”
I took offense. “My decision wasn’t based on him. It was based on my own reasons.”
“That’s good then, but Arlo’s one of them worrying kind of folks. He doesn’t always come out and say what’s on his mind. Instead, he takes a backseat and lets things play out.”
“Might not be a good trait for booking talent, so what makes you the better choice?”
I was trying to rattle his cage a little, but so far, this bear of a man didn’t seem to want to bite.
“Unlike Arlo, who only kind of knows what’s hot in country music, I live and breathe the stuff. Tammy thinks otherwise, but she doesn’t know Arlo as well as she thinks she does. It’s in my blood. Has been ever since I first played guitar when I was a teen.”
I took a couple of big gulps of my delicious pomegranate mimosa and instantly knew I’d made the right choice. Miss Cowgirl delivered Jackson’s black coffee, to which he added three packs of raw sugar, stirred, then wrapped his big hands around the large, yellow mug, like he appreciated the warmth of it, and took his first satisfied sip.
Okay, so the guy was growing on me, in a good way.
“You started playing music as a teen?”
“More like two. Had a kiddie piano. Liked to dance with my mom or anybody who would dance with me. Called it be-bop.”
Be still my heart. A dancer at two years old. How was this even possible?
“I thought Dion said you couldn’t dance.”
He took a couple more sips, then put the cup down on the counter and leaned in towards me. “He lied. Granted I’m not good at line dancing but give me a waltz, and the dance floor is mine.”
Then he smiled, and all that animosity I’d been feeling for him slipped away. Still, I wasn’t about to give into this big cowboy just because of his wicked smile.
“Fine, but you and I are cut from two very different country cloths. I don’t know if we can work together, and that’s important.”
“Maybe those cloths aren’t as different as you think. They just appear that way on the surface.”
“So, like what… do you know psychology too?”
“I read a lot. Like I said, I get a lot of downtime.”
I stared into his big green eyes for a moment. First time I noticed that this big, burly cowboy had green eyes. Made me appreciate him more. I was a sucker for green eyes on a guy. They were so rare. My dad had green eyes, and I adored him. Only met one other guy who had green eyes, and I instantly fell in love with him… too bad he was a Catholic priest.
Could I fall for Jackson? I didn’t know, but at this point, I didn’t know much about anything.
“So, what’s good here?” I asked him, not wanting to think about anything else, let alone working next to Jackson instead of Arlo.
He picked up the menus and handed me one. “They make the best pancakes this side of the Rockies.”
“And you’ve tried a lot of pancakes, have you?”
He grinned, and those damn green eyes of his lit up like starlight on a bleak night. “Like I said, I have a lot of downtime.”
And just like that, magic happened.