Chapter Twenty- One
Krystina
I was ridiculously giddy. For the first time in my, in our lives, Gentry and I could tell the world we were together. We could be a real couple. I had to call Gloria first thing in the morning. It would be a very long call if she had the time with her busy mom schedule.
I had to pass three of my fellow Mirror Lake hands on the way to the rest rooms. Brandon and Ethan wolf whistled as I walked towards the back hallway.
Boots was leaning against the wall outside the men’s room, arms crossed, grumpy expression on his face. “After all the shit he put you through. In the last week alone, not to mention the barn incident and just like that, you’re with him.”
“Back with him,” I corrected.
“Back?”
“We were together for almost three years. Mistakes were made, pain was caused.”
“I thought you needed space, so I gave it to you.”
“I’m sorry Boots. I’ve been in love with Gentry Hollis most all my life. He is still in love with me and we’re finally, finally where we can be together and let everyone know it.”
I opened the door to the restroom and went inside. I washed my hands. Boots was frustrating. Another time, another place, another life. He was a perfect gentleman and almost as attractive as Gentry. Almost.
I was drying my hands and adjusting my hat when the bathroom door opened. I glanced over to see Brittany Morris walk in. I hadn’t noticed her when we arrived but it was crowded and I was focused solely on Gentry.
She was dressed in a similar fashion to myself but was lacking the hat. She looked in the two bathroom stalls verifying they were open and locked the main door. I tossed my used paper towels in the trash and tried to pick a persona. New York socialite bitch or redneck trash bitch. What the hell, I’ll wing it.
“He lied to me. For months, no years, I worked hard to get his attention. So damn handsome, so strong, all around cowboy, excellent ranch head. Everything I wanted and everything Daddy would accept.
“I finally managed to turn his head and finally got to play venerable buckle bunny bimbo who gets seduced. I knew that someone held him back. Someone had broken his heart. Yet I was willing to still play ball. To do everything it took to make Gentry fall in love with me.
“Six months. Six fuckin’ months I kept him distracted. Kept his bed, his front seat, the bed of his truck, wherever he pleased warm I was so close to having him for real until you showed up. So close! And he lied when he said the reason he left me wasn’t for you. But it was. It doesn’t matter though. You uppity New York Yankee bitch. You will never stay and he will come back to me.”
I was stunned for just a heartbeat. Then sad for her, disgusted I had been riding where Gentry had fucked her and God only knows who else and completely angered that she thought I would just disappear and turn him back over to her.
“Brittany, I am truly sorry that you are hurting and I can only imagine the pain a poor little girl like you is feeling over the thought of love,” back handed fake compliment bitch. Very New York.
“But if you think for one second that I am leaving him, or that he would ever go back to a buckle-bunny-good-only-for-an-eight-second-ride-bimbo like yourself, you have another thing coming my dear. So, stay the fuck away from my man. Try any funny shit and I promise you, I will fuck you up,” ah how very trailer park princess trash of me.
Brittany just glared. “Get it, got it, good,” I added and breezed past her as if she was nothing and unlocked the door and glided right on out.
I re-joined Gentry, Carla and Ed as waitress who was eyeing up Gentry, dropped off our food. I gave him a kiss and sat down with maybe just a touch of attitude.
“Everything okay?” Gentry asked and I could see him raise an eyebrow under his hat brim.
“Just peachy king. How attached are you to your truck?”
“Pretty well attached currently,” he caught a side glance at a disgruntled Brittany.
“You will shampoo the entire inside this week and bleach the bed.”
Ed chuckled.
“If you wish.”
“Be lucky I don’t just set the damn thing on fire and push it off a cliff.”
“Green never was a good color on you,” Gentry said passing me a longneck and mocking my jealousy.
“Bullshit, all colors look great on me.”
We ate and downed longnecks after longnecks. Laughing constantly with Gentry’s body always touching me in one way or another. Many faces, some familiar, most of them not, came to say hello. To meet me when their curiosity got the better of them as most had heard tale of a NYC Trophy Wife.
Young women glared at me with fake smiles. I was competition in spite of the fact I was with Gentry. Most were probably friends of Brittany’s but I didn’t care. I lost sight of Boot’s sometime later and presumed he had disappeared for the night. Brandon was feeling his oats. He had only been a legal drinker for a handful of months but he was running a marathon on his liver. Ethan had a few drinks but he was riding herd on Brandon tonight.
Not long after dinner, Gentry pulled me to the dance floor as the jukebox played in the corner. No one was dancing, but as always, things like that didn’t bother my cowboy when he wanted something. And now he wanted to dance.
His face was lit up with a smile that brought so much of the carefree boy I loved back into his face. I hadn’t seen him genuinely smile since I arrived. With that smile he became the boy in the memories my heart had clung so tightly to.
Time flew by us and soon I heard Carla give out the last call warning and she turned up the lights. Ed and Gentry gathered up trash and brought up boxes of beer to re-stock coolers. The bartender on the clock was the waitress from earlier. She finished closing out tabs and I drifted in back with Carla to help clean up for the night.
“You don’t’ have to help dear.”
“I want to. Besides, focusing on this might help me sober up,” I chuckled.
“Ed told me you were leaving on Monday. Is that still the plan? With you and Gentry now seeming to be together?” Carla took a load of beer glasses from the dishwasher and shut it down for the night.
“I don’t know. Honestly? Gentry harbors a lot of anger and resentment towards me that was there only this morning. Right now he’s okay but tomorrow? Tomorrow he might flip it back on. God I hope not. But it may go back to being the enemy by daybreak.”
“How long were you together?”
“Almost three years. Although we never told anyone. And a year of that he was here.”
“Ed said he came out here to cool off after an incident you were involved in.”
I grimaced, “It happened a few months before he made the move. He stayed as long as he could but there was trouble. It was all my fault or because of me at the very least. Because he loved me.”
There was a knock on the doorway to the kitchen. “Ready to go Krys?”
I nodded and told Carla goodnight and let Gentry gather me up. The cool air shocked me sober as we stepped into the night and I glared at his truck.
“I’ll detail it tomorrow. Buy seat covers, have a native spiritually cleanse it and a priest bless it if need be.”
I climbed in reluctantly, “Cleaning it is fine.”
“We have the house to ourselves. Ed is staying in town.”
“Well hurry home then cowboy.”