Chapter 12 Audrey #2
“I can’t watch you be sad anymore. You deserve all the happiness in the world, Audrey.”
I choke back the remaining tears. They will have to come back another time.
“No crying in rhinestone cowgirl boots. It’s the law.”
We both laugh at the ridiculousness of this whole night and turn our attention to the dance floor, peering around as the lights change again.
“What the hell is this place?” I ask no one in particular.
Cheers erupt from different corners of the bar, followed by a chorus of hollering that drowns out the music.
Penny and I inch closer to the edge of the crowd as dozens of people spill onto the enormous dance floor, everyone arranging themselves in lines.
A freaking line dance, this can’t be real.
“Hey, your boy can dance, too,” Penny whispers to me, nodding towards Rhett who’s right in my line of sight.
Like he did it on purpose. He’s laughing at what some guy said next to him, moving effortlessly in his fitted Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots.
He steps like he is sure of himself, like he doesn’t have a care in the world, and my gaze softens as I watch.
The lines of men and women all dancing take a few steps towards the front of the dance floor where Penny and I are. She taps her feet and claps while I stand there completely still.
Though, it only takes one wink to break me from the spell...or put me in a new one.
“If you don’t take him, I will,” Penny says and I jerk, looking at her, forgetting for a moment she was even standing next to me.
Suddenly, everyone stops dancing, as they all grab a partner from the audience.
Penny is scooped up instantly, setting her drink down on the table behind us, but I stand there, wishing I could dissipate into thin air when a large, outstretched palm appears in front of me.
Rhett tips his head, flashing his icy eyes up at me under unfairly thick eyelashes.
“Darlin’, may I have this dance?” he asks, and without hesitation I set my drink down, and slowly place my hand in his.
I move in a trance as his grin grows wide, and he wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me into him.
The song continues, but we don’t move quickly like the other pairs.
He laces his fingers in mine, and I feel every movement, every muscle in our hands as they touch.
His grip around my waist is warm and strong, and I fear if he loosens it, I’ll fall right over.
I can’t bring myself to meet his gaze as he spins me effortlessly across the floor.
Looking at him would be an acknowledgment that whatever was stirring in me was real.
“Where’d you learn to dance like this?” I muster up the words after the silence begins to feel awkward.
“Watching my parents. They danced together any chance they could get,” he replies before unexpectedly spinning me out, and this time I do look up at him, not expecting a vulnerable answer like that.
Amid the swirl of blue eyes, bright lights, and tequila in my veins, I’m not fully convinced it was really me—Audrey Elson—dancing in a honky-tonk bar with an impossibly handsome man who called me “darlin’.
" All on the night of my engagement party.
“That’s really sweet,” I finally replied.
“You enjoying your night?” he asks, as he pulls me and spins me around, away from a rowdy group of men who were about to run into me. He puts his body between me and them without missing a beat.
“That’s a loaded question.”
“Oh yeah?” His eyebrows knit together, and we stop dancing as the song fades out.
“I wasn’t supposed to be here tonight.”
I’m unsure how much more I want to say about the matter, but Rhett's lips twitch, and he leans down closer to me.
“I disagree…I think this is exactly where you were supposed to be.” Then he dips me, pausing with his face inches from mine. My heart stops, and I tighten my grip in his hands, but I get the impression that I'm a feather in his arms.
Rhett’s eyes dilate, his lips part, and then just like that, I'm back upright on my feet, his arms at his side.
Penny’s arm loops around my shoulder, filling the space Rhett was just in.
“Thank you for the dance,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper as I tuck my now messy chocolate strands behind my ear. “You should go join your friends.” I smile and absently wave him towards the group of guys eyeing me, but Rhett hesitates, biting his bottom lip in a way that should be illegal.
“If you insist.” He reaches for my hand and pulls it to his lips, planting a gentle kiss before nodding to Penny and walking back towards his hooting and hollering friends. My hand burns hot after he drops it.
“I hope you at least got his number.”
I turn to shush her. “Stop, it’s nothing. He is just a really nice guy.”
“Whatever you say, darlin’.” She mocks him, but I ignore it, unable to think beyond what transpired during that two-minute song.
Penny and I stayed for a few more songs, and I continue to wait for my heart rate to return to a normal pace, but it never does.
Penny got us pulled into a group of people and we mingled mindlessly with a few guys.
I didn’t feel like making small talk as they asked us what we did and where we were from.
The city. Finance. Yes, really. I was quickly bored and couldn’t keep my pesky eyes from wandering about the bar, looking for a particular face that had started to feel familiar.
We didn’t run into Rhett for the remaining time, and then suddenly it was closing time, and time to leave. Penny requests an Uber as we made our way out into the night.
“Holy shit, you can really see the stars out here,” I drunkenly mumbled, my head cocked back, arm linked with Penny’s as we swayed on the sidewalk.
Loud laughter captured my attention, and I turned to see a group of guys with Rhett at the center. A cigarette dangling from the lips that I couldn’t stop thinking about.
It’s the tequila talking, of course.
A beautiful girl comes up to him and pulls him into a friendly hug. I avert my eyes, knowing I have no right for the tightness in my throat as her hands linger on his forearm. She was pretty, in a pair of bell-bottom jeans and crop top.
“How's your mama?” she asks with an accent as thick as his.
“Oh, my god I would kill for red hair like hers. Do you think it’s natural? I want to tell her how beautiful she is,” Penny mumbles, sloppily holding onto me a bit too tight.
I shush her and take a step back into the shadow of the building while we wait for the ride. Lots of people start pouring out into the parking lot but I’m still focused on him.
Rhett exhaled his cigarette smoke away from the southern belle and flashed that charming smile. “Oh, she’s doing good…”
“You tell her I said hi!”
“Will do, she’d love to hear from you.”
“And how’s Miss Mabel? Your mama was going on and on about her at the farmer's market.”
Rhett’s smile grows even larger, and he does that boyish thing where he blushes and looks away.
“Mabel is as crazy as they get, but you know I've got a thing for those wild girls.” They both laugh, an inside joke she must be privy to. Maybe everyone knew Rhett’s reputation but me.
Of course, I couldn’t know. I don’t belong here.
I don’t belong in his world. That was just a three second, drunken daydream.
“You ain't kidding, you sure do. Well, I’m glad you have her. I was beginning to worry about you up there at the farm all alone. As was your Mama.”
“She is convinced I'm going to die alone in that house, but I’m perfectly fine now that I have my girl.”
She laughs and hugs him again. “Give Mabel a big hug and kiss from me.”
“I will. Take care.” Rhett tips his head and stomps his cigarette butt on the ground beneath his boot.
It may as well be my heart.
“The Uber is here!” Penny exclaims and as she slides into the back seat, I look back one more time at Rhett, who finally sees me. He almost looks like he is going to say something, but someone else comes up to talk to him, so I take my shot and climb in after Penny.
“I had so much fun. We are definitely coming back,” Penny announces as we pull out of the lot, and I use every fiber in me not to turn around to see what wreckage is left in that parking lot. Because this is the last time I'll be seeing Rhett. I would make it a point to avoid this town.
“Count me out.”
“What? What are you talking about?” My best friend swivels in the dim backseat of the SUV.
“He has a Mabel.”
“A what? Is that a disease?” Penny gags.
“He has a girlfriend, Penny. I heard him talking to that beautiful redhead all about Mabel.”
“What the hell…I’m so sorry…”
“He hit on me all night, right? I wasn’t imagining that, right? I thought there was a spark. Of course, he has a girlfriend. I’m beginning to truly believe all men are the same.”
“Wait, you have spent the whole evening avoiding him, and telling me it’s nothing, and now you’re heartbroken?”
“I know. It just felt good to be wanted...I haven’t felt that in a long time. But I’m done…I can’t handle any more rejection.”
I’m leaving this state soon anyway.
My best friend consoled me the rest of the car ride, through her drunkenness, to the best of her ability.
But as I was falling asleep in bed an hour later, after washing the glitter off my chest, and peeling the skin-tight bodysuit off, I cried.
At least it wasn’t about Jackson this time.