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“No, I know,” Trey said. “I just need to figure a few things out first.”
Blaine nodded, because he knew what that meant. He debated about saying something the rest of the way to the shop. He pulled up to the tuxedo store and parked the truck. “I know what you need to figure out, Trey, and trust me when I say it’s not going to happen until you ask her out.”
Trey looked at him, nodded, and said, “You’re probably right. I’m just not sure how to do it yet.”
“If I knew who it was, I could help you.”
Trey reached for the door handle when Cayden came out onto the sidewalk. “Let’s talk later, okay? Cayden looks like Spur’s been yelling.”
Blaine took in the frantic expression on Cayden’s face, and he killed the engine and got out of the truck quickly too. “Sorry,” he said.
“He’s saying he doesn’t need to wear a tuxedo to his wedding,” Cayden said. “Can you imagine what Mom will do if he doesn’t?”
“We’re on it,” Trey said, striding into the shop while Blaine apologized one more time to Cayden.
Get through this fitting, he told himself, thinking about dinner with Tam at her house that evening. Maybe it would be a good opportunity to kiss her…
8
Tam stood in front of the full-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door. This dress was amazing, and she was glad she’d taken the afternoon out of her saddle shop to get to the mall. She normally detested such shopping trips, but in the middle of the day, with school still in session, it hadn’t been too bad.
The dress she wore fell to her calves in soft waves of denim. A white panel across the chest made her look bustier than she really was, and she felt like a proper American cowgirl, especially once she put on her red boots.
She’d never gone wrong with the red boots, and she reached down and brushed something from the front of the right one.
Someone knocked on the front door, and June howled like an intruder was about to enter. She leapt from the bed, with Jasper in hot pursuit. They barked as they ran toward the door. Jasper retraced his steps to get Tam, as if she hadn’t heard the pounding or the two corgis losing their minds.
“Come on,” she said. “Hush up.” She opened the gate that would keep them in the living room while she answered the door, but both June and Jasper rushed into the foyer. “Come back,” she said. “It’s just Blaine. Calm down.”
Jasper—always more obedient than June—returned to the living room. June took another command, and Tam closed the gate behind her. She opened the door and struck a pose before she met Blaine’s smiling eyes.
“Another new dress,” he said, taking her in. He entered the foyer and took her into his arms. “I like this one too. It’s soft.” He ran his hands down her back and looked at her. He hadn’t kissed her in weeks—since the hospital. They hadn’t talked about why, but Tam knew Blaine well enough to have a pretty close idea.
He wanted this relationship to feel real. He wouldn’t be kissing the women he went out with the first time he went to their houses. Tam had told herself a dozen times that the first time he’d kissed her had not been the first time he’d been to her house.
“Are you ready for this?” she asked.
“No,” he said, his features darkening. He wasn’t as nearly dark as the rest of his brothers, as he’d inherited some of his mother’s lighter characteristics. “But you’re making me go, so let’s go.”
“Line dancing is fun,” she said.
“Not when you’re fifth,” he grumbled, turning to open the door.
Tam grinned, but she kept the real reason she’d wanted to attend this line dancing class beneath her tongue. Blaine would never go if he knew Hayes would be there. Tam’s stomach vibrated, but she followed Blaine without a hitch in her step.
She wasn’t sure why she wanted Hayes to see her having the time of her life with Blaine, only that she did. It seethed with importance, and when she’d learned he’d be calling the line dancing, she’d signed up immediately.
Blaine was a perfect gentleman, helping her into his truck and letting her pick the radio station. She put it on the country station she knew he liked, because she saw no point in antagonizing him on the way to an activity he didn’t want to do.
An electric buzz ran through Tam’s blood. She loved line dancing, and she’d seen Blaine smile during the activity too.High school was a long time ago, she told herself. Once she’d become an adult, she didn’t do things she didn’t like doing, and Blaine was obviously the same.
He pulled up to the upscale, restored barn where the dancing was happening, and Tam couldn’t help bouncing in her seat a little. “How can you not be excited about this?” she asked. “Look at this place.”
The barn was a dark, deep wood that had been decorated with soft white bulbs on long strings that went all the way to the two-story roof. Pillars stretched in front of the huge doors on the barn, with more lights and plenty of shade.
Old barrels served as tables for drinks and small plates of the appetizers that came with the class. Men and women dressed in their best already milled about, and Tam could feel the bass beat of the music rumbling in her seat.
The whole scene was something from a magazine, and Tam turned to Blaine, her eyebrows raised.
