hundred-thousand-dollar sports car. JL had told him a dozen times about the Pier’s western-themed fiftieth-anniversary party, and if he was going to make Tarpon Springs his home, he needed to try to blend in. As he looked around at the motorcycles, pickup trucks, and old cars, he knew that a wardrobe change wouldn’t really do the trick. He held a new Stetson in his hand as he opened the door of the Pier, feeling too self-conscious wearing it. The first person he saw when he walked into the bar was Travis. Enzo couldn’t help but laugh because the man looked exactly the same way he looked every single day. “Texas,” Enzo said with amusement.
“Enzo, my man. Lookin’ sharp.” Travis patted his shoulder. “Hat goes on your head.” He pointed to the Stetson.
Enzo put it on and walked with Travis toward their usual booth in the back by the pool tables, except the pool tables had been replaced tonight by a giant dance floor and a live band. The gang was all there: Jack and Chrissy, Slade and Jessica, Tony and Francesca, and Cain and Violet.
“Well, don’t you make a nice cowboy, sugar,” Jamie Lynn said, looking more like herself than he’d seen her in weeks. “What are you doing here?” she said in that slow southern drawl he loved. He felt her body press close behind him, and her sultry voice reverberated through his body, causing his cock to stand at attention. Even when she didn’t mean to, she turned him way the hell on. He turned and stepped half a foot back to take her in. He hadn’t seen her before she left because he’d been at the Academy training, and his hat almost fell off his head when he saw what she was wearing: short Daisy Dukes and a plaid shirt tied above her navel. Her hair was spiky with blue streaks today; one hand was on her waist and the other one held an empty tray. Her stomach was still flat, but her breasts were fuller. Her lack of clothes put all her tattoos on display. “Are you here to check up on me, Pretty Boy?”
The nickname that used to bother him didn’t anymore. But it did represent the very reason she thought they couldn’t be together. She thought he was a preppy, entitled snob, which was precisely why he was at the Pier on a Tuesday night instead of at the office or at her house working, as he’d been doing since returning from Brazil. He was going to show her how fun he could be.
Before he had a chance to respond, Jamie Lynn was lifted off her feet by a man with similar blue hair in a fauxhawk, gauges in his ears, and rings in his eyebrows. She squealed, dropped her tray, and wrapped her arms around the man. “Leo! Oh my God, where’ve you been? You okay?”
“Yeah, hon, I’m fine. Was staying with some friends while on probation. Heard the cops stopped hanging around.” Leo put her back on her feet.
Jamie Lynn glanced at Enzo. “Yeah, they’ve stopped coming by. I’m almost done with my painting.”
“Yeah? Can’t wait to see it.”
“That makes two of us,” Enzo said, standing next to her.
“Leo, this is Enzo. Enzo, this is Leo.” She led them to the rest of the group and introduced Leo. Leo shook everyone’s hand, and then Jamie Lynn pulled him toward the bar, leaving Enzo to yet say one single word to her. He looked back at the group of friends to find Violet glaring at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Unless someone else steps up to the plate, she has a right to date.”
“Is that what that is, a date?” he asked, looking back at Jamie Lynn mixing drinks while Leo leaned over the bar chatting with her.
“Not sure. Never met the dude. But I could see the wheels turning in your head.”
“Nah. There’s no wheels. I’m just giving her space to grieve. But she knows how I feel.”
“JL’s a tough nut to crack but once you get in there, she’s warm and gooey and will do anything for you. The problem is that you have to get in there. Keep digging, Enzo. You don’t want someone else raising your baby.”
The thought made him see red. Violet was the sweetest woman he’d ever met, and Cain was a lucky man. She squeezed his forearm and gave him an encouraging smile before going back to sit on Cain’s lap. He gazed at Jamie Lynn from across the