Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(59)

She scooped up a forkful of potato salad and chewed slowly while she organized her ten questions from least to most important. “Okay, then favorite song?”

“By whom? My favorite two-steppin’ song is different than my favorite shower song or my favorite church song. So which one?” he asked.

“All time. Any artist. Any genre?”

“That would be ‘I’ll Fly Away’ because when we sang it with your granny, it lifted my heart. Her face was so content that day, and the way the sun filtered through the window onto your face made you look like an angel,” he answered. “And that sounds like a bunch of bullshit, but the song has come back to me several times and I always get a vision of you two. It was like seeing the past and the future right there in the room with me,” he answered. “My turn and I’ll ask you the same question. What’s your favorite song?”

She was glad she had popped three small pieces of okra in her mouth. After his comments, she had trouble thinking about anything other than how sweet and sensitive he was once she’d gotten past that outer tough layer.

“My favorite song is the old one by Garth called ‘The Dance,’” she said. “It not only tells the story of an incident but also of life. Every dance we take leads us up to the last one we enjoy before we die, and if we miss one, then we aren’t the same people.”

“So that means that all our past forms us into who we are today, right?” Toby asked.

“I think it does. The pain and the joys intermingled together,” she answered. “Your turn.”

“Flowers? What’s your favorite flowers?” He picked up the second chicken breast and bit into it.

“Any kind of wildflower, but I’m real partial to those wild roses that grow on the fences and bloom all summer. I’m an outdoor person, Toby. I own and manage a store, but when my workday is done I like to be outside. Since you are a rough and tough cowboy I won’t ask you about flowers.”

“Daffodils,” he said quickly. “I love those little yellow flowers that say spring is on the way. Winter is over and it’s time to plant. Time to think of a fall harvest. Time for new baby calves to be born. Daffodils remind me of all that. Your favorite color?”

“Blue, the color of your eyes and the summer sky after a hard rain when the clouds pass on by and the sun comes out. Yours?”

“Green, not dark or olive green but the color of new winter wheat as it comes up through the dirt. Thank you for saying that about my eyes. I’ve always thought they looked a bit out of place with my dark hair. I’m the only blue-eyed Dawson in the family. Blake’s are green and Jud’s are brown. What about your favorite movie?”

She picked up the beer and took a long gulp. “You promise not to laugh.”

“Cross my heart. What is it? Steel Magnolias or Little Mermaid?”

She shook her head. “How’d you come up with those two?”

“My sisters-in-law and my mother love the first one. My nieces like the last one. I’ve sat through both more times than I can count on my fingers and toes.”

“Dirty Dancing,” she said quickly.

“I would have never guessed that one.”

“It tells a story of never giving up and not letting anyone put you down,” she said.

“I’ve never seen it. Maybe sometime we’ll watch it together?” He stacked all their dirty dishes into a plastic bag and put them inside the basket with the leftovers and then brought the pie to the quilt.

She looked around for plates and he held up two clean spoons.

“We’ll eat it right out of the pie pan. My favorite all-time movie is The Cowboy Way.”

“Haven’t seen it.”

“That’s two date nights, then.” He dipped into the middle of the pie and held the spoon out to her.

“Mmmm,” she mumbled around the taste of cinnamon and apples. “Nadine does have a way with an apple pie. Let’s save the other five questions for another night and stretch out on these pillows when we get done. I love this place, Toby, but you already know that. I could lie on my back and watch the stars for hours.”

Toby shoved the basket off to one side and arranged the pillows behind him. “There’s going to be another night, then?”

“Darlin’, you did too much work here for this to be a one-night-stand place. Next time I’ll bring the dinner and the beer.”

He had a couple of more bites of the pie and then stretched out on the quilt, his head on the pillows. “You sure it won’t get to be old hat and boring? The first time is exciting but after a while…” He let the sentence hang.

“If it gets boring, we’ll know what we have is a flash in the pan. If it continues to be as exciting as tonight, then we’ll know it’s genuine.” She set the pie inside the basket on top of the leftover fried chicken before following his lead. Back on the quilt, hands laced over her full stomach, head on the pillows, eyes looking straight ahead at the stars.

He reached across the six inches separating them and took her hand in his. Fingers laced together, they watched the sky, each in their own comfort zone of thoughts and memories until a bright, shiny star danced across the sky, leaving a long tail of brilliance behind it.

“A falling star!” she said. “That was the brightest, prettiest one I’ve ever seen. We get to make a wish.”