Black Gold Read Free Page B

forty? Fifty?"
    "In your dreams," Chase said, sipping at his beer as his friends guffawed and made jokes at his expense.
    "Excuse me," a voice said at his elbow. A female voice, attached to a faint cloud of perfume. It was so rare that Chase was around any women besides Sherry, Jayne, his landlady and the check-out clerks at Wal-Mart that he was momentarily disoriented.
    He turned and found himself staring down at a woman who looked like she walked right out of the 1950s. Her blond hair was curled and pinned against her pale, long neck. Heavy, black eyeliner and a dusting of pearly glimmer accented her wide, blue eyes, and her lips were a bright red pout. She was wearing a polka-dot dress that cinched tight at the waist before flaring out into a skirt that barely grazed her knees. She was a rockabilly dream come true.
    "Ma'am," Chase said automatically, then chastised himself inwardly. Gerald had ridden him hard about his manners. "Ma'am" and "sir" were as ingrained as the notion that Chase would never be good enough to carry on the Warner name.
    "I'm hardly a ma'am ." The woman laughed. She had a nice laugh, throaty and deep and genuine. "My name is Regina McCary. I'd love to buy you a drink."
    Jimmy hooted, nearly falling off his chair. Chase noted the shot glasses had all been drained; his friends wouldn't be feeling too good tomorrow. Or him, for that matter. Skipping that last shot didn't exactly make up for everything he'd had to drink already. Sober, he'd never have had the courage to get up on that stage.
    Or to do what he did next.
    He offered Regina McCary his arm and steered her to a booth in a dim corner of the bar. Maybe a beautiful woman was exactly what he needed to pull him out of the blues that had been chasing him all week as his birthday drew near. "There's no way you're buying me a drink," he said, "but seeing as it's my birthday, I guess it's my prerogative to buy you one. As long as you tell me what you're doing in town—and how long you're planning to stay."
    "I'm here for professional reasons," she said vaguely. When she slid into the booth, her skirt floated up prettily and she smoothed it down with her slim hand. Chase checked for rings and saw none, just bright red nail polish.
    "From out of town?" Chase asked, aware of his slurred speech. "Reason I ask is, Buddy's Tavern is a little off the beaten track."
    "Don't want to share this place with outsiders?" Regina asked. "Keep it to yourself or something like that?"
    Chase laughed. "Something like that. Or more accurately, most folks don't want to drive five miles out of town to find it when there's a new bar popping up every week in town, seems like."
    "Because of the oil boom?"
    "Yes. Local population doubled in the last few years, the town can barely keep up with all the new folks moving here. Got people sleeping in trailers and basements and tents. They're putting up apartments and houses as fast as they can, but it's not fast enough. But bars? They'll damn sure build plenty of those before they get around to churches and restaurants and schools."
    The waitress came by and gave Regina a scrutinizing look. "Another Sex on the Beach, sugar?"
    "Um, I think I'll switch back to gin and tonic. Heavy on the tonic, if you don't mind. And whatever he's having." She slipped a twenty onto the waitress's tray before Chase had time to reach for his billfold.
    "Uh... coffee?" Chase asked.
    The waitress laughed. "Not a chance, buster. No way I'm brewing a pot just for you. Might be able to dig up an old bottle of Kahlua..."
    "No need," Chase said hastily. "Maybe a glass of water?"
    The waitress rolled her eyes, tucking the twenty into her apron as she left.
    "So I'm flattered and all..." Chase said. Through his beery haze, he was beginning to wonder why such an attractive woman had picked him out of all of his friends. After all, Calvin was the best looking, and Jimmy had the body women swooned over. Even Zane had more than his fair share of game, though Chase