Play It Safe(92)

What on earth?

Someone else started clapping and I whipped my head around to see Janie’s man Danny was doing it and as my eyes hit him he rose to his feet.

Someone else started clapping and my eyes again turned to see Barry and Gene both rising from their seats, their eyes on me, their faces split in grins, their hands cracking together. Then someone else started clapping. Then another. Then another. Then suddenly everyone around us was getting to their feet, clapping, hooting, catcalling and someone shouted, “Way to go, Ivey!”

What on earth?

Suddenly, I was no longer held in the curve of Gray’s arm but tugged into a tight embrace, iron bands clamped around me and in my ear a man whispered, “Saved Mirry, saved Gray, saved Mustang. Welcome home, Ivey.”

I pulled my head back and saw Sonny had hold of me.

I stared in his still intense eyes as his arms gave me a tight squeeze and he said again, “Welcome home.”

That was when me, tough, badass, hard as nails ex-Vegas showgirl Ivey Larue burst out crying.

Publically.

Okay, evidence was suggesting that maybe Gray, Lash and Brutus were right. I wasn’t all that hard. Instead, I was a big softie.

Shit.

The iron bands released but I was shuffled into Gray’s embrace as everyone kept cheering.

For me.

I shoved my face in his chest and kept crying.

Gray’s body moved so his lips were at my ear where he muttered, “Told you they don’t think shit about you. Or, at least, not bad shit.”

“Shut up!” I snapped, this muffled by his tee since I snapped into it then my body jerked with a sob.

“Pipe down! Pipe down! You don’t shut up, I can’t get their orders and feed Ivey,” I heard Sonny shout.

My body was again shuffled and I heard Gray ask, “Can you shift? I want my girl sittin’ at my side.”

“No problem, Gray,” someone answered as the applause started to die then Gray came back to me.

“Dollface, you wanna unplant your face from my chest so we can sit down and eat?”

“Not really,” I told his chest.

“Honey –”

“I have a feeling my makeup is messed up.”

“First, they got a bathroom. Second, I don’t think you get it that these folks don’t give a shit. You’re Ivey, you saved my ass, you saved my land, we got ripped apart and now we’re back together and, bottom line, they like you.”

This appeared to be true on all counts. A standing ovation was hard to deny.

I shoved my hands up between us and swiped at my cheeks hoping I wasn’t doing more damage.

Then I tipped my head back and looked at Gray.

“Well?” I asked.

“Bathroom’s at the front, off to your right,” he answered.

Great. He gave that answer and he barely had to look.

He grinned and dipped his head to touch his mouth to mine.

He shouldn’t have done that. He really, really shouldn’t have.

Because when he did, the whole lodge again went crazy.

Great.

He lifted his head no longer grinning but smiling huge. I rolled my eyes, dashed my hand across my cheeks and pulled at his arms.

Gray let me go.

I walked to the bathroom lamely giving out waves to people who were clapping and shouting after me.

I hit the bathroom and tried to repair the damage.

And as I did, I stared into the mirror and saw Gray, Lash and Freddie were right.

There was no hard behind my eyes, no hard around my mouth.

I just looked happy.

“Welcome back to Mustang, Ivey,” I whispered to the mirror.

Then I grinned.

Then I went to go eat a fantastic steak.

* * * * *

An hour and a half later…

Gray’s arm around me, mine around him, he was walking me up the sidewalk toward The Rambler.

Three feet from the door I came to a dead halt in a way that Gray had no choice but to stop with me.

I looked up at him. “Okay, I could do the VFW, I can’t do this.”

Gray turned into me and curled his other arm around me.

“Honey, Janie can’t get away from the bar and she wants to see you. She feels shit for some things she said. You gotta give her that.”

I shook my head. “It’s not that.”

His eyes held mine. “Then what is it?”

I pressed my lips together. Then I looked to the door of The Rambler before turning my eyes back to Gray.

Then I whispered, “I was happy there.”

He closed his eyes.

I sucked in a deep breath.

Gray opened his eyes and his arms gave me a squeeze. “Ivey –”

“And not only that but this is…the VFW and now this. It’s our first date, Gray.”

“I know that, Ivey,” he replied instantly. So instantly, I blinked.

That was why we were here. Why he pushed me to go to the VFW. Why we were going to The Rambler.

He was giving me our first date again.

Oh my God.

How sweet was that!

“Gray,” I whispered, again feeling overwhelmed, this time in a good way and he grinned.

“No shittin’ you, dollface, I could have started our first date with you na**d in my bed for hours, I woulda taken that. I could have that date knowin’ you’d end it in my bed, I’d take that too. That was the best date I ever had but, gotta say, this one’s better.”