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His eyes closed and his fingers squeezed my neck once again.
“I’m so fucking sorry. I did it all wrong. I should’ve told you that first night that I’d fallen for you. That I never felt anything like it before. I should’ve told you about Mark, but honestly, as soon as I saw you, I told him to fuck off because you were mine. He texted the next day and asked what I thought about you. Told him you weren’t involved because even though we didn’t do much talking besides answering trivia questions, I knew you were a good girl.” He grabbed his phone. “Here. You can see the texts.”
I shook my head and set my hand over his. “I believe you.”
“After that, I forgot about him and the investigation. I swear, I didn’t know you were related to your mom. Not until the party.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
I nodded. “Mark told me. But I shouldn’t have doubted you. I kept my life a secret, not just from you, but from my friends. Mallory didn’t know about my mother being a senator or my dancing either. She got pretty mad at me.”
“I’ve fallen for you, Aspen Lane. Hard. I love you. I do, but I think we need a redo.”
“A redo?” I wondered. Was he telling me this was over? That–
He nodded. “Yeah.” He held out his hand and I stared at it. Confused.
“I’m Luke Graham. I’m an out of work actor visiting Hunter Valley with my parents. I think you’re the prettiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen, and I want to get to know you better. Tell me some things?”
Tears filled my eyes and I swallowed hard and shook his hand. Then he turned it over and brought it to his lips so he could kiss my inner wrist.
“I’m Aspen Lane. I have shitty parents who aren’t a part of my life and one of them might be in jail for a long time. I have a daughter who is my life. I’m a yoga instructor and…” I took a deep breath. “A ballet dancer.”
“Good girl,” he murmured. “Dance for me.”
I didn’t say anything, and he ran his thumb over my cheek.
“Dance for me,” he said again, then kissed my forehead.
I stood, went to my office and got my pointe shoes. Swapped them for the cowgirl boots.
Then, in front of an audience of one, I danced.
58
LUKE
* * *
Aspen amazed me. In her pretty blue dress, she danced. Spun. Twirled. Leapt. Bent and turned so fucking gracefully I was in awe. She hid this amazing talent from the world. Walked away from it because she never had a support system. Her parents didn’t value her as anything more than a commodity. They cut her off because she’d gotten pregnant with Sierra, who was another amazing thing Aspen brought to the world.
She wouldn’t hide this any longer. She wouldn’t hide herself.
She couldn’t. It would be impossibly cruel to the world not to know her talent.
Aspen stopped, posed as if the music only she heard in her head came to an end.
She looked my way.
I crooked my finger.
She came to me. I took her hand, pulled her down and onto my lap so she straddled me.
“You’re so incredibly talented.”
“Says the famous TV star.”
