Page 31 of A Whim and a Prayer

“Yeah, Beck, when are you going to pull your weight on the dance floor?” Kat said with a grin, tossing popcorn into her mouth. “After all, I still have plenty of energy left.”

“Soon, Kat, I promise.” He patted his stomach. “Right after I get something substantial to eat since I missed supper.” He glanced around. “Where’s the birthday girl?”

“Well, she was dancing, I think …” Laney rose in her seat a bit and squinted at the crowd.

“Who with?” Beck asked casually, not particularly surprised since Winnie never lacked for partners.

Laney shrugged as she took a sip of her Coke. “Not sure because Bella and I were out on the floor ourselves, but I think she’s been gone a while, hasn’t she, Abby?”

Abby paused too long for Beck’s comfort. He gave her shoulder a light squeeze. “Abs? Have you seen her?”

A knot ducked in Abby’s throat as she grabbed her Coke. “Uh, no, Beck. She was gone when I came back from the restroom. And then I was out on the dance floor when she came back, I guess …”

“I saw her with somebody,” Marilyn volunteered, “on the other side of the ballroom. I was over that way looking for a friend who was supposed to be here tonight, and Winnie was dancing with a real drooly.”

Beck’s mouth compressed in a thin smile. “Does this ‘drooly’ have a name?”

“It might have been Stan Morris,” Abby said too quickly, “because he’s been to our table a few times tonight, asking for Winnie, but she’s always out on the dance floor.”

“She’s gotta come up for air sometime, Beck, so I’d get yourself some food till then.” Teddy rose and nodded to Marilyn. “In the meantime, Marilyn, how ’bout we keep an eye out for her while we dance?”

“Sounds good to me, Teddy Bear.” Marilyn jumped up and followed him to the floor as Abby shot to her feet.

“Hey, girls, what d’ya say we solo it out on the floor while Beck gets something to eat?” She wrinkled her nose as her sisters and Kat stood and pushed in their chairs. “He sounds a little grouchy.”

“I am not grouchy, McGuire,” Beck tweaked the back of Abby’s neck, causing her to giggle and duck away. “I’m hungry. There’s a difference.”

“Not with you,” she said with a pat of his cheek, giving a wave as she traipsed off with Kat and her sisters.

I am not grouchy!” Frustration edged his tone as he scooped up a handful of popcorn before heading for the entrance to get something to eat downstairs. “I’m just hungry—nothing a few hot dogs can’t cure,” he muttered, taking the long way to circle the room.

And to find Winnie.

Chapter Twenty

“You’ve come a long, long way from that gangly girl I kissed in The Taming of the Shrew, you know that, Miss Dennehy?”

Oh, yes, she knew that—especially now as a delicious heat shuddered through her while Brayden McCarthy nuzzled her neck on the upper balcony of the Oceanview Ballroom. The thunderous pounding of the surf had nothing on her—her pulse was pounding just as hard as his mouth toyed with the lobe of her ear.

“And I’ve been wanting to do this for a long, long time,” he whispered, the pull of his hands to her back like the pull of the tide to the shore while his lips seduced hers, caressing, coaxing, until her faint moan allowed him entrance.

“Can I cut in?”

Brayden’s head jerked up as Winnie froze in his arms, the sound of that voice turning the lava in her veins to ice water. He shot a scowl over his shoulder. “Beat it, blockhead—we’re not dancing.”

“My point exactly.” In two hard strides, Beck yanked Winnie from his arms, the pinch of his hold wrenching a cry from her throat.

“Ouch, Campbell, that hurts!”

Beck’s jaw was like rock as he dragged her toward the door, his voice a threat like she’d never heard before. “Not as much as it could, if I let you stay.”

Brayden rebounded with a hard hook of her arm that made her gasp. “Oh, no you don’t, wise guy. Get your own girl … if you can.”

“Stop it!” Winnie cried, her body lashing back and forth like a bone between two dogs. She tried to wrestle free to no avail, until Beck snapped her loose from Brayden, shoving her behind his back, his broad shoulders as solid and impassible as a wall.

Beck stepped in, nose to nose with Brayden. “She’s coming with me, dirtbag, and that’s the way it is.” His six-foot-three dominated over Brayden’s five-foot-ten with a rock-hard posture she’d never seen before, body as stiff as a boulder and iron fists clenched at his sides.

“No, I’m not—” Winnie tried to lunge forward, but Beck cut her off with a steel-armed barrier to her midsection and an icy look that dared her to defy. She swallowed hard, barely able to believe this was Beck—the kind and caring friend who’d once dreamed of being a priest …