Page 35 of Heart Over Heels

“Hell, I’ve been married forty years. I know the look.” Jack leaned back, smug as a cat while Earl confirmed.

“It’s lady trouble, all right.”

I shook my head and failed to bite back a frown. Trouble, sure. I had it all over, and therewasa lady involved, often in ways I wish she wasn’t.

“My ex has been making noise again,” I said. My thumb worried the beer label, peeling it in ragged strips. “Claims I’m not stable enough and that Molly’s better off without me.”

The humor drained from both men. They’d heard this before, though it usually took more than a few sips of low-point alcohol to drag it out of me.

Jack grunted, and Earl muttered something under his breath. I didn’t catch the exact words, but I knew the gist. He always had a curse ready when my ex’s name came up.

“She’s ten, right? Your daughter?” Jack asked, his voice soft.

“Eleven.” The word stuck in my throat.

Molly was in middle school now. Closer to adulthood than childhood, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d missed it. Formative years, defining moments, so much time spent without me in it.

The sole upside of my early retirement had been the chance to reconnect. To wedge myself back into Molly’s life. To feel like a parent instead of a paycheck. I was grateful to be able to support her. That was the main reason I’d enlisted in the first place.

I remembered the day recruiters showed up at my high school, throwing an offer like a life raft into the stormy waters of a prom night liaison turned unplanned pregnancy.

My life was over, according to my mother.

“Time to man up,” declared my father.

So it was, and so I did.

I signed on for what seemed like a fortune to a kid who didn’t know better, but it was never enough. Then came the deployments with hazardous duty pay and the family separation allowance… All the bonuses that made Rachel smile more than she did anytime I was actually home.

So I kept signing up. Pinballing between home and away until they were both and neither.

Earl shook his head and took a long pull from his drink. “Damn shame. A man gets shot at overseas, comes back in one piece, and still can’t see his own little girl. World’s gone upside down.”

I didn’t argue. What was there to say? They knew the story as well as they knew that some nights the only thing keeping me from crawling out of my skin was sitting in this hall with men who carried their own scars, trading tales and spreading them around until the burden felt a little lighter.

Yet even with their company, I couldn’t shake the ghost of Darby’s grin, the memory of his tail striking like lightningthrough the air. He was undoubtedly another source of trouble, but the kind that had me restless in a way I hadn’t felt in years.

Meeting him had thrown more than a few of my former beliefs into question. My assumptions about demons. About men. About mytastein men—or if I had a taste for them at all. But four nights of watching the Dollhouse dancers strut around in next to nothing had shattered any lingering delusions. I could no longer pretend that certain things didn’t get my attention. Sleek brown skin. Nipple rings. Thigh-high stockings on short, shapely legs… Most of the things I noticed had Darby written all over them.

What would Jack and Earl think if I brought that up? That their disabled drinking buddy was keeping company with a demon in false lashes and lace? Earl might have a heart attack just hearing it.

Still, it was better than chewing on the same old wounds.

I cleared my throat, peeled the last strip of my beer label free, and set it on the counter. “I met someone,” I said.

Jack’s pepper-gray brow perked up. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” My mouth twitched. “Goes by Darby. Works at a club on the Strip.”

That got Earl’s attention, and his grin spread. “Now we’re talkin’. Club girls are like dessert. Nobody needs ’em, but damn if they don’t taste good.”

His enthusiasm took me aback, and I floundered for a reply while Jack tipped his mug toward me.

“Good for you,” he said. “Young folks oughta enjoy being young. Go a little wild from time to time.”

Earl jabbed me with his elbow. “You gonna bring Miss Darby around here, or you keepin’ her all to yourself?”

MissDarby.