Making their way inside, they were seated quickly at a table near the back next to a group of guys decked out in cowboy hats and boots.
Berkley was wearing a crown and sash that read “Bride to Be”, so it surprised no one when one of the guys leaned over and said, “Bachelorette party?”
Lexie pointedly looked between him and Berkley’s outfit, then said, “What gave it away?”
He smirked, and Lexie had to admit he was smoking hot. Deeply tanned skin, sparkling blue eyes, shaggy blond hair, his blue pocket tee clinging to his biceps and the muscles of his chest. The rest of his group was equally as attractive.
“What are you ladies getting into tonight?”
“Bumming around, getting some drinks, and then later we’re going to a show,” Lexie said.
“What kind of show?”
“The male stripper kind.”
“Ahh, the Music City Male Revue,” he said knowingly.
“You’re familiar with it?”
“A bit. I’ve seen the show a few times.”
“Let me guess,” Lexie said. “You were dragged there by a girlfriend.”
That smirk again. “Something like that.”
Their waiter approached their table then, and the guy nodded at him. “I’ll let you get to it. I hope you enjoy the show tonight.”
“Do all the guys down here look like them?” Mackenzie asked, fanning herself with a laminated menu as she eyed the men.
“Don’t even think about it,” Berkley said, pointing her unopened straw in Mackenzie’s direction. “Your brother would kill me if I let you get all tangled up with a cowboy.”
Mackenzie rolled her eyes. “He’s not the boss of me.”
“Keep telling yourself that, kid.”
The table erupted in laughter, each of them knowing full well how overbearing Brent Jean could be when he went into big brother mode.
The waiter reappeared a moment later with their beers, and Lexie raised hers to the center of the table. “To Berkley…and Brent,” she said, winking at Mackenzie. They all clinked glasses and tipped them back.
By the time they made it to the Music City Male Revue a few blocks off Broadway later that evening, each of the girls was happily tipsy.
They made their way inside the club, the room illuminated by a sporadic placement of small lamps and fairy lights strung up, a big spotlight trained on a large black stage lined by thick black velvet curtains. They found seats near the front and settled in for the show.
Some time later, the opening bars of “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” blasted through the speakers, and a single man stepped through the curtain from backstage, clad in a pair of soft leather chaps, tight black underwear, and a cowboy hat.
“Oh my God,” Mackenzie said next to Lexie, and Lexie turned her head in that direction.
“What?” She asked upon seeing Mackenzie’s jaw practically on the floor.
“You don’t recognize him?”
Lexie’s gaze whipped back to the stage, just in time to catch the wink of the guy from Jack’s earlier.
“Holy shit,” Berkley said. “You mean to tell me…”
“I guess that explains why every last one of them could’ve been a model,” Jessica said with a giggle. As the group’s youngest—and least experienced—Lexie worried about how she’d handle tonight, but she proved to be a trooper, the alcohol taking the edge off any anxiety she may have had.
The volume of the music lowered, and the guy on stage said, “How we doin’ tonight, ladies?”
