Last Chance Book Club(31)
Author: Hope Ramsay

The band struck up “Can I Have This Dance for the Rest of My Life,” and Dash pulled her close. She placed her hand on his shoulder, immediately struck dumb by the hard muscle beneath her palm. He started moving, and Savannah was amazed to discover that he was light on his feet and knew exactly how to lead. They danced for quite a long time without speaking a single word, and the silence became charged.

She needed to break it. “This is quite a production, isn’t it?”

“Yup,” he said as he suddenly changed direction and put her through a number of steps that had her moving forward and then backward and then forward again.

The silence swelled between them.

“You know,” she said, “people usually talk while they dance. Of course, I guess you and I don’t have much to say.”

He glanced down at her with a tiny quirk of his lips. “I reckon.”

He moved her through another pattern of intricate steps.

“But maybe we should have more to say,” she said.

“You think?”

“Yes. I do. It would be kind of weird for us to just dance here for fifteen minutes and say nothing.”

“I don’t know. I’ve danced with plenty of women who talk up a blue streak and manage not to say anything important. So if you’re talking to be sociable, you can quit. I like dancing just for dancing’s sake.”

“You know, Dash, you and I are more alike than either of us would like to admit.”

“How’s that?”

“We’re fatherless, to start with. And pigheaded. And kind of willful. And bratty.”

He laughed. “Yep, princess, that describes you to a T. Probably describes me, too.”

Just then Hugh and Rocky danced a little closer, and Rocky said, “See, I told you Dash was a great dancer. And y’all look so good together. I have to admit that I didn’t know how to waltz until Hugh taught me. And the band was playing this song. But you seem to have it down pat.”

Hugh twirled his wife away in a swooping turn. Hugh’s dancing style looked like it might have been in vogue back when Johann Strauss was burning up the charts in Vienna.

Dash’s technique was way more western, and infinitely more intimate. He glanced down at her. “What were we talking about, darlin’? I seem to remember it was a scintillating subject.”

“Not hardly,” she muttered.

“Okay, so maybe we should talk about books. Y’all have gotten pretty cozy with the ladies of the book club.”

“Do you read books?”

“Mostly automobile repair manuals. I reckon that’s not a good subject then.”

The band moved from “Can I Have This Dance” right into “You Were Always on My Mind,” and Dash pulled her close enough so that his rock-hard thighs grazed hers. He dropped his gigantic hands and spanned her waist. She had to move her own hands up over his shoulders. Only a couple of layers of denim separated them. That fabric was simultaneously not enough and way too much.

“Did Hugh bribe the band so they would play this song?” she asked.

The Stetson shaded his eyes, but the lopsided smile on his face told her all she needed to know. “You did?”

“Honey, you should know by now that actions speak louder than words. And we’re sending messages here. Did Rocky ever tell you about the barbecue dance last summer?”

“No, but the book club was talking about it.”

“Well, see, Rocky and I took one of Aunt Mim’s marital pronouncements and used it to match up Rachel and Bubba. So, see, I figure you and me are doing Bill and Jenny a big favor right now.”

Savannah cast her gaze in the minister’s direction. He was definitely enjoying Jenny’s pie, but Savannah didn’t get the feeling he was really enjoying Jenny all that much.

She watched him for a long moment and realized that he was looking off into the distance, and he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Hettie.

And Hettie, who was sitting with the book club, was looking at him, only she was trying not to be obvious about it. Goose bumps crawled up Savannah’s skin, and she got this odd feeling, halfway between an itch and a buzz.

Hettie and Bill?

Of course. Why didn’t anyone else see it?

Just then Dash pulled her so close that she was practically in the shade of his hat. And she momentarily forgot about everything else but him.

This was not the way cousins danced. Especially when he tucked her head under his chin, and she lost herself in the sturdy feel of him, the rhythm of the music, and the heat he kindled in every cell of her body.

Dash buried his nose in Savannah’s hair and took a deep breath. She smelled flowery. He closed his eyes and swayed to the music.

It was sort of surprising the way the princess fit in his arms. She seemed to know which way he was planning to swirl her before he even seemed to know it himself. He’d never danced with anyone who actually knew how to let him lead before.

Boy howdy, he was hooked on this woman. And he didn’t know what to do about it. If he told her how he felt, she was liable to slap his face or tell him exactly what she thought of him. And then what would happen to Todd and Miriam? He didn’t want to cause a family rift.

Besides, he knew how dangerous it was to fall for Savannah. He’d just gotten over Hettie. He should have time alone to work out his problems and his feelings.

“This is dangerous,” she murmured against his chest, giving voice to every single one of his fears. Her breath left a little warm spot at the neck of his shirt and sent a shiver up his backbone.

“Honey, you’re already the talk of the town, so I doubt that dancing with a reprobate like me is going to get you in any more hot water.”

She looked up, her dark eyes worried. “That’s not what I meant. And you’re not a reprobate.”

Her eyes had darkened, and her cheeks were a little pink, and she looked as if she might move in on him like she’d done that night on the porch. Good grief, did she actually want that no-tell motel fantasy he’d talked about earlier in the day?

Hettie had wanted that fantasy, a long time ago. And he’d given it to her. And like an inexperienced idiot, he’d fallen in love with her. But she hadn’t fallen back. She’d just used him to get her bad-boy experience out of the way.

It hadn’t taken very long after that to realize that most women wanted a bad-boy experience. And the blondes who hung around professional baseball teams were all about that. In fact, the blond bimbo who had convinced him to ride that Harley after drinking a few beers had been looking for some low-down dirty fun, too.

And he’d been happy to oblige.

He’d been such a fool. But he was changing his ways.

“It’s okay, Savannah, I get it,” he said aloud. “Every woman is curious about us bad boys.”

She shook her head. “No, Dash, that’s not what I meant. I only meant that I fell in love with Greg because he could dance. It was the worst mistake I ever made.”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. But you falling in love with me is pretty absurd.” He said the words and realized how much he wanted her to fall.

She closed her eyes and put her head on his shoulder. “I guess I’m glad that falling in love with you is impossible. I guess that makes it safe to dance with you,” she said.

No, it wasn’t safe. It was suddenly terrifying.

The band finished the song and struck up “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.” Almost immediately the street filled with line dancers.

Some part of him wanted Savannah to stay there with him, but another part was relieved when she let him go.

“I should sit down now.” She glanced at Bill. “Look, he’s fine. He’s with Jenny and her pies. We’ve accomplished our mission.”

He stood there like an idiot agreeing with her, because his emotions were suddenly in turmoil. He turned away from her and put one boot in front of the other like a coward running from a fight. An instant later he found himself standing in front of Hettie.

“C’mon, dance with me.”

She shook her head, but he could see the longing in her eyes.

“Honey, Jimmy’s dead. I know the two of you loved this dance. And I know that you never sat for any of it. C’mon, my knee is better. Let’s go boot scoot.”

She sighed. “No, Dash, I can’t. Because if I dance with you, you’ll get the wrong idea.”

He ground his teeth together. He’d asked her to dance because he knew how much Hettie loved dancing. And sitting on the sidelines had to be hard for her. She was probably missing Jimmy tonight. But once again, Hettie had thrown his kindness back in his face. So he marched right up to Jenny Carpenter, where she sat consoling the not-very-devastated minister.

That woman practically busted a gut when he asked her to dance. She got all red in the face and even stammered. And it was almost pitiful the look she gave Bill when the minister suggested that she ought to take Dash up on his offer.

And that’s how Dash ended up dancing with Jenny. And how Hettie ended up dancing with Bill. And how Savannah ended up not dancing at all, which was a damn shame because she could outdance all of them put together.

Chapter 15

Savannah arrived at The Kismet at half past seven on the Monday after Easter. She was grumpy for reasons that she didn’t wish to examine too carefully. For some reason, Dash had changed his schedule, and she didn’t bump into him at the bathroom. And he didn’t come down to share a morning cup of coffee with her.

In fact, from the moment she walked away from him at the street dance, Dash had been avoiding her. Conspicuously.

Which was probably just as well. After all, their two dances, coupled with her refusal of Bill’s proposal, had unleashed a firestorm of gossip. The old church ladies, led by Lillian Bray, were saying that she was wayward and stubborn, just like she’d been as a little girl. They pointed to her slow dance with Dash as proof positive.

None of them was ready to admit that she wasn’t Bill’s soulmate. They just thought she was playing hard to get, and using Dash to do it. Apparently they believed this because of the shenanigans that Dash and Rocky had perpetrated on them last summer.

Oh, if they only knew the way she’d tossed and turned trying to find sleep on Saturday and Sunday nights. Those dances with Dash haunted her.

And it was kind of strange how the church ladies were missing the most obvious thing—that Bill and Hettie had looked like they were having way more fun than anyone else, even though Bill was a miserable dancer. Why was everyone so blind?

She went to unlock the theater’s doors, only to find that they were already unlocked. She could hear voices inside.

She pulled open the door to find Dash and Zeph standing in the lobby discussing the candy counter’s woodwork.

Her reaction to this scene was complicated. She was happy to see Zeph there. From what she’d heard, he was the finest carpenter in all of Allenberg County.

But she was suddenly annoyed at Dash, while at the same time being more happy to see him than she wanted to be.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Talking to Zeph.”

“Howdy, ma’am.” Zeph nodded and gave her a big smile filled with incredibly white teeth.