out of nowhere, over a hill, a stand-alone building appeared with a tall pink neon sign in the shape of curvy woman.
“Oh, my.” Becca exhaled.
“That’s Patsy,” Joey said, dipping her head down far enough to see the sign through the windshield. She dropped her tone and said, “Let me caution you. She does not look like that anymore.”
“No?”
“Oh no.”
“We should meet her.”
Joey’s eyes met hers in the darkened car and they stared for a beat. Becca liked the way it made her body hum. She’d not felt that before and wanted to hold on to it a while longer. “Stay tuned.”
Joey opened the door, and after watching after her a moment, Becca did the same, following her through the dirt parking lot and into Patsy’s, which lived up to the sign in its dedication to neon. The interior of the place glowed with a plethora of bright signs along the walls in pinks, greens, oranges, reds, and blues. Even the liquor bottles behind the bar glowed in the dim lighting.
“Not too busy yet,” Joey said over the music, Miranda Lambert singing about damaging someone’s property. Becca grinned and bopped her head along, taking note that even in the early evening, there were already people on the dance floor, shuffling back and forth, or maybe that was the scooting. “You should see this place later tonight. Hard to find a place on the dance floor and it’ll be three deep at the bar.”
“Brewskis?” the extremely tall bartender asked. Yep, that was what they called a full mustache and crisp jeans. Becca had no idea what kind of ironing that must require, but color her impressed.
Joey nodded, and two Michelobs were slid down the bar as if it was a foregone conclusion that’s what they wanted. “Are you a regular?” Becca asked, taking a seat next to Joey at the bar. “I’m hoping you say yes.”
Joey drank from the longneck bottle sweating in her hand. “I used to frequent Patsy’s more when I was younger. Not as backwoods as it might first appear. They’re actually a very progressive group of people. This is Oregon, after all.”
“Josephine Wilder, just where in hell have you been?” The question was loud and shrill and warm. Becca peered down the bar to see a rather plump woman with a ton of red hair piled on top of her head make her way toward them with a friendly smile on her painted lips and a pointed sway of her hips.
“Patsy,” Joey told her, “opened this place when God was a baby.”
“A honky-tonk OG.”
“In the flesh. She’s going to grab your face. Gear up.”
Becca only had a moment to prepare.
“Hey there, Patsy,” Joey said.
Her face was instantly grabbed. “Baby girl, stop making me miss you so hard. You gotta come on out for a scoot more often.”
“I do miss it. Been busy at work.”
Patsy placed a hand on her hip. “Don’t I know it. Still can’t believe about Jack. I have to remind myself I won’t be seeing his face coming in for a cold one.”
Joey nodded, but Becca noticed a dip in her smile. Yeah, she was in some pain. Becca could only imagine if she lost one of her parents. Joey couldn’t have been much over thirty and now had the weight of the world on her shoulders, both through grief and her new responsibilities at the vineyard. As someone who liked to fix things, all she wanted was to make the world a little easier for Joey, who she didn’t even know all that well yet.
“And who is this?” Patsy asked, shifting her focus to Becca. She had on the brightest pink lipstick Becca had ever seen, but somehow it worked for her, amplifying her sass.
“This is my friend Becca Crawford. Probably Rebecca, but we haven’t gotten that far. She’s the general manager of The Jade, that awful hotel going in on the edge of town?”
“That’s me. Rebecca. The hateful general manager,” Becca said, extending her hand.
Patsy bypassed it and grabbed her by the face instead. “We hate that hotel. But you’re still cute enough to keep.”
Becca inclined her head from side to side in acceptance, still mid face grab. “That’s something.”
“Have some snacks and get to scootin’, you two. Is this a date?” Patsy slid a bowl of mixed nuts their way and crowed at someone else down the bar, not waiting for an answer. The woman knew how to work a room.
“You heard the woman,” Becca said, pointing after Patsy and adopting the