“No.” Wynn pulled Ketch back to the conversation. “I must have caught her on an off night. She turned me down.” WW grinned. “Besides, I like my women to participate. If I’m drunk, I want a wild roller-coaster ride, not a dead fish.”
Ketch wouldn’t be surprised if WW was a virgin. He was always bragging, but in three years Ketch had never seen a girl look interested in him. Even with his granddad’s oil money, he couldn’t find a date.
Three girls wearing sorority sweatshirts neared their table. They started talking to WW, but they kept glancing at Kincaid. Wynn introduced him as the smartest guy in the class, and all three blondes smiled as if WW had said, “He’s richer than me and available.”
Ketch raised his beer in salute but didn’t smile. They were probably barely twenty-one, five years younger than he was. He was too old to fit in with students who graduated from high school a few years ago. Or maybe he’d seen too much of life to talk about nothing.
“You want to dance?” the tall blonde nearest him asked.
“With all three of you?” Ketch noticed her makeup more than her face.
“Why not?” The blonde with curly hair said, “You look big enough to take us all on.”
The third girl didn’t say a word, but she looked at him like she was hungry and he was the entrée.
Before Ketch could answer, Wynn jumped in. “We’ll dance with you ladies.” When Ketch frowned, WW added, “How about I take these two and you take the tall one, Kincaid?”
Wynn pulled the shorter two out onto the dance floor. His dance moves reminded Ketch of an out-of-control garden hose. Makeup-girl acted like she was dancing by herself, but the curly-headed one started trying to teach Wynn. He looked ecstatic and tried to follow every move.
Ketch didn’t want to dance, but he couldn’t very well just stand there. He knew he’d embarrass the third girl if he walked away, so he took her hand. “One dance. That’s all. I’m here to drink tonight.”
“OK,” she answered as if she’d lost all interest in him. Or maybe she decided to start playing hard to get.
Ketch didn’t care either way. His boots made dancing impossible, so he just held on to her and swayed. She locked her fingers behind his neck, leaned back and closed her eyes.
Holding this stranger felt awkward. Mixed feelings rumbled through him. He had no interest in any woman right now. Now that Crystal had dropped him, he hated the whole gender.
The tall blonde seemed to forget about him. He might as well have been a pole she was hanging on to.
Maybe he should sleep with this wayward sorority girl first, then swear off the entire female side of humanity. He could act nice. Pay her a few compliments. Offer to take her home. Hell, he could tell her he thought he was falling in love. Lots of guys slept with women they didn’t know. He could do that. What did it matter? The whole love thing was all a lie anyway.
Ketch had never done a one-night stand. Not in the army. Not in school. He’d met Crystal the second week of boot camp. They’d been friends for a few years before they’d started dating and sleeping together. He always thought, even from the first, that he was her makeover project, but he’d believed she’d loved him too.
Hell, he almost said aloud. He wouldn’t know love if it body-slammed him to the floor.
Looking back, he realized he’d been the one falling in love, while Crystal was just working on training him. Sex was the treat she gave him when he performed. Apparently, he’d been the only one thinking of forever. He’d been the one making plans while she always said there would be time to get serious later. With his graduation close, he must have pushed too hard at the forever plan. He doubted she’d even filed paperwork to muster out, or even applied to grad school. All the signs were there; he just hadn’t wanted to see them.
What hurt the most was that letter. Sure, they’d been arguing, but that was nothing new.
The letter had mapped out her new plan, one that didn’t include him. She’d finish school online, stay in the army, and retire in her forties. She’d see the world and make it better for all somehow, while he’d be teaching chemistry to high school kids who didn’t even care about learning. She loved her job in the army and was never going to leave it to live in some little town.
Ketch closed his eyes as he moved across the crowded floor with a stranger in his arms. He could almost pretend he was dancing with Crystal. Almost. But the tall blonde didn’t feel right against him. Maybe no one ever would again.
When the dance ended, he thanked the girl and went back to his beers. After several more bottles, his brain seemed to slow down and Ketch watched the world as if he were underwater. Nothing seemed real.
When Wynn asked one of the blondes to join them at the table, Ketch saw his chance to leave. It was almost closing time and he knew he’d be going home alone.
As he walked out of the bar, his head started pounding and he felt like he was on a boat rocking with the waves. He stumbled and fell hard onto the gravel parking lot. Rolling to a sitting position, he waited a moment, wondering if he could stand without tumbling again. The ground didn’t seem steady. His head was square dancing and his stomach was a stoned rocker. Two or three drinks was his limit usually and tonight he’d quit counting at eight.
It took all his concentration to stand and try to figure out which way was home.
Something wet trickled over his eye and he looked up to see if it was raining, then he sobered enough to recognize blood. He felt the gash across his forehead, just deep enough to drip. “Damn, what next?” he mumbled, feeling like he was in a fight with fate.
“You all right?” came a voice from the darkness.
“No,” he answered. “I’m leaking.”
The waitress with the sad jade eyes moved out of the corner blackness.
“Here.” She pulled a small towel from where she’d looped it over her apron. “It’s not clean. I wiped up beer with it, but then half your blood is probably beer anyway.”
“Thanks.” He patted his forehead. “Good night, Tuesday.” The last thing he wanted to do was talk to someone gloomier than he was.
She didn’t look surprised that he knew her name. “You sure you’re steady enough to walk?”
“Sure.” If the parking lot would stop bucking, he’d have no trouble.
She stepped away. “Well, good night, Ketch Kincaid.” She’d obviously taken the time to learn his name as well.
He was ten feet away when the bar door banged open, streaming a dull light across the parking lot. Out of instinct more than interest, he glanced back.
The door closed, leaving him in the shadows. The one bulb over the entrance showed three men who didn’t look like college kids. Too old, too rough. Probably oil workers or cowboys passing through town looking to pick up a local date for the night.
Not his problem, Ketch decided. If they were leaving, they hadn’t found a midnight date.
One caught Tuesday’s arm before she could vanish back into her corner.
“There you are,” the last man out the door said as he captured her wrist with his big hand. “How about you come home with me tonight, honey? I promise you’ll have a good time.”
“No,” she gritted out as she tried to pull away.