“Really? I didn’t know there was a tattoo place in Ashford.”
“Tiny place, down by the big box store and the shopping center with the game store,” Dee said, suddenly appearing at my door. “How long until you’re ready?”
“Just finishing my eyes,” I said. “Got to do something to distract from having one leg.”
I was joking, and Dee thankfully caught it, rolling her eyes.
“Whatever. You’re stupidly pretty, and you know it. That’s why you have seven hundred thousand followers for your vlog,” she joked.
“You don’t think it’s my hard-hitting emotional content?” I laughed.
“Some of it. Others are probably just following the pretty girl with the crutches.”
“Fair,” I said. “I’ll take it. Alright, I’m ready.”
“Then let’s get going,” Dee said. “I want to be there when the food starts rolling out. The boys make amazing steaks.”
“Steaks?”
“Girl, you are in for a treat,” Dee said. “I’ve been to like four of these things, and I haven’t left hungry once.”
I smiled, but the food wasn’t the reason I agreed to go. Partially, I just wanted to get out and meet people. I was getting a little bored cooped up in the house, even with Dee and occasionally Wendy dropping by. There was only so much interaction that I could get from people online since I needed to keep distance between fans and followers.
But there was also the promise of Gerry being there. Running into him at the store was unexpected, but the sparks had started flying immediately. His eyes had roamed over my body in a way that didn’t make me feel uncomfortable, which was a first. Before my accident, men looking at me that way had a leering aspect to it that made them seem creepy, and after the accident, the attention was on my leg or tainted with a pity that I resented.
With Gerry, there had been none of that. He looked at me like I was not only a peer but an attractive one. And while he didn’t shy away from my leg, he also didn’t seem to act like it mattered much. It was just part of who I was to him. That, in and of itself, was an attractive quality.
Though I had to remind myself that he was older. He might just be being nice to me because I was young or because I was friends with Wendy through Dee. He and Wendy seemed awfully tight, and I was sure he would want to at least be nice to me because of that connection. But what if there were more?
I shook it off and headed out behind Dee to the car and then hopped in. Dee had a cooler full of beer and wine coolers in the back, and I was half-tempted to grab one before things got underway. I was so close to twenty-one that it was almost negligible, and having something to calm my nerves might be a good thing.
When we got there almost twenty minutes later, Wendy greeted us outside and brought us inside to meet Deacon and Rebecca and their little girl. They were very nice and welcoming and brought us around back. They had a porch with steps leading down to the yard, where several men were building the bonfire. As the sun set, they would light it and get it going, but for now, things were still being prepared. A truck in the distance had a boom box in it and was blasting out country music.
Beside the truck was a cop car, and I looked back to Wendy, motioning to it.
“What, the cop?” she asked. “He’s here with us. Don’t worry about it. He’s a good guy, and he keeps the county off our back if things get too loud.”
“Cool. Do you know who all is coming?”
Wendy exchanged a glance with Dee and then smiled.
“Lots of folks. Everett and Helen, Carter and Lauren, Brett and Harleigh, Aiden and Desiree, all of them. And their kids. Bunch of the guys from the office and some of the freelancers. Gerry too,” she said. “As a matter of fact, that’s him heading down to the bonfire.”
She pointed behind me, and I looked. Sure enough, Gerry was on his way down the hill. I mostly had adjusted to the things I couldn’t do with the crutches, but at that moment, I severely hated that I couldn’t navigate grassy hills.
“Hey, sis,” Dee said, getting my attention over to her.
“Yeah?”
“You know there’s a back way down to the bonfire, right?” she asked. “If you go out the front and come around, there’s a ramp leading down to where the truck with the music is at. It’s flat from there to the fire.”
“Oh. That’s cool.”
She eyed me for a moment, a grin on her face.
“You know, just in case you wanted to go down there. Like, now,” she said.
“Sure, why not?”