Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
He isn’t wrong. Burly’s super small, and the results I’ve gotten from the dating sites haven’t been great. I know everyone in town, and I know that the girl the website wants to match me with isn’t right for me, because I already dated her three years ago. Once, a website even suggested Lemon Rough as my match. While I’m a country boy, I’m not country enough to think that dating my cousin is a good idea.
“I’m not disagreeing with you. What would you do, my oh so wise cousin?”
“Grab one of your brothers and go get drunk outside the house for a change. The Burly Saloon is holding a big line dancing event. Live music. If anything’s going to attract someone new in the county to show their face, it’s something like that, Cash.”
I laugh. “You come all this way to suggest that, and you don’t offer yourself as my wingman?”
He turns red, scratching his head. “I got a date with Prairie. Can’t blow it off. Wouldn’t want to blow it off.”
I grin, and shake my head. “Man, I never thought I’d be jealous of someone seeming hen-pecked. But I get it. I’ll head out. Break up the monotony if nothing else.”
The front door opens again, and in comes a brother of mine. Jennings. He’s minding his own business, but sees Rye out of the corner of his eye. “Oh hey Rye, what’s the occasion?”
I rise to my feet, a wild grin on my face, and approach my younger brother. “Well, little brother, what do you say about you and me heading out to the saloon tonight? My treat.”
Jennings stares at me. “Uh... okay? I got nothing else planned. You coming too, cousin?”
“I’m just leaving,” Rye says, a smile on his face. “I wanted to make the suggestion – you two have fun.”
Rye slaps my brother on the back, and heads out the door.
“Go put your dancing boots on, Jennings. We are going line dancing.”
Jennings is a tad surprised, but nods along. He must think it’s important to me because he doesn’t raise further objections.
I’m all over it. I’m bored, and more bored than I am tired. I don’t think Rye’s suggestion is going to lead me to love at first sight, because that seems a bit silly.
But if it happens? I’m not going to tell it to fuck off.
The Burly Saloon has grown a bit over the past few years, trying to stay relevant and trying to get customers to come in from outside the town’s borders. A fancy jukebox usually gets people onto the dance floor, but tonight, as Rye said, there’s live music. A country western band, and a fancy one too. Got a fiddle, guitar, bass, and even a big ole’ cello, the singer breaking down into a heartfelt harmonica solo with every song.
Not everything they do is a banger, but I’m tapping my feet all night.
Jennings is sitting at the bar, kind of timid. He just turned twenty-one. Our father has never been the type to encourage underage drinking, but all of us Rowdys had a beer or two before we were legal. Still, being out in public with a beer in his hand must be making Jennings nervous, like someone’s about to bust him.
“Never thought you were much of a dancer, Cash.”
“I’m not. But you don’t have to be much of a dancer to enjoy yourself at something like this. Besides, what would you have done tonight that’d be more fun than this?”
“Read a book? Play a video game? I don’t know. I’m just rolling with life’s punches right now, Cash.”
“That’s about the way to take it. Never let an opportunity pass, little brother.”
I take stock of the other people at the saloon. As expected, most of them are people I’ve known all my life, including that one girl who I dated three years ago. She’s here with a guy and they both have rings. Damn, she got hitched before I did?
I can’t be bothered to obsess over them too much, but I keep my eyes rolling over the crowd. There’s a few strangers, but no one that jumps out at me.
Until I see her.
She’s in a booth. Far away from the bar. She’s got a beer in front of her, but she’s barely touched it.
She’s absolutely beautiful.
Not in a way that’s announcing it to the world, mind you. On a scale of cute to hot, she’s firmly on the cute side of the fence, but I always liked those sorts of girls better. She’s got her hair in a ponytail, a few strands dropping around her face, and she’s avoiding eye contact with everyone around her. She looks like a fish out of water, to be quite frank. Dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, she doesn’t look like she belongs out on the line dancing floor.