Chapter 5

She picked up her glass and took a sip of lukewarm, watered down cola. She almost spit it back out, but she was thirsty. The second swallow didn’t seem quite so bad. About then, Wes came back. Naturally he’d shed his clown outfit for the dance. In a pair of black jeans and a nice white-on-white shirt, he looked pretty good. He might be a long drink of water, but he had wide shoulders, lean hips, long legs and an athlete’s grace when he wasn’t playing the clown.

He dragged another chair over, close beside Tab, and sat down straddling it. “I don’t think that yahoo will be botherin’ you any more for a while, Little Bit. I let him know he was making a nuisance of himself, and he allowed as how maybe he’d head on out.”

“Dang it, Wes, you don’t have to be my protector. One big brother is more than enough. I got him with a knee in the right spot, and he wasn’t going to drag me out of here anyway.”