Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Ellis
There’s nothing like an old-fashioned barn dance and alcohol to cause people to make terrible choices.
So it’s a good thing I don’t drink, and neither does Louisa, it seems.
She stands on the opposite side of the dance floor, clutching her sparkling apple cider like it’s the last beverage on earth.
The barbecue dinner has been demolished, the cake has been cut, and the bride and groom have danced their first dance.
Curly and his band of fiddle and guitar players perform a country waltz, and I watch everyone pair off on the dance floor.
I am completely clear headed when I make my way to Louisa and hold out my hand.
“What?” she asks. I have an inkling that she knows what I want.
“Dance with me, Louisa.”
I didn’t mean for it to come out so stern. Even so, she blinks at me and sets her drink down.
“I have no idea how to do this, Ellis. Just warning you.”
“Just follow my lead.”
Her pretty throat bobs in nervousness, but after a few steps, she figures out how to follow. She settles in close, my one hand clasped to hers while my opposite arm circles her waist. Up close, color has come into her cheeks.
“Did you get enough to eat?”
“Yes,” she says.
“Make sure you get some of that cake before they run out,” I say.
She nods.
Why in the hell am I talking about cake when I have way more important things on my mind?
“So, Louisa. I was thinking.”
She blinks up at me innocently.
“This is going to sound crazy, but hear me out.”
“Spit it out, Ellis,” she says with a smile.
“I was listening to what you and Olivia were talking about. With the way those guys from your church can be…so aggressive? I can help you with that problem.”
“How?”
“I could marry you.”
Louisa looks up at me, wide-eyed with shock, then laughs.
“Ellis. You’re hilarious.”
She’s so close that her gaze shifts from one of my eyes to the other. Her smile falters. “You can’t be serious.”
“Think about it.”
“Ellis, we just met. And I’m well protected here, at the ranch.”
I hate that she’s staying here, even if it makes sense. She’s surrounded by Sterling brothers and uncles and a dozen ranch hands, and there’s a safe full of firearms. There’s no chance anyone from the compound is coming back here to cause trouble.
“It’s an extra layer. A fail-safe. Look at it that way,” I say.
Louisa bites her pretty bottom lip and looks down at her feet. “Well, when you put it so romantically, how can a girl say no?”
“Is that a yes?”
She tilts her head and smiles wryly. “Are you sure you haven’t been into the spiked punch with Ennis and Jake?”
She glances over to where Wylie’s brothers have broken off from the dance floor and are now filling the strawberry punch bowl the rest of the way with vodka.
I shudder. “No thank you to whatever that is.”
“I’m told they’re also in charge of the fireworks later,” Louisa says.
“And that’s my cue to go,” I say.
Her smile falters, giving me hope. She doesn’t want me to leave, and I shouldn’t like that feeling as much as I do.
The slow song ends, and I leave the dance floor, hauling my suit jacket over my shoulder.
“Think about my offer,” I say. “Either way, the door is open.”
“You are a puzzle, Ellis Gates.”
“Come back tomorrow and figure me out,” I say, leaving her with a kiss on the cheek.
My heart leaps at the bewildered look on her face, and it leaps a second time when Louisa's hand goes to her cheek.
It takes everything in my power to walk away and go home.