Chapter Nine- Boot Scoot Boogie

Lulu wasn't exactly riding the bull yet, she was standing next to it with a nervous look on her face.

"You gonna ride 'er?" asked the man who worked there. He wore a cowboy style shirt and a badge that said Randy Dale.

Lulu wondered if randy described his personality or if he had two first names or a last name that sounded like a first name. Or if...

"Little lady?" Randy Dale interrupted her thoughts.

"Yeah," Lulu said, focusing on him again. "Do many people die riding this bull?"

"Old Gus ain't killed nobody in years now," Randy Dale saidthen laughed.

Lulu paled "Is that backwoods humor or is this mechanical bull a serial killer?"

Randy Dale laughed again, not really clearing up anything as far as Lulu was concerned.

She glanced over to where Jason, Carly, Spinelli and Milo were standing, watching along with a few other bar patrons.

Country music blared over the jukebox.

Alan Jackson sang, "The next thing I remember I was hearing wedding bells.

Standing by a woman in a long white lacy veil.

I raised the veil, she smiled at me, without her left front tooth.

And I said 'Where the hell am I? And just who the hell are you?"

She said "I was your waitress and our last name's now the same

Cause I'm married to you baby and I don't even know your name..."

Lulu's eyes met Milo's. He gave her a thumb's up.

She nodded.

"All right, Randy Dale, I'm ready to ride the bull!" she said, hopping on.

Randy petted the faked bull. "You be nice to her now, Old Gus."

Carly closed her eyes and leaned over to press her face against Jason's chest. "I can't watch."

Spinelli grinned, with lusty eyes, "I can. Go Oh Blonde One! Yahoo! Work that Bull! That's right."

Milo growled at him, "Do you feel like losing some blood today?"

Spinelli's eyes were locked on Lulu who was doing remarking well on the bull.

He said to Milo, "No thank you. I gave at the office."

Milo was about to grab the front of Spinelli's shirt when Jason said,

"There she goes."

Carly opened her eyes and she saw her cousin yell "Yee-haw!" before Lulu tumbled to the ground.

Milo ran over and helped her up.

Lulu was all smiles when she said, "You soooo need to ride the bull!"

THE BAR served food, though Carly wouldn't be taking any recipes back to The Metro Court. So after the bull riding- Lulu, Milo, and Carly rode, Jason and Spinelli watched- they all ate some the greasiest hamburgers ever known to mankind and watched Randy Dale give line dancing lessons.

"Lets learn," Lulu said to Milo

Milo watched the dancers and, with his head titled, then said "I don't think my feet move that way."

"I'm game, Oh Blonde One."

Spinelli and Lulu moved onto the dance floor. She picked up most of the steps right away, her face flushed and grinning, while Spinelli goofed around and tripped up other people with his missteps.

A Brooks and Dunn song was playing, "Yeah! Heel, toe, doe see doe, come on baby let's go boot scooting.

Cadillac, black jack, baby meet me out back we're gonna boogie.
Oh get down, turn around, go to town boot scooting boogie."

Jason looked at Carly and deadpanned, "Is this the fourth level of Hell?"

She grinned sexily, "No, it's a bar a thousand miles from home. You think there are any rooms upstairs here?"

He looked toward the ceiling before he could stop himself. Then their eyes met and held.

And he started to think how good it would feel...

"Milo," Jason snapped

"What did I do?" Milo asked nervously.

"Go." Jason ordered

"Where?"

"Away," Jason told him, still looking at Carly.

"Oh, okay, boss. Oh." Milo was at a lost for where he could go. He looked around.

"Milo," Carly said, holding Jason's gaze.

"Yeah?"

"Boot scoot." she said

Milo had a pained expression as he joined the line dancers.

Jason leaned toward Carly, swallowed and said, "Stop it."

"What?" she asked innocently, her hand snaked under the table and caressed his thigh.

"Come on. Stop. Enough." The way he said it made her think he had met his limit with her, and one more push might take him right where she wanted him to be.

How could things go here so quickly? she wondered

But they were always living just below the boiling point.

She smiled, "Enough for you, maybe. Never for me."

"You say. But all you are doing is asking for..."

"Love?" she whispered, huskily.

"A mess."

She broke eye contact with him, shaking her head. "No, all I am asking for is to feel something real for the first time in years. But I guess today is not my day."

She stood up and made her way to the bar.

"Whatcha drinking?" asked the bartender, a woman with huge Elvis Presley earrings.

"What you got?" Carly asked

JASON watched her, feeling disappointed. He had only done the right thing, he told himself, and halted her silly game.

Sure Carly thought she wanted him back but in all honestly, Jason believed, they would only end up in flames within months. A year tops. And then what?

Think of Sam, Jason drilled into his mind. Sam. Pretty little Sam.

He tried to picture her, to remember a really perfect moment with his current girlfriend. They were right there on the edge of his mind...but instead he saw a blonde whose only crime was loving him too much for her own good... he saw all the need that was in her eyes that first night at Jake's and realized it had only grown since then.

He wanted to make Carly feel safer, more protected and he hoped he had but ... he knew he had also made her feel desperate, scared, and like she was clutching at sand castles that people told her weren't even there. Like they, him and her and their love, were only a mirage.

But he knew the truth, they were it. More than a four letter word, a ten letter one.

Everything.

THE LINE DANCING ENDED, and couples started to pair off as the song changed.

Spinelli said, smiling, "Oh Blonde One..."

Milo butted him out of the way and Spinelli went stumbling into a table.

"How harsh!" Spinelli cried out

Milo held out his hand to Lulu, "Would you do me the honor?"

"Your mother raised you right, Milo Giambetti. Yes, I would love to," she answered, feeling like a character in Gone With the Wind.

She went into his arms and he was pretty sure he had never felt anything as good before in his life.

(When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case


I would offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love


When the evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one to dry your tears


I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love ) ( Mr. Garth Brooks)

Jason tapped on Carly's shoulder.

She turned around, "Just forget it, okay? Never happened."

He said, "That would be a lie. We don't lie to each other."

"I'm going to need more alcohol." Carly started to turn away.

Jason said softly, "Dance?"

She looked at him.

He added, "Just a dance. Don't go getting no ideas, now." He smiled

She said, as they went to the dance floor, "I was born full of crazy ideas."

"You don't say?" he joked softly

She smiled. He barely swayed to the beat, because of his hurt leg, but the point wasn't to dance, it was to be close, to hear Carly sigh happily. What better sound was there in the world than that sigh?

(I know you haven't made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong


I've known it from the moment that we met
No doubt in my mind where you belong


I'd go hungry, I'd go blind for you
I'd go crawling down the aisle for you


There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love ) ( Mr. Garth Brooks)

SPINELLI walked over to a waitress, the only young one in the place. She was in her late twenties, with plenty of curves eased into her jean skirt, and she wore cowboy boots. Her platinum blond hair reminded him of Dolly Parton.

"Hey Dreamy Dolly, wanna cut a rug?"

"My name is Abigail."

"The Jackal." he said winking at her.

"Die Hard with a Vengeance."

Thinking she was telling him to drop dead, he said "That is mega harsh."

"Mega Harsh? Never heard of that one. Who else was in it?"

"Huh?" Spinelli asked, his eyes focusing on her ample figure.

"Aren't we naming Bruce Willis movies?" she asked

"What?"

"You said The Jackal." she told him annoyed, "Yankees." She rolled her eyes. "Can't make a lick of sense out of nothin' that comes out of their mouths."

CARLY said softly, "This is my favorite thing in the world."

"Liar," Jason said, grinning sexily.

He knew he shouldn't encourage her but... damn, he was sick of doing the right thing. So few times were they ever away from Port Charles and all that together. For five more minutes he could indulge her...

She stared in his eyes. "Being in your arms is my favorite thing, horizontal or vertical."

She laid her head on his shoulder, "Yes, right here.. this.. I missed this, Jase."

"Yeah, me too." The words slipped from his mouth, soft tender little pieces of truth.

(The storms are raging on a rolling sea
Down the highway of regret


The winds of change are blowing wild and free
But you ain't seen nothing like me yet

There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of the earth for you


Make you happy, make your dreams come true
To make you feel my love) ( Mr. Garth Brooks)

LULU looked up at Milo, as they danced, "This is a good country song," her thoughts were filled with dreams of a prince charming that might be hers one day.

"Damn good country song," Milo agreed thinking of the princess he held within his arms.

SPINELLI hustled after the waitress, saying "Dreamy Dolly, don't do me this way. Show a poor Yankee some lovin..."

"Security!" the waitress yelled