Page 48 of Icebound Hearts
“Me? Never! But I’m surprised Reese let you go out without him.”
“He’s watching sports, so I don’t really think he minded,” she says, and we share a laugh as I hug Margo and Becca too.
“Come on, let’s get inside and get a spot before this place gets any more crowded,” Callie calls and swings open the bar’s heavy front door.
A wall of thumping music washes over us, and I can’t stop beaming at the sound and the sight of the lights flashing inside over the heads of a huge crowd of people dancing. It’s as much a club as it is a bar, which I wasn’t expecting, but I’m not disappointed. It’s been way too long since I’ve been to a place like this, and I can already feel the itch to dance.
We all link hands so we don’t get separated and work our way through the crowd to the bar toward the back of the main room. It’s packed with people, just like the rest of the place, but there’s at least enough room here that we can spread out and hear each other speak while we wait to order a drink.
“Can you believe you’re getting married soon?” Callie says to Margo, who laughs brightly.
“Yes and no! I still have so much to plan, but it’s right around the corner.”
“I didn’t know you and Noah were getting married already!” I tell Margo, putting a hand on her forearm. She smiles at me.
“Yeah, we’ve been kind of keeping it quiet just so the press doesn’t have a field day with it or—god forbid—crash the wedding. You’re invited, obviously!”
“I don’t think I’ll still be in town when it happens,” I tell her regretfully. “I’ll be moving out to California soon for a new job.”
“So we heard,” Becca says. “That’s exciting. Let me know if I can help you find a place to stay out there or anything, I still have lots of friends in LA.”
“Oh, that’s right! I totally forgot you used to live out there.”
“I try to forget about it too,” she says, and we all laugh again before the bartender signals us over to take our order. I can’t hear what the other girls order, but I go for a gin and tonic just to keep things simple and easy, and bounce on my heels to the music while I wait.
When we all have our drinks, Callie raises hers. “To the Aces girls! Let’s have a blast tonight.” We cheer and clink our glasses together, then take healthy sips of our booze. I don’t drink very often, and the bartender made my drink super stiff, so it burns all the way down and I can’t stop myself from puckering up.
I shoot a sour look at the bartender—a hot, ripped guy with golden-brown hair in his late twenties wearing a very revealing, form-fitting tank top—and he chuckles.
“Too strong?” he calls over the throbbing bass, but I just make anokaygesture at him.
“Perfect!”
“Just like you,” he calls back, and I spin around as the girls all devolve into giggles like we’re back in high school.
“Oh my god, is he flirting with you?” Callie says in my ear before glancing over her shoulder to take another look at him. “Get it, girl!”
“I’m definitely not here for that. Let’s go dance,” I say back and grab her by the arm to drag her away from the bar into the crowd.
“Finally! I’ve been waiting for this,” Becca says, holding her drink over her head and slinking out into the crowd like it’s where she belongs. But the woman’s a professional dancer, so of course she’s right at home. We stick together, all four of us swaying to the music and laughing, and I realize just how badly I needed something like this without even knowing it.
But it’s hot and stuffy on the dance floor, so my drink goes down quickly. I suck on the ice until there’s none left, and when I can’t fight contact with the flirty bartender anymore, I tell Callie I’m going to get a refill before forcing my way through the tangle of bodies back to the bar.
“Welcome back,” the bartender says with a warm smile when I put my empty glass on the bar. “Another gin and tonic?”
I’m feeling the alcohol already, and I don’t really want to have to come back for another soon, so I summon some liquid courage and nod at him. “Yeah, and make it a double this time, please!”
The bartender raises his eyebrows at me as he swipes my glass off the counter to replace it with a clean one. “And here I thought you were a lightweight!”
“I’m more of a seasoned pro than you’d think.”
The bartender’s blue eyes drift up to mine while he pours a seemingly endless amount of gin in the glass, and a hint of a smile appears at the corner of his mouth as he finishes pouring with a flourish. “Oh, I don’t find that hard to believe at all. I bet a pretty girl like you is all kinds of fun.”
He’s one hundred percent flirting with me, but I still find it kind of hard to believe, so I just watch with a smile as he tops off the glass with some fizzing tonic water from the hose built into the bar. He tops it with a lime wedge and thin black straw, then slides the drink over to me.
“This one’s on me.”
“For what?”