Vance opened his mouth to speak but I’d kind of had enough.

“Things are good,” I put in and Jackie’s head (and hair) swung back to me. Her eyes had narrowed.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“Things are good,” I repeated, giving her a huge, happy smile. Then my eyes moved to Vance. “Aren’t they, honey?”

Now that, I hoped, was a point Jackie wouldn’t miss.

The corners of Vance’s lips turned up.

Jackie didn’t wait for Vance to answer, to me she said, “I’m so pleased for you.”

She did not mean this.

Translation: Shut the f**k up, I’m not talking to you, I’m flirting with your boyfriend.

She swung back to Vance and leaned in a bit (the better to show her cle**age), smiled, and said in a voice I was meant to hear but she was pretending I wasn’t, “We’ll talk some other time. Give me a call.”

Vance again opened his mouth to speak but again I got there first.

“What did you just say?” I asked.

Vance’s eyes moved to me. “Jules,” his tone held a warning but he looked like he was about ready to laugh.

I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to Vance, my eyes were on Jackie.

Jackie leaned back and put up her hands. “Nothing to get excited about,” she said.

I came off my stool. “Are you saying that you coming onto my f**king boyfriend right in front of me is nothing to get excited about?” I demanded and my voice was a wee bit loud, so much of a wee bit people started to stare.

Jackie looked from me to Vance then back to me. “If he’s your man, then, girlfriend, you got nothing to worry about from me.”

She did not mean this either.

Translation: If he’s your man, you better keep him happy, you don’t, I’ll pounce.

It was at that moment, I really wished I had my gun.

Then she went on, not, I noted, very good at reading body language as in my body language said I was about to kick her ass.

“We’re just friends. Good friends. Hey, Vance?”

I looked at Vance. He was still sitting on his stool and it was evident that he had decided not to intervene. I also noted that his lips were twitching.

“She must have been one of those easy things you were talking about,” I said to Vance.

He pressed his lips together and shook his head slowly. This was not a negative headshake that said Jackie wasn’t one of his easy things. It was a negative headshake that said he thought I was the f**king craziest woman he’d ever met.

“Excuse me?” Jackie asked again.

Jackie now turned full body to me and I stepped clear of the table preparing to throw down.

“I said you must be one of the easy things Vance told me about. You know, easy pieces of ass. Before he met me,” I informed her, my voice dripping with acid sweetness.

“You did not just say that,” she said to me.

“I sure did,” I shot back.

“Jackie, I wouldn’t rile Jules,” Vance decided to wade in.

“You calling me easy?” Jackie decided to ignore Vance.

“Have you slept with Vance?” I asked, even though I knew.

She leaned forward with a catty smile. “It was the best night of my goddamned life.”

“It’s good you’ll have that memory,” I stated calmly as if I was truly happy for her.

“You bitch!” she screamed. Then she came at me, hand out, probably to grab my hair.

I was getting that opening a lot these days. I planted my feet, caught her wrist and flipped her on her back on the floor without barely moving.

Vance did move. He had his wallet out and threw some money on the table. Everyone was staring now most of them had turned to us enjoying the show.

I took a step toward her so I was looking down at her. “Stay away from Vance,” I warned.

She was struggling to get up. “Fuck you!”

“That’s Vance’s job,” I retorted.

Vance had me around the waist and was pulling me toward the door as Jackie made it to her feet.

“I won’t forget this!” she yelled after us.

“I hope not!” I yelled back at her, fighting against Vance’s arm. “That way, next time you’ll keep your f**king mouth shut or you won’t find it so easy to get up!”

Then Vance had me out the door. He let me go, grabbed my hand and dragged me to his Harley.

“I cannot believe that just happened,” I ranted at his back. “What a bitch! I wish I had my stun gun. I wish I had my mace. What a bitch!” I repeated.

He stopped at his bike, pulled me so my back was to it, I was facing him and he settled his hands at my hips.

I looked up at him. “You could have done something,” I snapped.

“And missed the show?”

I hadn’t noticed it but right then I did.

He was grinning, huge.

“You think that was amusing?”

He stepped into me, arms going around me and he touched his lips to mine.

I stood stiff as a board.

“Princess?”

“What?” I clipped.

“Take your time learnin’ to share.”

I blinked. It was my turn to feel thrown.

“What?”

One of his hands went to my jaw and his thumb came out to run along my lower lip. “All the time you want,” he said softly, not answering my question.

The velvet shroud came around us again and I leaned into him.

“Am I going to be beating up all your ex-lovers?” I asked.

“No. Just Jackie, she’s a bitch.”

I didn’t want to ask. I knew I shouldn’t ask. But I asked.

“What were you thinking, being with her?”

“She’s not a bitch to me,” he replied.

True enough. It was pretty clear she really liked Vance.

Then for some reason, do not ask me why, I threw myself in the deep end. “Was she good?”

“No,” he replied immediately.

This time I sagged into him, glad I hadn’t sunk to the bottom of the pool like a rock.

“You’re not just saying that?” I asked.

He shook his head.

My hands came up and I started to play with the edges of his leather jacket. “When do you have to get to your job?”

“Gonna see to my other job first,” he told me.

“What other job?”

His white teeth flashed. “The job of f**kin’ you.”

He was teasing me.

I stopped playing with his jacket. “This isn’t really funny,” I snapped.