by Merry Farmer
Ted’s heart felt light. He was, hands down, the luckiest man in the world to be able to call a woman like Laura his girlfriend. Part of him—a big part—hoped to call her something else before too long. And if he took his time, if he didn’t rush things, he was pretty sure Laura wouldn’t say no.
“They look like they’re having fun out there,” Howie said, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ted as he watched the dancers. “Although I can’t say I’m all that crazy about this new kind of dancing.”
“What do you mean?” Ted was rather enjoying the sight of Laura and her friends as they jumped and shimmied to the loud tune of one of those required wedding reception songs. She’d been joined not only by Melody and Calliope, but Sandy and Rita too. It was a stunning relief to see Laura laughing and dancing with Sandy without a hint of reserve or suspicion. The fact that the two women had stayed friends in spite of everything was huge, as far as he was concerned.
“All this jiggling,” Howie said, waving his hand at the dancers. “There’s no finesse to it.”
Ted laughed, half at Howie’s comment and half because Jogi the IT guy from PSF was trying to include himself in the ladies’ dancing. He wasn’t all that smooth in his attempts to get near Sandy—and if what Laura had told him was true, Jogi was smack in the middle of a long process of trying to work up the nerve to ask Sandy out—but the man certainly had the moves. Or maybe it was just the brightly-colored, traditional Indian outfit that he’d worn to the wedding. Either way, the ladies were laughing along with him. Rita even drew him into their dancing circle.
“You know—” Howie began, but paused.
Ted turned to find Howie staring intently at the group of dancers, tapping a finger against his pursed lips. “What?” Ted asked.
Howie continued to study the dancers for a few more seconds before saying, “PSF hasn’t had a mixer in a while.”
“Not since the Fourth of July picnic.” Ted nodded. The picnic had been a hoot, complete with competitive games, catering, and a massive fireworks display.
“Seems to me like there are some people out there who need mixing,” Howie went on.
Ted had to pretend to cough to hide his laughter. It was well known that Howie tended to plan his mixers so that he could maneuver specific couples together. In fact, word on the street was that the entire orienteering event had been designed to get Melody Clutterbuck and Will Darling—along with a few other couples that Ted didn’t know very well—together. That had worked. Which meant that Howie had probably heard about the interest between Sandy and Jogi, and was about to intervene.
“When I was young,” Howie went on, “we danced like people are supposed to dance.”
“And how’s that?”
“You know. Ballroom dancing.”
Ted’s brow flew up. He knew Howie. He knew how the man’s brain worked. Visions of all those popular dance competition shows flashed to his mind. “Should we start investing in ostrich-plume headdresses?” he asked.
“Yes.” Howie thumped him on the shoulder. “Yes, that’s it exactly. I wonder where I could find a ballroom dance instructor to come out to Haskell and give lessons.”
Still muttering to himself about Arthur Murray and sequins, Howie wandered off toward the refreshment table. Ted laughed and shook his head. Haskell was in for a wild time if he had his way.
Laura signaled to him from the dance floor, and with a slight shrug and an even bigger shake of his head, Ted marched out to join her.
“You and Howie have a little talk?” she asked as Ted shifted into the groove of the dance.
“Yep,” he answered, sweeping Laura into his arms to dance with her. “I have a bad feeling he’s planning a dance competition.”
“Dance competition?” Jogi asked, overhearing him. “Excellent.” He executed a few moves worthy of a Bollywood movie.
Ted grinned and slipped his arms all the way around Laura. “He can dance all he wants,” he said so that only Laura could hear him. “But I’ve got the best partner right here.”
“Oh, Ted.” Laura giggled and shifted so that her arms rested over his shoulders and her fingers played with his hair. “You’re such a sweetheart.”
“I’m your sweetheart,” he said, stealing a kiss. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed Carbon Dating! The idea for this book came to me as I was driving through Wyoming in the spring of 2016 and kept seeing signs for fossil sites. Turns out there are a ton of dinosaurs in the state! But the specific inspiration for the story of the Flint fossil was taken from a real live court case involving a fossil found in Montana. I had Laura mention that real story at one point, but in a nutshell, there was a fossil found in 2002 in Malta, Montana by a fossil hunter. That fossil hunter came to an agreement with who he thought were the owners of the land where the fossil was discovered, but it turned out that the property was only leased. The lease-holder was the real owner, and after a court case, the fossil hunter was forced to plead guilty to theft of property. That whole story was so juicy that I just had to borrow elements of it!
And after that tense showdown between Sandy and the Bonneville contingent, I bet you’re wondering if Richard Bonneville will act on the threats he made to take over the Templesmiths’ bank. What about Sandy and Jogi? What’s going on there? And what’s this about a dance competition? You’ll find out soon in Nerds of Paradise, Book 5, Thermal Dynamics!
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About the Author
I hope you have enjoyed Carbon Dating. If you’d like to be the first to learn about when new books in the series come out and more, please sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/RQ-KX And remember, Read it, Review it, Share it! For a complete list of works by Merry Farmer with links, please visit http://wp.me/P5ttjb-14F.
Merry Farmer is an award-winning novelist who lives in suburban Philadelphia with her two cats, Torpedo (her grumpy old man) and Justine (the new baby girl). She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always have something to write about. Her books have topped the Amazon and iBooks charts and have been named finalists in the prestigious RONE and Rom Com Reader’s Crown awards.
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Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank all the people who have been cheering me on to write this series—something I’ve been dying to do for over a year now! Huge thanks to my editors, Cissie Patterson, J.R. Tague, and Carly Cole. And a world of gratitude to my excellent and opinionated beta readers, Caroline Lee and Joline Stewart. And a special thanks to my “nerd on call,” Lael Odhner, who not only has his own robot-making company, but inspired me with a billion ideas for this entire series through his shenanigans when we were in college.
And a special thank you to the Contemporary Western Hearts group! Do you love Contemporary Western Romance? Wanna come play with us? Become a member at https://www.facebook.com/groups/pioneerhearts/
Click here for a complete list of other works by Merry Farmer.
