“Mary,” she raised her glass to the bartender, who was already pouring drinks for someone else, “called to tell me that the new Bobcat was here.”
Nick. He was the new Bobcat.
My brow knitted. I was thoroughly confused. “Why would she call you, and what exactly is going to happen to Nick?”
GJ sipped her beer before replying. “It’s a small town, Evie. Everyone knows everyone’s business. Mary thought that I might like to know that our VIP guest was on the docket for fifty-buck amateur night.”
“Fifty buck what?”
With a sigh, GJ set down her drink. “The Bobcats have this stupid initiation that they do to all the players. It started sometime in the eighties, long after Clarence was a player.” This wasn’t the first time that GJ’s eyes got that faraway look when she brought up her first boyfriend.
“What is it?” I asked.
Mary wiped the bar in front of us. “Those boys over there are going to make your guest enter the amateur striptease show. He won’t be able to leave the stage until he gets fifty bucks from the crowd.”
“Really? That seems very…”
“Inappropriate? Immature? All of the above?” GJ shook her head. “I thought that this might happen, that’s why I brought you here tonight.” She palmed a fifty-dollar bill into my hand.
“What?” I looked at the banknote like I’d never seen a fifty before. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“You’re going to save him from all of those, what do the kids call them these days. Hungry, no, ravished, no…” She tapped her lip and then pointed to the group of women who had started to congregate in front of the stage, a slightly raised platform with a dusty drum kit and a brass pole.
“Thirsty,” I answered GJ. “Why do I have to do it? Maybe Nick likes that kind of attention.” Jealousy burned in my guts. But Nick wasn’t mine. I had no claim over the man. I tried to give the fifty back to GJ. “You’ll have to do it.”
She and Mary guffawed. GJ leaned in and cupped herhand over my ear. “Trust your grandmother. The only person in here that Nick wants is you.” She closed my hand around the money.
My cheeks burned as red as the spotlight that lit up the stage.
The stylish woman that I’d met at the G-Spot, Charlotte, walked into the bar with a group of women. She scanned the room and then waved at me to come over.
“It’s Charlotte,” I said to GJ and waved back at the raven-haired woman.
“Go, have a seat with them. I’ll catch up with Mary, Bob, and Glen. Have fun, dear.” GJ planted her bony palm between my shoulder blades and shoved me toward the table of women. I’d been in Chance Rapids for two months, and that time had been so busy, filled with work and trying to figure out my next move in life, that I hadn’t put any effort into meeting people closer to my own age.
After weaving through the crowd, I smiled at Charlotte. “Hi,” I said.
Charlotte stood and put her hand on my shoulder. “Everyone, this is Evie. Evie, that is Lauren, my sister, Emma, she runs the flower shop in town, Serena, she’s my sister-in-law, Megan, she’s trouble, and Henri, she’s the newest transplant to town.” She pointed to all of the women around the table. Her family resemblance to Lauren was uncanny. Serena looked vaguely familiar, but that could’ve been because she looked like a supermodel. I’d seen Emma through the window of the flower shop, and the other two I’d never seen before. I would remember Henri, she was wearing a black leather jacket and Doc Martens.
“Hi, Evie,” the women chimed together.
I waved and sat next to Charlotte.
“Evie is GJ’s granddaughter. She’s in town helping her run the place over the holidays.”
Charlotte was technically right, I was helping GJ over theholidays, but after New Year’s Eve, if she decided she didn’t need me anymore, I had nowhere to go. I doubted that would happen, but it still weighed heavily on my mind that I might need to find a place to live in the coldest month of the year.
“I love that inn.” Emma smiled. “Your grandmother’s window boxes are the classiest in town.”
There was a relaxed energy between the women, nothing competitive. It was refreshing and I wondered if I had just found myself my first new friends in Chance Rapids. They were all beautiful, seemed kind, and while they shared a pitcher of beer, asked me lots of questions and even invited me to the hot springs.
Charlotte sat to my right, and Henri sat to my left. She was with a guy named Jack and had come to Chance Rapids last year to write a story on small towns at Christmas. She laughed as she told me how her plan to make the town look bad was foiled by falling in love with it, along with a mountain man named Jack Lumber.
“His name is Lumber comma Jack?” I couldn’t stop my brows from rising. “Who was his dad, Bunyan comma Paul?”
The women broke out in a fit of laughter. “His dad’s name is Bob. They have a farm outside of town. Last year their alpacas stole the show in the parade.”
“How did the alpacas steal the show?” I asked.
