Rocked (The Everyday Heroes World) - Julia Wolf Page 0,32
which made it even harder. Veego’s mom, Lorena, brought her by the station so I could give her a kiss and a thousand hugs, then she took her over to Molly’s house.
It was probably better that way. If I’d been there to watch her drive away with Molly’s family, I probably would have needed to be locked away in a padded room.
Rhea flopped on my bed in cut-off jean shorts, a purple V-neck top, and cowboy boots. Hooligan’s wasn’t a country bar, but Rhea called her boots her dancin’ shoes and never went out without them.
“What are you wearing tonight? Something where the goods are easily accessible?” She threw one of my pillows at me, and I promptly tossed it right back.
I sifted through my closet, quietly aghast at how many flannels I owned. How had I never noticed this before? I could outfit an entire team of lumberjacks and still have plenty for myself.
“Why would I need to be accessible? I’m not screwing someone in the bar!”
The idea sent chills down my spine. There would be no public nudity or fornication in my future. Not in this small town, and not when my ex and his buddies were all firefighters—the biggest gossips I knew. They’d have that news plastered on every street corner by sunrise.
Rhea rolled to her side, propping her head on her fist. “Maybe ‘accessible’ was the wrong word. Perhaps…available to the right man?”
I snagged two hangers, holding them in front of me. “Will either of these do?”
Rhea twisted her lips, considering both dresses, then pointed to the flowy magenta silk draped over the hanger. “That one. Your eyes will look insane in that one.”
I considered it, twisting my mouth in the same way. “You’re right. This is the one.”
I wasn’t a dress girl, unless I was dancing. I loved to dance, almost as much as I loved to climb. It probably stemmed from the days my mother would take my older brother and me outside during full moons. We’d dance and play tambourine and laugh our heads off.
I knocked that memory away. Those nights were some of the only good ones of my childhood, and I refused to cling to them. It was better to remember my mother being too hungover to go to work. My mother bringing home freeloading, pot-smoking boyfriends. My brother getting out of this town and state as soon as he turned eighteen, leaving me with a mother who was too dysfunctional to care for herself, let alone me. When I remembered those things, my devotion to Ellie was reaffirmed. I would never let her down in the way I was let down. Never.
On the way to Hooligan’s, Rhea got straight to business.
“Tell me about that silver fox who was out at Cooper’s Rock the other day.”
“Silver fox? He has one streak of gray!” My eyes slid to her as I drove. “I can’t believe you were at my house for an hour without asking. He’s our tenant.” I shrugged. “He rented the cottage for two months, so I’ve been friendlier with him than I have with our short-term renters.”
“Mmhmm. And what’s his name?”
“Devon.”
She rubbed her hands together. “Ooh, that’s a sexy name.”
That made me snort, in a very unsexy way. “Can a name really be sexy?”
“When it’s attached to a sexy man, sure.” She fiddled with my radio before finally turning the volume almost all the way down. “What’s Devon doing tonight?”
“No clue.” I turned into the parking lot, surprised at how busy it was already. I had to park in the farthest corner from the door. “I don’t make a habit of keeping track of my tenants.”
That didn’t mean I wasn’t wondering what he was up to. Devon didn’t seem to be the type to sit home on a Friday night.
Linking arms, we walked into Hooligan’s together, immediately welcomed by live music and the smell of beer and bodies. Most of our crew had already arrived, including Veego, and pushed a couple tables together. When we approached, Veego stood, giving me one of his sunshine smiles.
“You’re looking beautiful, Kitty Kat,” he murmured before kissing my cheek.
I pushed him away, grinning. “Thank you, but none of that soft shit, Victor. Save that for the women you’re trying to woo.”
He winked and pulled out a chair. “Your seat, madame.”
Shaking my head, I sat down and greeted all the guys from Veego’s station, and the ones from mine. It wasn’t often this entire group got together, but the guys from each station liked