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He can’t keep his eyes off me. And while I’d usually roll my eyes at someone addressing me as beautiful, when he says it, it just feels right.
“I’ve never seen you around before,” he says as we turn slowly.
“I’m new in town. Moved here last week.”
“Willingly moved to Burly? Must have a good reason. Seems a lot more people are leaving than coming.”
“I’m helping my family out here. My aunt and uncle have a lot of kids and they both work, and it’s too much for them to shuffle. I was just spinning my wheels over in Tacoma, so they offered to let me stay with them if I wanted to nanny for them.”
He laughs. “Family-oriented and good with kids? You’re sounding better and better to me, Cassie.”
“I do think I’m good with kids, but I’m not going to pretend this is altruistic. Helping my family is a better job than thirty-nine hours a week at a coffee shop.”
Always just short of being able to call me full-time and thus able to deny me benefits. Bastards.
“It’s not nothing to drop everything and move hours away from where you were to help family. Especially in a strange new town like this.”
I laugh. “You think this town is strange?”
“No, I think it’s home. I just realize it might be a tad strange to someone who grew up in the city like you did.”
“I’m not going to call it strange. It’s just not what I’m used to. And I’m lucky I have Danny. He’s from Tacoma too and he moved here before I did. He’s something to remember my old life back in the city by.”
“I’m glad he managed to bring you here tonight, Cassie.”
I meet his smile with my own. There’s a warmth about him. He’s hotter than hell, and seems to be a bit of a sweetheart too. We keep dancing, the song picking up a bit as the ballad hits its guitar solo, but not so much that I’m falling behind.
“What about you?”
“I’m a rancher. Family farm. Been in the family for decades, and all my brothers work there in some capacity. Jennings over there included.”
Jennings and Danny are chatting away in the booth, occasionally gesturing at us. I know Danny loves gossip and talking about my love life, and I can’t help but be a bit curious about what he thinks is going on between Cash and I.
Because honestly, I’m not remotely sure either.
“Almost missed out on tonight myself, took a little family heart to heart to get me to come out.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been a bit of a lonely man, Cassie. A jaded one too. Love doesn’t come easy in Burly. Just a matter of population statistics and the like.” He wraps his hands around my waist as our pace matches the music. “That I came here on a whim and found you? It’s saying something to me.”
“Not just coincidence throwing me your way, and you my way?”
“God, fate, whatever you want to call it… It all just works in mysterious ways sometimes.”
I chuckle. I expected to put any hopes of love on hold when I came here for my aunt and uncle. Twenty-somethings like me didn’t call small towns like Burly home, so I wasn’t expecting to find anyone suitable to date.
“It’s a lot to think about. And my current question is why is this the slowest song imaginable? I always imagined country, line dancing, or whatever it’s called, was a whole lot more lively than this.”
“Sometimes it’s nice to take it slow. It’s more passionate, and you can savor it. Better that way. It’s something you can say about a lot of things, to be totally honest.”
“Like what, Cash?”
“Kissing is one of them. A good, long, passionate kiss.”
I blush. “I wouldn’t know.”
“How about I show you then?”
