Chapter twenty-two:
The guys are very gallant, holding open the doors. I pass our tickets to Eric, Pam and Alcide. The dj is playing a lot of country.
"I rigged it." Eric whispers to me, grinning like a fool.
Jason Aldean's 'Dirt Road Anthem' comes on and the boys groan at the look in Pam and my eyes. "I am not letting you dance to this without me." Both Eric and Sam growl at the same time to us. They take off their jackets and drape them on the chairs.
We drag the guys out and start dancing. Eric holds on to me while I gyrate to the music. He moans as we collide, I can feel his arousal growing as we dance. The song ends and our foreheads meet.
"You are going to kill me before this night is over. I already want to head upstairs." He sucks on my earlobe.
We stay on the floor through 'Must be doing something right.' by Billy Currington. While my head is on his chest, I kiss his tattoo. 'That's right, I am all yours baby.'
Alcide asks for the next dance. It turns out to be 'One more Drinking Song', by Jerrod Neiman. We walk out to the floor.
"Want to give them a show?" Alcide asks with a sly smirk. I nod and smile. Alcide starts by twirling me out. By the time he stops me, I notice that there is a wide space for us. It really is a simple two-step that we are doing, but it looks more complicated with the bends, twists and lifts.
Alcide winks at me, letting me know that he was going for the new one that we practiced. He lifts me to lay across his arms, almost level with his eyes and lets me go. I unroll down towards the floor, only to be stopped by his boots. He pulls me up and we start dancing again. When the song ends, the whole floor breaks into applause. Alcide hugs me and shoves me back to his brother.
When 'Gunpowder and Lead' comes on, the four of us girls dance and have a damn good time doing it.
Eric reclaims me for Blake Shelton's 'God Gave me You'. He waltzes me around the floor, while Shelton was crooning.
"How are you liking 'our first dance'?" He smirks down to me. I tell him I love it.
"I love you, Mr. Northman." I nuzzle into his collarbone.
"I love you too, Mrs. Northman." He looks into my eyes and leans in for a kiss, but Pam comes running up "Get ready, we're going to do the bouquet and garter." She squeals.
Rascal Flatts', "Why Wait" comes over the speakers.
"Can I have all the girls on the floor? We have a little competition for you." She announces. "Don't worry guys, your turn is next." The ladies walk to the middle of the floor with bewildered expressions.
"Ready, one, two, three." I throw the flowers over my shoulders and turn around to see who catches it. It was Claudine. She is surprised, and then smiles at me. Pam snaps her fingers.
The dj cues up Joe Nichols' 'Take it Off' and Eric leads me to a chair and I sit down. He smiles and kneels and takes my garter off, with his teeth, wagging his eyebrows at me. He saw his surprise. 'I saw the message on your leg.' Eric extends his hand and pulls me into his arms.
"Okay guys, I am going to be fair here and not shoot it at anyone. So you all have a chance for this. You can fight over it but I am done fighting you for Sook. She has been my wife for a month now, so lay off." Eric throws my garter to the mass of surprised guys. 'Wife?' Quinn catches it. Eric twirls me around and kisses me possessively while bending me back towards the floor. 'I love you, you naughty girl. I plan to collect on that soon.'
"I want to see what happens with Alcide. Do you think he'll cough up the balls to ask for her number?" Eric shrugs. I kiss his cheek, and walk over to my brother.
"Hey there Pain, I came over to kick your ass. Ask for her number and address. She's not going to bite. It's not going to be much of a distance; she is going to UTenn, in the fall." His face lights up.
"Really?" I nod. He walks up and asks Claudine to dance. I can see her teary eyes. While we were getting ready, she had said that she really liked him and wanted to get to know him, but was afraid that she read too much into his behavior at the dance. I told her not to worry, that he had liked her too. In reality, he had asked about her that morning. He wanted to see her again.
"How do you do that?" Eric shakes his head. "It's good to have you in my arms again, Sook. I have missed you so much." He sweeps me around the floor. "I have a wedding present for you. I pulled a few strings to do this but they agreed to do it, if I paid for them to fly up and back."
A guitar rips into the air. I look at him, he smirks at me as it dawns on me what song it is, but this was live. I turn toward where the dj is, or was. Instead there is Brad Paisley playing on his electric. I gasp. "If he's here and playing that song?" I turn to Eric, who is smiling. "You didn't?" I jump in his arms and attack his mouth. Paisley launches into 'Old Alabama' with Alabama backing up.
I screech and start jumping up and down. "It's Alabama, It's Alabama. I love you! I love you Randy!" I sound like a Twilight fangirl, screaming for Robert Pattinson, instead I am screaming for Randy Owen. All five of them laugh at my antics. Eric laughs and pulls me to the floor and we dance with our wedding party. He picks me up into his arms and spins me around. I love this man. "Man and I thought I was big fan of you guys." Brad mutters to the band over the mic. "What can I say, it's his voice." I yell back.
Crystal walks up to me and snidely asks if I am marching in a week. "No, why would I be here, when I could be on my honeymoon in Hawaii. We are driving down to Tennessee tonight and leaving on Wednesday." I walk back to my husband and friends.
We agree to leave. Eric packs our bags in my trunk and we drop Claudine and Jess at their houses. Alcide walks Claudine to her door and comes back with a grin on his face. 'She missed me as much as I missed her. I hope she will be my girlfriend.' I smile at Alcide's thoughts.
"She told me to call her. She gave me her number." He tells us as we drive to Portland the next morning, so Alcide can catch his flight. I then turn around and cut up through Rt. 302, and then 26. Just over the line into New Hampshire, I pull into a restaurant and use the bathroom to change into a more comfortable outfit; jeans, a snap-front shirt and some sneakers. Eric buys some food and coffee and we get back on the road. We talk about how we want the house, we decided to build. We take our time taking in the sights.
We stop at a steakhouse in upstate New York for supper. Eric brings up the house, while we are waiting for our food and asks what I really want. "I really would like the master bath to be like the one we have now. No more than five bedrooms, at least two other full baths and then a half bath on the main floor. I like Mom's kitchen. It's easy to cook in. Other than that, I would like a wraparound covered porch." He nods and adds it all to the list. The waitress comes out with our food and sets it down in front of me. 'I think I will slip him my number on the bill. She can't be much to him. I mean he's so handsome.' She takes one last look at Eric and walks back. "Hey Sook, push over. I want to sit with you." I stand and he pulls his setting to the inside of my side of the booth. He then pulls me back into the seat. "That's better. I like being able to hold you while we eat. Well, it more like I just like to hold you wherever we are." Eric drapes his arm around me and we start eating our meals.
I ask him about what we will do about the bank accounts. He tells me that he opened a house account with what I got when I closed my account. "What about finances?"
"Joint account and a separate one for your personal expenses, whatever they might be. I don't want you to be reliant on me for money if you want to go shopping with Pam or something." He looks nervous; it's cute that he still gets that way around me.
"I'm fine with that if you don't go overboard with what you put in there."
"Fifty a week okay?"
"I can handle that. That way, I can still feel like I can save for things." He beams at me.
The girl comes back with the bill, which she hands to him, stretching past me to do so. There is a blatant arrow so he would turn it over. 'If you want to ditch your ugly friend, meet me out back. It's my break. Otherwise, here's my number. 544-5252.' Eric shakes his head and hands me the bill to read. We had already agreed that I would pay it, when I told him about her thinking of doing this. I just didn't catch the bitchiness of her thoughts.
We walk up to the restaurant manager to pay. When he asks why I want to do that. Eric flips over our bill and shows him the message on the back. The man's eyes widen and he calls the young waitress in from her break. 'Oh shit. He wasn't the one paying. She's seen the message. The bitch has probably already told Mr. Stone. This is not good.' She walks up to us and looks to the manager. "Yes, Mr. Stone."
"Danelle, this young man is upset with the note that you left on the back of his bill." She turns to Eric.
"I am sorry that I insulted your friend." She apologizes.
"I am not the one you should apologize to. That would be my wife here. We are just passing through on our way from Maine to our home in Tennessee and needed to have something to eat. You not only insulted the love of my life, but my choice of being with her. I am sorry if that is how you think you need to pick someone up and I am sorry for the men that would work on, because that is a pretty low rent way of asking someone out." The girl looks at Eric confused by what he said.
"Did you say that she is your wife? You two can't be any older than eighteen, and you are married?" She laughs to herself.
"Yes, we are married. We have been since last month. Obviously, some people are more mature than you are at this age." Eric retorts, getting pissed off. 'I swear, every time we go out on anything that resembles a date, it gets messed up somehow. I am sorry my love.' I pat his cheek with my left hand and take over the discussion.
"I don't care about getting called ugly. I have been called worse by better than this low rent heap of trash. I just care that this doesn't happen again to someone else with a weaker self-esteem." I tell the manager. 'That girl is tough as nails, I like that. I have been looking for a reason to shit-can this kid. Just because she is the mayor's daughter, doesn't mean that she can do what she wants. The owner is the only one that can fire her. I wish I could.' "Sir, Ma'am, would you like to fill out a card. I will keep it with her file." He says, holding his hands out.
"I have a better idea. Eric, we are going to stay in town for a couple more hours." Eric nods and stands back, knowing I am up to something. "Sir, where is the owner's office?"
The man points and wonders how I knew what he was thinking. Eric and I walk into the owner's office after being told to. The owner is a young woman, who in truth was not the prettiest woman, but smiles at me and Eric anyway. She asks how she can help us. We explain the problem to her. I glean from her mind that she recognizes Eric from the television.
"I am in a bind here. I was told by the mayor that she needed a job and he would be mighty unhappy if she lost said job." 'He threatened my business license over it.' "This was her first day back from suspension without pay because she told off a patron. Called her a bitch and that she was in need of facial reconstruction. She hits on any nice looking guy that walks through the doors; married, old, what have you. Let's see the bill." She reads it and gets mad. "Ma'am, I am very sorry. Short of you two filling out an incident report and talking to the mayor himself. I can't do much. She is bringing down my business; I have heard that people stay away because they know that it is her night to work. My sales suffer on those nights. The mayor is up for reelection in a week. This will hurt him if it is known that his daughter has been pulling this while he is trying to run again." A sparkle comes into her eyes. I look over to Eric. 'Baby, do it. I don't care. No one insults my wife, ever. Go all the way that you can for this woman.' I smile at him and turn to the owner. "Give me the report and call this rotten mayor.
I fill out the report and wait for the esteemed mayor to arrive. When the man walks in, he smiles at me. "Tara, who are these people?"
I stand up and raise my eyebrow. "I am the woman who is demanding your daughter's dismissal." I tell him in a diamond hard voice. "She was rude to me, she made a pass at my husband while I was sitting there, and then when he brushed it off she wrote this on the back of our bill and handed it to him, even though I had told her earlier that it should go to me." I shove the bill in his face.
"Young lady, did I just hear that the two of you are married? You can't be out of high school, yet." He scoffs.
"That is almost what your daughter said to me, verbatim; when I told her that she should apologize to my wife." Eric turns to Tara again. "Ma'am, I don't want anyone else to be targeted. If you can guarantee that she will be fired, I will wave my endorsement fee and buy into this restaurant." Tara's mind is blown. She thinks of the opportunities that would bring. Buffalo is a major circuit stop, so this is big.
"Mr. Northman, you have yourself a deal. May I send a press release to the papers?" She asks, politely. I smile and step up. "I'll do you one better. I will write it for you and a letter to the editor." She shakes my hand and nods.
The mayor is on the phone to his campaign personnel. His face is getting white. When he hangs up, he asks what it will take for him to save face. Of course, being the ass that he is he asks Eric. Eric motions that he should address me. The man turns to me and asks the same thing.
"Sir, I came to this place in hopes of having a decent meal with my husband while before continuing on our way back to our home in Tennessee. The meal itself was great, but the service was laxidasical to say the least. I looked around for her a couple times when our drinks were out and she was on her cell. She actually stood so she only saw my husband each time she came over. I understand that he is well known for what he does, but that only goes so far. The icing on the cake was her disregarding my instruction to give me the bill and then my husband finding the note. He of course handed it over to me, because he left his wallet in his luggage. Your daughter further attempted to insult me by laughing over us being married. I am sorry, but I will stand up for all the patrons of this establishment, and demand that the worst waitress on the staff be shit canned for her horrid behavior and crappy service. I do not give two shits who you are and what office you hold. You are an elected official, who is up for renewal, you would think that it would not take an out of town person to point out that what you are doing to this poor lady is illegal. Tara, make the call to the papers, local news and I will make sure it gets on the cable news shows. Hell, I might just call Bill O'Reilly myself. He seems to love this stuff, Michael Savage too." Tara smiles and picks up the phone. The mayor puts his finger on the button.
"Fine fire her. I'll take her home. You will not see any repercussions from this. Good day." He walks out of the room. You can hear him yelling at her for making him look like an ass. "I will most likely lose the election because of your loose ways and then you will have to get and keep a job on your own merit. You will be out finding a job tomorrow morning and you have two weeks from the time you are hired to find an apartment. If you are still unemployed by this time next month you will start incurring a rent payment that you will have to pay back on top of your rent for your apartment. You will also start paying for your own gas in your car."
Eric raises his brow and then turns to write out a check for five thousand dollars to Tara for a share in the business. "Just keep it on the down low that we are involved personally in the business. You can release the rest. I only ask for something to put on my bumper, Sookie's, a couple tees from the souvenir shop and some patches to sew to my shirts." She leads us out to the shop and hands over the items, plus a couple large decals for the trailers. We shake her hand and take our leave.