AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Something tugged at his slacks. He ignored it.Tug. Tug. Tug.
Willow said, “Emma, what are you doing?”
The little girl stood staring up at him with her mother’s eyes. “My turn, please.”
Aw, hell.“Uh.”
“I want to dance. You can lift me up. That’s what Uncle Jake and Uncle Lucas do. You’ve danced with Mama long enough, Mr. Noah. It’s my turn.”
Willow looked at Noah, waiting for his response. What was he supposed to say?I can’t deal with little girls? Yeah, right. Willow would think he was a perv or something. Why was Emma here yanking on his britches, anyway? Wasn’t it past her bedtime?
“Emma,” Willow scolded, though she didn’t take her gaze off Noah. “You’re being impolite.”
On the defensive, he attempted to explain. To excuse. “I can’t carry her. My leg…”
It worked—damn his weak-ass soul for the cowardly excuse. Willow’s expression melted with sympathy. “Of course. Emma, leave Mr. Noah alone. Go ask Nana to dance with you. Or Aunt Helen.”
“They’re girls.”
“So what? Girls can dance with girls.”
“But I want a man.”
Willow laughed, and Noah thought he heard her mutter, “Yes, well, don’t we all?”
Noah suddenly needed to get away—from the little girl, the oh-so-appealing woman, and everyone. Being around all these people was making him a Patsy Cline poster child. Crazy crazy crazy. He had to escape. “Tell you what, Emma. Dancing with your mom is just about the best thing ever. I’ll let you take my place.”
Coward that he was, Noah let his hand slide away from Willow’s waist. He placed her hand in her daughter’s and beat a retreat.
Damn, he hated himself.
So what else was new?
He snagged a drink from a passing waiter’s tray and headed off into the darkness away from the party, his thoughts as black as midnight. What the hell had he been thinking when he accepted Willow’s invitation? He had no business trying to mix with normal people.
Oh, it had started out well enough. In the early part of the event, he basically had been a date in name only.
Since Willow and the children had been members of the bridal party, they’d been required to be at the church long before the guests arrived. Noah hadn’t needed to pick anybody up. He had driven Willow and her kids from the church to the lodge, but nothing about that ride had been date-like, either. She’d spent almost the entire time on the phone with her assistant, a “day of ” coordinator, for which she’d apologized profusely. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she’d said when she’d hung up the phone. “I knew I’d be working for most of the wedding. I’m so sorry, Noah.”
“Hey, no worries at all. I get a steak dinner out of it.”
An excellent steak dinner, it had turned out. Even the company during the meal had been tolerable since he’d been seated next to Drew and the boy rarely shut his mouth.Didn’t matter if it was full of food, something his mother chastised him about each time she caught him at it.
After dinner, he’d felt obliged to ask Willow to dance. He’d been thinking about kissing her, and then the tug on his pants and a pretty little girl staring up at him with stars in her big green eyes—it had transported him back to another place, another time.
Daddy already danced with me. Your turn, Uncle Noah!
Noah took a swig of his drink, and the smooth, smoky bourbon slid down his throat like angel tears.
“You’re a shit, Tannehill,” he murmured. “She’s just a little girl. Go back and ask the little girl to dance.”
He turned around, gazed toward the dance floor, and two events captured his attention. First, Willow and Emma were indeed dancing. Well, a version of dancing. They were holding hands, hopping around, and giggling. Under other circumstances, he might have smiled at the sight. The second event was somewhat alarming.
Genevieve Prentice rose abruptly from her table and headed his way, her expression distressed. As she drew closer, he saw that she had tears spilling from her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. What in the world had happened?
No one else appeared to have noticed Genevieve’s flight. Acting on instinct, Noah melted back into the shadows as she rushed by.
Genevieve disappeared into the darkness along the shoreline of Mirror Lake.
