Page 52 of Their Pup to Tame

“I-I…”

She held up her hand when I started stammering, sparing me from trying to come up with a decent enough excuse.

“By the time I was your age, I’d been a dancer at the club for almost a decade,” she said. “Oh, they were breaking the law when they let me up on the stage six months before my eighteenth birthday, but I needed the work. I was desperate for it, because it meant the freedom to no longer have to live in my father’s house. I think I’ve done alright for myself, when you get down to it, but if you’d have asked me if I saw myself running a strip club for the rest of my days, I’d have told you I’d have rather used all of those years of dance classes and recitals on the kind of stage where flowers would be thrown at my feet at the end of the night, instead of dollar bills.”

“I didn’t know you danced other styles,” I said.

“Oh, honey, I spent my whole life dancing,” she replied. “From the time I was small, actually, I had a plastic barre in my room and videos my mama found with basic ballet tutorials. She and my old man saved up for ballet lessons. The only time I ever saw him dress up nice was when he came to one of my recitals. It wasn’t until after she passed that my old man soured on the whole thing, but that’s a story for a different time and not one that has any bearing on the conversation. What matters is that you know that this business doesn’t have to be your future. I’m proud of you for stepping up and thrilled that you want to have a bigger hand in making the club successful for all involved. But if there ever comes a point when you realize that you have other dreams you’d like to pursue, you come see me, and we’ll have a chat and figure out the best way to make that happen for you.”

“Honestly, Gram, I love working at the club. I don’t always love the issues and the bullshit that crops up, but the only dream I have right now is seeing how we can elevate what you’ve already built into a place that people seek out as much for the social aspect as the performances going on.”

“Yes, I noticed that in the horseshoe shaped booths you proposed, in addition to the risers, so those in the back would have an unimpeded view of the stage. While we both know that it won’t deter everyone from wanting to get a closer look, you’ve eliminated the need for so many chairs and removed a potential weapon. I love the idea of smaller bars in the wings too, so everyone isn’t flooding up to the main one on a busy night because we both know what kind of logjam that creates and the potential for tempers to flare.”

I nodded, because things did tend to get heated if the wait was too long, especially if it meant people were missing out on one of the dancers they’d come to watch.

“I caught your performance the other night,” she said, switching topics so fast it made my head whirl. “At Iron Paws and Leather Pups”

“Grandma!”

“What?” she said, cocking her head at me.

“It’s a leather club!”

“And?” She tsked. “Child, you act like I’ve never danced in one before. The event was far tamer than the last one I attended, let me tell you. For that I’m grateful; it took me three days to get over the hangover I had. I swear my head was still pounding to the tune of the music when I woke up the morning after. Good times. Now where was I?”

“The, um…event,” I muttered, my cheeks heated by that point.

“Yes. You, Raleigh, and Murry make a great team,” she said. “And the designer, Dorian, I’ve never seen gear like he unveiled that night. I might have to drop into the shop and see what he has in leather catsuits.”

If my cheeks weren’t crimson before, they were flaming now, and with my hair pulled back, I couldn’t even hide behind it.

“I’m curious,” she said, while I sat there with an empty head and my tongue glued to the roof of my mouth. “What was it like on the catwalk, with all the cameras pointed at you? The way you carried yourself, it was like you didn’t notice them, but how could you not with as many as there were?”

“I noticed,” I admitted. “But I’ve done a few smaller shows with them, so I’ve kinda gotten used to it. Raleigh and Murry have taken to modeling the way they did to dancing, so we do practice runs in the loft to make sure we’re showing off all the features of the gear that Dorian wants us to highlight. Dorian has a friend from his modeling days, he’s, um, one of the men I’m dating. Parker. He did a lot of high-end runway shows, and he’s been the one to give us pointers about the way we carry ourselves when we’re up there.”

She chuckled, smile growing as she studied me. “Seeing you on the runway, I could tell you three were having the time of your lives with the way you were swaggering,” she said, “It was good to see you hold your head up high instead of slouching around trying to slink through the shadows. As for Parker, and I’m assuming the other is Aspen, since I never see you far from his hip, good for you. I expect a formal introduction.

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, knowing her version of a shovel talk was in their future. “About the gear, Dorian knows I love the leather headpieces he makes, especially the ones that have straps and buckles, so he always makes me look like I showed up straight out ofHellraiser,” I said.

“That’s exactly where my mind went when I saw you too,” she said. “You pulled it off beautifully. Please tell me that you intend to continue doing shows with them.”

“For as long as Dorian wants me to,” I replied.

“Good. I’m glad you have an outlet you enjoy and friends to enjoy it with,” she replied. “And I envy you the backstage view of that many beautiful men changing clothes.”

“Grandma!”

She just tsked again and sipped the wine she’d poured into her water glass after she’d drained it. “I’m old, I’m not dead…or blind.”

“You’re not even that old,” I grumbled.

“Precisely,” she replied with a wink. “Now, do you have a finale in mind for the signature cocktail event? If not, I’d like you to consider coming up with something that will be a true showstopper. Like those purple dragon leathers that Dorian unveiled. I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out of my head and into my glass when Raleigh came stalking out in that one. You don’t think he and Murry would be interested in coming back for one night only for your cocktail event, do you? As part of the legends series, of course. It would be nice to be able to drool over the way they move together one more time.”

At this point, I knew that I should be used to the outrageous things that came out of her mouth, but now that my cousins and I were adults, the filter was truly starting to give way to a side of my grandmother I’d never seen before.

“I can’t promise anything until I talk to them, but I’ll ask,” I promised, not wanting to give her false hope by telling her that they’d gotten excited when I’d told them about it. They’d even tossed around ideas about what their cocktails would be if they were doing it.

I doubted I’d get the words all the way out of my mouth before they saidyes, but just in case, I’d wait until they committed, after they spoke to their Daddy.