Hard Luck Hellhound by Chant Zoe

Author:Chant, Zoe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zoe Chant
Published: 2021-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

8

Anita was having the time of her life. Sure, she sometimes had to flip through the stained, seltzer-spattered cocktail guide to find out how to do something, and sure, she still didn’t feel comfortable trying the “set something on fire” bar trick the internet had assured her was a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, but she thought she was doing okay, especially for her first night.

After years of being miserable, it was just so much fun to have something to do that she was good at and to know that no one was going to show up to take it away from her. Her family wasn’t going to swoop in and try to protect her from a danger she was walking into with her eyes wide open. For the first time in her life, she felt like she was really claiming her own space. And she loved it.

The roadhouse was terrific. She obviously hadn’t gotten to see it in full swing before now, and she was delighted by how friendly and boisterous the atmosphere was. Someone was always laughing. Someone always had the jukebox going. (Right now it was playing something that crooned, He’s a slow drink of whiskey, and I want to be the glass, which definitely made her think of Russ. She was going to learn more country songs tonight than she’d ever known in her life.) People joked around, chatted, flirted, and even comforted each other, all in a way that showed how they had known each other for years. There was a kind of homey intimacy to it that she’d never experienced before.

She liked these people. Emily came in and greeted her—she seemed way more awake now, even perky—and George and Lu pulled her aside every chance they got to toss her another getting-to-know-you question. Some of which were... weirdly specific.

“If you were an animal,” George said, in a tone of voice that made it sound like he was putting it all in air-quotes, “what kind of animal would you be?”

Maybe he had Googled icebreaker questions.

“Let me just make somebody a whiskey Coke and then I’ll get back to you,” she said. True to her word, she came back a minute later and said, “A horse, I guess. A Mustang.”

“Interesting,” George said.

“What kind of animals do you like?” Luann said.

“All kinds. Dogs, cats, horses, bears, lions, wolves, deer, capybaras, sloths...”

“Dogs,” Lu said to George, pointedly.

...Okay.

She didn’t know what was going on with them, but she had the feeling that they were protective of Russ, and she liked them better for it. After all, she wouldn’t have wanted just anybody to waltz into Russ’s life, either.

She wanted to be the one doing the waltzing. Right into his life and right into his arms.

But in the meantime, she was happy enough to tend bar.

It was all going perfectly until a rattlesnake crawled across the toe of her boot.

She was pouring a glass of white wine when some primitive, subconscious warning kicked in, alerting her to a gentle rasping sound.

She looked down just in time to see a snake almost as thick as her wrist sliding past her under the bar.

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