I'll Sing for my Dinner by BR Kingsolver Read Free Book Online

When we reached the water, cool and lined by willows on both sides, she was flushed and laughing.
    “I need to teach you how to post,” I said. “There’s a way to ride a trotting horse that doesn’t bounce you around like that.”
    “Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. Then she giggled. “Now I understand why girls like horses so much.” She leaned down and patted Maggie’s neck. “I never expected that I’d get my first orgasm at the Top Hat Ranch from another girl.”
    She gave me a pointed look, and I felt my own face flush.
    On our way back to the house, I broached a topic that had been on my mind. “Would you be interested in playing more?” I asked. “Kathy and Jared and I have been talking, and one idea we’ve considered is having you start on Thursday and Friday at five. We’ve noticed people coming in after work just to have a drink and hear you sing.”
    It would be a long pull for a performer. As it was, I felt guilty. She was supposed to sing from six to eight, but she often played until eight-thirty, and as late as nine on the weeknights. People would keep asking for one more song, and she always obliged them. And sometimes, especially when Jared played, she’d get up and sing with the band. It seemed she never got tired of being on that stage.
    “I could pay you another fifty a night on those nights.”
    “Sure,” she said, her face lighting up. “I like to play.”
    I gave her an old hat of my Dad’s to use for her tips. Kathy checked it a couple of times, and said on weekends Cecily was making as much on tips as we were paying her.
    One night, an old girlfriend of mine came into the bar. Jeri and I had been a hot item, and we’d given our virginity to each other. Even after we went away to college in different states, we still got together when we came home for holidays. But six years away playing soldier was a bit too much, and she had gotten married. And divorced. Since I came back, we had gotten together a few times, but it just didn’t seem right to me. I didn’t love her anymore, and as good as the sex was, Jeri wanted more than I could give her.
    Jeri was physically almost the opposite of Cecily, tall and busty with dark hair and eyes, she drew stares everywhere she went. Cecily ended to fade into the background unless she was playing, and I think she did it on purpose. Jeri was an extrovert, almost to the point of being an exhibitionist.
    She came into the bar right after Cecily finished playing. I was on the floor, taking a tray of drinks to one of the waitress’s tables. As per usual when Cecily was playing, the place was packed. Jeri walked up to me, threw her arms around me, and gave me a kiss.
    “Damn, I swear you get better looking every day,” Jeri said. “How the hell have you been doing?”
    I laughed. “My mother warned me about women like you.”
    “No she didn’t,” Jeri said, “she warned you about me . There aren’t any other women like me, only pale imitations.”
    Wrapping her arm around my waist and laying her head against my shoulder, she walked with me back to the bar. “I hear you got a new girlfriend,” she said. “I’m devastated. You should at least give me a chance to arm wrestle her for you, or something.”
    Cecily swiveled toward us. “That’s probably me,” she said with a smile. “But I’m not his girlfriend. I just want to be.”
    I cringed.
    Jeri laughed and walked over to her, extending her hand. “Me, too. I’m Jeri.”
    Cecily shook her hand, and Jeri sat next to her at the bar.
    A large hand fell on my shoulder. “You are so screwed,” Jared said in my ear. “What in the world were you thinking letting Jeri in here?”
    “I couldn’t get to the door fast enough to lock it when I saw her coming across the parking lot,” I said.
    “I’d consider whether you should find somewhere else for Cecily to be. You don’t want Jeri sinking her claws into her. If Jeri decides to get nasty, I don’t think Cecily can stand up to