AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t want any trouble,” she told him as soon as she approached, the music so loud I wasn’t sure Daryl could even hear her.
“I came to drink my beer and listen to some good music is all,” Daryl told her, as the woman sitting on the stool in front of him gave up her seat. “Thanks,” he told her, as she walked away with an older cowboy.
“Jimmy might not see it like I do, especially since CindyLou and Mickey are both here as well. Are you gonna come in every night she’s working here?” Tammy asked.
“Just the usual. Like I said, I like the band, and I wanted one more beer before I head on home. Is that okay with you, Tammy? We’ve been friends for a long time. Was never my intention to start any trouble. I didn’t throw the first punch. Things just got out of hand. Won’t happen again. You know I’m good with my word.”
“You might be, but I also know how damn stubborn you can be and how you see everything through your own moral code, which has served you, but not everybody can see through your lenses. Maybe you should give that young man a chance, and that goes for Colt as well. You and Colt been friends ever since he was a kid. Ain’t right that you should turn your back on him now, no matter what he did or didn’t do.”
“I’m just gonna say this once,” he began, and I could tell he was dead serious. I had a feeling Tammy knew his intention as well. “And I say it with all due respect, cause we’ve known each other a long time. Who I talk to or don’t talk to ain’t none of your dang business, and how I see things ain’t none of your business neither. So if you want to keep being my friend, and if you still want my business, you won’t mention it again.”
Tammy spread her arms out and placed her hands on the bar. “If that’s how you want it to be, Daryl, then I’ll respect your wishes, but listen up. You’re a pig-headed cowboy with a heart of gold, but that don’t mean shit if you push the people who love you away. I won’t mention it again, but if you ever so much as put another hand on any of my customers or my employees ever again, whether or not they start it or not, and whether or not you’re inside this establishment or out on the street, I don’t ever want to see your face in here for the rest of your stubborn, angry life. Your hands are lethal weapons. If you can’t figure out a way to solve the problem without throwing punches, I don’t want to know you. Am I clear?”
He didn’t reply. He merely stared at her, and she at him. It was the first time I’d ever seen Tammy take such a hard line. Jimmy did this kind of thing all the time, but Tammy was always a sweetheart, no matter what. Apparently, that sweetness only went so far. After that, she was as straightforward and sharp as her husband.
No wonder they’d been together for so long. Under her sweet vanilla exterior lurked one feisty woman who had a limit as to the amount of shit she would take.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, I never would have believed it.
The thing was, it sounded as if she was on our side, on Mickey’s side, and Colt’s and even CindyLou’s, which was something I never thought I’d see. I always thought Daryl was that person. Thought he would go to the ends of the earth for all of us.
Apparently, I was wrong.
Instead, he came out punching rather than talking things over.
I got it, but that didn’t make him right.
Still, there it was, right out on the table or bar in this case. I wondered if CindyLou had any idea what her showing up in Sweet Whiskey was doing to the people who loved her? It was pitting them against each other, while it bonded others of us closer to her.
And that included Colt, Mickey, and me.
“Clear as a bell,” Daryl finally said, and with that, she served him a beer, then walked away, leaving him to stew in his own mess.
CindyLou 8
I’d planned on catching a ride home with Colt, but he and Tammy stayed later so they could go over the monthly liquor order. They liked to do it after they locked up rather than before they opened because neither one of them liked to come in any earlier than they had to.
“I can always give you a ride,” Scotty told me as we made our way to Colt’s place. I held my hat in my lap, still happy I’d bought it. I fit right in at Dirty Coyote. Almost everyone wore a cowboy hat, even most of the women.
“Is this something Colt does on a regular basis?” I asked Scotty, wondering if I should get mentally prepared to drive myself back and forth.
“About two times a month, depending on how busy we are. And it’s always on a Thursday night,” he said as we sped up the deserted road, his gaze totally focused on the dark street ahead of us. I felt safe driving with him, as if he knew these roads all too well.
“I don’t mind driving myself, but on a night like tonight, when I’ve been drinking, I don’t like to go anywhere near a car unless I’m the passenger. I drank way too much and although I feel like I could drive a tractor trailer, I know I shouldn’t even be on a bike.”
I gazed over at him and grinned. If he wasn’t behind the wheel, I swear I would kiss him right on the lips. And it would be a hot kiss, too. Nothing sisterly about it. I’d stick my tongue down his throat to let him know I wasn’t kidding around. I wanted him, just like I wanted Colt, and yes, even Mickey… especially Mickey.
“None of us drink while we’re working. Way too much can go wrong, and we need to be ready for it.”
“If you mean bad in general, I’ve worked behind a bar long enough that a statement like that no longer scares me. And I never drink when I’m working. Problem is, I wasn’t working tonight, and I may have overindulged.”
“I’d never know it if you hadn’t told me. By the way, did you and Mickey ever catch up with each other tonight?” he asked, quickly glancing my way.
“Every time I saw him, or he spotted me, he turned and walked in the opposite direction. I’m getting the feeling he doesn’t want any part of me right now.”
“He’ll come around. Just give him a little time.”
“Ya know what? I don’t care if he ever comes around. Either he wants to be in my life… in Darci’s life… or he doesn’t. I’m not going to force him, nor am I going to wait around for him, like I did with my own dad.”
