Chapter Seventeen
Gabi
Drinks were flowing, literally. Fox had organised champagne, and it just kept coming. Gabi had to put her hand over her glass to avoid being constantly topped up. She was a lightweight, and she knew it.
‘Is this what we can get used to now, when we come out with you?’ Gabi asked Fox as he popped the cork from the third – or was it the fourth? – bottle. Walker was the only one not drinking anything at all, as he was on call at the station.
‘Yup,’ said Fox. ‘And limousines home afterwards.’
‘I love a limo!’ Gabi laughed. ‘Count me in. What about a holiday house in the French Riviera?’
‘On my list,’ he said. ‘I’ll save a sunbed for you.’
Fox moved on to top up drinks and Gabi caught Walker watching her from across the table.
Their eyes met and her breath hitched. He made his move and slid into the empty seat beside her, his knee pressing against hers under the table.
Her stomach flipped. She glanced at his hands and shifted on her stool.
Now that she’d felt them on her body, she couldn’t seem to think of anything else. It was like she was obsessed.
‘How’s the rest of your week been?’ he asked, bending his head towards her. His breath tickled her earlobe.
‘Been quite boring since I last saw you actually,’ she said with a tilt of her chin. ‘All physio and no play makes Gabi a dull girl . . .’
‘You need some light entertainment.’ Walker’s tone was serious, but his eyes were twinkling.
‘I need a pick-me-up, that’s for sure,’ Gabi agreed, lifting her chin to him, meeting his mischief with a bite of her lip. His eyes widened and he was just beginning to smile when a fiddle began to play, and Walker broke the look to glance at the stage.
‘You’re in the right place,’ he said, putting a cowboy hat on his head.
‘It’s yeeha time,’ said Fox, reappearing beside him and securing his own Stetson.
The spotlights illuminated the stage and a singer stepped out with a tambourine.
A second later Fox, Etienne and Walker bowed to the girls and took to the dance floor, forming a line.
Other men joined at each end until it stretched right the way across the room.
They had their backs to the stage, facing the audience.
A second fiddle began to play, and all the men tucked their thumbs in their belt loops.
The woman on stage started to sing and the tambourine kept time.
Gabi nearly spat out her champagne as the men began to line dance, as one, in step.
Right heel out and dip. Left heel out and dip.
Grapevine right. Grapevine left. Turn ninety degrees.
Clap. They didn’t even need a caller, it seemed like they knew the dance by heart.
Women lined the edge of the dance floor now, clapping along, geeing them up. The men carried on doing their thing, getting into the rhythm, enjoying their moment. Now they were facing the stage, the women could appreciate the rear view, and the noise levels were rising.
‘They’re good, aren’t they?’ Amber said. ‘Fox, Walker and Et have been coming for years.’
Gabi made an effort to close her mouth. They were so synchronised, so sure of themselves and so damned sexy. Amber laughed out loud.
‘I know exactly how you feel, girl. Felt it the same first time I saw them,’ she said.
‘Tonight, though, I’m more interested in the band.
’ Gabi glanced at the group on stage and saw Alex there on guitar, playing chords with a half-smile and half-closed eyes.
Amber was glued. ‘He always was good with his hands,’ she said.
The men turned and clapped again, facing to the left.
Isabella fanned her face. ‘Every girl loves a cowboy,’ she said reverently. ‘I can’t wait to get mine home.’
The line of men turned again and clapped and now they were facing the front and Gabi found her eyes locked with Walker.
As if he had turned to her and she had been waiting for him.
He dipped his head under his hat in greeting and held her gaze.
She felt almost winded, like she had been holding her breath, that it had been him she had been watching all along.
She knew there was a whole line of men, but she hadn’t noticed any of them.
‘Holy cow,’ she said under her breath, watching the sway of his hips.
‘You ain’t seen nothing yet,’ said Isabella, licking her lips in anticipation.
Suddenly, the music stopped dead. The crowd held its collective breath.
The men simultaneously ripped their shirts apart, buttons flying like confetti at a wedding.
They twirled their shirts above their heads like lassos.
The men did a low hip roll on the spot, round and round, bare-chested and spotlit, before stopping dead.
‘Yeeha!’ they shouted as one. The Bolthole erupted. The waiting crowd surged the line, unable to hold back any more. Isabella cantered forward and jumped onto Etienne’s waist. Amber muttered something under her breath and moseyed with intention towards the stage door.
Gabi felt like she’d lost the power of speech. Walker’s shoulders were the stuff dreams were made of. He pushed his sandy hair back from his forehead and fist-bumped Fox.
The band started with the next song and new lines were formed, mixed men and women this time.
Gabi saw Jesse and Toby take to the floor, the best-groomed cowboys in town.
She watched Isabella stake her claim next to Etienne while Fox was swarmed by a handful of single mums from the boys’ school.
When they organised themselves into formation for the next dance, she realised she’d lost sight of Walker.
She sagged against the table, wanting to be up there, but knowing her crutches would get in everyone’s way.
Walker was probably surrounded by women too.
He deserved to be. Her mood dropped. She whacked the table leg with her crutch, and it made a satisfying thump.
‘Howdy,’ a Scottish voice said beside her, and she turned directly into his chest, clothed again in a shirt which hung open at the front. She could feel the heat from his body, and he smelled divine.
‘That was quite a show, cowboy,’ she managed. ‘Who knew you had lasso in your box of tricks.’
‘You’d be surprised how useful it is for getting cats out of trees.’
Gabi snorted. ‘Thought you’d want to be out there,’ she said, nodding at the crowd.
Walker leaned next to her, surveying the dance floor which was in full line dancing delight.
‘Wanted to check you were okay—’ he said.
‘I can look after myself, you know,’ Gabi interrupted automatically.
‘And see if you wanted to dance,’ he said, stopping her in her tracks. That was unexpected, but in a very good way.
‘I’d love to,’ she said. The band started again, a slow song, and he moved in.
‘What about these?’ Gabi asked, holding up her crutches.
‘We don’t need those . . .’ Walker took them from her hands and leaned them against the table. She stood, balancing for a moment, and then hooked her fingers into his belt buckle, pulling him close. The spicy smell of him made her stomach flip.
‘I’ll need something to hang on to,’ she said.
‘Hold on to me.’ His voice was against her ear, and it flashed her back to the bookshop, evoking the same urge, the desire to rest against him.
He wrapped his arms around her back and took her weight, ensuring she wasn’t putting pressure on her bad leg.
She was cocooned against him, weightless as a trapeze swinger, her feet a few inches off the floor.
Completely powerless. He walked them onto the edge of the dance floor and they began to move.
She twisted her arms up and around Walker’s neck, as she’d wanted to the other day.
His hands tightened their hold, and she heard her own breath.
Being held by Walker was like jumping off a building.
The tiniest stroke of his thumb against the bare skin of her lower back made her ache in the pit of her stomach.
She rested her head against his shoulder and breathed in the scent of his chest. Every cell in her body felt alive, hyperaware of every point of contact between them.
The flat, hard muscle of his stomach. The press of his thigh against hers as he moved.
The song ended and they paused. Gabi felt a lurch of disappointment when it was replaced by a DJ, a fast beat.
Walker’s arms relaxed and lowered her the half inch back down to the floor, supporting her while she took the weight again on her own feet.
Her chest banged with excitement; her stomach was hollow with anticipation.
‘Thank you,’ she said, and it came out husky.
He looked down at her and, on impulse, she raised her face, tipping her mouth close to his.
His surprise was momentary, she saw the flicker of his eyes as they widened, and then the softening of his jaw as his head inched tantalisingly slowly towards her.
She felt her lips part in anticipation. She closed her eyes and felt the same anticipation as diving from a high board.
‘Ahem.’ Fox cleared his throat beside her. ‘I’m off.’ Walker straightened too quickly, and Gabi held on for dear life, unsure whether she could stand on her own. Fox lifted his cowboy hat and winked. ‘Sorry.’
‘Where are the others?’ Walker asked, scanning the dance floor which had spiralled into country chaos.
Women rode on men’s backs, galloping across the dance floor.
Toby and Jesse were do-si-do-ing, linking arms at the elbow and spinning in circles.
People whooped, slapped their thighs, women lassoed men with their belts, and someone was shooting toy guns with the word ‘bang’ hanging out of them.
‘Etienne said something about checking Isabella’s coat into the cloakroom,’ Fox said. Gabi snorted. Isabella hadn’t been wearing a jacket. Obviously one cowgirl couldn’t wait long enough to get her man home.
‘And Amber said she had something to do.’
‘Something?’ Gabi snorted again. ‘More like somebody.’ She glanced at the stage and noticed the band was on its break. Alex was nowhere to be seen.
‘Anyway, sorry to interrupt, just wanted to tell you the bar bill’s paid,’ Fox said.
‘Enjoy the rest of your night.’ Fox picked up the one remaining bottle of champagne from the bucket and carried it by its neck through the crowd.
Gabi watched him go and realised she was still holding on to Walker.
And more to the point, he was holding on to her.
‘Shall we go?’ Walker asked.
She looked into his face and took a risk. Of all the risks she was used to taking in her everyday life, this one felt like quite a big one.
‘To mine?’ Gabi asked.
‘Definitely,’ he said with a smile. They turned as one to the table to collect the crutches she’d left leaning in the corner, but they were gone.
‘What the hell?’ Gabi looked around her furiously. They hadn’t slipped down underneath the table. They’d been pinched.
‘Hmmm,’ Walker said with a half-smile. ‘Only one thing for it.’ He dipped in front of her. She felt his arm behind her legs, and he scooped her up as though she weighed nothing. She gasped.
‘What are you doing?’ Gabi asked, leaning against his chest and looking up into his chiselled face.
‘Taking you home,’ he said, starting the walk across the floor. As they went, she saw two women galloping across the dance floor, riding one of her crutches each like a horse. She slid her arms around Walker’s neck again and said nothing at all.