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“Can you show me, too?” Clara asked.
“You bet. I’ll even show you a few steps after dinner.”
Maggie cleared away the emptied dinner plates while Tracy cut big squares of chocolate cake and served them on paper plates.
Conner speared a generous forkful and tasted it. “Mmmm! Now this is what I’d call a perfect ending to a perfect meal. Which one of you lovely ladies would be willing to marry me and make me the luckiest man in the world?”
Tracy looked startled, but Maggie was used to Conner’s banter. “Sorry, Conner,” she said. “If we took you out of circulation, the good women of Branding Iron would tar and feather us.”
“Well, it was worth a try,” Conner said. “Let me know if either of you has a change of heart. Meanwhile, I’ll take seconds on that cake.”
“Don’t worry, there’s plenty left, and I’m planning to leave it here.” Tracy passed Conner another slice. “Anybody else?”
Maggie shook her head. “One more bite and I won’t fit into my ball gown.”
“I’m full,” Clara announced. “I want Maggie to teach me to dance.”
“In that case,” Conner said, “I volunteer Travis and me for cleanup duty.” Turning aside, he gave Rush a private wink. The situation was beginning to feel like a conspiracy, Rush thought. But if it offered him a chance to be alone with Tracy, he was all for it.
“I guess that leaves me to take Bucket out and check the stock,” he said. “Want to come along, Tracy? It’s a nice evening for a walk.”
She hesitated. His breath stopped. But then she smiled. “Why not? I could use some fresh air.”
“I’ll get your coat,” he said.
* * *
By now, dusk was deepening to night. Emerging in the darkness, stars twinkled above the distant hills. The breeze was light and moist.
With her hands thrust into her pockets, Tracy strolled across the yard with Travis. Bucket trotted alongside them, his shaggy ears on full alert. The single security light, mounted on a high pole, cast long shadows across the ground.
“Thank you for inviting me tonight,” she said, making conversation. “It did me good to get out and enjoy a meal with nice people.”
“Thanks. I’d like to take credit, but it was Maggie who invited you,” Rush said. “I need to thank her, for that, and for talking you into coming to the Christmas Ball.”
“Maggie’s good at talking people into things, isn’t she?” Tracy remembered Maggie’s phone call and her pitch that she and Rush should become a couple. Maggie had meant well, but there were secrets she didn’t know.
“Maggie’s a master of persuasion,” Rush said, chuckling. “That’s why she’s the mayor. Now, if you’ll come to the ball as my date, I’ll really have a lot to thank her for.”
“As your date?” Tracy wasn’t dating yet. Didn’t he understand that?
“Well, technically it would be our date, since we’d be taking Clara. If I could walk into the gym with two beautiful girls on my arm, I’d be the envy of every man there.”
So it wasn’t a real date. That made the decision easier. “All right,” Tracy said. “You, me, and the princess. It sounds like good, old-fashioned fun.”
“Thank you.” He sounded relieved. “I’d like us to spend more time together, Tracy. If that doesn’t suit you, you can always say no. But it won’t stop me from trying.”
Tracy didn’t reply, but she could feel her emotions pulling her one way, then the other. It was as if she’d been handed a wrapped gift—a gift she was afraid to open.
They had reached the pasture fence. Rush took a flashlight out of his pocket and used its powerful beam to scan the pasture. There was an open shelter for the cattle along the side fence, but tonight, most of the cows and their large calves were still grazi
ng. He took the time to locate all of them. “All present and accounted for,” he said.
His hand rested on the small of her back as they followed Bucket toward the barn. The contact sent forbidden tingles through Tracy’s body but she didn’t pull away. Being touched by him awakened needs that were too powerful to name.
The barn was dark inside. Rush’s flashlight illuminated a wall of hay bales stacked along the back and a row of stalls on either side. The air smelled of hay and the warm, pungent aroma of horses.
Something large snorted and moved in the shadows. Rush trained the light into a roomy box stall. A massive silver-gray draft horse nickered and came toward the gate. “Here, you old beggar.” Rush fished a carrot out of his pocket and laid it on the palm of his hand. The horse took it almost daintily, crunching with its big teeth.
