Chapter 5 #3
He told himself that was normal enough. She was practically the only person he knew in town besides Sarah and the lady who ran the Heartache B and B. Wouldn’t it be human nature for his eye to gravitate toward a face he recognized?
Too bad he didn’t fool himself for a second.
Especially when he hadn’t seen her face yet, not when she danced with her back to him, her arms around a smiling dude old enough to be her grandfather.
Remy had recognized her silhouette in a floral sundress paired with a dark denim jacket and cowboy boots.
He recognized the way she moved—more functional efficiency than traditionally feminine.
And, yeah, he realized exactly how much that revealed about the amount of time he’d spent thinking about her.
Cursing himself and his stupid level of observation, he plowed through the crowd toward the dance floor. He’d ask her if she’d seen his daughter and then he’d get out of here.
A few swirling skirts brushed against his legs as he moved through the dancers.
He tried not to scowl when two-stepping couples forced him off the direct path to Erin and her dancing partner.
Remy didn’t know what tipped the guy off, but the gray-haired man seemed to know who Remy had in mind as a target, and by the time he reached them, the old-timer was already stepping away from Erin and passing her hand over to Remy.
“Erin.” Well, this was awkward. “I don’t mean to interrupt.”
“Remy.” Her cheeks were flushed from the dance, her whole demeanor softer and sweeter than he’d seen it before. Her smile seemed genuine, too, but her hand remained suspended in midair for a moment before she lowered it quickly.
Was there a better way to prove you’d been brought up in a barn with no manners than to leave a pretty girl hanging? Damn it, damn it.
Politeness got the better of him and he took her hand and stepped into the place of the man who’d held her a second ago.
“You don’t need to—” she started.
“I still remember the steps.” His words were gruffer than he’d intended. But how could she know what it was like for him to touch a woman’s waist through a sheer silk dress? To hold her soft palm in his and see manicured fingernails resting along the back of his hand?
He liked that her nails were still painted jet-black though she’d lightened up the inky strands of her hair. There was a toughness about her that he admired. It helped to think about that instead of the fact that she smelled like amber.
“I can see you know the steps.” Erin spun with him under a yellow Chinese lantern, keeping pace with him so they didn’t run into the couple ahead of them or slow down the couple behind. “If you weren’t scowling so hard your eyes are crossed, I might almost think you liked to dance.”
He shook his head and hoped his expression relaxed. He was tense.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Erin moved with him easily, her body sleekly athletic and her steps unencumbered despite the boots she wore. “We can step off the floor over there.” She pointed to a spot opposite the band where the crowd was a little thinner.
He felt so grateful for the offer, he could have kissed her, which was exactly not what he wanted to think about.
“Thanks. It’s so crowded.” He let her take the lead as they reached the far edge of the floor, at least until some big, drunk dude stood in her path.
Protectiveness surged.
Keeping his grip on her hand, Remy edged past her, politely staring the guy down, and kept them moving away from everyone else until they were almost in a pine tree thicket. He turned back to speak to her, but she gestured forward.
“Just through there is a walking trail, if you’d like to get some air. It’s quieter.” She kept her hand in his even now.
Or was he holding on to her?
Maybe he made her self-conscious about it, though, because as he stared at their entwined fingers, Erin let go.
“My turn to be sorry,” she murmured, jamming her hands into the pockets of her denim jacket as they reached a wooden bridge over a small steam.
A sign with reflective letters glinted in the moonlight, reading Park Closed at Dusk.
Up ahead, he saw fenced baseball fields and a wooden pavilion.
The bluegrass music floated through the trees, the lights of the dance still visible, but softer.
He’d go back and look for Sarah in a minute, once he’d cleared his head.
“Don’t be sorry.” Remy leaned on one of the bridge’s thick wooden handrails. “I’m the King of Awkward around you, Erin, and that’s my fault, not yours.”
She hoisted herself up onto the handrail to take a seat beside him, her cowboy boots dangling over the bridge.
“That’s awesome because I’m usually the awkward one. I appreciate you letting me of the hook.”
“Ever the gentleman,” he remarked wryly, knowing he’d been anything but with her from the moment he’d barged into her store after hours and dripping wet, to the way he’d let his daughter have a meltdown in Erin’s office.
“You’ve been the unlucky beneficiary of the Weldon family craziness this week, that’s for sure. ”
Out here, he seemed to relax a little bit.
He didn’t feel the same tension that he had experienced on the crowded dance floor.
The sound of the rushing brook and the soft breeze rustling the leaves helped ease some of the resentment he felt at his attraction to Erin.
Even better, he didn’t need to be on guard to keep her safe from so many strangers.
“How’d your meeting go today?” she asked, tucking a strand of dark hair behind one ear.
The moonlight spilled over her in a way that made everything a shade of gray.
“It went well. Some of the guys on the crew think I ought to take over as the host for this segment, but I’m not sure.” He shrugged. “How did you know I had a meeting?”
“Sarah came by the store today and mentioned you went without her.” Erin traced the design on the skirt of her sundress and Remy realized it wasn’t a floral pattern like he’d thought.
The design was a tropical beach scene. A girl balanced coconuts in a basket on one hip while a canoe rested at her feet, just out of the surf. It looked hand painted.
“Have you seen Sarah tonight?” He didn’t want to get into another discussion about his daughter’s problems, hating to be disloyal to her even though Erin’s insights had helped him. “She sent me a text that she’d be here, but I haven’t spotted her.”
“I saw her when I first arrived. She’s with my niece, Ally, and some of her friends.” Erin didn’t seem worried.
But then, she didn’t know Sarah’s history.
“I had hoped to speak to her tonight,” he found himself confiding.
Ah hell. Talking to this woman was just too damned relaxing. Especially when he was overworked and overtired. What was it about Erin that made it so easy to be around her?
He hefted himself up onto the wooden rail beside her. They weren’t touching, but the spot made for close quarters.
Erin shifted slightly. “The teenagers usually park their cars alongside the playground area. They kind of tailgate during the early part of the evening, and then they take over the dark end of the town square once it gets late. Ally said some of them were bringing stuff for laser tag tonight, but if you want, we can go back and check on them?”
He debated. Sometimes his daughter seemed upset he didn’t pay more attention to her. But if he interrupted when she was making new friends…she might not thank him, either.
“In a few minutes maybe. Laser tag sounds fun.” Maybe being here would be good for Sarah.
She could be a kid and roam around town with more freedom than what he liked for her to have in Miami.
“She just turned eighteen, so I’m trying not to be Joe Overprotective.
But she’s still in school and it’s been a rough couple of— Crap.
” He shook his head. “I told myself I wasn’t going to burden you with this stuff even if you are way too easy to talk to. ”
“I bet I’m only easy to talk to because I don’t flirt with you.” Erin quit tracing the pattern on her dress with her black-painted fingernail. Her pale eyes met his in the moonlight. “Women must hit on you constantly.”
“You’ve seen my great dance moves.” He didn’t know how else to handle that one. Women did hit on him. “My wife used to say they only liked me for the accent.”
Erin grinned. “Smart woman. There’s something about a Cajun twang that is just an unfair advantage for a man.”
He braced himself for more questions about Liv, but Erin continued speaking.
“Seriously, I don’t blame you for wanting to talk about Sarah.
It’s got to be tough raising a teenager alone and not having anyone to—I don’t know—bounce ideas around with.
I don’t like making decisions about the store without getting my sister’s opinion.
If I had kids?” She rolled her eyes. “I’d have to poll all my friends constantly to see if I was doing the right thing.
It’s a scary thing being responsible for a mini human. ”
“That doesn’t mean I should unload my paternal worries on you just because you’re a nice person.” A nice person who’d felt way too good in his arms when they’d taken a few turns around the floor together.
“What worries? Sarah seems really great. She took the initiative to collect a bunch of stuff for my clothing drive today and brought it all over on one of the bicycles from the B and B. I was so impressed.” Her voice was animated. Genuine.
And it relieved the hell out of him to think about Sarah jumping on the chance to do something worthwhile in town.
“Really? That is pretty cool.” Good news about Sarah hadn’t come around often in the past two years, but then there hadn’t been much to celebrate in their lives. “I’m trying my damnedest to raise her right, not just because I love her, but I owe it to her mom.”
Erin was quiet for a long time. But then, he was used to people not knowing what to say when he talked about Liv.