Read Online Plain Jayne by Laura Drewry - Free Book Online

harder until she had to close her eyes to find her balance.
    Good thing Nick the Boy Scout had a fully stocked medicine cabinet. “Advil, aspirin … oooh, what do we have here?”
    She lifted the bottle and turned to read the prescription label. She’d never had anything stronger than extra strength Tylenol and that was after they yanked all four wisdom teeth. If memory served, those worked pretty well, so surely Tylenol 3s would make short work of her headache.
    “One every four hours? How about one right now and we’ll take a few more with us, justin case?”
    She was only five minutes late, but Nick was tapping his fingers on the island when she finally emerged. Her head still pounded, and any quick movements were instantly regretted. Easy to fix; she’d just move slower. She’d be fine.
    “Are we picking up …” Jayne hesitated. Linda or Lisa? And why the hell couldn’t she remember? It’s not as if it was a weird name or anything.
    “No,” he muttered as they climbed into the truck. “I dropped her and Carter there already so they could save a table.”
    Good thing, too, because the hockey-rink-turned-dance-hall was already packed when Jayne and Nick arrived. The Stetson-wearing DJ was set up in front of the penalty boxes blasting Charlie Daniels loud enough to wake the dead. A line of wooden tables marked off floor space for the bar and dozens of tables and chairs had been scattered along the sides of the boards, leaving plenty of room on the concrete floor for dancing. Decorations had, as usual, been kept to a minimum; hay bales stacked here and there, a giant blow-up beer can beside the bar, and a couple disco balls glinting light from the ceiling.
    Yup, the Stomp was nothing if not sophisticated entertainment.
    “Do you mind?” Jayne didn’t wait for Carter to answer, just lifted his beer and chugged almost a third of it.
    “Didn’t think you liked beer, Jay.”
    “Hate it, but it’s the Stomp, and when in Rome … Besides, I’ve got something stuck in my throat.” No one needed to know it was one of Nick’s Tylenols. The pill hadn’t looked so big inside the bottle, but given the way it had lodged itself in her esophagus, it must have doubled in size at the first hint of saliva.
    One more sip. There, that was better. She forced a smile, and turned to Nick’s girlfriend, yelling to be heard over the music.
    “It’s good to see you again.”
Whatever your name is
.
    “You too.” She turned her soft green eyes to Nick. “We were getting worried.”
    “She was. I wasn’t,” Carter corrected with a soft grunt. “It’s Jay, after all.”
    “Sorry.” Nick kissed his girlfriend’s cheek, then thumbed toward the bar. “I’ll be back.”
    “Want me to come with you?” LindaLisa was on her feet so fast, Jayne had to blink to refocus.
    Nick just shook his head, made a motion toward her chair, then pointed between LindaLisa and Carter, who nodded. Scott family sign language; I’ll take care of the drinks, you take care of LindaLisa.
    A second later, the crowd swallowed Nick, leaving the three of them at the table alone.
    It wasn’t until LindaLisa sat down that Jayne realized what she’d seen. LindaLisa was wearing a dress. No, not just a dress. A
pink
dress, summery and sleeveless with wide straps over her shoulders and an oversized decorative button pinned to her neckline. It was cute and girly and completely out of place here.
    Hell, she looked like she was going to an after-church picnic, not sitting in what could only be considered a makeshift honky-tonk, where at some point in the evening that pink dress was going to be covered in at least one person’s beer.
    Nick should have warned her.
    “So.” If Jayne looked straight at the other woman, maybe she wouldn’t have to remember her name. “Nick tells me you’re a party planner.”
    “An event organizer, yes.”
    “Here in town or do you work in the city?”
    “Both.”
    Jayne waited for her to offer more, but all