Chapter 13
Cori
My whole body was swarmed with butterflies. I slipped my hand into Grant’s, and he swept me out onto the dance floor.
The wine he’d gotten for me was swimming warmly in my veins, plus the sip I’d taken of the second glass. I didn’t drink much, and I hadn’t really eaten, so I could already feel it. Not yet to where I would call myself drunk, but enough to call myself tipsy.
This was my favorite feeling when it came to alcohol. I loved the feeling of everything unimportant falling away and just being in the moment.
A slow, jazzy number played over the speakers, and as Grant put his hand around my waist, he smiled. “I love this song.”
“Is that why you asked me to dance?”
“No,” he said. “I was going to ask you either way. But it would have been a little later in the evening. After the food, at least.”
I smiled back. The bad thing about being a little tipsy was that all the things I was feeling about Grant—I couldn’t filter them. I couldn’t convince myself that they didn’t mean anything and that he was just being polite. I couldn’t explain away the delicious tension I felt when he smiled directly at me.
Dancing like this, I was allowed to look at him. Even when we were trapped in that tiny shed in the field, my gaze had been hesitant. Now if I wasn’t looking at him, anyone who saw us might question, so I looked at him. Drank him in would be a more accurate description.
Dark hair that was nearly black. Nearly because I’d seen it in the sun, and I knew there were shades of red in it, and that it was really the deepest of browns. Green eyes that were pure as a pine tree on fallen snow. My own hazel ones were muddy in comparison. His were…
My tipsy mind wanted to say perfect, but that didn’t seem descriptive enough. How did you describe someone’s eyes when you just wanted to stare into them forever?
Wow, Cori. Calm down. Tipsy brain might be moving too fast.
“What was that?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
His smile had faded into an intensity that I didn’t hate. Not anger or sadness, but something else entirely. Like Grant Carter could see through me.
“I mean that you were looking at me, and then everything in your face changed.”
I blinked. “You’re very observant.”
“I am,” he said. “When it comes to you.”
My stomach fluttered, and I had to look away. Because there was no way I could meet his eyes while he was making me blush. That was simply impossible.
He laughed quietly. “I swear it’s less creepy than I made it sound.”
That made me look back at him. “Creepy wasn’t the thing that came to mind.”
His eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
“Nope.” I bit my lip and shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about Joel, but every single thing you do makes me realize how dead that relationship already was, even if I didn’t see it. So no, you noticing things about me doesn’t make me uncomfortable. Or nervous. It’s nice to have someone notice things about me.”
The look in his eyes changed. A simmering anger that I knew wasn’t directed at me, and at the same time, a longing I didn’t know if I was meant to see.
“And I’m also realizing that wine makes me talk. I’m not drunk, I swear.”
There was that smile again. “I know that. And I want you to know that I’m not the kind of man who will care if you talk about your past. Expecting you to ignore years of your life isn’t okay—both the good and the bad.”
I was warm enough and brave enough that I stepped closer in our dance. Grant didn’t miss a beat, tightening his arm so he was now holding me closer. He smelled like pine and that crisp, clean air that came with snow. Maybe that was where I’d pulled the image of his eyes.
This man was wilderness that was tamed and bound into a body. I had a feeling there was so much more to Grant that he kept locked under the surface. I wanted to see all of it. All the parts of him that he kept hidden for whatever reason. There was a force inside him, and not just the lethal SEAL training that every one of the Resting Warrior men had had. Something more…a feeling that once he set his mind on something, there wasn’t anything in the world that would hold him back.
My stomach dropped at the next thought and then pushed it aside. Because the way he was looking at me, I wondered if the thing he’d set his mind on was me. And the idea was tantalizing. I wanted it so much that I was almost afraid of it.
I nearly forgot what he’d said. “Okay. Thank you. But I also don’t want to only talk about him. Not ever, really. But I don’t think that will be possible for a while.”
Grant leaned a fraction closer, eyes darkening. “I can think of ways to distract you.”
My mouth opened to ask how, and I let out a small cry of surprise as he dipped me back so I was leaning solely on his strength. I came back up dizzy. “That’s very distracting.”
His eyes focused on something past my shoulder, and he grinned. “Don’t look now,” he said. “But there is a move being made.”
“What?”
Casually, he spun us so I could see in that direction, and I tried not to stare. Jude was escorting Lena to the dance floor, and everyone in the tent was desperately pretending they were not aware of it, though we all were.
Jude was a giant of a man, and Lena was shorter than I was. They were almost comically mismatched in height, but that didn’t matter to them. The care with which he held her was something no one would miss. And she was looking up at him in wonder, the first time today I hadn’t seen any stress or worry on her face.
“I hope they admit it,” I said.
“Me too.”
Next to them, another couple caught my eye. Evelyn and Lucas, dancing slower than the rest. They weren’t even bothering to pretend they were really dancing. Evelyn was pressed against his chest, eyes closed. Peaceful. Even from here, I saw the way Lucas held on to her.
I didn’t know if there would ever be a time when they wouldn’t be aware of how close they’d come to losing each other. Something like that made everything else seem…insignificant.
Evelyn was also wearing a dress that had no sleeves. Her scars were on full display, and she was beautiful. No one that I’d seen had even given her a second glance. Almost everyone in town knew her story now, and though not everyone in Garnet Bend was a person I wanted to spend time with, for the most part, they were kind.
The song ended, and neither of us made a move to separate. “One more song?” Grant asked.
“One more.”
Dancing with him was a dream I didn’t want to end. An image floated into my mind, of us just that much closer, Grant holding me the way Lucas did Evelyn. That was what I wanted. A love so desperate and deep that you would never let go.
The fact that I thought Joel had ever been that person made me feel stupid.
“Wherever you just went,” Grant said quietly, “come back.”
“I’m never going to be able to get away with anything with you,” I said with a grin.
His answering one was playful. “No. You won’t. But then again, if you feel with anyone that you have to get away with things, then they’re not the person for you.”
“Ouch,” I said. “Direct hit. You have sunk the battleship.”
“Battleship? Really?”
“Come on,” I said. “You’re a military man. A Navy SEAL. You can’t tell me that you’ve never played Battleship.”
He laughed, and it rang out across the dance floor. “No, I think the problem is that I’ve played too much Battleship.”
“So you’re saying you could beat me?”
“Definitely.”
“I’m not sure about that,” I said. “I’ve played my share. I loved it as a kid, and it was one of the only games I could get my sister to play with me.”
The music came to an end, and Grant guided me back toward the head table, where food was being served. “We’ll have to test it. A childhood prodigy versus years of that being the only game in our lounges.”
“There’s no way,” I said. “You can’t convince me that you guys didn’t have access to some kind of shoot ’em up video game that you played when you were bored.”
Grant grinned. “Guilty as charged. But that doesn’t mean I can’t absolutely crush you at a children’s board game.”
“We’ll see.” I retrieved my glass of wine and took a sip. This was my final drink for the night. I didn’t want to get too drunk and too sloppy. I didn’t know what was going to happen between Grant and me, but I knew I didn’t want alcohol to be a reason that it couldn’t.