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Ben stood back and watched Liv as she circled the table, greeting each person there to celebrate with her. He pulled out a chair at the end of the table and sat next to Mark.
“You didn’t go home.”
“I sat next to you because I thought you were the only person at the table who wouldn’t try talk to me about Liv. Can’t we talk about guitar strings, or baseball, or another random topic you’re so good at pullin’ out of thin air?”
“You got it, buddy.” Mark pulled out his cell phone and started to show Ben videos on YouTube. The guy had the sense of humor of a fourteen-year-old and sometimes that was a very good thing.
“Tomorrow’s another day of training, as it would be back home. Don’t go gettin’ all full of yourself tonight, thinkin’ you have this in the bag,” Jolene said to Liv.
Dottie stood up in Liv’s defense. “Oh, Jolene, can’t you give the girl a break? Give Cinderella a midnight curfew if you have to, but let her enjoy the ball while she’s here.”
“You don’t win world titles enjoying the balls,” the gruff sixty-five year old spit out, which Mark picked up and ran with.
“What did she say? Liv isn’t allowed to enjoy the balls? Is that what she said? Bummer for you, dude.”
“Yep. You’re fourteen. A fourteen-year-old with gray hair.”
As Liv moved from person to person at the table, she’d look at him and smile. Was she checking to make sure he was still there, or that he was okay, or was she wondering if he was watching her?
Too soon and yet not soon enough, Liv came and sat in the open chair next to him.
“This is so much…more,” she said to him. “More than I ever imagined, more than I expected, more than I dreamed of.”
“Which part, the barrels, or the celebration?”
“All of it. I’m not used to being the center of attention. I’m not used to having a reason to be.”
“You’re completely unaware of your significance in the lives of the people sitting at this table.” Ben stroked her cheek with his finger. “If you only knew.”
As much as he dreaded it, at some point he’d have to ask her about the cowboy he saw her with.
“What are you thinking about, Ben? You don’t look happy all of a sudden. Do you regret coming?”
“No, Liv. Not for a minute.” Questions could wait. The cowboy wasn’t here with her, he was, and she seemed happy. “There isn’t anywhere in the world I’d rather be than right there with my girl.”
“The things you say, sweet talker. Sometimes they sound as though they should be in a song.”
He laughed. “And sometimes they are, or they work their way into one.”
Liv rested her head against him. Her breath warmed the curve between his neck and shoulder. When she shifted far enough that her lips were where her breath had been, he thought he’d come apart. “Liv—”
“Will you stay with me tonight, Ben?”
His blood heated and he longed to carry out to his truck and plunder her in the parking lot. He brushed his lips across hers, then moved so no part of her body touched his.
“Ben?”
He leaned over and whispered in her ear, trying to keep himself from touching her as he did. “I’m ready to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here, caveman-style. So unless you don’t care what anyone at this table thinks of that, you gotta stop touching me.”
He didn’t miss the little grin she tried hard to hide, or the way her eyes drifted closed as she breathed in deeply.
“I know, sweetheart,” he murmured.
Dottie got up on her feet and pulled Liv with her. “Come on, girls, I wanna dance.”
Oh Lord, Dottie wanted to dance, and all Liv could think about was getting out of this bar, and Ben out of his clothes. With Bill and Mark head-to-head at the jukebox, Liv wasn’t sure what to expect.
“Come on, Paige, you’re in on this too.”
