Triple Shot (4 page)

Josiah grabbed Susan’s beer from her
hand and set it on the table, replacing the beer with his hand. “Tonight, you
dance.” He led the way to the dance floor, as Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine” belted
out from the speakers. “This is an easy one. Just let me lead.”

“That will be easy since I couldn’t lead
a blind man in this situation.”

Josiah laughed as he pulled her onto the
dance floor, placing one hand on her hip, the fingers of his other hand intertwining
with hers as he spun her around. She tried to envision all the couples she’d
ever seen two stepping wanting to figure it out before she stumbled over her
feet. When Josiah pulled her in close to him, her foot tangled with his and she
almost wobbled backwards. He steadied her before she made a fool out of
herself. Susan looked at him and shook her head, trying to tell him with her
eyes that he’d made a huge mistake. She tried to step away from him to make her
escape before they both landed on the floor, but he just held on tighter.

“Trust me,” Josiah whispered in her ear.
“Just listen to the music, relax and let me take control.”

As Josiah counted off the steps in her
ear, Susan relaxed and allowed him to lead her around the dance floor. The wood
beneath their feet was smooth, making it easy to glide with each step they took.
She mentally counted as Josiah did.
One two one. One two one,
became her
chant as others on the dance floor breezed past them with ease. She lowered her
eyelids to avoid eye contact with him, afraid that if she got caught up in
those cocoa eyes she’d end up tripping over his feet again. Closing herself out
to everything but the music and the feel of Josiah pressed to her, she silently
admitted to herself that she didn’t mind the dance at all. Josiah proved to be
quite the dance partner, able to take the hapless dancer and turn her into a
dancing queen. Okay, dancing queen was a little far-fetched, but Susan conceded
to the enjoyment of the moment.
With each pass around the dance floor, the
tension she’d felt at the beginning of the dance eased
away, and her body became
putty in Josiah’s arms. So caught up in the way their bodies moved together
flawlessly, she didn’t realize the song had gone from a two-step to a swing,
until Josiah pulled her from the dance floor.

“Swing might be a bit much for you right
now. That’s something we can work on together on another occasion.”

“Good thinking,” she said as they
slipped past excited couples stepping onto the dance floor.

Chapter 5

Josiah placed his hand at the small of Susan’s
back guiding her through the crowd of people to the hidden table their friends
occupied. A shiver ran the length of her spine as the heat of his fingertips
penetrated the thin v-neck shirt she wore, the only barrier between his skin
and hers. Susan lifted her eyebrows to Tessa as they neared while Josiah still
walked behind her, letting her friend know that this night out had been exactly
what she needed. With work keeping her busy these past few months and helping
her father out with her mother, Susan had had little time to enjoy herself and
even less time to enjoy any male refreshments.

When they arrived back at their table,
Susan snatched up her Corona and drank until she reached the bottom of the
bottle, resisting the urge to finish off Josiah’s. The cold liquid did very
little to extinguish the burning she felt in her veins by the nearness of him
or the lingering heat at the small of her back. Much to her surprise, Josiah didn’t
break contact with her, even as she slid onto the bar stool. His fingers rose
to the top of the stool and rested against the middle of her back. Susan
enjoyed the touch of a man, almost craved it more than anything else, so even
though Josiah’s hand on her was unexpected, she welcomed it. A million thoughts
ran through her mind as she caressed the empty bottle like a lover. The
insecurity she hid from the world beat against the inner walls of her chest,
panic rising as thoughts of her mother laid up in a hospital bed, her father at
her side, made an appearance at the most inopportune time. She’d stopped to see
her mother on her way over to The Launchpad tonight and the scene played out
vividly in her mind now.

She’d sat next to her mother, Sharon, in
the fifteen by fifteen room she shared with another woman, watching old re-runs
of Little House on the Prairie as her mother’s roommate called a nurse over and
over without pause. A thin, yellow faded cloth curtain pulled around her
mother’s small cubby may have kept out the visual reminders of the place her
mother now called home, but it had done little to mute the sounds or the stench
of the fellow residents. The vibrant woman Susan remembered as she passed from
childhood to adulthood no longer resided in the body she had sat next to
tonight. Sharon’s once long beautiful hair hung limp around her shoulders,
uncared for, something her mother would never have allowed before her sickness
took over. The nursing staff could only schedule showers three times a week for
their residents and since her mother’s condition worsened and she’d become more
belligerent, many weeks she’d only get two. As of late, they’d had to sedate
her because her mother’s outbursts would upset the other patients.

Tonight, all had been calm until Susan
had reached out and placed her hand over her mother’s balled up fist. She’d
closed her eyes for a brief moment and enjoyed the warmth of her mother’s flesh
just as she had when she was a child. The harsh slap against the back of her
hand had caused her eyes to fly open. Her mother had snatched her hand away
knocking over a half-glass of orange juice left over from her latest meal. Sharon’s
nose had flared and her eyes widened as she’d clutched at the blue terry cloth
robe draped over her shoulders. Confusion and anger had been etched on her face
as she had begun to attack Susan verbally with the foulest language Susan had
ever heard flow from her mother’s lips.

“It’s okay mom,” Susan remembered
saying, trying to reassure her as she’d wiped up as best she could the spilled
juice with tissues she’d pulled from the side table of the bed.

“Where are my things?” her mother had
asked. “What have you done with them all?”

Susan had asked her what things and her
mother had sat and accused her of stealing jewelry Susan didn’t even know she
owned. Susan's cheeks had grown hot with anger as her mother yelled at her and
before she could try to calm her, the night nurse assigned to her room,,
Cynthia, had pulled the curtain back. She’d placed a hand on her shoulder, no
doubt to comfort, but it had only made Susan’s body tense. The anger emanating
from her mother had been thick in the room then her words that she didn’t have
a daughter when Cynthia tried to explain who Susan was, pierced her to the
heart. Susan had dropped the tissues and made a beeline to the parking lot,
needing to free herself of the nursing facility and the pain that resided
there. The echo of her shoes hitting the linoleum floors rang in Susan’s head
now. She’d known she shouldn’t have stopped by, but she’d promised her father
and now she wished she hadn’t. She needed this night, needed to be with
friends, and still her mother and her condition hung over her head even as this
sexy cowboy towered over her.

Susan slid her thumb from the lip of the
bottle to the bottom where it touched the table. As if doing so would erase her
uncertainties and the pains of her life. She pushed the bottle to the center of
the table, scanning the room for their waitress, more out of a need to avoid
eye contact with Josiah than needing a refill. She suddenly felt an intrusion,
as if some outside force were trying to edge its way past the invisible border
surrounding her little group, and her instincts were dead on. Susan watched as
Erin made her way across the bar, not once taking her beady little eyes from
Josiah's ass as he leaned over the table to say something to Rowan. Oh Susan
hoped the bitch would open her mouth, tonight would be a perfect night for her
to put the smack down on her. She wasn't a violent person normally, but she'd
been fed up with all of Erin's shit when it came to those Susan called friends and
she would be more than happy to put someone like Erin in her place and not
think twice about it. She'd heard all the horror stories from Tessa about what Erin
put Cade and Rowan through. Erin had tried to seduce Cade into the bed she
shared with Rowan and on the night of their wedding. As far as Susan was
concerned, if someone played games with her friends, they played games with
her.

In regards to Josiah, Erin could look
all she wanted because Susan didn’t have a claim on him. She just met him
tonight and who knew if she’d ever even see him again. No one even knew if he
were sticking around or heading back to Texas. There was no way Susan was
letting that conniving little bitch anywhere near the rest of them, though.

"You'll have to excuse me,"
she said to Josiah, but loud enough for the others to hear, never taking her
eyes from Erin.

"Where..." She didn’t let
Josiah get the rest of the sentence out before she stepped away from the group
and headed straight for Erin.

"Erin, wow what a surprise to see
you here," Susan said as she blocked the path Erin's feet and eyes were fixed
on.

"Susan. What is it, charity night
at The Launchpad? Didn't realize tonight was skank night."

"Really? I figured that’s why you
showed your sorry ass here."

"Move out of my way," Erin
spat as she tried to step past Susan.

"Well, see that depends on where you’re
going. I know you don't plan on going over to where Rowan is."

"I have no interest in Rowan or his
little gang of misfits. Although the tall cowboy with the nice ass is more to
my liking."

Susan felt heat rise into her cheeks,
not the same kind of heat she'd felt when she’d first laid eyes on Josiah. No
this heat caused the muscles in her arms to constrict and every hateful word
possible rest heavy on her tongue. She wanted to snatch the woman by the hair
and drag her ass from the bar and offer her up as a sacrifice to the drunks
littering the parking lot. Susan had no right to feel that way, not when it
came to Josiah. Hell, she just met him herself, but the thought of Erin even
looking at him suddenly sent bile rising into her throat. For all Susan knew,
Josiah might just get off on being with a woman like Erin. She knew absolutely
nothing about him, other than that he threw off a sexual vibe that made her
want to shimmy out of her panties quicker than a pig jumps in the mud. And
while Susan stood contemplating what to do with Erin, visions of her and Josiah
making use of mud in the most primal way danced around in her mind. Damn it,
she knew she should just step aside and let Josiah make his own choice with
regards to Erin, but all the pent up anger Susan had in that moment and all the
pain Erin had caused wouldn't give her the leeway to do so.

"Ahh, see that's not
happening," Susan said leaning in toward Erin.

"Whatever. Just move out of my way.
Don't you have someone to go throw yourself at near the men’s bathroom? That’s
more to your liking, isn’t it? From the looks of Mr. Cowboy there, he has
better taste than to even allow you to breathe on him."

Those few words pushed Susan beyond any
coherent thought process and before she could mentally adjust her approach to
the situation, her hands clenched into tight fists and she threw out a right
hook landing against Erin's cheek, sending her flying a few feet and landing on
her pious ass. Susan stood for what seemed like hours, a smirk on her face, and
satisfaction oozing from her pores. She took two long strides towards Erin, her
hands still clinched in tight fists and resting at her sides. Erin struggled to
get up as the crowded bar suddenly began to part like the Red Sea. As Susan
prepared for a battle, the muscles in her legs and arms shook from the
adrenaline shooting through her body. Susan felt a strong arm wrap around her waist
and swing her around. Her eyes tried to focus as the bar blurred from the
movement, the Corona she’d just downed threatening to make a hasty exit.

"Whoa, little lady," Josiah's
deep hypnotic voice drowned out the music overhead and filled her ears as he
released her and placed his body between her and Erin.

"You bitch," Erin spat as two
men were helping her to her feet. Erin pulled herself free of their grips,
pushing at them without hesitation and launched herself toward Susan.

Susan ducked under Josiah’s outstretched
arms and found a fist full of Erin’s hair, yanking until she had Erin on her
ass again. Erin’s fingernails dug into the skin at her wrists, the pain
shooting up her arm weakening her grip and she could do nothing else but
release her hold on her. Susan gave a swift kick between her shoulder blades. Erin
pushed herself from the dirty bar floor quicker than Susan expected and pushed
at her shoulders, sending Susan stumbling backwards. Josiah just as quickly
caught her before she found herself in the same predicament Erin had just been
in.

"Enough, Erin!" Rowan's voice
filled the space between them. "This is not the place or the time."

"You need to let Ms. Sleep Around
know that. She's the one going all possessive over him and getting her panties all
twisted," she said with a jerk of her head in Josiah's direction, pressing
her palm to the cheek where Susan had connected her fist.