"And I think I heard something about chips and cookies," Beau said.
"And beer?" Slade said.
"I said Dr Pepper," Mamie protested.
"Yes, but it was after a hesitation," Eli said.
"You were supposed to be talking about cattle and ranchin'," Julie said.
"We are smarter than you think," Griffin told her.
"You ladies going to need a designated driver?" Eli asked.
Ellen leaned back from the next table. "If they do, I'll be glad to come around and bring them all home. Can I drive your truck, Slade?"
"Hey, we'll be able to drive ourselves. A preacher's wife wouldn't get sloshed playing bridge," Mamie grinned.
"And there ain't no way you are driving any of the Double L vehicles, Ellen," Slade said.
"Spoil sport." Ellen tilted her chin up and went back to the conversation between the four elderly ladies at her table.
The easy bantering went on until they'd finished their food and Slade wiped his mouth, stood up, and asked Jane to join him for a dance. As Julie watched them, the green monster attacked her again. They moved in graceful fluid motion, not missing a single beat of the music and looking at each other as though they were still madly in love even though they'd been married long enough to have a child. That's what she wanted next time around: for a man to look at her like that on the dance floor and in the bedroom.
"Shall we show them up?" Beau asked.
Milli held up her hand and the next two Luckadeaus took center stage. Milli melted into Beau's arms and he looked down at his brown-eyed angel.
Julie sighed.
Eli held out his hand to Mamie. "May I have this dance, my lady?"
"You two-step?" she asked.
"Yes ma'am, with the best of them," he said.
"I'm getting more than I bargained for," she grinned.
Julie was very proud of her brother in that moment. He might not wear boots and a western-cut shirt but he executed a fine two-step in his pleated black slacks, pale green button-down collar shirt, and loafers. Mamie fit well with Eli and they looked happy. For the first time since his wife died, Eli had life back in his eyes.
"Shall we?" Griffin asked.
"Is this part of the deal?"
"It's anything you want it to be. I just want to hold you in my arms and dance with you. I want to be the one with you like they're with each other," he said.
"I'd love to dance," she said.
He led her to the floor and in minutes everyone else stood on the sides keeping time to the music as Griffin's white streak and Julie's bright red hair were a blur in the beat of a fast song. Her heart thumped in her chest like a bass drum by the time the song ended and everyone clapped for them.
"You are really good," Julie said breathlessly. "And now I need something to drink."
"And a bit of fresh air?" Griffin said.
"Part of the deal?" she asked.
"Like I said, Julie, tonight can be anything you want it to be. It's your call."
"Then I want a Coors in a bottle and a few minutes outside the barn and to hell with the deal," she said.
She noticed Nellie and Ellen both smiling as they carried their bottles out of the lights and into the shadows. So they thought they were on the winning side of the bet, did they? Well, they were dead wrong. She'd have all their money and Mamie's, too. One hundred dollars free money to buy hot pink towels for her brand new trailer house.
Griffin hopped up on the tailgate of a black pickup truck and patted the place to his side. "Come on up and rest your feet."
She hitched a hip up and wiggled her way into a seated position. She leaned the beer bottle back and took a heavy slug. The burp that followed was not ladylike.
"Excuse me," she said.
"Not bad manners, just good beer," he chuckled.
"Thank you."
"Okay, this has been a lot of fun, yesterday and today, Julie. But where are we really?" he asked.
"Backwards," she said.
"Want to explain?"
"Not really but I will. We live together already, only it's for the children, and we've been to bed with each other, so there's that relationship, but we both fight it," she said.
"Two times doesn't constitute a relationship and I quit fighting it a long time ago. Future now, please," he said.
"I could love you so easy," she said.
His heart refused to beat for two seconds. She'd actu ally said the words out loud. He leaned over and kissed her passionately.
She went on. "But."
"Does there have to be a but?" he asked.
"Yes, definitely. Milli and I were talking at the sale yesterday. She and Beau got everything turned around backwards, too. Baby first. You know that. Just before their wedding her mother sent them on a three-day honeymoon."
"I never heard about this," Griffin said.
"She sent them to a remote cabin on the beach in Mexico for a few days. Know why?"
"Have no idea, but I like the idea."
"It was for them to see if they liked each other."
"But they were in love. From the minute he realized who she was and who Katy was, they were in love," Griffin said.
"Yes, they were. Like I said I could love you. I already like you," Julie said.
"But are we fighting each other or fighting against love?" he asked.
"Who knows?"
"We're both passionate. It's the way we are. We fight with passion. We make love with passion," he said.
"People don't live in the same house every day and always agree. I argue with Mamie and you know what happened when I first met Milli and Jane. It took a while for us to even be civil. We're just now forming a friend ship. Let's work on the friendship thing a while and see where it leads."
"Okay," he nodded.
"You're willing to do that?"
"I am. Friends don't sleep together, do they?" he asked.
"I'm afraid they don't."
"It ain't going to be easy. Frustration can make for some damn big fights. During this friends-only time, do we each get to date other people?" Griffin said.
Julie's eyes narrowed into slits and she set her mouth in a firm line. Thinking about Griffin in the arms of another woman turned her pea-green with jealousy. However, the thought of falling in love and promising to love him until death parted them scared the crap out of her. How could they ever separate after they'd said the vows in front of Lizzy, Annie, and hopefully Chuck? All three kids had faced enough in their five years without going through divorce.
"Do you want to date other people?" Julie asked.
"Do you?"
"I don't know. There are a lot of unattached blond cowboys in that barn."
It was Griffin's turn to have jealousy rear its head. "I don't want you to date, so I won't either."
"Okay, then that's rule one," Julie agreed.
"Any others I should know about?"
"Yes, you've got to start talking to me. Tell me when your mother and sister are visiting the ranch or when there's going to be a big sale or when we're going to a party and give me some warning. If nothing else, write it on the calendar," she said.
"I guess I can do that," he said.
"And," she looked at him and his smoldering blue eyes locked with hers, "you can't look at me like that. Friends don't undress each other with their eyes."
He ran a hand down her backbone. "How about with something more?"
Shivers sent goose bumps all the way to her scalp.
"I think it's time we went back inside," she said.
"Chicken?"
"You bet I am. Scared shitless," she said breathlessly.
"I won't hurt you, Julie. I promise."
"I'm not afraid of you, Griffin. I'm afraid of me."
"I've got a confession. I already like you. Have for a long time. You are a fantastic mother to the children. You are strong and you never back down when you are right. I've liked you for a long time," he said.
"Then I suppose we have to see if love and like will bond and hold well enough we can trust it to keep us through tough times as well as good ones," she said.
"Let me know when you figure it out. Ready to go back inside and show 'em how to dance?" he asked.
She was amazed. He didn't pressure for more. He admitted he liked her. Had she truly met her knight in shining armor? Was there such a thing as fate?
"I am," she said simply.
They danced until midnight, then woke the children up from a pallet on the floor in the den and listened to them prattle all the way home about their cousins, from Ellie to Tim and Richie and a dozen others Julie had yet to sort out in her mind. The Luckadeaus had indeed gone forth and multiplied and most of them were ranchers. She'd met Slade's uncle and his two sons who weren't into the ranching business, but even they knew how to enjoy a barn dance.
The kids were already dressed in their pajamas and went right to bed without a fuss, leaving Julie and Griffin in the foyer.
"I really did have a good time the past two days," Julie said.
"So did I and we did it without too much fighting," Griffin said.
"Guess we did. Does that mean after a while we'll get passive and…"
"Julie, there's enough heat between us to last two lifetimes. I've never felt like this about another woman," he said.
That sucked every ounce of breath out of her lungs. It came damn near to straightening her hair. Derrick had never said something like that and certainly not with so much passion in his eyes. Graham had certainly not said anything like that. And the two young men that she'd had affairs with in college wouldn't have had the maturity even to know such language.
"And while we're on the subject, I'm a thinker even if I sometimes forget to tell you about events and things. I've talked to my lawyer and he's drawing up papers. Should we ever fall into like and love and are willing to admit it, I want to adopt Annie. She's a Luckadeau and, as Graham's biological child and my adopted one, she will have equal rights to the Lucky Clover with Lizzy. They'll inherit together when we are ready to step down."
More air left Julie's lungs and she gasped. "Annie is a Donavan."
"Annie has the Donavan name. Look at her. She's a Luckadeau."
"I think I'm going up to bed on that note before we end the good days with a big fight," she said.
"Think about it. I'm in no hurry. You can have until next summer or two years."
He waited until she was on the second step and touched her arm. When she turned, he planted a kiss on her lips that almost caused her to throw caution to the wind and propose to him on the spot.
"Think about that, too." He whistled all the way to the kitchen.
Sunday afternoon found the children in the den playing games and Griffin in the library working on finances. After church and lunch he had put on pajama bottoms and a comfortable shirt and disappeared behind closed doors into the library.
His normal duties every two weeks included bringing up the ranch spreadsheet and authorizing payment of a dozen bills, including household utilities, feed bills, and vet charges. Then he printed checks to pay his hired help for the past two weeks. He would have rather paid them once a month simply because he hated the book work, but that was too long to ask a man to go without a paycheck.
At two o'clock Julie slipped inside and set a glass of iced tea and a plate of cookies beside him. She was almost to the door when she heard him swear. When she turned back around, he'd laced his fingers behind his head and glared at the computer screen.
"Damn. Damn. Damn. I
hate
book work. I may hire an extra person just to do this," he said.
"What?"
"Write paychecks. Keep track of insurance payments. Run the business end of the ranch. Today is when I miss Graham. He loved this part. I hate it."
She went back to his side. "How often do you take care of this?"
"Every two weeks and that's too damned often."
"Every other day would make the job a lot easier."
"Then you do it every other day and I'll pay you."
"Show me," she said.
He did and she had another job.
She'd done basically the same job in college working at an oil company. Not quite as big as running the books for the ranch, since she had only taken care of one department in the business, but pretty much the same. Put what came into the ranch in the bank, pay bills, write paychecks, make sure the Social Security payments got sent on time, fill out the forms, and write a check for insurance payments.
"I really, really like you today," he said from the other side of the desk as he watched her work.
The printer spit out the paychecks. Then she went to work on the payments that needed authorization codes. He unlocked a safe behind a desk door and handed her a leather-bound book. "There's everything you need in there. Codes. Safe combination. All of it."
"You are trusting me with this?" She was amazed.
"I trust you with my daughter. She's far more impor tant than that," he said.
"I bet you did miss Dian," she murmured.
He shook his head slowly. "Dian never knew one thing about this office. She would have wiped me out if she'd had access to the checkbook and those codes. She was young, immature, and very self-centered."