by Jamie Begley
“Yes. I usually don’t wear this many,” she said, wiggling her fingers for Gianna to count. She had ten on one hand and six on the other.
“Y? I don’t know anyone with a Y name.” Irritated, she looked around at them as if they knew someone who did.
“Good things come to those who wait.”
“Stuff it, Zoey.”
“It’s my turn.” Zoey turned the topic at Gianna’s burgeoning aggression, sweeping her eyes over the display of rings. “M.”
“I’d rather have a Mark or a Marcus,” Gianna complained. “Take off some of your rings.”
“You can’t do that; it wouldn’t count.” Dropping her hands, she started walking toward the end of the row that they were standing on.
“Wait!” Penni called after her. “We didn’t do yours.”
“I counted them. There aren’t twenty-nine letters in the alphabet.”
The women all went to different doors; Ginny took the first at the back, waiting for Penni to press the unlock button.
“What happens when that happens?” Zoey asked. “Do you just start counting over with the remaining numbers?”
“No, it means you’ll be an old maid.”
Penni pressed her finger on her key fob. “That’s harsh.”
“Most deeply rooted superstitions are. Back when they originated, life was much harder. It provided a way to display humor or to explain why bad things were happening.” The older Ginny got the less credence she gave to the old superstitions that Freddy had teasingly taught her and Leah. “Truthfully”—Ginny slid into the back seat with Zoey sliding in behind her, as Gianna got in from the other side and Penni and Grace sat in the front—“I don’t think they considered women wearing so many rings. Many didn’t have the money for them.”
“It doesn’t matter, anyway.” Zoey patted her thigh. “Superstitions aren’t real.”
Buckling her seatbelt, Gianna made a wry face at Zoey. “That’s easy for a woman who’s going to marry a Mark to say.”
Zoey buckled her own seatbelt before reaching into her pocket to give Gianna an engraved business card. “Call me.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Are you sure your husbands are okay with you being out with me tonight?”
Ginny hid a smile at the determined efforts of the group of friends plainly ignoring Zoey’s question. The busy nightclub in Queen City was packed, and only Penni would be able to find a table to fit the large group. Ginny thought it ironic. If she had planned the outing, they would have been standing outside in the long line of people who were still trying to get in.
“What can I get you ladies to drink?”
“I’ll take a lime daiquiri,” Grace spoke up first.
“A strawberry margarita for me,” Casey ordered next.
“Cranberry juice,” Zoey ordered when the waitress looked at her.
Ginny patiently waited her turn. The women sitting at the table were attracting most of the male attention in the room. Ginny almost felt sorry for them, knowing that none of the men stood a chance of scoring with any of them. Grace was married to the president of the Predators, Casey was married to Max, a soldier of the club, and Penni was married to Jackal, the enforcer. Two other women sitting with them were Sawyer, Kaden’s wife, and Vida, her married friend. The only three at the table who were single were Zoey, Gianna, and her. Gianna was waiting for her college boyfriend to propose, Zoey was a life coach and would more than likely talk them into introducing themselves to another woman, and with her, they would plain strike out.
“Vida and I will both have amaretto sours,” Sawyer ordered for her and her best friend.
“How about you, Ginny?” Penni prompted.
“I’ll take a diet soda,” she ordered before looking at Penni’s disappointed expression. “The only reason I’m here and not in bed is because you said I needed to be the designated driver,” she reminded her. The past three weeks, since their last outing together, hadn’t found her any closer to finding a job, and she didn’t want to waste any money.
“I told you that to get you out. Girl, that’s what Lyft is for,” Gianna told her, then ordered, “I’ll take a rum and coke, and bring my girl one too.”
Ginny started to cancel her roommate’s order for her. Rum was her least favorite alcoholic drink. “I’m not drinking, Ginny. If you want it, go ahead,” Zoey offered, bopping her head to the music.
“Exactly how do you think you can give us rides home on that skateboard?” Penni joked, slapping her hand on the table and drawing the eyes of the customers at nearby tables. “Don’t worry about rides home. I’ve got it covered.”
She would stick to her Diet Coke. Ginny had no intention of finding herself on the back of a Predator’s motorcycle.
“I’m with you with the rum, Gianna, except I’ll take mine in a mojito.” Penni gave her order to the waitress who was impatiently waiting. “And bring us a platter of the nachos. I’m starving.”
“We ate before we came here,” Zoey reminded her. “And should you be drinking with your heart condition?”
Penni shrugged. “The burger and fries didn’t fill me up, and if one drink will kill me, I don’t want to live,” she joked. “Besides, the damage to my heart was only short-term. I’ve had annual checkups since I had Wylie. I was lucky. Not only did I survive an amniotic fluid embolism when almost seventy percent of women don’t, but I don’t have any damage, other than memory loss, and Jackal swears I had that problem before.”
Ginny almost snorted at that. The only time Penni was scatterbrained was when she wanted to do something that someone else didn’t want her to do.
Once the waitress left, Ginny started listening to the music and watching the couples on the dance floor as the married women finally answered Zoey’s question about who was babysitting. Finding out that the husbands had been stuck with the kiddos for angering their wives was hilarious. What she thought was even funnier was that the life coach was responsible for the bickering between the husbands and wives.
Zoey found a dog that Ice had talked Grace into giving to another member of the Predators. The dog got lost and, boys being boys, Ice and Stump lied about it to Grace.
“I feel terrible that I caused this friction between you and your husbands,” Zoey was saying contritely.
Ginny only tuned into the last of the conversation when the music ended.
“Get over it.” Penni leaned back to allow the waitress to serve their drinks. “Order something stronger than cranberry juice; it’ll help.”
Grace helped herself to the nachos. “Look on the bright side. We’re having a girls’ night out and we’re all here. It’s been a long time since that’s happened.”
Zoey brightened. “That’s true. I haven’t been able to get better acquainted with Ginny since she moved to town and moved in with Gianna.”
Ginny smiled back at her. “I’m looking forward to it too. I’ve been on the road so much with the band that I’m still trying to get used to sleeping on a bed that doesn’t move. It’s going to be hard until I can find another job, but I can understand the band wanting to take a year break.”
“It was either take a break or the kids and I were going on the tour with Kaden.” Sawyer shook her head when Vida moved the nacho platter toward her.
“I could help. I could put it out to my followers that you’re looking for a job,” Zoey offered.
“That’s okay. I prefer to do it the old-fashioned way and search the job sites.”
“You could apply for Stump’s job at the furniture store. I hear his boss is hiring,” Penni suggested, motioning to the waitress for a refill.
“Not anymore. I talked to his boss. I stopped there before going back to the office this morning. He’s going to hire Stump back,” Zoey said happily.
“Do you ever not be nice?”
Ginny almost laughed at Grace’s dry comment.
“It’s good Karma.”
All the women at the table stared at her like she was an al
ien from outer space as the waitress brought each of the women a fresh drink.
“The karaoke is getting started. I get busy when it does, so I didn’t want to keep you waiting,” she explained.
Gianna gave the waitress an extra ten when she paid for the round of drinks. “I like a woman who is industrious.”
After the waitress left, Gianna brought her fresh drink closer. “I told you there is an opening at the bank. One of the perks of being the president is hiring.”
Here we go again, Ginny thought. Then she repeated the same thing that she always did, hoping this time it would stick. “I don’t have any banking experience. The only jobs I’ve ever had are cooking, waitressing, and cleaning. I’ll find something. Until then, I can use the vacation.”
“The bank would train you ….”
Her roommate couldn’t understand why she wasn’t jumping at the offer, and there was no way that Ginny was about to tell her that she didn’t want the bank running a background check on her. Hammer and Will both said that no one could connect her to her past life, but Ginny didn’t want to take the chance. She would reclaim her old life when she was ready, not before.
“I suck at numbers, and I really like cooking and cleaning.”
“I’m glad that Max didn’t meet you until after he married me,” Casey quipped with a roll of her eyes. She wasn’t the only one; Ginny rolled her eyes too. Max might be twice the size of Rider, but both men had a bottomless appetite. She wouldn’t have been able to afford feeding either one of them, even if she’d been attracted to one of them, which she wasn’t.
The aching loneliness she had felt when she confessed to Trudy that she thought her soul mate was dead was getting worse. The chat with Gianna and the number of rings count had only reaffirmed her beliefs, despite telling herself that she was being paranoid. She had even been forcing herself to look at men more closely in the hope that someone would grab her interest. So far, the only man whom she had given a second glance to was a shoe salesman, and that was because she had been trying to get his attention to get her a pair of shoes she wanted to try on.
The table went quiet when a long-haired man jumped onto the small stage and raised a microphone. “Let’s get this party rolling! Who wants to go first?” he shouted.
Several people in the bar yelled out to get his attention.
Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he pointed at a middle-aged woman in the back of the room. Ginny yelled encouragement for the woman after people quit listening, drowning her out after she only sang the first few notes.
“She’s terrible. I’m going to need another drink if the entertainment doesn’t get any better,” Vida complained, finishing her second drink.
“I think she’s doing a good job considering—”
“That she’s tone deaf,” Sawyer cut Zoey off. “Even the DJ quit hopping.”
“I can sing better than that, and I’m tone deaf.” Gianna took another chip, popping it into her mouth.
“You’re all being too critical.”
Ginny agreed with Zoey. She didn’t think the woman sounded that bad. It was karaoke. It wasn’t like they were expecting Ariana Grande to jump up and start singing.
“We’re being nice.” Penni stood up when the woman finished and stepped down from the stage. “Watch this. I’ll show her how it’s done.”
The DJ didn’t even have enough time to ask who was next before Penni was on stage.
Ginny laid her head down on the table when Penni attempted to sing, smacking the table with her hand beside her head.
“She’s even worse!” Sawyer howled.
“You girls are being hypercritical because you listen to Mouth2Mouth during rehearsals and concerts.” Ever-the-happy Zen master, Zoey tried to hush their laughter, seeing they were getting loud enough that Penni heard them over the music she was trying to sing to.
Ginny raised her head, trying to get control over herself.
“I don’t. She’s just plain bad,” Gianna said, wiping her tears of laughter away with a napkin. “I don’t have any musical talent, and I can sing better than that.”
“Prove it.”
Gianna’s laughter faded when Penni came up behind her.
“You’re already done?” Gianna blanched at getting caught bad-mouthing Penni’s singing.
“The DJ took the microphone away from me. Put your tonsils where your mouth is.”
“You’re not making any sense. No more drinks for you.” Zoey tried to move Penni’s drink away from her grasping hand.
“Gianna knows what I mean.”
“You don’t think I won’t?”
Ginny seriously thought about stuffing her napkin in her mouth to keep from laughing. Gianna hated being provoked; she tried shutting them down every time.
“I know you won’t,” Penni taunted.
“Watch me.” Gianna stood up, throwing Penni a challenging look.
“I won’t have to. I can hear you from here.”
This was why she had dragged herself out of her bed and got dressed. The women reminded her so much of the friendship Trudy shared with her friends.
“She’s good,” Zoey complimented Gianna.
Ginny rested her hand on her cheek, enjoying listening to Gianna sing.
“She’s okay.” Penni held her hand out to Zoey. “Can I have my drink back if I act like she is?”
“No, you’ve had enough.”
“I thought you hated to use the no word?” Penni told the life coach.
Ginny laughed inwardly while still listening to Gianna. Penni was on a roll tonight.
“I do, but I don’t mind when it’s appropriate.”
Penni turned her attention to the woman next to her. “Sawyer, you should get Kaden to start going to Zoey. I need a raise, and all he keeps telling me is no.” Now Penni was turning her snark to her boss who wasn’t there.
Sawyer appeared embarrassed. “I tried, but he says he doesn’t have the time to spare.”
Penni snorted. “She’s being polite. He says the same thing Jackal says—that it’s baloney.”
Ginny understood what Penni was trying to do. She was trying drum up more business for Zoey by enlisting their wives without them knowing it.
“Penni!”
“It’s okay, Sawyer. A lot of people say that.”
“Not many. How many followers do you have now?” Sawyer asked Zoey, glaring at Penni.
“I’m at fifty thousand.”
“That’s fantastic!” Ginny said enthusiastically. Zoey sincerely tried to help people. She was becoming popular; it had to be helping her business.
“Who’s next?” The DJ shouted out across the crowded room.
Gianna nudged Ginny. “You go.”
“No way.” She nearly tipped her glass over at the suggestion.
“Come on, you love to sing,” Gianna tried to coax her again. “Hell, you do it when you clean the apartment. You don’t have any problem singing in front of me then.”
“That’s different. It’s just me and you.”
Ginny thought she would pass out at the suggestion.
“You sing when you cook,” Penni joined in, trying to convince her.
“I do?”
“Yep. Go ahead. Queen City is so big that you’re never going to see these people again anyway.”
“She sings in church, too.” Gianna nudged her again. “You can’t have stage fright with the way you sing every Sunday.”
“That doesn’t involve a stage, and you’re standing next to me in the pew, singing the same song.”
“If I go up there with you, will you do it?” Gianna didn’t give her time to answer, standing up and grabbing Ginny’s hand, tugging her toward the stage.
Ginny tried to tug her hand away from her roommate, but Gianna wouldn’t let her go, and with so many people watching, Ginny didn’t know how to get out of the situation she found herself in. She finally decided to bolt off the other side of the stage, nearly knocking herself to the floor when a cor
d tripped her. Gianna holding her hand prevented her from falling.
“Gianna, she doesn’t want to.” Zoey managed to break Gianna’s grip on her as she turned to thank the DJ who handed her the microphone.
Ginny found herself in her worst nightmare. The microphone almost hit her on the mouth because her hand was shaking so badly. The rowdy crowd started yelling at her to sing. Her roommate started to book it, giving her an apologetic look as she stepped off the stage.
When they got back to their apartment, Ginny promised she would strangle her. She would do it sooner, but Ginny was pretty sure that, as drunk as the women at the table were getting, she would be on the back of a motorcycle, cruising alongside them on other bikes.
Mentally, planes had never bothered her after the crash. Riding on motorcycles, on the other hand, was one thing she didn’t want to experience firsthand. Motorcycles and singing in front of crowds were her Achilles heel, and before the night was over, Ginny had a feeling that she wouldn’t escape doing both.
Ginny froze when the DJ started to play Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” the lyrics coming up on the screen to the side. Her mind went back to the last time she sang, when all the attention had been focused on her. Ginny couldn’t even open her mouth to let a single word out. She wasn’t even aware of Zoey asking the DJ to switch the music “Million Reasons,” by Lady Gaga.
When the music started playing, it drew her out of the trance she had locked herself into. Realizing the only way she was going to get off the stage was to give them what they wanted, she started singing. Doing what she did when she sang in church, she sang low so she was barely heard.
Flashbacks of the day that had irrevocably changed her life streamed through her mind like a flip book. The book stopping in the middle when Zoey took her hand in hers to sing with her. At Zoey’s encouraging smile, Ginny relaxed, her voice gradually growing louder, just wanting to finish the song and get off the stage.
Her eyes swept through the crowd, terrified someone would recognize her voice from when she sang as a child. It was an unreasonable fear, magnified by the traumatic events of the day that had scared the child within her, leaving a lasting mark on the adult who had her wanting to run in terror, just as she had that day when she was three years old.