Chapter Thirteen
Krystina
David Briland was the most civilized man I thought I would find here. He worked at the bank and had graduated from university in Philadelphia so he had done the whole back East thing as well. Plus, he was handsome and funny and our costumes matched. So before I knew it he was leading me onto the dance floor.
As soon as we started dancing David was nearly thrown out of the way by Gentry.
“Not exactly proper dancing etiquette,” I informed him.
“If you haven’t noticed Ms. DeLouch, this isn’t exactly the ballroom at Buckingham.”
“Manners are still to be expected.”
“Honey, I’m a cowboy poised as a firefighter, manners aren’t in my hat tricks.”
I sighed as he wrapped my arms around his neck. “The point of this intrusion? Davis is a very nice man.”
“Briland is a bore. So he should be your type.”
“I have no type Gentry. Note you and then…”
“Don’t even say his name.”
“He was a horrible husband but he was a decent human being.”
“I doubt that,” Gentry said as we swayed to the music. I doubted it too but I wasn’t about to tell Gentry so.
“This isn’t answering the why you cut in question.”
“I don’t know. Just did.”
As we made circle around the dance floor I saw Brittany the nurse, giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to a cowboy. “Looks like some things changed. Took her moments to get over you.”
“Probably twice as long as it took you.”
I felt slapped and pulled away. Or tried to, he wasn’t letting go.
“That’s not fair… that was never fair,” I yanked my arms from his. “I waited for you. I waited.” I left Gentry in the middle of the dance floor and was fighting my trapped tears and trapped furry when a small dainty woman in her late forties stopped me.
“Krystina!” the woman was ever energetic. Course we all had been drinking. “Oh this dress does look amazing on you. What are you drinking? Let me get you another.”
“I am sorry,” I started. “Have we met?”
“Oh not officially. I’m Carla – Ed’s ‘old lady’. He has told me so much about you, feels like we’ve met.”
“That’s fine. My apologizes. I haven’t had enough time with Ed to hear all about you.”
“There’s nothing at all interesting to hear. Come, let’s grab a drink and that table in the corner and I’ll give you the 4-1-1 on everyone here. I own the bar in town. So if there’s gossip I know it.”
“From small towns to big cities, human nature never changes and gossip is always the rage!”
I sat with Carla and laughed for near an hour. Talking to the people who came to her, as they all did.
Carla was a divorce from years back and one grown daughter not around here. She and Ed have been dating just over two years and she wanted to travel. Just as soon as Ed got Gentry right where he wanted him on the ranch.
“Ed tells me there is no history with you and Gentry. But I ain’t blind. I can see things you know. Way Ed tells it, Gentry had his heart set on bringing some girl here years back. It was all about the dream of this life he envisioned.”
“What happened? When she didn’t come?” I asked barely trusting my voice.
“Rodeo’s, buckle bunnies and the bottle. Least till he got busted up one to many times and Ed called him back. Threatening a boot up the ass worse than any bull could do.”
“He’s harder than he was,” I told her staring at the guy pounding a shot in fireman yellow.
“You left the boy – this is just what the man became.”
“I never, I never, meant to leave the boy.”
***
I hoped slightly that David would find me again, but he didn’t. Damn Gentry. Always ruining things.
For as high class as Rosethorn looked martinis weren’t on the menu so I was left to the whiskey. I felt I was doing quiet fine with my liquor choice as I watched Gentry lead a red haired kitten to the dance floor. What a generically slutty costume.
I’d pull it off so much better.
Now I can say I understood Gentry’s cutting in while I had danced with David. One second I was chatting with Carla, the next I was stepping in between Gentry and the Stray.
I brushed her off and did Gentry one better. I stretched up to him and pressed my lips to his and felt his hands on my hips. He moved his mouth against mine and in my alcohol daze it was everything I remembered.
“That’s not proper dancing etiquette,” he told me when our lips parted.
“Just payback, for earlier,” I sighed.
“But fire fighters are supposed to rescue kittens.”
“I bought the damn costume I’ll rip it right off of you,” I snapped.
Our eyes met and stayed locked.
“Promise?”
I nodded and he drug me off the floor.