“I had a few things to tie up,” she said coolly. “And now I’m back.”
“To stay?”
For the first time, her gaze shied away from his. “My rates are reasonable,” she said. “And for any children in Weaver who want to take a class but can’t afford it, I’ve been able to set up a simple scholarship program, thanks to Jake. He suggested it. And will fund it for at least the first five years.”
“Five years?” Beck nearly choked.
“That’s what I said.” She tucked the last small bite of cake in her mouth and delicately licked her fingertips before wiping them with the napkin. Then she jiggled the chains. “If you don’t mind?”
“I do mind.”
She looked pained. “I came from Weaver long before you did, Beck. I have every right to move back and go into business if I want. I’m ready for new challenges.” Then she hopped off the rubbery swing seat even though it meant bumping into him. “And it has nothing to do with you,” she muttered as she slipped beneath his arm.
He caught her shoulder before she made it a foot. “I think it does.”
She slowly looked from his hand up to his face. “As you’ve said to me often enough, it doesn’t matter what you think. You may not be interested in moving on with your life, but I am. Now, if you’ll excuse me–” she snatched the flyers out of his hand “—I want to get the rest of these passed out. I’m meeting a builder at the studio later this afternoon.”
“Builder,” he repeated stupidly, and watched her sashay away from him.
He was barely aware of his father coming up next to him until Stan spoke. “How many times are you going to let her walk away from you?”
Beck looked down at his hands. His wedding ring glinted in the sunlight. Shelby was still passing out flyers, oblivious to him. Susan had moved over to Jake and J.D. where they had the horses. “What if I lose her, too?”
“What if you don’t?” Stan closed his hand over his shoulder and squeezed. “Son, if you don’t go after her and tell her how you really feel, you’re never going to have the chance to know.”
Go on, now.
The voice—absent for so long—whispered through his head.
And he knew it would be the final time.
Harmony’s work was finally done.
He let out a long breath.
And drew in a fresh one.
And went after his future.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Lucy murmured encouragingly to herself as she hurriedly crossed the street from the school to the town park. She’d survived the first encounter with Beck anyway. It had to get easier from here on out, didn’t it?
She swiped her hands over her damp cheeks and swore as her foot caught the curb and she barely kept herself from pitching forward.
She laughed a little hysterically. It wouldn’t do for her to fall and break something now, when she was actually excited about the new dance studio.
Even now, as she headed toward the pavilion in the park, she could see the glass-fronted building across the street. Down a few doors from Colbys. Up a few doors from Tara’s shop, Classic Charms. It was on Main, a perfect location, and thanks to the investment that her father had insisted she accept she’d made an offer to purchase it—and the vacant space next to it—outright.
Now all she had to do was gut the interior, update the single bathroom, install floating floors and mirrors and barres and a sound system before the first class was scheduled in a month’s time, and she’d be good to go. They could even do dance performances when the weather was nice in the pavilion.
“Assuming that you’ll get the students,” she said to herself.
“You’ll get them.”
She whirled.
Beck stood behind her, and she wondered if it would take the rest of her life before her heart would stop leaping just from the sight of him. “Are you following me?” She aimed for cool. Came off considerably uncool, considering how her voice shook.
“Yes.”
She pressed her lips together for a moment and continued toward the pavilion. She wanted to see how badly the place needed painting because Belle had cautioned that it wasn’t in such great repair any longer. “What do you want from me now?”
“Everything.”
She went still. Caution screamed through her.
And he seemed to realize it because he sighed deeply as he moved in front of her. “Tell me honestly, Lucy. Am I one of the challenges you’re willing to take on?”
Her heart felt in danger of stopping. “Why? Do you want another chance to throw it back in my face if I say that you are?”
“No.” He held up his hand and pulled off his wedding ring.
She sank her teeth into her tongue. “You don’t have to do that for me if, if that’s what you think,” she said shakily. “Your marriage is a part of you.”
“It is. It was.” He pushed the ring in the pocket of his jeans. “But I need to take it off for me because it’s time for me to make room for something—someone—else.”
She held her breath, too afraid to hope when he closed his arms around her shoulders.
“To make room for you,” he finished in a low voice.
She sucked in a shaking breath. “Beck—”
His fingers pressed into her shoulders. “I need to say this.”
“Because my brain has stopped functioning, that’s fine,” she said faintly.
The corner of his lips twitched. “Don’t make me laugh. You can do that the rest of our lives, but not yet.”
Her eyes flooded.
“I was never afraid of replacing Harmony,” he said quietly. “I was afraid of losing again. So instead of grabbing on and holding tight when you danced into our lives, I pushed you away. I was doing exactly what you accused me of doing.” His thumbs roved restlessly over her shoulders. “I was wrong.”
“You were,” she agreed faintly. “But I’m a forgiving sort.”
His lips twitched again. “I’m probably going to have cause to remind you of that in the coming years.”
“Years?”
His smile died. His gaze was serious as it seemed to bore into hers. “Years. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I’m an old-fashioned guy. I don’t love lightly. And when I do it’s for a lifetime.”
Her knees would have gone out from beneath her if he hadn’t been holding on to her. “You love me?”
“What did you think?”
She just shook her head, the tears finally slipping out of her control.
His hands slid from her shoulders to cup her face. His thumbs stroked away the tears. “I love you, Lucy Buchanan. So I’ll ask one more time. Am I one of those challenges?”
She let out a shaking laugh, finally daring to believe. “You’ll be the best challenge of them all.”
He exhaled, his eyes closing for a moment. “Thank you.” Then he pressed his lips slowly to hers.
Lucy twined her arms around him and held on. “I’m afraid I’ll wake up and this will all be a dream.”
He lifted his head. “No dream,” he assured deeply. “This is life. Our life.”
Her heart spilled over, just as surely as her eyes had. “I do love you, Beck.”
He took her hands in his and kissed them. “I love you.” Then he smiled a little crookedly and his eyes glinted. “So what do you think Shelby is going to say about having a ballerina join the family?”
Lucy’s laughter filled the air and it was a sound Beck knew he’d never tire of. She tangled her fingers in his and tugged. “Former ballerina. And there’s only one sure way to find out…”
Epilogue
The bride wore white and looked radiant with her hair pulled back in a smooth chignon with a peony tucked alongside.
The groom wore a black suit and looked handsome and thoroughly besotted with his bride as he watched her walk down the aisle.
Their vows were spoken clearly and truly in front of the minister in the little Weaver church that had seen so many marriages begin there.
/>
And as the newly wedded couple recessed along the aisle, the guests clapped and cheered and followed them out into the bright sunlight that glittered off the fresh layer of snow that had fallen overnight.
Lucy looped her hand through Beck’s arm and pressed her cheek to his shoulder as they followed his father and his brand-new bride out of the church. “Happy?”
“I will be when I get out of this tie,” he murmured, smiling a little as he reached for the knot in question.
She swatted his hand away. “Don’t mess up your tie. You’ve still got pictures.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and regardless of the guests milling around them, pulled her close for a kiss. “I don’t care about the pictures.”
“I do,” she whispered, and lightly nipped his lip. “Shelby looks like a princess in her dress.”
They both looked over to where Beck’s daughter was preening near the wedding photographer and her grandfather-the-groom. Lucy had braided Shelby’s hair down the back of her head, weaving baby’s breath among the silky, dark strands and the pale blue dress she wore had puffy sleeves and miles of lace and frills. “I want as many pictures of her as we can get,” she added. “Because there’s going to come a day, I promise you, when she’ll positively moan over ever having worn all those ruffles.”
“You didn’t get tired of ruffles,” he pointed out, grinning. “That sexy little thing you wore last night had a ruffle right over your—”
She covered his mouth. “We’re at a church here,” she whispered.
“And remind me again how glad I am that we decided to forgo all the hoopla.” He caught her fingers in his and pressed a kiss to the platinum diamond-studded wedding band surrounding her finger. “We moved right on to the honeymoon.”
Which was still going on, as far as Lucy was concerned. They’d been married a little over a month now after a simple ceremony with just her family and his present one afternoon in their living room, and not a day went by that wasn’t filled with some fresh joy.
Oh, they’d had arguments plenty already. From the interior layout of the dance studio which Beck insisted on handling, even though she’d initially planned for her uncle Daniel to do the simple job.
Lucy had won out on the design she wanted, though, and she had it on good authority from her grandmother that Daniel was perfectly happy not to have the work because he was enjoying his retirement and his latest new grandbaby too much. But she could certainly admit to her handsome husband now that she’d had classes running for nearly three months, that some of the things he’d insisted upon had been good ideas. Like more than one bathroom.
He still insisted that she was putting in too many hours, but the classes were only enough to keep her busy part-time, so that was another argument he’d been doomed to lose.
For now, she thought to herself. For now.
“Beck.” Stan, the bridegroom, beckoned his best man over. “Get your hide over here for pictures.”
Lucy nudged him along. She wasn’t officially in the wedding party. Jake’s two sisters had arrived to see their aunt get married and had stood up with Susan, while Beck and Nick had stood up for Stan. And standing in the center of them was the grinning princess, Shelby.
“That’s quite a family we’ve got,” J.D. murmured, coming up beside Lucy. “Have you told him yet?”
Lucy rested her palm over her flat tummy. “I will at the reception. I didn’t want anything taking away from Stan and Susan’s wedding day.”
“I’m pretty sure Beck’s not going to think of this as taking away from anything,” J.D. said with a laugh. “But my lips are sealed, as promised.”
“Thanks.”
J.D. winked. “I should be thanking you. I know we have you to thank for Beck agreeing to design the buildings for Crossing West.”
Lucy shook her head. “He would have agreed eventually.”
“Well, now we can get the drawings and the permits all done before we break ground in the spring,” J.D. said. “So I’m a happy lady.”
So was Lucy.
A happy, married, pregnant lady.
She couldn’t wait to tell Beck.
And just as the photographer laughed and called it quits, and the wedding party scattered, everyone heading in the general direction of the parking lot and Beck and Lucy’s house where the caterer they’d hired had been setting up for the past two days, Lucy heard a faint voice.
Go on, now.
She looked around at J.D. “Did you say something?”
J.D. gave her a strange look. “Nope.”
Lucy shook her head slightly. Maybe pregnancy hormones had already started to cause voices in her head.
Go on. Now, the voice insisted. A woman’s voice.
And suddenly, Lucy realized.
She smiled slightly, and lowered her hand from her belly. And she went up to Beck and tugged his head down. She whispered in his ear.
His head shot up. He gave her a sharp look. “Really?”
“Mallory called to confirm it this morning.”
The smile grew slowly. Until it lit his entire face. He wrapped his arms around her and picked her right off her feet, swinging her around.
And he laughed.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8928-8
THE RANCHER’S DANCE
Copyright © 2011 by Allison Lee Johnson
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†Men of the Double-C Ranch
§Return to the Double-C
**Montana Mavericks:
Striking It Rich
‡Family Business
††The Hunt for Cinderella
*Back in Business
§Fortunes of Texas:
Return to Red Rock
‡‡The Baby Chase
The Rancher's Dance Page 19
