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“You wouldn’t succeed if you tried,” Dallas countered even as her pulse quickened and she felt that little curl of excitement in the pit of her stomach Both were purely a physical response to asince she had allowed herself to feel such things that it was almost like the first time

“How do I find Tillie’s?” he asked, taking his change from her

“Turn right at the first block north of here You’ll see a parking lot on the corner, probably ja with a neon sign in theadvertising Lone Star beer That’s Tillie’s”

Arht to the bar He pulled into the corner lot as another pickup drove out, leaving an e Quint parked his pickup in it and made his way to the entrance located in the center of the building’s limestone front

A muffled mix of music and voices reached hirew decidedly louder when he walked into the di and narrow layout

A scattering of tables, all occupied, took up the front section with booths lining one short wall A long, wooden bar, darkened with age, dominated the middle part, complete with a row of tall stools in front of it A jukebox stood on the opposite wall, its speakers blasting out a rowdy drinking song by Toby Keith

In between the tere more tables and chairs with a s a dance area of sorts, but there were no couplesuse of it At the bar’s rear area, players were clustered around two pool tables, the green of their surfaces illuminated by the hooded fixtures suspended above the another made itself heard above the blare of music and the din of voices

Spotting an e bar, Quint ers always attract He slid onto the stool and swiveled it slightly so he could keep an eye on the door

There was a short, squat woh on her front, al the pink dress she wore She had sht color that obviously came from a bottle Quint surmised that she had to be Tillie

After an initial, sharp glance in his direction, she pulled a pair of long necks out of a cooler, popped their tops, and set the before she ventured to his end of the bar

“What’ll you have?” Her dark eyes h study of him

“A beer,” he replied “Whatever you have on tap is fine”

Without an acknowledging word, sheoff the shelf, filled it with beer from the tap, and carried it back to hi it on the counter before hi into dark points

“Are you that new guy that took over the Cee Bar?” she demanded

“Yes”