“So…a little story…” Lana started, plunging the bar into absolute silence other than the Stevie Nicks song playing in the background.
“There was this young girl, smart, funny, a bit of a wiseass…and she had a favorite movie…Whip It. God, it sounds so cliché now,” Lana said, picking up her glass to take another sip. “Something even the best whiskey clearly can’t shake.”
“You get down from there right now; you’re embarrassing yourself.” Fists clenched, Lana’s mother stomped her foot.
I almost felt sorry for the woman. To be reduced to foot stomping when your kid decided “the fuck with your bullshit” and decided to finally give you as good as she got had to be a solid eight on the humiliation scale.
Lana’s gaze snapped to her mother’s, a flash of temper breaking free. “Ahhh, let’s unpack what you just said. First, can’t really get down…my legs don’t work,” Lana said, staring down at them and I’d swear she was trying to make them move, the subtle hurt on her face stabbing straight into my heart.
“Second, young lady implies that I’m still a child. I’m not. I may be your child, but I’m fully grown and make my own decisions. Like Zach…he’s a decision I made. Zach, this is my mother, Marsha and my father, David. Marsha and David.” She hiccupped and giggled. “This is my boyfriend Zach.”
“We raised you better than—”
“No, you didn’t,” Lana snapped. “Now as for that embarrassment you’re so worried about. You’re only worried I’m going to embarrass you. And you’re right. I am.”
Patti let out a low whistle, but the look of pride on her face was unmistakable.
“Anyhoo…Whip It. Trite. I know. Not much of an accurate depiction of roller derby, but it’s the spirit of the game that I fell in love with and my parents hated the idea of it. Especially my mother.” Lana leaned against Zach. “She wanted me to play tennis. I mean, really? But hey, I was already a difficult sell for them. I hated dresses, didn’t like hanging out with girls, dolls—forget about it. I liked jokes, pranks, and sometimes, I liked to see just how much I could get away with.”
When Lana’s mother went to speak, Patti shut her down with a hard glare. “You just hush.”
“Actually, Zach, you should know, I still do like to see how much I can get away with, which might be why I haven’t taken that ring yet.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“God, I know—you really should, you know.”
He stepped up between her legs then, wrapped his arms around her, and tipped his head back. “Nope.”
Lana glared even as she cupped his cheeks. “I can’t walk down the aisle.”
“Don’t care,” he said with a firm shake of his head.
“You’ll have to deal with low counters forever,” she pointed out.
He shrugged. “Still not convincing me.”
“You’d be stuck taking care of me for the rest of your life,” she said, her voice breaking on the words as she blinked back tears.
He curled his hand around her neck, pulled her in, and gave her a soft, sound kiss, so full of confident love and passion, I couldn’t turn away.
“You act like that’s a hardship,” he said, his eyes on hers when he pulled back.
“But I don’t want that for you.” Her words pushed at him even as her fingers twisted into his shirt and held him there with her.
Oh, Lana…he’s giving you everything. Take it.
“You don’t want me to have everything I want?” Zach said, catching her in a trap of her own making.
“I might have had too much to drink for this conversation,” Lana said as she straightened.
“Cop out,” he said, moving to her side, his hand staying on her thigh. “Now finish your story so we can have this battle in private where it’s so much easier to make up.”
“Where was I?” she asked.
“Seeing what you could get away with,” he tossed out, looking her parents in the eye. The way he looked at them, his shoulders straight and confident, his gaze unwavering, spoke volumes as to the lengths he would go to for Lana.
The girl better take that damn ring.
“Ah, yes, that. Turns out derby is expensive, but there were teams. As long as I could buy the equipment…as long as I was eighteen. That was a hard and fast rule. No parents signing waivers on that one. And I’d heard the coach was a real stickler for rules.”
Rules Lana broke.
“And I’m no good at waiting. I had just enough in savings for the laminator and offering my services for a brief time replenished my savings, leaving me with money for equipment and a sparkling fake ID that would fool even the most seasoned cop,” Lana said, meeting Priest’s eyes. “Or not, but why would a coach suspect a fake anyway? It’s all just paperwork.”
“Lana Ann!”
“I paid for it. Dearly. And so did Priest. You made him pay the worst,” Lana said, her voice going from heartbroken to angry in a split second. “You gossiped about him, turned people against him, took every shot you could, even to this day. And you, Dad. You stayed silent while she did, knowing the whole time the money for my medical bills, my rehab, my house, and college—all of it came from him. Piece by piece you stood by and let him sell off chunks of property at Bishop Farm—while you stayed silent and let Mom vilify him. When no one else believed in me, he did, and you crucified him for it.”
Tears slid down her cheeks, the last of her childhood dying as she fully came into her own and took back her power.
There was a kind of grieving in that. In letting go, even of the things that hurt you, because it also meant letting go of the familiar and jumping into the unknown. Forging a new path.
But Zach had her.
A splash of color rose on Priest’s cheeks. His jaw locked tight. “That’s
