Page 2 of The Dance

“True.”

The birthday girl took a sip, and I waited for her approval, even though I needed to move on since we had a packed bar. Her brown eyes widened. “Yeah, this is strong.”

“To be fair, you’re used to beer.” I grinned.

“I am.” She took another sip.

“Well, go easy on those, or you’ll be hugging the porcelain god later.”

I moved down the bar to another customer, and just like every night, I was in my happy place. As the night progressed, I watched the birthday girl work the dance floor, and I knew why she was minoring in dance.

She was sexy as fuck.

* * *

Every Sunday,my brother made the three-hour drive from Austin to Houston for family dinner at our folks’ house. He and his best friend from college, Jason, had opened a gym in Austin that took off, so they opened another one in Houston, where we grew up. I wasn’t sure why they chose to open one in Austin first since Texas A&M was similar in distance to Houston, but whatever. They moved to Austin after college and still lived there, even though they were expanding. Not that long ago, they opened a location in Denver. They went there often to make sure things were going smoothly but depended on the managers to keep the doors open. I thought they would move to Colorado, but they hadn’t.

I never told anyone how I felt about my brother’s success because I didn’t want to come off like a jealous asshole, and I was happy for him, but I also wanted to bespeciallike him. He was the star quarterback in high school and college. He got hurt his sophomore year at Texas A&M, and then he wasbabiedbecause he couldn’t walk for a long ass time. He recovered and was in the best shape of his life since he spent most of his time in the gym, but my parents still catered to him.

Watching them praise Brandon fueled my fire to open my own club. I was secretly saving money, researching how much it would be to lease or own a building, and learning how to run a business. I wasn’t going to tell anyone until I opened the fucker.

After parking my truck in the long driveway, I made my way to my parents’ front door. Brandon’s SUV was already there, and I steeled myself for all the admiration he would get while they frowned at me for only being a bartender.

I needed a fucking drink.

The moment I opened the door, I could smell my mother’s cornbread. I knew we were having barbeque because cornbread was always served with brisket in our house. Brisket that my father smoked overnight.

When I got to the kitchen, I saw everyone was outside by the pool, so I grabbed a beer from the fridge and joined my family on the patio in the cooling October evening. It was still nice enough for shorts and a T-shirt and sitting outside drinking beers while playing Texas Hold’em until dinner was ready.

“Deal me in,” I said with a huge Montgomery smile.

“Aw, good. More money for me to take,” Brandon teased. Well, he was right. Somehow, he always fucking won.

“Twenty?” I kissed my mother’s cheek and then squeezed my father’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” Brandon replied.

I took out a twenty-dollar bill from my wallet and handed it to my brother before taking a seat between him and my mother.

“Big blind is fifty cents,” Dad advised of the forced bet and tossed in a fifty-cent chip while Brandon got me some chips. The small blind would be twenty-five cents.

The four of us played a few hands before my brother said, “I have some news.”

“You have a girlfriend?” Mom asked with a hopeful smile.

Brandon shook his head and smirked. “No time to date.”

“Just fuck,” I coughed.

“Blake!” Mother scolded. She turned her attention back to Brandon. “If Jason has time, then you should too.”

“Jason met Becca in college. That’s different,” Brandon argued as he dealt the cards.

“What’s the news?” Dad probed.

“Denver is soaring, so Jason and I have decided to open a new location.”

I rolled my eyes. The golden child was expanding his business because he was successful.Yippee!