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My ears were already bleeding before I’d closed and locked the front door If there was a God, I knew one thing: He’d been on vacation the day soirl!" Josie shouted at me from the driver’s side

"Hey, yourself!" I shouted back Only because she wouldn’t have heardis played, a cute little puppy keels over dead?" Again, I had to shout because Josie was really blaring the honky tonk

And we still had the actual honky tonk to get to

"A, that’s sweet," Josie said, cranking down the music to a level where I could be relatively certainjokes about country music? I’ve never, ever heard one of those" She rolled her eyes atdown the porch steps "There’s a kernel of truth in every one"

She gave me a look, then scanned ain "When you’re not wearing pants or those shredded legging thingies, a person can actually see you’ve got sos"

I stopped in the driveway, leaned over a bit, and scannedbut a couple of knees and freckles

"But, girl, do you have va? Because I’ve never seen skin that white"

"This is tan" I examined my arms Yeah, they were at least a shade and a half darker than normal I skirted around the front of her shiny truck and clier seat

"No, Rowen, this is tan" Josie held her bare arh cooodness

"Tords, Josie," I said, hed as she hit the gas And by hit the gas, I meant we hit forty before we’d made it out of the driveway "Tords, Rowen," she said, taking the corner the way she’d taken it last week "Vitamin D"

I double-checked my seat belt "D isn’t really a word It’s a letter"

"Oh, dear God!" Josie shouted out the"Get etthe speedo as fast as I felt ere "You could be in Idaho ‘quick’"

"I knew there was a reason I was drawn to you, Rowen," Josie said as she skipped to the next song The next one sounded exactly like the previous one that sounded like every single song ever sung in country music "You have as wicked a sense of huht it was because you loved those shredded legging thingies of hed loudly Josie looked aht I’d irls are pretty because they put a lot of work into it, and so Josie was in that second group She had the glow that a beauty cream company would kill to replicate, and her hair was so shiny it looked like glass She had on a short denim skirt, a floral sleeveless blouse, and a pair of candy-apple red boots She’d be beating the guys away like flies

Which ain what had happened between Jesse and Josie Really, those tere the dreay end, Josie pulled into a packed parking lot

"The party’s hopping tonight," she said,spot in the front Everywhere I looked, there were trucks Big ones, little ones, old ones, new ones Trucks, trucks, and more trucks Maybe a few SUVs like the Walkers’, but there was not a single car to be seen I didn’t knohat those Montana people had against cars, but obviously gas e wasn’t a concern around there

"You ready for this?" Josie unfastened her seatbelt and exa open my door "But I promised you I’d let you be the one to popover with"

Josie shoved my arm before we leapt--I wondered if I should call for a footstool--out of her truck "You city girls sure are crass"

"And you country girls aren’t crass enough," I threw back before sla their hats, and a feere brazen enough to whistle, as Josie and I made our way to the entrance And when I say they histling at us, Iat Josie

She smiled, made flirty eyes with a few of them, and walked with a sway in her step In short, she was a pro at the ame I didn’t sway, I more like clopped around, and I sure as heck didn’t make flirty eyes I would have looked like I had a nervous tic if I even tried, I’m sure

Since I had no idea what to expect from a honky tonk, I was neither surprised nor unsurprised alked through the door I guess it was nor sort of place, but a few nights every year, they turned it into ood ood time At least that’s the way Rose had described it I had yet to deterood food for that ood

"Josie Gibson! You’d better save ood looking guy in a flashy shirt called over to her as alked in He was also the type of guy that kneas good looking I looked at Josie and stuck er in my mouth

She snickered and elbowed me "No promises, Ben," she said as alked by "And besides, don’t you have a girlfriend down in Boise?" She lifted her eyebrows and waited for an answer

A sheepish s was all the answer she received

"Men," she groaned as she steered ed in age fro, eating, or dancing Everyone had a sood time Just like Rose had said, and from the looks of the fried chicken, baked beans, and potato salad stacked high on plates, it looked like the food was pretty darn good