Hidden Summit (Virgin River #17)(34)

Candace grabbed Robert’s hand and said, “We’ll be along now and call you in a couple of hours. Maybe we can get together for lunch or something....”

“Don’t be silly,” Leslie said. “You’re here now. Let’s see your surprise. Then we’ll plan lunch.”

“Are you sure?” Candace asked.

“The tango, I presume?” Leslie asked, lifting a brow.

“I guess we got a little excited. We’ve been taking some dance lessons.”

“Getting ready to knock ’em dead on the cruise! You’re the only one we’re showing,” Robert said. “This sort of thing was a lot easier when you lived in Grants Pass.”

“Well, let’s see, then,” Leslie said.

“Are you absolutely sure, honey?” Candace wanted to know.

“Go for it, Mother. Believe me, you have my complete attention.”

Candace started the music again, Robert swept her up in the traditional embrace, and they glided back and forth across the living room floor. Nicely, as a matter of fact. They were very agile and coordinated, and their moves were well matched. They looked into each other’s eyes like practiced partners ready for Dancing with the Stars. Her mother’s short, spiky blond hair even looked professionally done. Leslie tilted her head and glanced up at Conner. He lifted his brows in amusement.

After watching them dance for a couple of minutes, Conner turned and pulled Leslie into his arms. He put her arm around his shoulder and tucked her hand into his chest. Then with his cheek against hers, he simply rocked back and forth, dancing his own slower dance, keeping time with the music. Sort of.

“Your parents are very interesting,” he whispered in her ear.

She laughed. “Aren’t they?”

“Your mother is gorgeous for almost seventy.”

“I know. I hope I got her genes.”

“I do, too. Otherwise you might find yourself dying your hair with some reddish-black concoction.” She giggled. “Your dad has the worst dye job I’ve ever seen.”

“I know. Mom fusses about his thinning hair all the time, but apparently to him it looks good.”

“He got a lot of it on his bean,” Conner said. “I think he stained it good.”

“I know,” she said as she chuckled.

“They’re fun, aren’t they?” Conner asked.

“Sometimes a bit too much fun,” she answered.

“Look at them,” he said. “They’re having the time of their lives, doing the tango in their daughter’s living room. How long have they been married?”

“Forty-three years.”

“When the dance contest is over, here’s what we should do,” Conner said. “I should go home to shower, shave and change, you should have coffee with your folks and get dressed, and then we should meet at Jack’s for lunch so they can interrogate me a little bit.”

They turned and looked as Robert dragged Candace across the floor in a wicked tango move. They turned back.

“Okay,” Leslie said. “But you don’t have to be interrogated.”

“I don’t mind a little bit,” he said. “Basic information, you know. Name, rank, serial number. Let’s not tell them I was married to a sex addict, okay?”

“I still haven’t told them I was married to a guy who had trouble getting it up.”

Conner’s eyes flew open wide. “He did?”

“Shit. I was going to be classy and keep that to myself. Naturally I thought that was mostly my fault.”

He ran a knuckle down the curve of her jaw; his blue eyes got all dark and smoky. “No way.”

“Thank you,” she mouthed.

Candace and Robert ended the tango with an elaborate flourish that left Candace draped along the floor at Robert’s feet, one arm extended into the air.

Leslie and Conner parted and applauded while Robert helped his wife to her feet. He bowed and Candace dipped into a curtsy. “What do you think, honey?” Robert asked.

“I think you’re awesome, provided one of you doesn’t break a hip.” She stared pointedly at her mother. “You might want to go easy on the collapsing to the floor part, Mom.”

“I’m very careful and my bone density is excellent,” Candace said. “All right, we’ll get out of your hair. If you really do have time for lunch, just tell us—”

“I have a better idea,” Conner said. “I’m going home to shower and change. I’ll meet you at noon, if that works for you three.”

“Perfect,” Leslie said. “See you at Jack’s.”

As Conner drove to his cabin to change, he saw it as very strange indeed that he should consider the tango debut of Leslie’s eccentric parents absolutely normal, but he did. Sure they were a little out there, but they were clearly enjoying life and each other. And they loved Leslie.

When Conner had been twenty and Katie a mere seventeen a heart attack had dropped their mother like a stone. She’d only been fifty-three and hadn’t seemed the high-risk type at all—she had been trim and fit and very energetic, much like Candace. Three years later their father passed after a short, difficult battle with colon cancer—he’d been sixty-three.

Not only had they lost their parents too young, Conner and Katie had been left the house they’d grown up in and Conner’s Hardware. Twenty-three and the owner/operator of a substantial business. If he hadn’t had a few trusted employees who had worked for his father for a long time, he would surely have sunk out of sight. Now he found himself wondering what his parents would be like, had they lived. Nothing like Candace and Robert, that was for sure. His mom hadn’t ever been very fancy and his dad had been a real stick-in-the-mud. They wouldn’t be taking tango lessons or going on cruises. But his dad had had a dream of a retirement cabin on a lake that was full of fat fish. They both had looked forward to grandchildren…and had never met the boys.