AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We can speak freely—as long as we keep our voices low.” He was practically nuzzling her temple as he spoke, so there was little danger of anyone overhearing him, even from the next table. The table he had selected was partially screened by the drooping fronds of a large potted palm, and she doubted that his selection had been made by accident.
She suspected that Daniel's every action was calculated and deliberate. Including the nuzzling.
“You should try to smile at me occasionally. Pretend to be intensely interested in what I have to say.”
“Gaze adoringly into your eyes?” she suggested too sweetly.
He chuckled and brushed a kiss against her cheek. “That would certainly be helpful.”
It was only the thought of Bernard sitting nearby and watching them that kept B.J. from jerking away. She was afraid it would take more acting talent than she possessed to pretend that the touch of Daniel's lips against her skin was an everyday occurrence for her. “I'll, uh, see what I can do.”
“Relax, B.J. I'm not going to bite you. Yet.”
Now he was deliberately trying to rattle her. “You always did have an irritating streak in you.”
“You're still under the impression that I was the one who put the little snake in your bag?”
“I'm quite sure you were. I saw you busting a gut laughing when I screamed and threw that bag about twenty yards into the bushes.”
His smile was a bit nostalgic. “It was amusing.”
“Admit it. You did it.”
When he merely looked at her, she frowned, a longheld belief beginning to waver. “It wasn't you?”
He shook his head.
“Then who…?”
Lifting his champagne flute, he murmured into it, “Far be it from me to squeal—but you might have a chat with your cousin Jason when you return home.”
She narrowed her eyes, picturing her brilliant and unconventional cousin, Jason D'Alessandro. “Practical jokes aren't Jason's style. Now, if you had blamed my cousins Aaron and Andrew Walker, I might have believed you. The twins were always getting into mischief when they were kids. Heck, they're twenty-one now and they're still always up to something.”
“I never figured out how you could keep all that family straight. How many cousins do you have, anyway?”
“My father was an only child with a small extended family. But my mother has five living siblings. Between them, and a brother who died years ago, they have fifteen offspring. Two of my first cousins, Shane and Brynn, have children of their own now.”
“Shane's a father?” Because Shane was the son of the couple who had served as Daniel's foster parents, Daniel obviously remembered him well enough to be surprised.
“Yes. He and Kelly married only a couple of years after you left the ranch. They have two daughters—Annie, who's eight, and Lucy, who's four.”
“Do they all still live at the ranch?”
She nodded. “Shane added on to his house when Lucy was on the way, but other than that, not much has changed since you were there.”
“How are—” He broke off the question, took another sip of his champagne, then set his flute down. “Would you like to dance?”
Apparently he had decided to close that door to his past for now. Was it because he was concerned about being overheard—or was it that he simply didn't like to remember those days?
“I don't dance very well.”
“Not a problem. Besides, Bernard and his friend seem to be waiting for us to do something. We shouldn't disappoint them.”
She glanced involuntarily toward the table near the stage. Bernard was staring right at them now, making no attempt to pretend otherwise. He nodded when she looked his way and lifted his glass in a salute of sorts.
Though there was nothing at all threatening about his actions, she felt her stomach muscles clench anyway. “Actually I'm getting rather tired.”
“Then we'll go back to our suite—after our dance.” Daniel stood and held out his left hand to her, the gold band on his finger gleaming in the reflected light from the candle on their table.
