Page 21 of Can We Skip to the Good Part?

Ella balked and didn’t hide it. She couldn’t. “Your hair is gorgeous . People pay tons of money to try and achieve what you have through genetics alone.”

“Ella, I had no idea you felt this way.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Wow. You’re really into my hair.”

Ella laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Enjoy your moment.”

“I’m relishing every second. Do you see me over here?

” The funny thing was that Max’s version of relishing was still very much in control and polished.

Everything about her was. Ella was getting good at reading the nuance, though.

That slight smile that played on her lips.

The small sparkle in those brown eyes. She also sat a little taller.

Ella laughed, enjoying their back-and-forth.

“I do see you. But you’d better calm the hell down.

Don’t want you to crash the car with all that relishing.

” She watched Max drive for a beat longer, appreciating her profile, the way she focused on the road like she owned the damn thing.

She tried to imagine Max being bad at something, and couldn’t quite conjure the image.

“Weren’t you supposed to keep me humble?”

Ella shrugged. “A blip. They happen. I’ll get back to making your life hard in a minute. What’s your mom’s problem with your luscious locks?”

“That’s not an awful nickname. Maybe we should keep it.”

“No.”

“She thinks I wear it down too often to be taken seriously, except, of course, when she wants me to woo a man and make him my lifelong mate. Then I’m free to toss at will.”

If Ella had been drinking something, she would have spit it out all over the expensive windshield. “Woo a man? Woo a man ?!” She hadn’t meant to scream that last part. “Does she know you?”

“Ella. I think you just called me super gay.”

“I did. I mean, you’re like the most lesbian lesbian. It’s not the way you look, it’s the energy.” She leaned in. “She must see that. You would be in Honors Gay if this were school.”

“Oh, you’ve said some nice things to me before, but that one wins.” She flashed Ella a wide-eyed glance and went back to the road. “And I was in all honors classes, by the way.”

“Well, of course you were. I was not. Too busy doodling.” She looked around. They seemed to be off the beaten path. The familiar sights of Everly Springs were nowhere to be seen. Fewer streetlights and fewer cars. She had a feeling they were close to the bar. Or was it a club?

“You’re an impressive bisexual, too,” Max said. “I didn’t mean to not return the compliment.”

“Thank you for thinking of me and my fluidity.”

Max lifted a shoulder. “Anytime, Ella. What’s your middle name?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“Fine.”

When they arrived at Sally Sue’s, Ella took in the scene because it wasn’t at all as she had imagined it.

The one-story building, all by itself down a dusty, dark road, didn’t feel a part of the city at all.

The parking lot around the back was a literal field, and the people heading inside and spilling out the entrance had all dressed the part.

“Now that’s a lot of flannel,” she said, rethinking her outfit. She came around the front of the car to wait for Max.

“Isn’t it?” Max took off her coat, dropped it onto the front seat of the car, and gave the door a slam.

Ella went still at the sight. Whoa . The sounds of The Chicks drifted into the parking lot, her underscore to the visual of Max fucking Wyler looking like that in jeans, black cowboy boots, and a red-and-black checkered shirt that made her the sexiest woman she’d ever seen.

Since when was she into cowgirls? Since fucking now.

With her hair down and her shirt unbuttoned to a generous neckline, Max looked like the October page of a sexy calendar, and honestly?

She wasn’t even showing that much skin. “What? Ella, you’re staring. ”

“You didn’t warn me.”

“About what?”

“That you were …” She had to reframe that thought because the sentence, "You were going to look so ridiculously hot tonight,” wouldn’t do. “Were, uh, going full Western.”

“I had no idea you had opinions, or I would have.”

“Well, I do!” she shouted without meaning to. The emotion had just burst straight out of her. A woman passing by turned abruptly at the sound of her voice. “Sorry,” she told the woman in a much quieter voice.

“No, honey, you get it out.”

“Right. I will. Thank you.”

When she turned back, Max was watching her with an arched brow that only increased the reading on the sexy meter because now she looked like she was up to something.

“We should just go inside and find the others,” Ella managed in a voice that, for some reason, sounded strangled.

“Whatever you want,” Max said. “Right this way.”

Ella made a point of hurrying so she could catch up to Max and walk toward the entrance side by side. No reason to check out her ass in those jeans. None of this was helping her turn over a new leaf.

“Why are you sighing?” Max asked.

Had she sighed? “Oh, it’s the air quality. It seems poorer than usual. Climate change is such a bitch!” She’d added an extra shot of passion to her delivery, hoping to sell it. She was pretty sure that had been a mistake.

Max stared at her knowingly for an extended moment as they waited for the people in front of them to funnel through the double doors. “I had no idea you were a champion of the cause.”

She nodded along. “Not too many people do.”

“Twenty-dollar cover,” the woman at the door said in a sultry voice.

She wore a cowboy hat, jeans, and a textured, pink tube top.

She also had binoculars around her neck, which is when Ella remembered the split theme.

The bartenders behind them were dressed in safari shirts.

Her friends hadn’t been lying about the strange mash-up.

The barstools were faux zebra print, but cowboy hats lined the back wall.

“Wow. This is … something.”

The woman leaned in. “Never been to The Wild Frontier? That’s what we all call it. Only gay bar out this way, so we make a meal out of it.”

“Never. My first time,” Ella said.

Automatically, the woman pulled a free drink ticket in the shape of a boot and handed it over. “This’ll get you started.”

“Thank you.” She already liked it here.

“There’s a mechanical bull in the back room,” Max said in her ear, likely because the music was so loud, she’d never hear her otherwise. Regardless, it caused Ella’s stomach to tighten and her cheeks to flame hot at Max’s proximity. She smelled like a raspberry popsicle. “I do love a good ride.”

Oh, those words . Ella braced against the heat that now pulsed between her legs. She tried for cavalier anyway. This was all just fun and games, right? “It’s like you keep trying to one-up yourself.”

“I like a challenge.” She met Ella’s eyes and extended her hand for the woman to stamp it with what looked to be a dancing banana.

Oh, this was going to be an interesting night.

Ella followed Max inside and scanned the room, which featured a sizable dance floor filled with line-dancing women. Oh, my.

“Feel at home?” Max asked.

“Yeah, I dance like that in my living room nightly. I slay on area rugs.”

Max waited her out.

“Okay. I’ve never tried line dancing in my life.

I’m an abysmal dancer who should steer clear of rhythmic movement.

I can own it.” The amused look on Max’s face had her playing back the sentence and closing her eyes at the implication.

Mortification was her new best friend, clinging to her like shrink-wrap.

“You’re here!” Morgan said, throwing an arm around each of them from behind. “I just knew we’d find a way to make tonight happen. Stevie’s over there looking gorgeous and terrified.”

Ella and Max exchanged a nod of solidarity and followed Morgan to Stevie, who stood in the corner in her jeans and button-down white shirt.

She looked downright lesbian tonight, and it made Ella’s heart squeeze for her and the apparent effort she’d gone to.

She desperately wanted Stevie to have a good night, or at the very least, not a bad one.

“Hi. So, I’m here,” Stevie said, her blue eyes wide as if it was all a lot to take in. “It’s not bad. A little loud and busy, but I’m good. Real good.”

Max pulled her in for a squeeze. “See? Not as scary as you thought. And we’ll be with you the whole time. You look great.” She really did. These women were going to go nuts for Stevie.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but I would love to buy you a drink,” a woman said, leaning into their conversation, her hand curved onto Max’s shoulder from behind.

Her nails were painted purple and her boobs were about an inch from coming out to play.

She was staring at Max like she was lunch. Ella prickled and went still.

“You’re sweet, but I think I’m gonna work up to it,” Max said.

The woman shrugged. “Sounds good. I’ll be around if you change your mind. You’re gorgeous, by the way.”

Once she was gone, Ella stood taller and took an involuntary step closer to Max, who, of course, noticed, because she was ridiculously obvious. What in the hell was she doing? Back off . Somehow, she didn’t. Couldn’t.

“Drink?” Max asked. Morgan and Stevie were waving at Olive, who had pulled out all the stops tonight.

She looked inarguably sexy in a red dress, her dark brown hair flowing freely.

She’d also left her glasses at home and didn’t at all resemble the librarian Ella had come to know at book club. Well, well .

“Definitely will need a drink,” she told Max. “Something refreshing but strong. Is that a thing?”

“It can be. Be right back,” Max said as the group took turns complimenting Olive’s nighttime look.

“I like to raise the volume on nights out,” Olive told them, but the quiet voice in which she’d said it was a sweet juxtaposition.