Hopping to his feet, he sauntered dead center, his hand over the edge of his towel. The table of ladies surrounding Juliet laughed and kept their eyes locked on his waist and all points south.
Juliet stared at her glass, that blush blooming again on her cheeks, her breasts straining against the fabric of her dress with each jagged breath.
She glanced up at him through the lashes of her half-lidded gaze, and her lips parted on a gasp.
He tugged the knot, lost the towel, and tossed it into her lap.
Her eyes shot open wide. Her fingertips dug into the terrycloth, and her tongue darted out to lick her lip.
So the good girl had a naughty side to her.
Unfortunately, he had that pesky personal rule.
A rule that he might just consider breaking.
“Lord have mercy,” Layla whispered with her eyes glued to the stage.
More specifically, the very naked, very real warm-blooded man on the stage.
“And Mabel Lee managed to get his towel,” Cassidy said with a pout. “I’m jealous.”
Mabel Lee took a long sip of her drink, the alcohol going straight to her head. Clutched in her lap…warm terrycloth. The straw popped out from between her lips, and she hiccupped.
Then giggled.
“These are yummy,” she said, the words sounding thick and muffled to her own ears.
“Girl, go easy. I opened a tab with my credit card, and they rewarded us by being heavy on the liquor. The last thing we need is to peel you off the floor.”
“Or off him. The girl looks like an entranced sacrificial virgin,” Cassidy said with a note of uncertainty, and maybe pride.
Or maybe Mabel Lee just imagined that whole pride thing. “I’m fine. Totally fine,” she said, glancing back up at the stage. Viper had moved away again, his attention on a freckled redhead who kept trying to lick his abs.
I want to lick his abs.
“Mabel Lee!” Heather said, whipping around to face her.
Uh oh. She might have said that out loud.
“Girl, you are so going to regret those loose lips in the morning,” Layla said with a smile, taking a sip from her own glass.
So she’d trade one regret for another. At least she wouldn’t be going home wishing she had the nerve to say what was really on her mind.
She’d always wanted to be like them. They’d always know the right clothes to wear, the right attitude in any situations, and they possessed the inane ability to not only be articulate, but assertive. Exotic creatures, confident in their sexuality, bold and fearless when it came to taking risks.
The biggest risk Mabel Lee had taken was when she’d sewn extra interior pockets into her uniform to sneak eyeshadow and lip gloss into school. If only she’d been good at remembering to wash it off before she got home. After the fourth time, her mama threatened to remove her from Willette High and put her in an all-girls private school.
Cassidy, Aurora, Heather, and Layla had started calling her Maybelline, a nickname that stuck clear through graduation. They’d also warned her she’d better walk the straight and narrow with her mama for the time being or else she might just find herself secluded from guys until she graduated college.
The thought of how well her mama had done just that despite not putting her in a private school had her picking up her glass once again, hiccups be damned.
The music died down, and Viper reached for the curtain. With one last look in her direction, a final flash of muscle and sinew from head to toe, and that round, perfect backside drawing her gaze, he slipped into the darkness.
She’d never caught the eye of the hot ones. Not once. She’d gone through life in a cloud of hunk repellent made up of one percent 14KT gold cross around her neck, seven percent high neck blouses covered with a Jesus Loves Me sweater, and ninety-two percent library voice.
But Viper, he’d definitely looked.
And then he’d left.
With that one small glimpse into what it must feel like to be them on any given day of the week, the truth hit her right in the chest, making it hard to breathe. “We’ll never be this again, will we?” she whispered.
“What do you mean?” Aurora asked.
“Us,” she said, gesturing to them and the way they leaned toward her as if they were conspiring to cause some trouble.
Some wild, crazy, totally legal trouble.
“This is the last time we’ll be able to all go out as a group of single ladies,” Cassidy said quietly. “It really is.”
“We can still go out…” Aurora said, trailing off.
“But you won’t have the freedom you do now. And that’s okay; that’s the way it’s supposed to be when you get married, but it means we’ll never quite be like this again,” Layla said.
“And before long, you’ll all be married, and I’ll still be spending my Saturday nights cooking dishes for potluck brunch after Sunday services with just the memory of Eric Fischer feeling me up in the back of Aurora’s car to keep me warm at night,” Mabel Lee admitted.
“Don’t say that; you’re going to find someone, too,” Heather said, wrapping an arm around her.
“Maybe it’s time to get a cat,” Mabel Lee said, the thought prompting her to tip the glass once more.
“Okay, let’s not go too crazy. And who knows, maybe you’ll be shopping for that potluck and you’ll run right into the perfect guy in the produce section as he’s trying to figure out the difference between spring mix and hearts of romaine,” Layla said, her voice hopeful as if she’d just come up with a meet cute to rival every single romcom and Disney movie in the history of cinema.
They all swung their gazes at Layla.
“Yeah, that sounded pathetic, didn’t it?” Layla said, scrunching her nose. “It played out way better in my head.”
“Who the hell wants to meet their dream guy in front of the triple-washed, bagged lettuce section?” Cassidy said with a snort.
“You know what. Maybe this is just what Mabel Lee needs. I know the list we made was really so Mabel Lee would break out of her shell a little and have a good time, but maybe it’s time to go for more than that. What if it’s time for Mabel Lee to take a risk and spend some time with a man her mama wouldn’t approve of,” Aurora said.
“That could literally be anyone other than Doug Johnson,” Mabel Lee pointed out. “If she had her way, I’d be marrying him next Saturday, and by this time next year, I’d have a baby in my arms.”
“Oy, let’s not go too crazy. I think you need someone a little less…let’s say, biblical,” Cassidy said.
“Someone a whole lot less biblical. After all, I can just tell her I’m helping this sinner find Jesus,” Mabel Lee said.
“See, now that’s the spirit!” Aurora said, lifting her glass in the air. “A toast to Mabel Lee helping a sinner find Jesus.”
“Or Mabel Lee stumbling upon the ever-elusive orgasm. Totally the same thing,” Cassidy said, nudging Mabel Lee’s shoulder.
“Ladies, the time you’ve all been waiting for has arrived. Get those tickets ready because here we go!”
“What? Wait? Already?” Mabel Lee said as she dug into her purse.
“Oh yeah. After Viper swung his bits at us, the ladies in here are ready to party. If they announce the winner now, the losers will be dropping some serious cash on private dances,” Heather pointed out.