chapter Twenty-four
A GOOD BARTENDER IS HARD TO FIND
(And They All Lived Happily Ever After. And After. And After.)
JOHNNY sat behind his drum kit and pounded away, watching his sister ogle Wyatt from the deejay booth and vice versa, glad his plan had worked. Okay, so maybe it hadn’t been the nicest thing in the universe to fake his own death, but hey, it had worked, hadn’t it? Stella had finally stopped ignoring the nose on her face and had fallen into Wyatt’s arms.
For years he’d been waiting for those two to make a move on each other and they hadn’t so Johnny had stepped in and taken matters into his own hands. Plus, it had neatly gotten him off the hook with Bambi. He hadn’t really been that worried about giving her his DNA because he knew he couldn’t be the father and he knew Bambi had a number of studs in her stable at any given time. He had been more worried about the fact that she seemed to have decided she wanted to be with him in some kind of family relationship and she was a tenacious chick. Who was good in bed, not so good otherwise.
So it had all worked out, if not exactly according to plan.
There had been no predicting everyone blacking out. He couldn’t explain that any more than they could and he wasn’t taking any flak for it.
The plus side of faking his death was that he had a renewed sense of how lucky he was to have the friends and sister that he did. Seeing that they had been genuinely torn up was touching. He figured he had an obligation to make sure he was a better friend and brother from here on out. He’d even paid Stella the fifty bucks he’d owed her.
At the end of the Bon Jovi song, Cort called a break. Johnny still couldn’t believe Cort had married the washboard girl. But they, too, were making eyes at each other and there was a lot of cuddling going on in the bar. Johnny put down his sticks and reflected that maybe they were on to something. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to have a woman who loved him to come home to every night.
Which meant maybe he was actually maturing. Crazy.
“I still can’t believe you’re alive,” Cort said, giving him a grin as they climbed down off the stage. “You’re such a bastard.”
“You should be grateful to me. If it wasn’t for my wake, you wouldn’t have bagged Katie.”
“Good call. Man, I’m stupidly happy. Who would have thought?”
“Not me,” Johnny said in all sincerity.
The whole band gathered around a table in the back of the bar and Johnny ordered them a round of drinks from Jacob, the bartender. He was feeling generous. Katie snuggled up next to Cort, and Stella took a stool next to Wyatt. Drake was messing with his fang implant. Saxon was smearing ChapStick on his lips.
“I can’t believe you guys were hanging with Raven the other night. I was like, seriously?” Johnny said, shaking his head. It had been highly entertaining following his friends throughout their night of drunken ridiculousness.
“What?” Drake stopped messing with his tooth. “What do you mean?”
“I’d have thought he was your long-lost brother the way you were cutting up with him. Cracked me up. He was with you most of the night, at the casino, at the Bourbon Cowboy, the wedding chapel . . .”
Astonished faces met him. “You mean Raven wasn’t trying to kill Saxon?” Wyatt asked.
“No, though Saxon did borrow five hundred bucks from him. He seemed to think he knew how to play blackjack.” Johnny gave Saxon a look. “Word to the wise. Don’t play blackjack. But yeah, you were the five amigos, having a great time. Six, actually, if you count the priest. I was kind of jealous, I’m not going to lie. I think Raven was flattered actually. The guy doesn’t have a lot of friends.”
“How did Benny end up with us?” Stella asked.
“Who the hell is Benny?”
“The priest. The stripper priest.” She waved her hand around. “You know, the guy in the robe.”
Johnny shrugged. “He was just walking down the street and Cort grabbed him and asked him to marry him and Katie.” He turned to Katie. “Beautiful ceremony, by the way. The rings were a nice touch.”
She flushed. “Thanks.”
“Though I can’t believe you gave away my Elvis cookie jar. I loved that thing and it wasn’t cheap.”
“eBay, dude, eBay. Buy yourself another one,” was all the sympathy he got from Cort.
Jacob brought over their drinks, juggling them all with consummate bartender skill. He was distributing beers all around.
“So I guess the only question that’s left is who drugged us? Why did we all black out?” Wyatt asked.
Jacob didn’t miss a beat. “I did.”
“What?” Cort’s foot fell off his stool to the floor and he gaped at Jacob.
“Yeah, you were all so broken up over jackass here dying.” He shot his thumb at Johnny.
“Hey.” Johnny knew he deserved it, but still.
“So I slipped you all a little happy drug. I had no idea you were going to black out. That doesn’t happen to werewolves.” He put the final beer down. “My bad.”
Johnny let out a crack of laughter. Now that was some funny shit.
“Living on a prayer, dude,” Saxon said.
As usual no one seemed to know what the hell Saxon was talking about. So Johnny raised his beer. “To friends.”
“To sex, blood, and rock ’n’ roll,” Drake said.
“Cheers.” Stella raised her beer. “Wait, this isn’t drugged, is it?”
Half of them were already drinking.
Jacob paused. Then he grinned and shook his head. “Nah. I don’t think it is.”
Johnny drank it anyway, not worried about it.
You only lived once. And forever.