Chapter Five #2
“It’s all good,” Laura-Beth assured her. “Really good. You have a plus-one now, so I’m moving you back to the wedding party table with us.”
“I’m supposed to be Mom’s plus one,” Kelley said flatly. That way their mother did not have to sit alone at the parents’ table with Kelley’s dad, stepmother and the three sets of opinionated grandparents.
“You’re off the hook,” Laura-Beth said, excitement in her words. “Mom found herself a new plus-one.”
“Who?” Kelley asked. Her mom mentioned nothing last night.
“I’m sure she will tell us when she’s ready.
” Laura-Beth shrugged then pulled a pink sticky tab off the paper.
“It’s for the best. Now you and Asher will be at my table where I wanted you in the first place.
” Laura-Beth peeled a green sticky off and frowned.
“Only, you and Asher will then be taking Cousin Betsy and her new husband’s places, so they need to be relocated. ”
Asher was Kelley’s date? That was a newsflash. She rubbed her forehead and took a deep breath, hoping for some patience.
“You have to help me fix this.” Laura-Beth eyed Kelley. “I already told Betsy she was sitting with us. She is so excited. And now she’s going to feel slighted.”
“They won’t feel slighted and there’s nothing to fix,” Kelley said, working to keep her words indifferent and mild. “Because I don’t have a date.”
“You have to take Asher,” Laura-Beth countered.
Kelley shook her head. “Why, exactly?”
“You looked really good dancing together.” Laura-Beth’s chin dipped in a sharp nod as if to punctuate her words.
Kelley chuckled. “That’s not a good reason, LB.”
“Well, you could have like a big reveal moment at the wedding,” Laura-Beth said, delight stretching through her words as she warmed to the idea. “I always love a big reveal, don’t you?”
Not really. Kelley was more low-key in her approach; her big sister, not so much.
Laura-Beth always wanted to make a huge splash while Kelley tended to wade in and blend in.
Besides, the day belonged to her big sister.
Laura-Beth deserved to shine from sunup until sundown.
Still, Kelley asked, “What exactly would I be revealing?”
“That Asher Blackwell is your mystery sunrise dance partner, of course,” Laura-Beth stated. “Everyone is still speculating about who the cowboy was even today.”
No surprise there. The locals always enjoyed long, nonstop rides on the gossip train. Kelley frowned. “They’ll move on soon enough.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to,” Laura-Beth suggested, a gleam in her bold green gaze.
“What are you talking about now?” Kelley asked.
Laura-Beth stuck the sticky name tags on the poster paper and came around the desk. She braced her arms on Kelley’s shoulders and gave her a light playful shake. “I’m talking about you asking Asher to be your date for the wedding.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because it’s a chance to have fun and dance with a cute cowboy for one night,” Laura-Beth said.
Asher was more than simply cute. And Kelley was more than a little aware of him as someone whom she could want to be more than a friend.
If she was considering things like that.
She hedged, “We don’t even know if Asher is going to be in town.
He probably needs to get back to the city soon.
You know where he lives.” And where Kelley did not.
“Stop it. I know what you’re doing in that head of yours.” Laura-Beth squeezed Kelley’s shoulders. “You’re finding all the reasons it’s a bad idea.”
Kelley chewed on her bottom lip rather than reply.
“You’re making this into something it is not,” Laura-Beth continued. “It’s not a marriage. It’s one date. What is the risk in that?”
Kelley blinked. Her sister was right. The end was already written.
Kelley and her city cowboy were headed in different directions.
There could be no messing of the heart kind of chaos when she already knew what was coming.
Kelley said, “I will think about asking Asher to be my date, if it comes out that he will be in town.”
Laura-Beth nodded, released Kelley then pointed at Kelley’s head and said, “Just don’t think it over too long, okay?” Laura-Beth turned and set her attention on the seating chart and continued, “Or someone else is going to get to him first and you will be left watching from the singles’ table.”
Aha! That was the answer. Kelley smiled. “That is where we will sit.”
“What?” Confusion crossed Laura-Beth’s face. “Where?”
“Don’t change the seating chart.” Kelley motioned to the battle plan.
“Asher and I will sit at the singles’ table if he comes with me.
” And that would prove Kelley understood exactly what a date with Asher Blackwell was and what it was not.
It was one night to dance with a single cowboy. No hearts on the line.
Her sister’s cell chimed a double-quick version of “Chapel of Love,” which Laura-Beth promptly answered.
From the bright sparkle in her sister’s gaze, Kelley assumed it was Wes on the other end of the line.
But before Kelley could say another word, LB shoved the seating plan into her tote, muttered something about doing it herself and was gone in a flash.
A while later, Kelley was heading back to her office but quickly pulled up short before she rammed into the cowboy in the doorway. She sputtered, “Asher?”
His smile slipped out, slow and easy and private.
And her pulse picked right up. He was less city and more cowboy-relaxed today, wearing a dark brown cowboy hat, faded blue jeans and denim button-down over a white T-shirt.
And that jolt of awareness made her want to step closer.
Instead, she locked her knees and braced her back against the door frame.
“Hey. What brings you by? I was going to deliver dinner later this afternoon.”
He nodded, then scratched his cheek. “I need to go to the bank. But I thought I’d stop in about my standing blackberry turnover order.”
“A cowboy can’t live on pastries alone,” Kelley teased.
“This cowboy intends to try.” Amusement flashed in his startlingly blue eyes. He moved aside and lifted a large open basket between them. “I was out near the back pasture, checking on our retiree trio and stopped to get you these.”
Kelley glanced at the fresh blackberries, noting that her box from the previous night was carefully tucked inside. “You were up early.” And thinking about her. Not that she was lingering on that minor detail.
“My days always start early at home,” he said, satisfaction in his words. “Besides, my mother taught me never to return a dish empty. You really don’t want to taste anything I bake, so I figured this was the next best thing.”
If they were sharing best things, it was Asher in the diner again, even if it wasn’t for another morning dance.
Could you stick around for a while, cowboy?
There was something about him that made her feel happy.
Scratch that. She was finding that on her own these days.
Still, there was a wedding venue where they could dance.
For one night. You game, cowboy? All she had to do was stay in the moment and ask. Kelley opened her mouth.