Laura stood on shaky legs and let Colton lead her out into the middle of the dance floor. When was all the proposing supposed to take place anyway? After the dance or before it? Dammit! She’d forgotten to ask and now she was jittery with nerves.
“And now, cowboys and cowgirls, Colton and his lady friend, Laura, will start the dancing. Miz Maudie says for those of you who haven’t finished eating not to rush. We’ll be playing until midnight so there will be lots of time to work some leather off your boots.”
The band struck up “I Cross My Heart” by George Strait, and Colton removed his hat and held it with both hands at the small of her back.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her face on his chest. Listening to his heart beating so steady and true settled her nerves. She could do this to be free of the debt that she owed. She kept telling herself that as the singer sang just like George Strait.
“I think Cynthia and Roger are flirting,” Colton whispered.
“If they are it’s the real deal, not fantasy like our world.” She smiled up at him like she was deeply in love.
“This is the real deal, Laura. Maybe not the proposal but the way I feel when we are together. It’s not pretend anymore,” he said. “Might be that Roger and Cynthia will beat us down the aisle.”
The song ended and Laura looked up at Colton with a question on her face.
“Trust me,” he said. “This isn’t our song.”
The singer breathed into the microphone. “Before y’all stampede to the dance floor, Colton has asked us to sing a song just for him and Laura. So this is a Blake Shelton tune, ‘God Gave Me You.’”
Colton kept her close to his chest and did a slow two-step around the floor with her. “What was the devil telling you at the table?”
“He was reminding me that my sister will never change if I don’t stand my ground and then it’s an iffy situation. She might be too old to change.”
“Do you want her to change?” Colton asked.
“Yes, I do.”
“If she does, she won’t be dependent on you to get her out of trouble.”
“I’m ready to cut the apron strings.”
“Want me to hand you the scissors?”
The song ended and she had forgotten all about the proposal until he settled the hat back on his head and dropped down on one knee in front of her. “Laura Baker, will you marry me?” he said loud and clear.
Gasps were heard all over the barn.
She froze. Absolutely froze, couldn’t move or speak.
“Laura, darlin’, I’m going to ask you one more time, will you marry me?” He popped the ring box open and the sparkle of the big fake diamond caught her attention.
She nodded.
He put the ring on her finger and stood up, bent her backwards in a Hollywood kiss, and then tossed his hat into the air.
“She said yes,” he yelled above the noise.
Dozens of camera flashes going off created a strobe light effect in the barn and her eyes got misty. If only it was real, she would be a happy woman. But it had all started wrong and everyone knew a house built without a foundation could never weather the storms.
“Don’t leave my side, promise?” she whispered as he stood her upright.
“Darlin’, wild horses couldn’t keep us apart.” He kissed her again, that time sweeter and not so dramatic.
A drumroll filled the barn and then the lead singer said, “And now it is time for everyone to join the newly engaged couple in a dance. Choose a partner and come on out on the floor.”
Roger held out his hand to Cynthia and she walked right into his arms. Janet turned around to find a cowboy grinning at her. He was tall and the word handsome barely covered his description. She pointed and he joined her on the dance floor.
“Who is that?” Laura asked Colton.
“Nothing to worry about, believe me.”
“Is he married?”
“He’s a widower and not looking for a wife. His name is Mason Harper and he’s got a set of twin girls that could scale a glass wall on a rainy day. Don’t worry about Janet. She’s safe.”
“But is he?” Laura asked.
Colton pulled Laura tighter into his arms as the singer started a slow ballad. “Have I told you tonight that you are beautiful?”
She smiled up at him. “Couple of times.”
***
Janet removed her boots and fell back on the pillows piled up on her bed. “Fine party. Best I’ve ever been to in my life. I’m going back home and tellin’ those ranchers how to really throw a party. The games were a hoot and the makeovers were wonderful. And the barn was absolutely fabulous and the cowboy I danced with was very attentive. I might have pressed the issue of going home with him but I found out he’s got kids. God, I’d be a horrible mother and so would you, but I’m proud of you for landing a damn billion-dollar cowboy. Surely you weren’t serious about a prenup.”
“Another round?” Laura pulled off her boots and joined Janet on the bed.
Janet shook her head. “I had champagne and a beer at the party. Better not be trading one vice for another. Let me look at that rock some more. Lord, girl, that thing cost as much as a third-world country, I bet. How many carats is in it?”
Roxie peeked in the open door. “Colton told me five carats in the big stone and three more in the little ones surrounding it. Y’all old ladies aren’t tired yet?”
Laura patted her on the shoulder. “Us old ladies know how to pace ourselves. We can run at fifty-five for a couple of days before we crash. You young kids start off at zero and go to ninety in five seconds and never slow down, then you crash at the end of six hours.”
“Well, I’m old as the hills. I danced with a man that is only two years older than me and he’s got eight-year-old twin daughters. I shudder to think of raising kids,” Janet said. “And where is your fiancé? What in the hell are you doing with us? You should be with him tonight.”
Laura finished off the last of her beer. “He’ll be along in a few minutes. My orders are to wait right here in my room until he arrives to sweep me off my feet.”
Roxie propped her bare feet on an extra chair. “He’ll probably lean over the balcony and whistle like he’s callin’ up the heifers.”
Laura gently elbowed Roxie. “Colton is right. You have changed.”
Roxie laughed. “I know it and I like the new me. Rosalee don’t even mess with me no more now that I speak my mind.”
“I’m not calling heifers,” Colton said from the doorway.
His boot heels sounded like drumbeats as he crossed the hardwood floor. He put his Stetson on Laura’s head and gathered her up like a bride in his arms.
“See y’all tomorrow morning,” he said. “We’re going for a midnight walk to look at the stars.”
Laura snuggled into his chest. It had been a perfect day. They’d made a good team and she had memories that no one could ever take from her. But nothing, especially good things, lasted forever.
The hot, demanding kisses started halfway up the stairs to her apartment. Laura felt like one of those big lightning balls she’d seen dancing across the Texas flatlands had settled in her lower stomach. The fire was so intense that it would take Colton half the night to get it under control. She couldn’t wait for him to drop her on the bed and make wild passionate love to her.
Colton carried her inside, kicked the door shut with his boot heel, and took her to the bathroom. Following another long, lingering steamy kiss, he set her feet on the floor beside the full, bubbling tub. One hand slipped around her back to unzip the red dress; the other went to the nape of her neck to untie the halter strings. He kissed his way down as he pulled the dress an inch at a time toward her feet.
“I’ve dreamed about this all night long,” he said.
She’d removed her boots in Janet’s bedroom so all that was left was lacy red underpants. He hooked a thumb under the elastic on each side, brought them to the floor, and tasted his way from the ends of her bright red toenails upward, past her belly button to her breasts, and finally settling on her lips.
She was so ready for the real thing but she didn’t want the kisses to end. Her scalp tingled when he began to remove the hairpins, setting her blond curls free. His lips slid to that soft spot right below her ear. She wasn’t sure if she was physically floating through the air or if it just felt that way until he lowered her into the warm bathwater.
“Oh my God,” she muttered.
“Too warm?”
“Just right. Join me?”
“I already had a shower. This is just for you. Lay your head back on this towel and shut your eyes,” he said.
He hummed the song they’d danced to that night and she smelled vanilla. She peeked and he grinned. “I knew you couldn’t keep them closed.”
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you a bath.”
She glanced at his big hands. “Is there a washcloth under all those bubbles?”
“Now where’s the fun in that?”
Rough cowboy hands started at her neck and touched every inch of her body from there to her feet. The soap dissolved too quickly and it took him forever to lather up his hands again. She could not keep her eyes closed. She wanted to see his eyes and bask in the glow when he grinned.
“My hair?” she asked.
“Looks beautiful.”
He scooped her up from the water when he was finished and wrapped her in an oversized white towel and patted her dry. She listened to his heart beat as he carried her from bathroom to the bed. He laid her gently on the bed and stripped off his shirt, boots, and jeans.
“Yes,” she said.
He was every bit as ready as she was.
“Not yet.”
Hell’s bells, what was he waiting for? She was about to explode and she could almost feel him pulsating with desire. His face was a study in sexy angles in the candlelight of a dozen candles scattered about in the room and… was that… yes, it was. Velvety soft red rose petals covered the top of the sheets.
He brought her to a sitting position and rubbed vanilla-scented lotion on her back, massaging the tension from her shoulders and neck until she felt like a rag doll.
“Feel good?” he asked.
“Have I died and gone to heaven?”
He chuckled, flipped her over, and in one firm thrust, he was inside her. She wrapped her legs around him and they rocked together in perfect unison.
“Oh, my! I wasn’t expecting to float,” she groaned.
“Neither was I.” His breath came in short gasps against her neck. “I wanted to touch you more and taste you again but I was about to explode.”
“I’m not really on earth, am I?”
“No, darlin’, we really are floating,” he said.
He took her right up to the edge of release, slowed down to let the flames cool, and then did it again and again. When the final thrust brought her to the highest point she could reach and still be on earth, she couldn’t even utter his name. All she could do was loosen her leg hold and pant for breath. She touched the top of her head to make sure it was still there and then his cheek, planted firmly on her collarbone.
“Good?” His voice was even deeper.
“No.”
He raised his head and looked into her eyes.
“Freakin’ amazin’!” she managed to say before his lips closed in on hers for the sweetest yet most passionate kiss they’d ever shared.
“There’s dessert,” he said.
“Honey, I can’t even wiggle.”
“Not that kind. Real food and dessert. I noticed that you didn’t eat very well at the supper.” He rolled to one side, kept her in his arms, and pulled the sheet up over them.
Her stomach growled. Colton was right. She had been a whole lot more at home with the games they’d played and in her flower beds than she was at the Dallas party or the reception.
“Did you put leftovers into my fridge?” she asked.
He propped up on an elbow. Enough moonlight filtered through the lacy curtains on the window and softened his features. She reached up and traced the outline of his jaw. “You are so damn sexy.”
“Is that even better than just plain old sexy?”
“A billion times better,” she whispered.
Her stomach grumbled again.
“Let’s raid the fridge naked,” he said.
“I’m going to wrap this sheet around me but you are going to be naked,” she said.
“How about both of us being naked while we eat?”
“Good grief, Colton! What if…”
He put his fingers over her mouth. “Watch this.”
He swung his legs over the side of the bed. Rose petals stuck to his back and fell to the floor as he padded barefoot across the floor and made sure the apartment door was locked. Rose petals had slid off the slick sheets onto the floor during all the rolling and tumbling around. She picked one from under her breast and laid it on the end table. Tomorrow morning, she would remember to pick it up to put in her memory box where she kept precious things.
Colton pushed a cart out of the corner behind the recliner and parked it right beside the bed. He moved around it and crawled back into bed with her. “Dinner is served.”
“Where did that come from?”
“I brought it up here earlier today. I had an ulterior motive in asking you to stay in the house. I planned tonight and I wanted free access to your apartment so we could have some privacy. I could live in this little place and enjoy it if you were here with me.” He opened a door and brought out a huge platter of cold buffalo wings, an assortment of cheese cubes, raw vegetables with spinach dip, and fruit surrounding a small bowl of strawberry dip.
She propped pillows against the headboard of the bed. He brought up a small tray and handed it to her. “You’ll have to pop the tray legs up, darlin’. I can’t do that and hold the food, too.”
“Kind of like diggin’ for worms, right?”
“You got it. We’re a team.”
He dipped a grape in the dip and put it in her mouth. She reached for a buffalo wing and nibbled on it while he removed the caps from two bottles of beer.
“Champagne would be more romantic,” he said.
“Depends on who you are talkin’ to. Is that really pecan pie over there?”
“It is, but not until we finish off our dinner.”
She grinned. “You won’t get an argument from me.”
“Will I get one if I ask you one more time to stay?”
“Not tonight. But this is a magical night so don’t go drawing up the paperwork just yet. I’ll think about it, Colton. You might change your mind, so I’m not giving you my word or holding you to your offer. Things might take a sudden turn in a very different direction when one of us crosses the other.”
“I don’t see that happening,” he said.
“See, just like I said. A magical night. Open your mouth.”
He did and she fed him an enormous strawberry that had been dipped in white chocolate.
***
Janet, Maudie, and Roxie were at the table when Laura made it to the dining room the next morning. They’d either finished breakfast or hadn’t started yet, because the only thing in front of them was steaming mugs of coffee.
“We’ve been waiting at least thirty minutes for you to get here,” Janet said.
Roxie shook her head and held up two fingers.
Laura hugged Janet tightly. “I love you even when you lie. I smell breakfast burritos and pancakes. And there is Chester bringing a hot batch out of the kitchen.”
Janet squirmed free of her sister’s arms, pushed back the chair, and headed toward the buffet. “Turn me loose and let me up. You know how much I love pancakes.”
Maudie stood up and pointed at Roxie. “I’m going to the church for an early breakfast with the ladies this morning and then we’ll have Sunday school and services. Roxie, you behave.”
“Yes, ma’am, but it’s all right if I spend the day with Janet and Laura, right?”
Maudie looked at Laura.
“I’d love for her to join us.”
“Okay then, but no Dillon. This is a girls’ day.” She picked up her purse from a dining room chair and in a couple of minutes the front door closed.
Roxie giggled. “She’s going to church because she wants to hear what the gossip was about the party, and Colton proposing to you, and she wants to see if Cynthia was in hot pursuit of a holy life.”
“Roxie!” Laura exclaimed.
“You know I’m right,” Roxie said.
Roxie wore a blue halter top that matched her eyes that morning. She was barefoot and her curls had fallen. Like Janet in that respect too. Janet’s hair never would hold a curl very long.
Janet stacked pancakes six high on her plate and carried them to the table where melted butter and warm syrup waited. Laura wondered if the white robe would go home with her when she left the next day.
Laura’s brightly colored, flowing caftan and flip-flops were a flash of color as she headed toward the buffet. She opted for a stack of pancakes and a breakfast burrito. “So Dillon is really banned from the place on Sunday. I can’t believe he’s not coming over today.”
“Who says he ever left?”
“Roxie! You’d better be glad Maudie didn’t hear that,” Laura gasped.
Roxie’s flippant answer proved that Colton was right. The girl had changed a lot since Laura had arrived at the ranch.
“Gotcha. You ain’t as swift as you usually are,” Roxie said. “But he’s not coming around today at all. Remember, I get to have a girls’ day with y’all at the pool this afternoon.”
“I’m still wonderin’ where this pool is. We were all over this place for the games yesterday and I didn’t see the faintest sign of a swimming pool,” Janet said.
Roxie giggled. “You were fishin’ in it.”
Janet almost choked on a bite of pancake. “You have got to be kidding me!”
“Of course I’m jokin’. Finish your pancakes and we’ll ride down to the pool house. You’ll want fifteen minutes in the sauna first to get them old bones to workin’ before you hit the water. And FYI, the sauna is a two-man pup tent on the side of the pond. We haven’t let the cows out of the pasture to get to the water yet, so all the bullshit should be settled to the bottom,” Roxie said.
“You,” Janet grinned at her, “are a smart-ass.”
“Takes one to know one,” Roxie shot back.
Janet picked up the burrito and bit into it. “What is that cook doing on a ranch? He could open his own restaurant anywhere in the world.”
Chester, a short, round cowboy whose straw hat was his chef’s toque, checked the buffet and answered the question, “I’d hate to be cooped up where I couldn’t see the stars at night or hear a coyote howling. I like the Circle 6. Y’all will just have to come back often if you want to eat my cookin’.”
“Is that an invitation?” Janet looked at Laura.
“As long as I live on this ranch, you are welcome to visit anytime.”
“I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” she said.
“You don’t need one,” Roxie told her.
“Honey, you are young and gravity has not attacked your perky little cells.”
“We got bathing suits in every size and description,” Laura said. “You just pick out whatever you are comfortable wearing.”
“Wouldn’t be no fun skinny-dippin’ without boys anyway,” Roxie said.
Laura’s fork stopped midair. “You should have gone to church with Maudie, girl.”
Roxie waved the comment away like a pesky fly. “Hurry up and swallow those pancakes. Aunt Maudie done had Chester set up the food tables at the pool so you won’t starve to death.”
“Have you seen Colton?” Laura asked.
When she woke that morning, he was gone. He’d left a note on his pillow saying that he’d see her at the supper table and that Granny had invited Roger and Cynthia and it would be served at five so Roger could get back to preach evening services at seven. It was signed with a loosely drawn heart. Did the space at the top of the heart mean that his was open to her?
“He and the guys are helping with the cleanup down at the sale barn. He said he left you a note,” Roxie answered.
She’d slipped the note and the rose petal into an envelope to put with her things when she got back to Hereford. But… she wasn’t going back, and besides, Janet had packed up her things and brought them to Ambrose. She wondered which suitcase the cigar box was in. That’s where she kept her prized possessions: the one picture that she had of her mother and the cheap little heart necklace she’d been wearing the day Aunt Dotty took her and Janet to Texas. Things like that could never be replaced.
“He did but he didn’t tell me what he was doing all day,” Laura answered.
“My instructions are to lock the gym doors when we go inside and to not let Dillon in no matter what. And to call Chester if any of y’all want something that’s not down at the pool. Oh, and the only way I get to go play with the big girls is if I promise not to even sip a beer.” Roxie clicked off her orders by holding up a finger to count each one.
***
Laura truly wished that she had a camera or at the very least her phone dug out of her purse when she drove the truck up to the barn and parked. Janet’s jaw dropped and for a minute or two she was totally speechless.
“No way,” Janet said when she could talk. “Is this another Roxie joke?”
“Be prepared for the shock of your life, right, Laura?” Roxie said.
She ushered them into the barn, carefully locked the door behind them, and led the way into the gym. “Anyone like to work out for a few minutes? I’ll be your trainer if I can yell at you like coaches do.”