“Have you ever thought about making money with those moves? We’re hiring more dancers right now if you’re interested.” He pulled a card from his back pocket and handed it to me. “My name isDarius. I’m the assistant manager here, and I’d love to see you at one of our auditions. I can’t promise anything until I see more, but I’ve got to tell you, the guys couldn’t stop staring at you on the dance floor.”
I probably stood there for a beat too long with my jaw hanging open. I’d assumed he was coming on to me, not approaching me with a job lead.
“You’re kidding. Did Sassy put you up to this?” I asked, craning my neck to see if she was hiding somewhere with her phone recording the prank.
He flashed an easy smile and pressed a business card into my hand. The graphic on the front matched the branding of the newish club called Feathers. “No, I don’t know who that is. But I promise this is for real. The audition schedule and details are posted under the jobs tab on our website. Check it out and see what you think. Call me with any questions.”
As he moved back into the club, I stared after him.
Fuck, I must have been way drunker than I thought. For a minute there, I thought someone had just propositioned me to become a stripper.
Even if it was something I’d never have the guts to even consider, just being asked made this the best birthday ever. And I had to admit, that kind of money sure would make my hourly wage at the bakery look like chump change.
I shook my head with a laugh before proceeding to the men’s room and promptly forgetting all about it when I returned to Sassy and my millionth mega birthday drink.
Two days later,I realized I must have inadvertently spilled the beans about the audition offer to Sassy while I was still drunk that night.
“You should do it,” she said from her spot at the end of the counter in the bakery where I worked. “You’d be so good at it, and thetips would be incredible. Plus, you’d be able to sign Willow up for dance lessons that much quicker.”
“Keep your voice down. And, did you forget that those guys are pretty muchnakedwhile they’re dancing?” I hissed, even though she was right. The idea of being able to get my little sister into the dance lessons she’d been begging for was almost worth considering becoming a stripper for.
“What guys?” Nico asked from behind me, scaring the shit out of me and causing me to scream bloody murder.
“Jesus, take the wheel, my heart!” I cried, clutching at my chest. “Stop fucking doing that, you asshole.”
My boss just grinned at me. “I love sneaking up on you and hearing you screech like Pippa. Warms my cockles.”
I gritted my teeth. “Yeah, well, next time it’s gonna do something else to your cockles.”
“Seriously though,” Sassy continued as if I hadn’t just experienced myocardial infarction while rearranging cookies on a tray. “You should at least audition.”
Before I had a chance to tell her to shut the hell up again, Nico piped up. “Audition to be a naked dancer? Do tell. I’m intrigued.”
“Perv,” I muttered.
“Hey, that’s my husband you’re calling a perv,” West said from the doorway to the kitchen. Oh great, more witnesses. Perf. “Not that he’s not a perv, because he totally is. What are we talking about?”
“Nothing,” I said at the same time Sassy said, “Stripping.”
I whipped my head around. “It’s not stripping!”
It was stripping.
“What’s not stripping?” a deep voice asked, accompanied by the familiar tinkle of the bell over the bakery door.
Chief Paige. As in, hottest silver fox in all of Texas, Chief Paige. Firefighter, muscle man, Hobie’s hero, and all-around dreamboat. Otherwise known (although only to me) as My One and Only. The solo coin in my spank bank.
I bit back a dreamy sigh and forced myself to speak first to shut this shit down before anyone else clued him in to the topic at hand.
“Stripping paint off an old dresser,” I squeaked in a wholly unmanly octave. “I was thinking about a craft project. You know, glitter, gems, decals… that sort of thing. But first I have to get the old layers of paint off. Any suggestions?”
West, Nico, and Sassy all stared at me, and I glared back at them with anI dare youwarning on my face. At least, I hoped that’s what the message said.
Sassy, goddess love her, got the message. Praise the baby Jesus for besties.
“Yes, Stevie found this god-awful thing at the thrift store in Valley Cross and doesn’t know the first thing about refinishing it,” she said.
I owed the woman a foot massage.
