My Favorite Souveni- Penelope Ward , Vi Keeland Page 0,23
leg over the other, and I lost my battle with staring.
Damn, she has great legs, too.
And I hadn’t even noticed her sexy-as-fuck shoes. They were sparkly, with a thin strap that wrapped around her ankle and a tall, skinny heel. Never had I been so thankful for the stupendous job Colorado did clearing the walkways in these touristy areas before. Those things were a hell of a lot better than snow boots; that was for damn sure.
I’d been wearing a pair of black pants and a thermal, but I pulled off the thermal to change into a nice, gray dress shirt. As I pulled down the hem of the T-shirt I’d put on underneath, I caught Maddie checking me out again.
The feeling’s mutual, Mads. Totally mutual.
Out on the street, I offered her my arm. “I don’t want you to hit a patch of ice in those shoes.”
“Oh. Thank you.” She gripped my bicep, and together we strolled two blocks. I had no idea where we were going, but Maddie seemed to. Following her adventurous lead, I didn’t ask.
She stopped in front of a local bar. “This is it.”
The place had been around for years and was kind of a shithole. I was surprised she didn’t want to go somewhere fancier with the way she was dressed.
“I think they only have a bar menu, burgers and stuff. There’s a steak house on the next block, if you want something nicer.”
She smiled. “Nope. What I want is right here. You got to pick the last two adventures. Tonight it’s mine.”
I chuckled. “Whatever you say.”
Inside, a waitress told us to sit anywhere we wanted, so we grabbed a booth. I looked around. It had probably been eight years since I’d been here, but the place hadn’t changed a bit. It was dark, with wood-paneled walls and a concrete floor. Music played overhead from what sounded like a pretty decent sound system for such a crappy bar, and there was a small stage in one corner where two guys were working to set up equipment.
“Did you want to come listen to music or something? I can’t imagine you picked this place for the food.”
“I did come for the music.”
I nodded. That made a little more sense. Though I hadn’t noticed a sign in the window about a band. “Who’s playing tonight?”
Maddie smiled. “You. It’s karaoke night. The sign outside said it starts in ten minutes.”
I hated to be a buzz kill when Maddie had been so up for anything whenever I directed our adventures, but there was no way I was singing.
“I’m sorry, Mads. I appreciate that you wanted to come here for me. But I just can’t.” Skiing was one thing, but getting up on that stage without Zoe was another thing all together. It’s where she belonged.
“Okay. But I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to.”
“I didn’t realize you could sing.”
She grinned. “I can’t.”
I drank a beer, and Maddie had a glass of wine, which I noticed she downed pretty damn fast. When she was done, she stood. “I’m going to go sign up. Any special requests?”
I lifted my arms to the top of the booth and spread them out. “Surprise me.”
She said she couldn’t sing, but I assumed she was exaggerating. Who signs up for karaoke unless they can at least carry a tune? At least while sober. Although when she returned to the booth and ordered a wine and a shot, I realized her goal might be to get drunk before they called her name.
“Do you do karaoke often?” I asked.
She sucked back the shot and made a face like she’d sniffed a dead fish before slamming the glass down on the table. “I’ve never done it before.”
My brows shot up. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. I’ve never sung in public before. Well, unless you count my first apartment. I lived in a studio that had thin walls. Apparently my shower wall was next to the neighbor’s bedroom. I used to sing in the shower at night. Sometimes I’d even rock the shampoo bottle microphone when I got really into it. Then one day my sweet, elderly neighbor knocked on my door. Mrs. Eckel handed me a pie and smiled politely before she told me her dog cried every time he heard me singing. She asked if I could refrain from crooning in the bathroom from then on.”
I chuckled. “You’re full of shit. That didn’t really happen.”
Her finger traced a cross over her chest. “Swear to God.” She motioned for the waitress and