“Yeah, I’ve always said that.” She chewed on her thumbnail thoughtfully. “But you’ll have lots of roadblocks if you do.”
“I know. I’m prepared for it. But again… he won’t shy away, I don’t think.”
“No. Definitely not. I’d bet money he won’t.” She seemed pretty sure.
“You’ve known him a long time and you saw what I saw tonight when he saw me.”
“You know I did.”
“And?”
She looked thoughtful but didn’t answer me.
“I’ve been low key tryin’ to get his attention ever since he got patched over. It ain’t working. I need to go … what’s the word?”
The kitchen door must’ve opened, and music spilled in from the bar loudly.
The band was covering Boombastic by Shaggy. It wasn’t Chase singing; it was a deeper voice.
“Bombastic. Isn’t that the opposite of low-key?” I asked, smiling.
Jenna’s smile went wide. “Girl. I so got you. Let’s go dance. Follow my lead.”
Oh. Brilliant. Jenna was definitely my favorite future sis-in-law. Today, at least.
I grabbed her hand to halt her. “I want him to notice me, Jenna. To want me.”
“Let’s dance, put on a show, and I guarantee you that he will…”
She squeezed my hand and shoved the door open. We squealed in unison as we ran out to the dance floor and immediately the two of us were getting lost in the music, dancing together to the song, which was being sung by a band member with long dreadlocks who’d previously been playing bass. Chase was now on the bass and he smiled at me. Wide.
I gave him a little wave and then twirled, my arms straight up in the air, my hair whipping around with me.
Jenna and I got our groove on. And we weren’t dancing apart; this was like it was a rehearsed number. It couldn’t have gone any better if we had rehearsed it. Jenna was a sexy dancer, could totally be a stripper if she wanted to, and I did my best to follow her lead in a burlesque-style show that might’ve been a bit reminiscent of Liv Tyler and Alicia Silverstone in an Aerosmith video. We were back to back, shimmying and grinding our butts together with our arms swaying as we worked down toward the floor and then back up, sweeping our arms as we moved so that we caressed our own hips, highlighted our breasts, and swung our hair around, too. Between Jenna and I, we had a fuck-load of hair.
The dancefloor filled with people but they kept a distance because it was as if me and Jenna were centerstage, kind of dirty dancing with one another now face to face, shimmying so that she was leaned back and I was leaned forward and then rotating our shoulders and undulating so that I was leaned back and she was leaned forward over me. Our boobs touched and I heard a wolf-whistle from somewhere up in the billiards level. Ella was then skipping over to us with Pippa, Deanna, and Lulu in tow.
And me and Jenna had an audience. All of us were now dancing and feeding off a communal feeling of sexy, but Jenna and I laid it on thick, being very touchy feely with one another while we twirled, swayed, and touched one another.
My eyes caught Christian’s. He was up by a pool table, a beer to his lips and his eyes on us and then moving briefly to the stage behind us. I glanced over there and saw Chase was also watching us, as was the singer who was gesturing to us as he sang while thrusting his pelvis forward over and over. I could’ve sworn that Christian gave Chase a dirty look for staring at me.
I felt a spark of something kind of electric in the air. Jenna ran her fingers through my hair suggestively and I licked my lips sexily as she did, giving her my best bedroom eyes. Her cornflower blue eyes sparkled with mischief.
Yikes. Jenna was hauled away from me. Rider had her over his shoulder and he was stalking off toward the kitchen.
“Uh oh!” I read Lulu’s lips.
Ella burst out laughing and bumped my hip with hers.
I spotted Spencer pointing at Pippa from the upper railing and giving her orders of some sort. Pippa grabbed Ella’s hand and twirled her around as the song ended. Pippa also grabbed my hand with her free one and pulled us off the dance floor.
“Twirl me, too!” I demanded.
Pippa giggled and then she obliged. We busted up into fits of laughter as we went back toward our table, arms linked.
I spotted my father behind the bar and he looked just as displeased as Spencer.
There were a lot of what I was guessing were lust-filled eyes on us, including the eyes of the man I wanted.
I was definitely buying Jenna an expensive dinner. And taking her to Victoria’s Secret and splurging on something sexy for her as a thank you.
My father crooked his finger at me. Oh drats. Shouldn’t have made eye-contact!
I approached the bar.
“Office. Now.” He jerked his thumb.
“I’ll order you a drink,” Pippa called over.
I had ordered two drinks already and hadn’t even had a sip of one. I gave Pippa a thumbs up anyway.
As I walked across the dancefloor to get to the kitchen door, Chase was again singing with the band, singing a song I didn’t know with his fingers working expertly up the neck of his guitar. He also had a harmonica necklace on. He winked at me.
I glanced in the direction of the pool tables and saw Christian chalking up a cue while leveling me with a dark gaze. I winked at him and strutted proudly to the kitchen. There were a lot of eyes on me, but I held my head high and kept a smile on my face. The smile was all-natural, too, because I felt like I was on top of the world after letting loose like that and knowing it had the desired impact of many people around me realizing that I wasn’t just Prez’s daughter and their de facto kid sister. I was a woman.
Jenna stormed past me from out of the kitchen with a red face and Rider hot on her heels as I went through. He growled at me and I gave him an eyeroll. Ride was typically pretty easy going. Except for in a very few types of circumstances and one of those was when it came to me trying to get noticed.
Dad was already inside his office, arms folded across his chest when I stepped in.
“What I tell you about drawin’ attention to yourself here?”
“What?”
“You’re nineteen, Joelle; you know the rules. You can throw ‘em back at home or here after hours as much as you want. You wanna do it here durin’ business hours, you remember your age means you keep a low profile so that you don’t draw unnecessary attention and cost us our liquor license.”
“Daddy, I haven’t even had a sip.”
My dad cocked an eyebrow at me and then he lit a cigarette. He wasn’t technically supposed to smoke in the building, but he regularly lit up in his office. “So, then what was all that dancin’ about if it wasn’t booze?”
“Me ‘n Jenna were just havin’ a laugh.”
“You ‘n Jenna were getting a whole lot of attention actin’ like a double header act at a strip joint. Surprised you weren’t having singles thrown at the two of ya.”
“We both remained fully clothed,” I pointed out. “And we definitely deserved fives, not singles, Dad.”
He blew smoke out of both his mouth and his nose, looking like an angry bull.
“Shits me that my daughter looks like a supermodel on a regular basis. I worry ‘bout you. You’re here with the club and your family and you’re safe, but it’s not all family and club around us here, Joelle, and you don’t want to put a target on your back for some sick fuck to get fixated and---”