The men preferred Wranglers or Levi's in blue or black, some so tight a person had to wonder where they'dpacked their goods. While there were men who wore starched cowboy shirts with racing flames or Americanflags on them, T-shirts were the hands-down favorite. Most advertised beer and John Deere tractors, whileothers had a different message. The ubiquitous "Don't mess with Texas" was out in full force, while "Yeah, I'mdrunk, but you're still ugly," competed with the ever hopeful "Let's get Nekid."
Cowboy boots kept time with the band, and belt buckles big enough to be considered lethal weapons flashedbeneath the dance floor's multicolored lights.
Daisy had never been inside Slim Clem's. When she'd lived in Lovett before, she'd been too young. But she'dheard about it. Everybody had heard about it, and she figured it was about time she experienced it for herself.
That Friday afternoon, Lily got a job at the deli counter in Albertsons, and the two of them decided to celebrateat Slim's. Daisy hadn't really brought anything to wear to a honky-tonk, but in the back of her closet, she dugout her old cowboy boots. She shoved her feet into them, and while a little light, they still fit. Her junior year inhigh school, she'd saved for several months to buy the red boots with the white heart inserts. Lucky for her,cowboy boots were never out of style in Texas.
In the box with her yearbooks, she pulled out her daddy's belt with the big silver buckle he'd won at the Top '0Texas rodeo a few short months before a bull had stomped and killed him.
She put on her white cotton tank dress that closed down her breasts with eight little snaps, and she wrapped herdaddy's rodeo belt around her hips. The name Rowdy was tooled into the brown leather in back. The buckle washeavy and hung down a little, but she thought she looked ready for a cowboy bar.
She rolled her hair on big curlers and stuck big hoops in her ears. She outlined her eyes with black liner, put onher shiniest red lipstick, and decided that she looked cowgirl chic.
Lily dressed for the bar in light jeans and a pink blouse she tied just below her breasts so that her navel ringshowed. Her makeup was heavier than Daisy's; and when she kissed Pippen goodbye on her mother's porch, sheleft big pink lip prints on his cheek.
On the way to Slim Clem's, Lily laughed and joked and seemed ready to get on with her life. Daisy was readytoo. Tomorrow she was going to tell Jack about Nathan, and this time nothing would stop her. Not her own fear,not a kid's birthday party, and not even a half-naked woman in his house. She was leaving Sunday afternoon,and she had to tell him tomorrow. There was no other choice.
It was after nine when they walked into the bar.
The band was singing Brooks and Dunn's "My Maria" as they paid their five-dollar cover charge. While theband hit the high notes of the song, Daisy and Lily made their way through the crowd to the closest bar andordered two Lone Stars from the tap. Daisy paid for the first round, and the two of them lucked out and found atable near the dance floor. They sat in chairs next to each other and theft conversation turned to a critique of thepeople around them.
"Get a load of that guy over there in the beige cowboy shirt and hat," Lily said next to Daisy's ear.
Since that described quite a few of the men in the bar, she had to point with her glass. "He's got on jeans sotight, he must have been poured in 'em wet."
The cowboy in question was tall and lean and looked tough and hard enough to wrestle steers. "Wrangler buttsdrive us nuts," Daisy recited through a smile and raised her beer to her lips.
"Yes, they do," Lily agreed. Daisy couldn't recall the last time she'd been out with the girls; she'd forgotten howmuch she missed it. How much she needed to relax and laugh. Most of all, she was pleasantly surprised at howmuch she enjoyed being with her sister. The two of them laughed and scored the parade of male butts two-stepping and boot-scooting across the floor in front of them. Lily pointed to a guy in a pair of Roper's, andDaisy bent her head to one side. She had to admit, it took a very nice butt to took good in Roper's. Daisy gavehim an eight, Lily a ten, they compromised on a nine.
"Did you see Ralph Fiennes's naked ass in Red Dragon?" Lily asked.
Daisy shook her head. "I don't really like to watch scary movies now that I live alone."
"Well, fast forward over the scary parts. You have to rent the video just to see Ralph's ass. He is definitely fine."
Daisy took a drink from her beer. "I saw him inMaid in Manhattan. The movie sucked, but he looked good."
"There's a minus six," Lily said as she pointed her glass at a man in a pair of denim bib overalls and a tank top.
"The movie sucked because of J. Lo. They should have cast someone else." Lily smiled. "Like me."
Daisy felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to look up past a T-shirt that said HOLD MY BEER WHILE IKISS YOUR GIRLFRIEND and into the face of Tucker Gooch. She'd graduated high school with Tucker.
His mother, Luda Mae, had taught Home Ec at Lovett high. Tucker had often been sent to her room to sit outhis punishment for some misdeed, like getting caught making out in the girls' bathroom.
Daisy stood, and from what she could see of him now, his dark hair was quite thin on top, but his eyes stillshined with mischief and his mouth was curved into an irresistible smile.
"Hello, Tucker. How are you?"
He gave her a big hug. "I'm good." He held her a little fight, but his hands didn't roam down her back to herbehind like they used to. "Come dance with me," he said.
She looked at Lily. "Do you mind?"
Lily shook her head, and Daisy followed Tucker out onto the dance floor. The band struck up Toby Keith's,"Who's Your Daddy?" and Tucker lead her in the two-step. Before his illness, she and Steven had danced in afew dubs around Seattle. For several beats of the drum and slides of the steel guitar, she was afraid she'dforgotten how to dance. But dancing to country was in her blood, and she took to it again quicker than a chickenon a Cheeto. As Tucker spun her and moved with her across the floor, she felt another part of herself slide intoplace. The part of her that could relax and laugh and have fun.
At least for tonight.
Jack grabbed his beer from the bar then raised the bottle of Pearl to his lips. Over the bottom of the bottle, hisgaze came to rest on the dance floor across the bar and the flash of white. He'd noticed Daisy the second she andLily walked in the door. Not that he'd been looking, but those two women were hard to miss. They didn't quitefit in at Slim Clem's. Like two eclairs in a meat-and-potatoes crowd, and Jack was certain there were more thana few men in the bar thinking about eating dessert before dinner.
He lowered the bottle and shoved his free hand up to his knuckles in the front pocket of his Levi's.
He returned his gaze to Gina Brown, who stood in front of him talking about the mechanical bulls in back.
Apparently, since she was here so much, Slim's had offered her a job giving riding lessons on the weekends.
"The gal I taught this afternoon was about sixty-five," she said. "I put her up on Thunder and..."
Jack didn't give a rat's about Thunder. What he wanted to know was if his "worst nightmare" had known hewould be here. He wouldn't put it past her, but if she thought he was going to get all chatty with her, she wasdoomed to disappointment. Usually, Jack preferred bars that were a little less crowded than Slim's, but it wasBuddy Calhoun's last night in town, and Buddy had talked him into coming to the bar. At the moment Buddywas taking his chances with one of the bulls in the back room. Personally, Jack didn't understand the appeal ofgetting thrown from a machine into a bunch of thick pads on the floor. He'd always figured that if you wanted toride a bull, you should climb up onto a real one and take your chances.
I swear, I about died. You would have laughed your behind off, if you'd been there," Gina said.