“Congrats on the sale.”
She beamed at me. “Did you run into Ian?”
I nodded. “Happy for you, babe. And Aspen is happening?”
That was when she nodded with a cute little bounce in her seat. “I’m excited. But Sadie’s sold so much, I need to get to work.”
Yeah.
Ian had been right.
Hattie wasn’t going to last long at Smithie’s.
Not to mention, Ryn definitely wanted her life to be about flipping houses (and Boone).
And Lottie and Mo were moving along at a good clip. It seemed like just yesterday when they’d met. Now they were married, and I knew she wanted kids. You couldn’t dance the way we did when you started showing. She might even retire (though, I didn’t think she would, but I’d seen her with her nephews, she doted on them—I could totally see her saying, ef it, I wanna be a stay-at-home mom).
And then there was…me.
I couldn’t dance forever either.
I was sure a bangin’-hot seventy-year-old woman could do a smashing job, but the tips would probably be crap and half of them would be pity tips.
I needed tips, lots of them, and none of them from pity.
God.
I, too, needed a backup plan.
“How’d the date go?” Lottie asked.
I buried my thoughts and smiled at her. “Awesome.”
“Do you feel like a big dufus you put him off for so long?” she asked.
I didn’t stop smiling at her. “Totally.”
She did a small headshake and rolled her eyes, but her lips were tipped up.
“Did you hear about Dominique?” Hattie asked.
“Yep,” I answered.
“We need to be at one with that,” Lottie stated confusingly.
“At one with what?” Hattie inquired, obviously as confused as me.
“At one with who’s hired,” Lottie said. “If they hire one woman, it’s about Billy. If it’s two, then I say Billy and Marques. But I’m open to discussing Zane. If it’s three, we’re golden.”
Hattie and I looked at each other.
Then we looked back to Lottie and it was Hattie who got there first, but I knew when she did, we had the same thing on our minds.
“Do you mean, we need to be at one with our selections of new dancers so you can fix them up with the rest of Hawk’s commandos?”
“Yes,” Lottie said. “Though, it won’t be just me fixing them up this time. It’ll be all of us.”
Uh…
“I’m not sure we should pick dancers based on who we want to set those boys up with,” I put in.
And I wasn’t sure we should set those boys up.
I’d met them. They’d been around on a variety of occasions. And even though they seemed like great guys, I didn’t know them all that well.
Still.
First, they seemed young. They were probably the same age as me, but dudes matured slower and having a kid accelerated that process (at least it did for me).
Second, I wasn’t a fan of meddling in other people’s lives.
And last, breaking it down:
Billy was scary. He was hot, but he was scary.
Marques still had a lot of boy in him, and even though he was hot too, no woman liked to hang around while her man grew up.
And Zane seemed…broken. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something jagged in that guy. Sure, there were women who were good at smoothing things out for a man, but I didn’t think we could find that by watching some chick dance.
“You’re not a Taoist, like me,” Lottie said.
Hattie giggled.
I grinned at her.
But even if she was being funny, I broke it down for her too.
“Billy’s scary. Marques is a man-boy. And Zane is broken. Do you really think we could pick the perfect girls for them just watching them audition to be dancers at Smithie’s Revue?”
“I nailed it with you four,” Lottie pointed out.
“You knew us and none of the guys had those issues,” I returned.
And when I did, both Lottie and Hattie gave me a look.
So I asked, “What?”
“Auggie’s broken,” Lottie said.
Oh shit.
He kinda was.
Actually…
We were getting to know each other, but I still didn’t know him all that well.
Though, what I did know was that he wasn’t kinda broken.
He just was.
“Axl has a messed-up dad and he watched his best friend die,” Hattie told me.
“Mo has bad PTSD, you both know that, and before me, women shit all over him, you know that too,” Lottie said. “Mag has PTSD as well, and you also know that. And Boone’s best friend committed suicide after he got out. No one is perfect. Everyone has issues. And as funny as it is, I’m no Taoist. I just picked four really good women for four really good guys. And it worked. We just have to find good women. And it’ll work.”
Okay, Lots was my friend, but it was super nice she called me a really good woman, because she was a really good woman and I was glad she was in my life, and more glad to hear her confirm the feeling was mutual.