Page 48 of New Rules
My response was to him, but my gaze was on Tammy. “She’s got a wall bigger than China, but I have a feeling she’s worth it to scale it.”
“So, you gonna stay here or come back to Texas?” Chase asked, easy and with no underlying pressure.
“Don’t know yet,” I told him truthfully.
“The fact that you’re even considering it is an answer on its own.”
He was right. I just needed to think about it some more and have a talk with Tammy.
Before I could respond to him, Diego had walked up to the stool where Frank had been seated and leaned over the bar. “Hey, Tammy, can I put in for some food?”
“Sure, gimme two shakes,” she replied, holding up her finger as she worked her way around the bar fixing a few drinks.
“I’m Diego. Nice to meet you,” he introduced himself to Chase. “Heard you’re from Texas, too. Either of you ever been out to the Grayson Track?”
“The horse racing track?” Chase asked him in response as I sat back and tried to recall where that might be.
“Yeah,” Diego said. “I got a buddy who lives down that way and works there.”
“Once, but not in probably ten years,” Chase replied.
I’d never even heard of the place, let alone knew where it was.
“I’d love to get out there and visit him sometime and check it out, maybe place a few bets with him for shits and giggles,” he said.
“Speaking of betting,” Tammy said, interrupting us. “You’re turning into an old man there, Ray, making that beer last forever. I bet you I can pour two new beers for your friends before you finish that one.”
“Are you daring me to chug my beer?” I asked her as I watched the flirty smirk on her face.
“Oh, my money’s on Ray,” Chase said with a smile.
“I’ll put five bucks on that,” Diego added, grinning like a loon.
Odd that Diego had so much confidence in a fifty-year-old man to chug two-thirds of a beer. Even odder that Tammy was trying to stir the pot with me.
“Challenge accepted, darlin’. What do I get if I win?”
She shrugged. “You pick.”
Her smile faltered almost instantly as she realized her mistake of leaving that open-ended.
“Within reason!” she quickly added.
I winked and gave her my best shit-eating grin, making sure she knew I would take my time picking my prize when I won. And Iwouldwin.
She grabbed two fresh glasses and looked at me before she started to pour. “Go.”
I picked up my beer and started to chug it, a little peeved that I couldn’t just enjoy the taste of it as it went down, but the prize would be worth it.
Diego and two others at the bar had started chanting my name as I drank, while Chase just laughed next to me.
Shortly after Tammy finished pouring the first beer and had switched over to the second glass, I finished my beer and set the glass down with a hearty thud on the counter.
Diego and the other two customers clapped and hollered while Chase explained what all the commotion was about to Frank, who had just walked up.
“Pay up, Tammy,” Diego told her.
“I bet Ray, not your sorry ass,” she told him.
