“Britt said you wanted to expand?”
“That’s the plan, but our biggest challenge is upping the organic milk supply to expand. Without that, I don’t really have a product or the raw materials to expand.”
There’s an opening on the dance floor and next thing I know, Hunter swings me out into a spin. I laugh as I lift my hand to comply, my skirt swooshing against his thighs.
Hunter pulls me close again, and I meet his gaze. “I never thanked you for staying,” he said, his tone serious.
“What do you mean?”
“Weeks ago, on that first day…I swear you were going to walk out and take the first flight back to Miami.” As we move in a slow circle, his hand squeezes mine. “I think you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to Raiden.”
If he wants me to choke up, he should carry on. I came here not for one moment thinking I’d fall in love, neither with Raiden nor with a small town that just seems to want to give and embrace. Raiden might be the best thing that’s happened to me too, but I can’t reveal my feelings for him yet. Nothing stops me from being honest with Hunter too about this town he cares for deeply. “Ashleigh Lake is the best thing that has happened to me. I never expected to love it so much. If I’m honest, the longer I stay, the harder it’s going to be to leave.”
In a crush of couples, we quiet for a moment, but as soon as we are out of earshot of other dancers, he says, “Then don’t leave. Stay and give Raiden a chance.”
After that dinner at May and Bill’s…Hunter knew about Raiden and me.
Give Raiden a chance? But would he take a chance on me? “Do you think he’d want me to stay?” I whisper. These past few days have been intense, but even before that, I immersed myself in life with Raiden. I chose not to get too involved with other people here because I’m scared of finding a place of unlimited love and warmth, only to have to leave.
“Why don’t you ask him yourself? He’s elbowing his way to us now, and if I’m interpreting his killer stare correctly, I’d go with a yes.”
At his words, my heart starts to race, and I turn my head to look for Raiden, letting go as Hunter spins me into a twirl, straight into Raiden’s embrace.
Strong, sure arms catch me and I’m flush against him, pressed against his gorgeous, sculpted chest I had the privilege to get up close and personal with last night.
“There you are,” Raiden whispers in my ear. “Finally.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and brush my nose to his throat to breathe him in. He smells divine, all crisp and woodsy and of warmth and heart. “Here you are, finally,” I murmur back. His cheek is against my temple and we’re moving with the music and time stands still as the moment shrinks to us and us alone. His lips trace gentle lines on my ear, sending goosebumps down my body.
“I missed you today,” I murmur, admitting that the hours dragged until this moment. And now time is going to fly. I’m on the downhill side of my time here and with all the work still to be done on the tiny house, we’ll be busy. With every day I spend here, my inevitable choice shoves itself closer.
“I missed you, too,” he whispers back in my ear, stressing his words with a string of sweet kisses from my earlobe to that soft, hungry spot beneath it. “You smell wonderful,” he whispers. “And this dress…it’s made for dancing, but I don’t want to spin you, I want to keep you close.”
“Then keep me close and tell me where you learned to dance so well?”
“It’s in the Logan blood,” he says as we move with the flow.
“It is?” Hunter was good, but I can feel Raiden is better. He has a sure grip on the small of my back and I don’t even have to think what to do next or where to go. We’re wrapped up in each other’s arms, and maybe we aren’t going anywhere fast, but that’s perfect too.
“We had our family gathering last night because the one thing we can’t miss at the fair is the country dance.” He holds me even closer. “You see, my mom was crowned Miss Ashleigh Lake the year my dad first came to the fair with Cash when they were between deployments. He saw her and just knew. He was an out-of-towner, but he made sure he won the winning bid for her first dance, and she actually chose him. That’s how they met. They fell in love, dancing like this thirty-five years ago.”
“Do you want me to choke up, Raiden Logan?” I whisper, desperate to keep myself in check.
“No, I want you to dance as if there’s no tomorrow.”
27
RAIDEN
It’s one thing to dance with a woman, it’s a whole other thing to dance with the woman who’s become the center of my every thought and action over the last few weeks.
For Trent Logan, it was love at first sight. For me, it’s been a slow trickle of little things that finally filled me up and I know, I just know, that Georgiana Wess is my final stop. My throat tightens at the thought that this was exactly how Dad had to feel with Mom in his arms that night, dancing just like this, all those years ago.
An evening couldn’t be more perfect. Georgiana fits my body as if we’ve been coupled up by an expert who is choreographing our lives from a distance, knowing that we’ll figure it out along the way with a bit of guidance here and there.
Once we’ve done several turns of the dance floor, the music changes to a faster tempo, and the official, classic opening of the annual Ashleigh Lake Country Dance is over. It’s time for the party to start, but I have no intention of staying. I slip my hand down her arm to catch her fingers in mine. “Let’s go out to the porch.”
She nods as she slides her hand down my chest and I lead her outside, where other folks are enjoying the view over the slopes of the golf course in the last of the twilight.