“Now what?” Jacque asked.
“Now we brush each other’s hair and paint each other’s toenails.”
“We’ve never done those things on girls’ night before,” Sally pointed out.
“There’s a first time for everything, Sally dear,” Jen said.
“How about we don’t but say we did and then drink hot chocolate,” Jacque suggested.
“We could go to the bar,” Jen offered. “Didn’t you say Costin was working tonight?”
Sally nodded. “He is.”
“Perfect!” Jen smiled. “That means we have a chaperone so nobody—Fane and Decebel—can complain that we weren’t protected. I need to get my shimmy on. It’s been too long since I’ve done a good striptease.”
Jacque laughed. “You really must be past the postpartum depression if you’re ready to start stripping again.”
“I’m totally over it. It’s weird. I woke up this morning, and it was like a fog had been lifted off my brain. Everything I had been feeling just seems ridiculous now,” Jen admitted.
“Well, if we’re doing this, let’s go,” Sally said as she stood up. “Besides, we haven’t seen Jen’s boobs in a non-dairy way in a long time.”
Jacque whooped. “We can totally taunt Decebel with the fact that we saw the girls without a kid attached to them.”
Jen got up and went to the door as she shook her head at her two best friends. “And you guys call me the freak? It should totally wig me out that y’all are excited about me strip dancing.”
“We’re only excited because we’ll get an even better show when your mate finds out,” Sally said.
“We need to remember the popcorn, Sal,” Jacque said as they followed Jen from the room and out the front door. “Watching them yell at each other is just better when there’s buttery goodness involved.”
“Agreed,” Sally said, giving Jacque a high five.
“Would you two quit acting like dumb butts and get your game faces on,” Jen said, glancing at them over her shoulder.
“We’re going to a bar, not a freaking football game,” Jacque pointed out.
“There will be a limited amount of time to play once Costin texts my mate, and we know he will. So we need a plan,” said Jen.
“You mean we need a plan to get you up on a table and shaking your butt as quickly as possible?” Sally asked.
“Exactly,” Jen said, clapping her hands together. “We get in, we dance, we get out.”
“She’s doing the special ops thing again. She really must be feeling better,” Jacque said.
“What song do you want to start with?” Sally asked. “I’ll have it pulled up on my phone so I can hook it up to the speakers as soon as we walk in.”
“That’s what I like to see, someone taking initiative. You see that, Jacque,” Jen said. “You need to have that same attitude. Sally is totally making you look like a dud friend.”
“And by the look on my face, I’m sure you can tell I’m torn up about it, really I am,” Jacque said dryly.
“You’re killing me, Red. Absolutely killing me.”
They walked into the bar,and Sally went straight to the other side of the counter where the speaker cable was located.
Jen hopped up onto the bar, her wolf feeling frisky and ready to play after having to endure her human’s depression for the past two weeks. She looked around the room and smiled when she saw how many people were there. It was a busy night for dimple boy.
As soon as the music started, Jen’s body latched on to the beat and began moving of its own accord. She grinned to herself as a hip-hop artist began singing about single ladies because she knew the song was going to irritate the crap out of her mate when he arrived. And he would be arriving soon, of that she had no doubt. He’d probably drop Thia off with Alina, though, so she had a little time.
Sally and Jacque both took a seat at one of the only empty tables about twenty feet from the bar and smiled up at her. Sally’s eyes widened when Costin jumped up on the bar a few feet down from Jen and started to dance, too. And holy batman could he dance.
