Kerri had told her how her brother-in-law had been cold and guilt-ridden over his first wife’s death, and that it had taken an understanding and…pushy Jordan to break him out of his funk. She didn’t have that problem. Her engagement had been born out of necessity. Although she had loved Bobby, she hadn’t been in love with him. Still, it did hurt to know she’d never see her friend again.
Turning to face Cole fully, she brought a smile to her lips and continued to dance. “I’m doing okay.”
“If you ever need to talk, my ear is always open,” he offered with a grin as he increased his pace.
Damn, he had good moves, too. What was in Harland County’s soil? Or was it the water? She had yet to find one guy who didn’t know how to dance. Granted, some were better than others, like the tall, laid-back cowboy, and a nameless blue-eyed devil. But still. Damn.
They had been kicking it up to a good beat when Cole stopped mid-dance. His back was to the door, but Shayla watched, fascinated at how he’d known the instant Jordan had entered the party.
“Thanks for the dance.” He leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Excuse me,” he said, then turned and strode straight for his grinning wife.
Unreal. “Did you see that?” She elbowed Caitlin.
“Yeah. That was something,” her sister replied, while they both stood watching the couple unite.
She’d read about a connection like that in romance novels, but hadn’t realized it was real. Envy and longing suddenly mixed to form a ball of need in her gut. What would it be like to have a guy ‘feel’ her that way? As soon as the thought entered her mind, her gaze was inexplicably drawn to the sexy, blue-eyed cowboy dancing nearby. He stilled. Didn’t smile. Didn’t frown. He just stared. So deep she swore he reached in and squeezed her heart.
“My sister and Cole have always been like that,” Kerri said, stepping in front of her, breaking Kevin’s spell, or whatever the hell he was doing.
Shayla blinked and nodded, mind only half-registering what her friend had said.
“I swear those two were cued into each other since the day she was born,” Connor added, drawing Kerri closed to his side.
“Yes,” his wife agreed. “I can’t believe it’s been a little over a year already since they got engaged.”
Connor glanced down at Kerri and winked. “Would you believe it’s been a year to the day that you stole my breath in this very house, and I haven’t been able to catch it since?”
Shayla watched, smiling as Kerri lifted up on tip-toe and kissed the sweet cowboy’s lips.
“Jeez, McMoose, what are you trying to do, make my guests puke?” Kevin asked, drawing up next to the big cowboy.
Connor smiled, and still gazing lovingly down at his wife, answered, “Actually, Dalton, I was only concerned with one of your guests.”
Kevin’s lips twitched into a full smile as he slapped the tall rancher’s shoulder. “Well, all right then. Kerri certainly deserves to be happy. Although, why she’s chosen the sorry likes of you is beyond me,” he joked.
Connor nodded. “Me, too.”
“Awe,” Caitlin gushed. “You sure you don’t have any other brothers, Connor?”
The cowboy laughed. “No. Sorry, darlin’, but Brandi has four.”
Yeah, and Shayla had met all of them through Skype. Jeez, they grew them handsome and built up in Pennsylvania.
“I have four what?” her boss asked, approaching their group now that she’d finished her set and put her fiddle away.
“Brothers,” Kerri answered.
The designer laughed. “Oh, yeah. Guilty as charged. Why, who wants one?” A warm brown gaze settled on her.
Shayla held up her hands and laughed. “Wasn’t me. Not that your brothers aren’t drop-dead gorgeous.”
Ben, with his delicious five o-clock shadow, keen green eyes and razor sharp wit, and then there were Keiffer, Mason and Ethan with the same chiseled good looks and yummy chocolate brown eyes. They were definitely what she called ‘double-takers,’ because you’d do a double-take if they walked by.
“It was me,” Cailin admitted. “I’d asked Connor if he had another brother because those McCalls are just so sweet.”
A grunt turned snort left Kevin, and Shayla couldn’t help but grin. The guy was nothing if not entertaining. But she had to agree with her sister. Cole and Connor treated their women right. Just like Kade treated Brandi. With respect, and not afraid to show their feelings. It was refreshing as hell. The three of them restored a little bit of faith in Shayla that maybe there were some gems still out there.
“Like me. I can assure you, darlin’,” Kevin said, stepping close to grasp Caitlin’s hand and bring it to his lips. “We Dalton’s aren’t too shabby, either.”
“True.” Brandi smiled, leaning up to kiss her smiling fiancé’s face.
“Conceited much?” The words left Shayla’s mouth before she had the chance to swallow them down.
“Only a lot.” Kade chuckled, drawing her boss in close.
Connor nodded. “Only every day of his life.”
They all laughed, even the conceited man in question.
“Not every day, Moose,” he said good-naturedly, releasing her sister’s hand to fully face the older McCall. “I do take a day off once in awhile.”
“Yeah,” Cole said, returning with his deputy wife at his side. “Cut Kevin some slack, bro.” The younger McCall stared at his brother, and if it weren’t for the twinkle in his dark eyes, Shayla would’ve expected trouble. “He has to sleep sometime.”
This was great. She didn’t have to worry about giving the Casanova cowboy a hard time. His friends were happy to do it for her. A smile tugged her lips hard.
“So, are we going to stand around here taking jabs at Kevin or are we going to let him and Shayla get back to their dance?” the deputy asked, glancing at the group.
Wait…what?
She blinked at Jordan and shook her head. “We weren’t dancing.”
She really did need to kill that woman.
“Yeah, she probably couldn’t keep up, anyway,” the cowboy taunted, his blue eyes full of a challenge directed straight at her.
My ass, she wanted to say, but he’d no doubt have some smart-mouth rebuttal. And the last thing she needed was for him to be talking about her ass. It would plant all sorts of delicious…unwanted—not delicious—unwanted ideas in her head.
“Oh, you’d better be careful, Kevin,” Caitlin warned. “My sister can out-dance just about anyone.”
A chorus of ‘oohs’ went through the crowd, and Shayla realized all dancing had stopped, and all eyes were on them.
Shoot.
“I’m not afraid, darlin’, cause your sister’s too chicken.”
Chicken my ass.
What she wouldn’t give to wipe that self-serving grin off his handsome face.
Connor stepped forward. “Well now, I think there’s only one way to prove it,” the tall cowboy claimed. “A dance-off.”
A what? Ah, hell.
“Great idea,” Cole agreed. “Let’s clear the floor and give them some room.”
The floor cleared.
Dammit. This was getting out of hand. “Wait a minute. I didn’t say…”
“See? Chicken,” Kevin said, then proceeded to make chicken sounds.
That was it. Aggravation shot her adrenaline to high speed. She stepped to the smug bastard. “You want your ass handed to you, Dalton? Consider it handed to you,” she said, poking his taut chest as she pushed him backwards across the floor. “You’re going down.”
A sexy-as-hell- grin tugged his mouth and his eyes smoldered. “I’d love to.”
Every cell in her body woke up at once, while blood whooshed through her veins with an electrified tingle, pooling low in her belly and nearly buckling her legs. Damn him. An image of the gorgeous man, smiling wickedly up at her from between her legs had her whole body humming. It took all her energy not to reach out to him for support so she didn’t make a fool out of herself an
d crumble at his feet.
Irony reared its smug head when the band began to play a lively Garth Brooks tune with going down in the title.
Bastard immediately started dancing while she stood there like a goof. Oh, hell no. A second later, she picked up the beat and jumped right in. Little did the guy know, she’d danced to that very song.
At regional’s.
And won.
Didn’t matter it was over a decade ago, her legs and muscles remembered the routine, every beat, every twist, every free spin, chasse, ball change and kick, and she was leaving the smug cowboy behind.
Until he grabbed her and began to… “Jitterbug?” she asked as his body moved perfectly with hers, side, side, rock step.
“I do it all, darlin’,” he said between inside and outside turns. “Jitterbug. Tango. Waltz.”
Wow. She smiled, beginning to enjoy herself. “Then let’s get to it.”
He twisted her back in and grinned. “Yes, ma’am’.”
Shayla knew her leg was going to hurt like a bitch come morning, but she didn’t care. She let it all out. Let her guard down.
And for the first time in over a decade… She. Had. Fun.
Hell yeah, the woman could dance.
Kevin knew the redhead had moves, but what she was doing was exquisite. Shayla Ryan was a natural. Combine her talent with his lessons and wow. He was pulling out all the stops, drawing on years of lessons from Mrs. Avery that he’d endured as a boy to please his mom. Now he was never happier because he could keep up with the girl. Barely at times, but he loved a challenge. He twisted her around and off his back, then rolled off hers as if in practiced precision.
Over the years, he’d had may dance partners, but never had he danced with someone so energetic, so knowledgeable, so damned in tuned to his body that she could anticipate his next move. Pure poetry.
“You’re good, cowboy,” she said as he pulled her in.
“Right back at you, darlin’,” he replied before releasing her.
But instead of extending her hand for him to pull her back, she shook her head and sent him a wicked grin that shot a zing straight to his groin. Hot damn, she was up to something. A second later his jaw dropped.
The crazy woman walked up the damn wall and flipped back, landing on her feet, and without missing a beat, started to dance while the crowd cheered.
“You were saving that one, weren’t you?” he asked, spinning her in an outside turn.
She grinned from ear to ear, barely out of breath. “You know it.”
How could she not be out of breath? He was dragging his ass. But he never backed down from a challenge. And she looked so happy, so carefree. She was mesmerizing.
“What do you say we both give it a go?”
She reeled back slightly as they held hands and rock stepped off the balls of their feet. “You can wall-flip?”
He smiled. “What do you think?” He did it ten years ago at a bar in Tulsa. He’d landed it…mostly.
“That you’re crazy…and you’re on, cowboy. Let’s do it.”
She danced away from him, nodded then headed for the wall.
This was it. Do or die. And he wasn’t about to die.
Kevin headed for the wall alongside the redheaded she-devil.
No guts, no glory.
With a running leap, he walked up the wall, then pushed off in a back-flip while the momentum was still strong and…
…landed the son-of-a-bitch.
Hell yeah! His right heel hurt like a bastard, but he kept going, not because the crowd was cheering, but because Shayla sent him his first genuine smile. Ever. It lit up her beautiful face, turning her eyes a sparkling, clear blue that stole his breath. His insides felt funny and his chest hurt, but he held her gaze.
God…he could stare into those eyes forever.
“I can’t believe you did that,” she said, voice a little breathless as he pulled her in with a turn.
“Me either.” He laughed, then twirled her out then back in several times because he loved the feel of her body pressed against him.
Yeah, that made the pain radiating up his left leg worth it.
“You’re crazy, Kevin Dalton. You know that?”
“So I’ve heard, darlin’,” he said. “And you are damn good.”
When the music stopped, he was still riding high on adrenaline and wanted nothing more than to continue to hold her body tight and bring his mouth down on hers for an encore of last night’s kiss. The memory of her soft, seeking, demanding lips and her exquisite, spicy taste had haunted him all night. And the tantalizing rise and fall of her chest and the way her gaze dropped to his mouth didn’t help his resolve to behave himself around the single mother.
But, despite what she thought, he wasn’t a jerk.
He stepped back, grabbed her hand and raised it high in the air. “Here’s your winner right here, folks. I concede defeat. Shayla Ryan can dance,” he announced to his guests.
Shock widened her blue gaze and opened the mouth he was trying so hard not to notice. He lowered their hands as the crowed clapped and cheered, but just when he was about to pull away, she re-raised their hands.
“And I think it’s only fair to call it a tie, because, cowboy, you’re right. You are good,” she stated, surprising the hell out of him.
With that adrenaline edging him on, he nearly yanked the woman in close so he could show her just how good he could be, but common sense reared its ugly head and he dropped her hand and smiled instead.
“Thank you, darlin’. I’d be happy to dance with you anytime.”
And by dance he meant horizontal. No, no…he meant vertical. Definitely vertical. Good clean fun. Nothing that involved getting naked and horizontal.
She nodded, but didn’t move. It was as if she was caught in this crazy vortex of need currently biting at his ass. God, she was making it tough for him to be a gentleman.
Her blue eyes blinked and he watched her drag in a breath. “I…ah…I should go check on Amelia.”
Before he could respond, she twisted around and walked away. Damn, that woman had a great walk. He gave his head a shake, watched her another two beats, then turned and headed in the opposite direction—to the bar, receiving back slaps from his friends along the way.
“Nice moves, buddy,” Cole told him.
“Yeah, well done, Kev,” his cousin said.
Ah great, McJollyRancher was opening his mouth.
“Didn’t know you had that in you, Dalton,” Connor stated. “Thought for sure you’d go right through the wall.”
It had been a concern, but thankfully, not a reality. “Me, too.”
They laughed as he continued on his way, taking great care not to limp. Water first, because he was damn parched, then a stiff drink to take the edge off the pain in his foot.
He had half his whiskey finished when one of his cousin’s National Guard buddies appeared at his side. “Hey, Jace.”
“Kevin.” Doc Turner nodded. “That was some fancy footwork.”
He nodded back.
“So, how’s the foot?”
He stilled, drink poised in mid air. “How the hell…?”
Jace smiled. “I’m a doctor. I know when a patient is hiding pain.”
Kevin downed the rest of his JD and shrugged. “It’s nothing. It’ll pass.”
“Sure it will.” Jace snickered, looking completely unconvinced. “I’d be happy to look at it, but I already know your answer.”
“No thanks.”
The doc smiled. “Figured as much. Well, since you’re walking on it, I’m betting it’s not broken. I suggest to ice and wrap. I’d tell you to stay off it, but I know you’re too ornery to listen.”
He laughed. “True.” Although, icing and wrapping sounded good. Like heaven good.
“And you might want to get that boot off now, while you can.” The doc gestured to Kevin’s aching foot. “I’d hate to see you have to cut through such fine leather.”
He straightened. �
�What?” Never. No one was putting a blade near his Tony Lamas. Cupping the doc’s shoulder, he nodded. “Thanks, Jace. See ya later.”
Ignoring the pain was a hell of a lot easier when he wasn’t walking. Son-of-a-bitch…now his foot did hurt when he stood. Sharp shards radiated through his whole foot with each step. Still, he managed not to limp through the crowd on the way to the bathroom where the household first aid supplies were stored.
Sweat trickled between his shoulder blades and broke out along his temple, but he didn’t dare break his swagger. Last thing he needed was people making a fuss. With his hand on the knob of the bathroom door, he considered himself home free when it suddenly yanked forward. Knocked off balance, he stumbled straight into the person coming out of the bathroom.
Shayla.
“Oh, Kevin, I’m sorry,” she said in a damn sexy, breathless voice. “Are you all right?”
That was the first time she’d ever called him by his name. He kind of liked it. In fact, he liked it so much, he didn’t dare tell her or she’d certainly never utter it again.
A heartbeat later, he realized they were clutching each other’s arms in an attempt to steady the other. Their dance, and the way her body felt against him immediately came to mind. He cleared his throat and released her.
“Yeah. I’m fine, darlin’. Are you okay?”
She nodded, but…shit…her gaze narrowed as she searched his face. “What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean?” He was determined to play it cool. Get her to leave, then take his boot off and wrap his damn foot.
Before he knew it, a blessedly cool hand ran across his forehead and temple, and he caught another whiff of her spicy, mango perfume.
“Jesus, cowboy.” She drew her hand away as if burned. “You’re sweating like a wh…” She stopped and cleared her throat. “You’re just really sweating. Which is not normal.” She drew him farther into the bathroom, closed the door, then leaned against it, arms folded across her generous chest, expression…not so generous. “Tell me what’s going on. And don’t say nothing.”
“Oh, I think I saw this once. This is where you tell me to take everything off,” he said in an attempt to throw her off the scent.
She snorted. “In your dreams, cowboy.”
Her Forever Cowboy (Harland County Series Book 4) Page 5
