Sam used to have long, wavy sandy-blonde hair, ocean-blue eyes, flawless skin, and a figure that could cause traffic accidents. Nelson had told her numerous times that she could easily pass herself as Taylor Swift, if she ever wanted to, as long as she didn’t actually sing.
Mary, on the other hand, had undergone an incredible transformation from her previous self. The first thing she did before moving to Nashville was to have her hair cut short and dyed raven black. With the help of vanity contact lenses, her eyes were now almost as dark as her hair, a look that despite all odds, actually suited her. Her eyebrows were also different – drawn on instead of natural. To complete her transformation from Samantha to Mary, she had not only stopped exercising, but also fully dropped her usual strict diet – a move that after just a couple of months saw her gaining almost thirty pounds – her face was plumper, her cheeks chubbier, and her waist a lot rounder than it ever was. All in all, she looked so different that not even her mother would’ve recognized her.
Mary hated her new weight, her chubby cheeks, and the new curves showing all around her body – way too many, if you asked her – but she knew that they were just temporary. When she moved again to somewhere permanent, she’d change her look once more.
‘Mary?’ Luke called.
She blinked twice before her attention finally landed back on him.
‘Are you alright?’ he asked. ‘You spaced out there for a moment.’
‘Sorry. I do that sometimes.’
‘So, do you wanna dance?’
Mary coughed a laugh. ‘Ha… no… I’m really bad at it,’ she lied.
‘It’s OK,’ Luke volleyed back. ‘So am I. And in here, no one will notice.’
‘No, seriously,’ Mary stepped back as Luke tried to grab her hand. ‘Not a good idea.’
‘Oh, c’mon,’ Luke insisted. ‘You know what they say, right? Dance as if no one is watching.’
‘Haha!’ Mary laughed before her tone went back to serious. ‘Yeah, I tried that last time. The problem was – somebodywaswatching, and they called an ambulance because they thought I was having a stroke.’
That made Luke laugh out loud. ‘We might have very similar dance moves then.’
Gosh,Mary thought.Even his laugh is kind of sexy.
All of a sudden Mary went rigid, her muscles tightening to almost the point of spasms. The stranger’s face… his eyes. She had been looking in the wrong corners of her mind. The feeling that she had seen that man before was all too real, but the memory didn’t come from a party or from a holiday somewhere, it came from court. He was there on the day that she testified, sitting somewhere towards the back. That day, while giving her account to the court, her gaze had landed on him at least a couple of times – those same black-hole eyes staring straight at her, sizing her up.
And he was there again on the day of the verdict. As she stood up to leave, once the court had been adjourned by Judge Reeves, Mary saw him again, standing at the back of the courtroom, hands tucked into his trouser pockets, head low, as if he was trying hard not to be noticed.
Standing at the bar inside The Whiskey Bent Saloon, Mary felt her core rattle for the third time that evening. That man – the same man that she had seen in court almost seven months earlier – didn’t just happen to be in Nashville, he didn’t just happen to bump into her while strolling down the Broadway. This wasn’t some freaky coincidence, it couldn’t be. That man, whoever he was, had been looking for her… and somehow, despite all of Mary’s efforts, he had managed to find her.
Seventeen
The music inside The Whiskey went from country rock to country ballad. Some of the crowd began dispersing from the dance floor, but the majority stayed, pairing themselves up into couples.
Mary’s eyes, once again, moved past Luke to refocus on the door.
Nothing. No sign of the man from outside.
Her gaze moved to the crowd, in case he had managed to slip into The Whiskey without her noticing it.
Still nothing. She couldn’t see him anywhere. What she did see were the G.R.I.T.S, including Vicky and Pam, making their way back to the bar, and they were all staring death at Mary.
‘OK, now you have no excuse,’ Luke said, bringing Mary’s attention back to him, as he once again offered her his hand. ‘We’ve gotta go dance.’
‘To a slow song?’ Mary’s chin dipped, as she asked the question.
‘Why not?’
‘I’ll dance with you.’ The comment came from Vicky, who had finally reached the bar, along with the other G.R.I.T.S. She then turned to address Mary. ‘You’re still here? I thought you were leaving.’
‘Do you know each other?’ Luke asked.
‘We met in the bathroom earlier,’ Vicky explained. ‘She said that she was just leaving. Did you get lost, honey?’