Dream Maker

by Kristen Ashley

  “I can get that,” he replied.

  “I won’t be able to get out of my head if Danny’s watching.”

  He kept his hands on me even as he straightened and declared, “I’ll stay.”

  I shook my head. “No, no, no. You spent all day with me. You need to go home or do something you want to do.”

  “I’ll stay, look after you, drive you to Mag’s after.”

  “Auggie, I can’t ask you to—”

  “Evan, he’s going to keep it in check, for you. But he’s gonna like watchin’ you dance for a bunch of horny assholes about as much as you’re gonna like him watchin’ you dance for a bunch of horny assholes. I’ll stay.”

  “No. Seriously. I wouldn’t feel right if—”

  “You know, Duke called Hawk last night.”

  Uh-oh.

  I wasn’t sure that was good.

  I closed my mouth.

  “Now, Hawk was there when Mag talked to your brother. So, Hawk gets an earful about how your ma talked to you. And so, Mo, Boone, Axl and me get a call to haul our asses to the office last night. We get there and Hawk is pissed.”

  Oh man.

  I hadn’t met Hawk yet, but by virtue of his name, and him commanding a crew of commandos, I had a feeling him being pissed was not a good thing.

  “He’s got a daughter, you with me?” Auggie asked.

  I nodded.

  “He also had another daughter, who, while he was deployed, got shot in a drive-by shooting. His wife had a brother who was bad news. His wife refused to give up on that brother. She got shot too. Neither of them survived.”

  “Ohmigod,” I breathed.

  Poor Hawk.

  “So, to say he’s not down with you getting shit on is an understatement. Before, he was resigned to one of his boys getting tied up in some messy shit. Now we’re under orders to handle it.”

  Which meant now, even a man I’d never met was looking out for me.

  “And the list of people I owe keeps getting longer,” I mumbled.

  “You know, that’s what those assholes put in your head and you got it stuck so deep in there, you don’t see you don’t live that life. You gonna make Gert pay you back for taking care of her? You expect Bobbie to do something for your brother in exchange for Legos?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then shut it down about owing shit, Evan. This is what people do in life, that is, if they’re worth dick. Sometimes you give. Sometimes you get. The measure of a person is how gracious they can be when they’re in the position they have to receive.”

  “You know, you’re actually more annoying when you’re being nice,” I told him.

  He smiled, wide and white, then folded me in his arms and gave me a tight, brotherly hug complete with a kiss on the side of my head.

  Then he let me go and shoved me toward the door to the dressing room and said, “Go. Get ready. I’ll explain things to Mag.”

  I moved to the door to do as he said, but turned at it and called, “Auggie.”

  He already had his phone to his ear, but he turned his head to me.

  “Thank you.”

  He jerked up his chin and then said, “Mag? Yeah. Evie and I had a chat and she’s not at the place where she’s down with you bein’ here while she dances. I’m on her tonight. I’ll bring her to you after.” A pause and then, “No, yeah, really, brother. Evie needs this and I got her. Okay?”

  His attention focused on me and he nodded.

  “Cool, Mag,” he said. “I’ll call when we’re on our way to your place.”

  I heaved out a breath, mouthed “thank you” to him again, and then pushed in the door.

  My shoulder was practically dislocated when I was yanked inside.

  “What in the holy hell-blazin’ fuck?”

  I blinked at Ryn, another dancer, who was scowling at me.

  A half second after, I saw I was surrounded by Ryn, Pepper and Hattie, with Lottie behind them, arms crossed on her chest, foot out, a smug look on her face.

  She’d instigated an ambush.

  “Uh, hello, Evan?” Ryn called my attention back to her. “I’ve cozied up to you in a fake lesbionic, tip-inducing wonder scene more times than I can count, and you don’t pick up the phone and call when your brother lands you in deep shit?”

  “I mean, seriously,” Hattie said then looked at the other two girls. “We look out for each other. Am I right? Sisterhood.”

  “You’re right,” Ryn replied.

  “Breaking this down,” Pepper entered the three-way conversation that just happened to involve four people. “We’re hurt you hung with the Rock Chicks and let them clean up your pad and you didn’t call on us.”

  They were hurt?

  I liked them.

  I knew they liked me.

  But when I needed help and I didn’t call, they were hurt?

  Wow.

  “Well, I didn’t really—” I began to share that was not at my instigation, or my choice, but that was as far as I got.

  “It’s us from now on,” Ryn declared. “The Dream Team. The Rock Chicks are cool and all, but we’re next gen.”

  “So, you know, Lottie says there’s more stuff to go through and you have to sift through some of it, so we’re gonna go do that tomorrow.” Pepper flipped a hand at the three of them, as well as me. “All of us. We’ll meet at your place at noon. I’m bringing lunch. And tonight has been declared a benefit for the rejuvenation of Evie’s pad. All the dancers are giving you their tips. Even Carla and Dominique.”

  I opened my mouth.

  “No,” Hattie said quietly, and that was Hattie. She was gorgeous and she could dance almost as good as Lottie. In fact, she’d studied dancing for years and wanted to go professional, but life, as it was wont to do, got in the way. But offstage, she was quiet. Even timid. “Don’t, Evie. And you know why.”

  I did.

  My life wasn’t the only life that had a mess in it somewhere, either on the surface, or buried deep.

  I’d taken all their backs before.

  Including Carla and Dominique.

  “You should know,” I said to Pepper, who I knew Lottie was in the throes of fixing up with Auggie. “Auggie’s out there. He’s on duty to look after me tonight.”

  “Fabulous,” Pepper told the ceiling.

  “Maybe you should dance in a mask,” Ryn teased Pepper.

  “You’re the one who likes masks,” Pepper retorted to Ryn.

  Really?

  What did that mean?

  Interesting.

  “I wonder if Boone likes masks,” Hattie remarked.

  “I’m not getting together with Boone,” Ryn told Hattie.

  “Well, I’m not getting together with Auggie, so it doesn’t matter if he sees me dance,” Pepper told Ryn.

  “I’m totally not getting together with Axl,” Hattie declared, giving a visible little shiver that had a lot to do with her being pathologically shy around guys.

  “You are, you need this,” Ryn, always a boss, said.

  “You need Boone too,” Pepper cut into Ryn’s bossing. “You need to settle down. You scare me.”

  What?

  Why was Ryn scaring Pepper?

  “I’m fine,” Ryn returned.

  Pepper looked to me. “She is not.”

  “What’s—?” I started, but Lottie spoke up.

  “You women better slap on some makeup and pull on your G-strings or Smithie is gonna get involved and no one wants that,” she said. “He’s been threatening to pull you, worried you’ll be at risk when you’re onstage,” she told me, and that made me shiver. “We talked him out of it. But tips gotta be made. There’s furniture and plates and whatnot that need replaced. So, let’s get at it.”

  She then clapped.

  That was Lottie.

  Queen of Smithie’s in a variety of ways.

  We were just fortunate she was benevolent.

  And thus, we all headed to our mirrored dressing tables. Carla and Dominique
were already out there. They both had kids, so they started early and ended the same.

  Pepper also had a kid, Juno, cute as a button, sweet as heck, and hilarious, but it was her dad’s week to have Juno, which meant Pepper went late, which was good for Pepper. Tips were better the more time the horny assholes had to get drunk.

  “You’re totally going out with Boone, you can’t help yourself. You’re curious,” Pepper muttered to Ryn along the way.

  “You’re totally going out with Auggie, and I’ll bet your tips break records tonight, you trying to impress him,” Ryn muttered back.

  I sat down at my vanity and looked to Hattie, who was sitting next to me.

  “Axl’s very handsome and he’s really nice,” I said.

  “That’s the problem,” she replied.

  “You’ve seen him?” I asked.

  She nodded, leaning toward her mirror to slather on some foundation. “He worked the crowd during Lottie’s sitch.”

  I hadn’t noticed.

  Then again, I’d actually been able to take some classes back then so if I wasn’t working, I was in class or studying, and alternately concerned about Lottie, so I hadn’t noticed.

  “I think they get why we do what we do,” I assured her.

  She turned to me. “I don’t care if he gets it. I get it. And honey, just sayin’, what you’ve told us about your family, what Lottie shared about what’s going down, it’s only you who doesn’t get what we do. You aren’t them. Your family, that is. You’re doing it for your own reasons. A means to an end. And you don’t owe anyone an explanation about that.”

  She was right.

  Really right.

  I’d just never thought of it that way.

  “You’re right,” I spoke the words out loud.

  She shot me a grin and, “I know,” and turned back to her mirror.

  I turned to mine.

  Because they were going to give me their tips tonight, it was Friday night, the biggest tip night that I danced.

  My lowest Friday night take had been five hundred dollars.

  My highest was over two thousand.

  That meant my fellow dancers…

  Strike that.

  Friends were probably going to refurnish my living room that night.

  So, I had to be right there with them.

  After counting, I tried to shove the envelope in my little purse.

  It didn’t fit.

  “How much?” Auggie, at my side driving, asked.

  I had to clear the frog out of my throat before I answered, “Nearly eight thousand. And that doesn’t include my tips from tonight.”

  “Jesus,” he muttered.

  “It was a good night and Lottie always makes a bundle, but I think Smithie chipped in.”

  “Undoubtedly the man wanted it under the radar, but you should know how people feel about you, so I’ll tell you I saw him slipping Lots some cash.”

  Of course.

  Best boss in the world.

  A man who owned a strip joint.

  And that was just the way.

  You just never knew.

  The most stand-up-appearing guy could be an absolute slimeball.

  And a strip club owner could have a heart of pure gold.

  “Pepper turned it up a notch tonight, I noticed,” I remarked.

  “Babe,” he said.

  Then he said no more.

  I turned to him, and after his chat to me and that brotherly hug, I couldn’t quite keep the earnestness out of my voice.

  “She’s really sweet. And I know she has a kid and some dudes balk at that, but I’ve babysat her often, and Juno is everything.”

  “Pepper’s also got a dickhead ex who fucks with her whenever he can and makes opportunities if they aren’t available, and as such, she’s not feelin’ lettin’ another guy in her life right now, but more, into her kid’s life. We haven’t set something up and it’s not about her kid. I want kids. I want lots of kids. Kids are kids. They’re in your life, you love ’em like your own. So it’s not about Juno. It’s not about Pepper. It’s not about her dancing. It’s what Pepper needs in her life at the present and that’s not me.”

  “Wow, Pepper has shared a lot.”

  “I got the sense she didn’t want me to think she was blowing me off,” he muttered.

  “That’s Pepper. She’s thoughtful,” I told him.

  He glanced at me and I saw a hint of the flash of his white smile before he looked back to the road and asked, “You’re not gonna give up, are you?”

  “No,” I answered.

  “Evie, darlin’, I’m not gonna be that stalkery guy who pushes shit with a woman when she’s not in that zone.”

  “Auggie, something I’m learning, you can get caught up in your life and not realize what zone you need to find until life forces you to pay attention.”

  He was silent a beat before he said quietly, “Point made.”

  We didn’t dive deeper into that the rest of the journey back to Mag’s.

  Auggie had the code to get into the underground garage, and as he drove to guest parking, I saw my Prius, its trunk looking good as new, parked next to Mag’s humongous truck.

  Something about that gave me a delicious shiver.

  Auggie escorted me up and used his key to let us in.

  The condo was dark, except for the light of the TV, which shined on Mag, who was stretched out on his side on the couch, up on an elbow in some throw pillows.

  His eyes were on us.

  Auggie walked me to the living room area, stopped us and stated, “She’s safe home. Now after watching her and Lots and Pepper dance, I’m going home and washing my eyes out with soap.”

  Mag grinned and said, “Owe you.”

  “Yeah, you do,” Auggie replied, turned to me, kissed the side of my head again then bid, “Later,” pivoted, and walked back out the door.

  I heard the lock go.

  “He still has his key,” I told Mag.

  He grinned, this time at me, and then murmured, “C’mere, baby.”

  Seeing him stretched out like that in the light of the television, I could no sooner stop myself from walking to him than I could stop myself from eating a Toll House cookie fresh from the oven, no matter how hot it was and knowing it would burn my tongue.

  I dropped my bag and the envelope of cash on his coffee table on my way and watched him shift before he executed a cool move, which included him pushing up, grabbing my hand, tugging me down so I landed on him but somehow ended up mostly under him.

  It was far from lost on me how good it felt, having his weight on me.

  But I’d just danced, it was three o’clock in the morning, and in order to let Auggie off the hook, I hadn’t showered, just toweled down and cleaned my makeup off before I put my clothes back on and we took off.

  I was tired, not exhausted.

  But I’d just danced, I felt icky, and I didn’t want to go where Mag was clearly taking me.

  I also had this niggling disappointment he was intent to take me there.

  I’d thought he’d stayed awake to make sure I was home safe, which was sweet.

  It seemed he did.

  But also, so he might get himself a little somethin’-somethin’.

  “So,” he murmured, his gaze moving all over my face and hair, and I knew what that meant.

  Then he surprised me.

  His eyes came to mine and he asked, “Gert?”

  “If you pass inspection, she’ll love you.”

  “She treats you right, I already love her.”

  He wasn’t going to make a move.

  He was talking about Gert.

  He was being Danny.

  God.

  What was I going to do with Daniel Magnusson?

  “So what’s the drill after you dance?” he asked. “Are you jazzed and need to chill out watchin’ TV or somethin’ or do you just crash?”

  I noted in those choices he did not offer a heavy make-out session, which wo
uld probably lead to a little somethin’-somethin’.

  Yeah.

  What was I going to do with my Danny?

  “I see my Prius is back in action,” I noted.

  “Yeah, saw to that probably around the time you were shouting at Aug in a Target,” he teased.

  He saw to that.

  While his friend was watching out for me.

  “You know, I had a plan,” I whispered.

  His head cocked as he asked, “Sorry?”

  “Yesterday. I’d formed a plan,” I told him. “I was going to let you do what you had to do, and then I was going to exit your life, finding a way to do that permanently.”

  He had been relaxed and mellow.

  At my words, he was no longer relaxed and mellow.

  “I didn’t think I was good enough for you,” I went on.

  “We had this conversation this morning, Evan,” he said irritably.

  I lifted a hand and ran my finger along his jaw, a lot like he’d done to me the day before to soothe me when I was having bad thoughts.

  His expression shifted from annoyed to alert at the same time it was gentling.

  “I’m getting the sense,” I said softly, “that would have been the biggest mistake of my life.”

  “Baby,” he whispered.

  “Too soon?” I asked.

  “No,” he answered quickly.

  At the swiftness of his answer, I was beginning to know what I was going to do with Daniel Magnusson.

  “Sometimes, I’m tired and I need to crash,” I answered his earlier question. “Sometimes, I’m jazzed, and I need to hang to chill out. But I didn’t shower before I left tonight so I could get Auggie home and that means I feel kind of ick, so I need to shower and then go to bed. The girls are meeting me at my place tomorrow at noon to sort through some stuff.”

  “Which girls?”

  “Some of the girls from work.” I grinned. “The Dream Team. Pepper, Hattie and Ryn.”

  “Lottie’s fix-ups,” he muttered.

  “Yeah,” I confirmed. “They’re my friends and I really didn’t…until tonight, when they got in my face, hurt that I didn’t call on them when things got crazy, I realized that I hadn’t put that together. They gave me their tips tonight. Because of them, in one night, I have enough to set myself back up.”