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Her eyes twinkled, her cheeks pink with pleasure. “Ditto, Vince. You’ve ruined me for all other dance partners.”
He smiled and followed Clint down the hallway.
“Ruined you, huh?” Leo rose and crossed the room to her phone. He scrolled through the song titles until he found a good one.
When “Mean to Me” came on, he turned to face her, his hand outstretched.
Unlike him, she needed no convincing.
She stood up, letting him pull her into his arms as they swayed slowly to Brett Eldredge’s singing.
Yvonne rested her cheek against his chest. She was half a foot shorter than him, the pixie to his giant.
Somehow it didn’t feel awkward.
It felt good.
Right.
When the song ended, she stepped away. Neither of them had spoken as they danced.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
He looked at her for a second, trying to remember. “Nothing,” he confessed. “I wasn’t thinking about anything.” Not the farm or his father’s declining health, not the pile of laundry or Vince’s bad attitude. For the past hour, he’d forgotten it all and just…danced.
“Shit,” he murmured. “You’re good.”
She giggled with absolute delight. “Damn right, I am. The next time you’re feeling super stressed out, put on Kenny Chesney and start tapping your foot a little, get out of your head and into the music, okay?”
“It’s a deal.”
“Well.” She walked toward the front door. “I should head home. It’s late.”
“Thanks again, Yvonne. Text me when you get home so I know you made it safe.”
He gave her a hug at the front door, resisting the temptation once again to kiss her. He worried the next time the opportunity presented itself, he wouldn’t be able to hold back.
She waved, and he watched from the front porch until she got in her car and pulled away.
He returned to the living room even though there was still more laundry to be done and sat back down on the couch. As he recalled, tonight wasn’t the first time he’d danced with Yvonne.
The first time they’d danced had been at Denise and Ryder’s wedding reception.
Leo had wound up at the pub, pissed as fuck, after the wedding invitation had arrived in the mail. Whenever he was down in the dumps, he went to the pub. The place soothed him. Actually, it was the people in the place who always managed to put him back on his feet.
Yvonne, who had only been nineteen at the time, had been on her way out to meet some friends. She’d stopped when she had seen him sitting there, scowling at his diet soda, wishing he was old enough to order something stronger. He’d shown her the invitation and insisted there was no way in hell he was going to the wedding, but Yvonne had told him to RSVP that he was attending, then she informed him she was going to be his plus one.
He wasn’t sure what sort of strange power she had over him, but he’d done as she said. Of course, he’d been no happier the night of the wedding…
* * *
Leo sat in the corner of the hotel ballroom, watching the bride and groom slowly swaying together to their first dance. Denise had thrown the nuptials together rather quickly, the reason for this big day evident from the baby bump showing beneath her dress. She was pregnant again. Only this time, she’d said yes to the father.
Yvonne leaned closer. “Easy, Leo. You sort of look like a serial killer right now.”
He didn’t bother to point out he was feeling pretty murderous. She had to realize that by now.
He’d been a shitty date since picking her up, despite her attempts to keep things light and easy.
