Always On My Mind (The Sullivans #8)(41)

“You’re so pretty, ma’am. What’s your name?”

Lori smiled down at the little girl with the big brown eyes and bright pink cheeks, the same one who had wanted to touch her dress earlier. She couldn’t have been more than four years old, but she’d been out there dancing up a storm, following the moves even better than most of the bigger kids and adults.

“Lori. What’s yours?”

“LuLu.” She barely paused for breath before saying, “You’ll be here for the next barn dance to teach us some more, won’t you, Ms. Lori?”

Lori felt a lump descend into the bottom of her stomach. Could she stay here forever? Could she hide out beneath the beautiful blue sky and have dirt under her fingernails every day? Could she dream about more of Grayson’s kisses?

Still feeling the rush of the dance floor beneath her feet, the thrill of moving her body to the music, instead of answering the little girl’s questions, Lori smiled down at her and asked, “Do you want to fly?”

The girl’s pigtails bounced as she nodded. “Oh yes!”

Lori held out her hands and when the little girl took them she winked and said, “Hold on tight.” And then she started swinging them both around in a circle, a perfect pirouette with a giggling partner’s sweaty little hands grasped tightly in hers. Again and again they spun until she thought the little girl must be getting dizzy, and finally put her down.

“Mama, Mama, did you see me?” the girl said to her mother as soon as her little cowboy boots hit the floor. “I was flying.”

LuLu’s mother no longer looked frosty as she stroked her daughter’s cheek. “Like a beautiful bird, baby.” As she hoisted her daughter up into her arms, the woman finally smiled at Lori. “You’re a wonderful dancer. Thank you for teaching all of us how to do the line dance tonight.”

Couples quickly paired up all around Lori as she stood and watched the mother and daughter walk away with a longing that frankly stunned her. When she’d been line dancing, she’d felt like she belonged, that she wasn’t just some city girl playing around on a farm.

But now that aloneness came back to hit her smack dab in the center of her chest with a hard thud.

The lump in her throat grew bigger as she caught sight of Eric grinning at her from across the barn. She smiled back and when he started to move toward her with the clear intention of asking her to dance, she fought to keep her smile in place. Eric was sweet. He was good looking. He was a gentleman. He was everything she should want, especially in the wake of the snake her ex had turned out to be.

But, stupid her, who did she wish was coming for her on the dance floor, instead? Grayson, who was more deeply wounded than any man she’d ever met before.

When Eric was less than a dozen feet away and she was just about to make herself move toward him, a large hand suddenly took hers and she was spun into a hard chest.

The very hard chest she’d been so foolishly dreaming of.

Lori was so stunned—and so pleased to be close to Grayson again as he led her in a country waltz—that she simply laid her head against his shoulder and moved with him.

Just one dance. That was all it was.

One perfect, beautiful, impossibly romantic dance with a man who made her heart pound like crazy and her brain turn to mush.

There were a million reasons why she shouldn’t be here in his arms, moving to the music. And yet she was so dazed by the sure way he led her across the floor, so wrapped up in the dance, in the feel of his body against hers, his muscles contracting against her, that there was no room for thinking, no space to do anything but be putty in his talented hands.

Second by second he’d taken over more of her thoughts, her dreams, until she had begun to forget what her life had been like before he was in it. All she knew now was that it couldn’t have been as full of sparks, emotion...or desire.

Even the waltz, a dance she’d done a thousand times before, both on stage and off, had never been this wonderful. This special.

When the song finally came to an end, Grayson drew her tightly into his arms and held her there for a long moment. The band had started to play yet another waltz but she knew she couldn’t survive another dance with him.

Not if she wanted even one small piece of her heart to remain intact when she finally left his farm to go back to her real life.

She tried to move away, but he wouldn’t let go of her hand. “You’ve been dancing for a while now with no break. You need lemonade.”

He didn’t ask her if she wanted one, just took her to the table on the side of the room where the two teenagers she’d been line dancing with were flirting now. He got her a cup and he was right—she was thirsty, so she drank it.

Lori told herself she shouldn’t feel so weird around him now. Not when it had just been one little dance. But, oh, what a dance it had been. And when she closed her eyes, she’d be returning to it in her daydreams for a very long time.

Trying desperately to act like it was no big deal, she said, “You’re a good dancer.” Knowing that compliment was far too grudging for just how talented he was on his feet, she amended it to say, “Actually, you’re a fantastic dancer.”

The last thing she expected him to do was say, “Thank you,” then reach out to brush a strand of hair from her cheek and push it behind her ear.

She shivered at his touch. Didn’t he know just how dangerous this territory was that he was heading into with her? First the dance, and now a touch so gentle, so sweet, that it tore at her already weak heart. She knew how to deal with rough, rude Grayson. But this? She had no idea what to do now...especially not when she coupled his sudden tenderness with the way he’d touched her—as if she was precious.