song I’ve never heard before. Two levels of seating are situated around a large wooden dance floor in the center.
There are a lot of cowboy boots, hats, and Wrangler jeans filling the space.
I feel awkward in my suit and tie. “I don’t think we’re dressed right for a place like this,” I call to Lily.
She holds my hand and weaves us through a crowd of people. “Who cares?”
We make it to the bar, and Lily orders us a round of shots. We shoot our drinks and order a couple of beers before taking a seat at a small high top table next to the bar.
A bowl of peanuts is on the table, and Lily plops one into her mouth. Her cheeks move as she rolls the peanut around before spitting the shell out onto the floor.
“Talent!” she shouts.
“You’re crazy.” I shake my head and laugh.
“Oh! I just had an idea. I’ll be right back!” She grabs her purse.
I watch as she talks to the bartender who nods and hands her something. She turns from the bar and disappears into the crowd.
A group of people line-dancing on the dance floor keeps my attention while I wait for Lily to return. I think about a hundred things, none of them pertaining to my life. I count the different colors of spotlight beams illuminating the floor. I carefully watch the steps the dancers make and try to predict the next move in their line dance.
“Is this seat taken?” Lily says in a horrible Southern drawl.
I turn my gaze away from the dancers to focus on Lily, and my eyes go wide when I see her. Her hair, which was up in some sort of a twisty bun for the funeral, is now down, delicate waves cascading over her shoulders. Her simple black dress used to have sleeves, but thin straps are now holding it up. The front of the dress dips down, just revealing the lace at the top of her black bra. The dress is much shorter, too, stopping a good six inches above her knees. Lastly, my eyes scan downward to her strappy black heels that I’m sure looked classy when paired with her other dress. Now, they look all sorts of sexy.
“What in the hell did you do?” I ask, bewildered.
“Borrowed some scissors from the bar. What do you think?” She turns around in a circle, showing off her restroom-bar designer skills.
“I think you might have missed your calling in fashion design.” I chuckle.
Lily laughs. “No, once you see my outfit in the light, you’ll notice that I have a ways to go. Hey, I got something for you, too.” She reaches for her chair, lifts up a cowboy hat that she must have put there when she first got back, and places it on my head.
“Where the hell did you get this? Did you use the scissors to fashion a hat out of the restroom towel dispenser?”
“No, I bought it off some guy. I tried to get him to sell me his cowboy boots, too, but he was a firm no on that one.”
She removes my suit jacket and unfastens my tie. “There.” She rubs her hands together. “Much better. You look good in a cowboy hat.”
“Thanks. You look good in a scissor-hacked black dress.”
Her smile goes wide before she let’s out a laugh. “Let’s go do another shot, and go figure out how to line dance.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, Lil. That might be pushing it.”
“Nope. We’re gonna learn. We can do it.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Yep, and you love me anyway.” She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the bar.
That I do, I think to myself.
“We are totally rocking this!” Lily exclaims as she steps on the toe of my shoe.
“Oh, yeah, Little. Dancing with the Stars is going to be knocking down your door if they ever do a country edition.”
As she leans a little too far on one of the steps, I wrap my arms around her waist, stopping her from falling.
“Here, give me your hand.” Lily threads her fingers through mine, positioning herself next to me. “Come on, just remember what Tammi said,” she says in reference to the girl who has been showing us steps for the past half an hour. “Step right behind left, step left to left side, step right foot forward, step forward on left, and pivot!”
We both pivot inward until we are face-to-face.
Lily laughs. “I don’t think we turned the right way.”
“Little Love, your directions sound like Chinese right