Chapter Thirty
Gentry
It had been an hour since the rodeo ended and I squeezed Ed’s truck around back of Carla’s bar. He had used mine to take the ranch horses back home and had convinced Robbie to ride along.
Boots and Brandon had disappeared some time ago and Ethan slipped out just before I did. But I saw their trucks here. There really was nowhere else to go.
Ethan, the good friend he was, was leaning against the side of the building waiting for me.
“Be calm,” he warned as I walked towards him.
“I am calm.”
“You’re never calm when it comes to Krys. She makes you crazier than normal.”
“Is it as terrifying to you as it is to me that you are the voice of reason?”
“Excruciatingly painful.”
There were a handful of people standing around outside the front door. I said a brief hello and thanked them when they congratulated me and made my way inside. We opened the door in between songs from the DJ Carla had hired.
People cheered when I walked in. Okay, so I missed this part too. As close to fame as I would ever get.
I scanned the room and saw Krys against the bar talking to Jake and his kid sister Melissa. She was genuinely laughing at something Melissa had said and her eyes skimmed through the crowd and to me.
She half raised her beer to me as our eyes grazed past. The gap between us in the packed bar quickly closed and I lost her for a second. A group of girls who all appeared to be good friends and all exs of mine in one way or another swarmed to me. Bethany, Brittany, Tanya, Kayla and a red headed girl who I had slept with on at least four occasions and could never remember her name.
Dear God, I knew they were acquaintances but did they start a damn club? Or just decide to make tonight hell for me?
I shot Ethan a pleading look and he just laughed at me. I searched the crowd and attempted to avoid the gaggle of exes. Finally, I saw her again. Melissa was leading her to the dance floor.
Tanya mis-stepped to the left and I took the opening and made a beeline for Krys. I cut in between her and Melissa dancing and picked her up around the waist and spun her around with me.
“There’s my pretty little trophy wife,” I said loud enough she and everyone near us could hear.
And she slapped me across the face. Hard. The girl had some wallop. “I am not your wife nor your trophy!” she hissed as I sat her back down and she turned her attention to Melissa.
I heard hysterically laughing from the club of exes and those asshole friends of mine.
I walked over to Brandon, Ethan, Jake, and surprisingly, Boots. He wasn’t as angry with me as he had been.
“You’re horse handler doesn’t seem to like being handled herself,” Jake laughed, gasping for air.
“So she told you, and everyone else managed to know but me?” I asked taking a beer from Brandon.
“She paid me in free drinks to listen and Melissa thinks you’re an ass. I concourse. Anyone would agree even the gang of ‘Hollis Honey’s?’ I think that’s what they call themselves. Nothing to brag on no one wants your sloppy seconds,” Jake remarked.
“Speak for yourself,” Brandon said looking behind me to the girls. “Who’s the red head?”
I winced. “I wish I knew. I want to say Carli? But I’m not sure.”
“No wonder women hate you,” Ethan slapped me on the back and disappeared into the throng of people.