The next thing she knew, Grayson was giving her a gentle shove in the direction of the dance floor and she was standing in front of the group of line dancers. Quickly picking out a couple of teenagers who had good timing, she explained who she was and what she’d like them to try to do with her. Scanning her dress and heels, they both looked at her like she was crazy, but when she started dancing, doing the moves as easily in her heels and fancy dress as she would have in boots and denim, their mouths dropped open.

As she ran through the moves of the line dance, a fancy stranger in the midst of a very tight-knit community, she realized she was the only one moving on the dance floor as everyone stopped to gape at her...apart from a really cute little girl Lori recognized from the CSA pickup, who didn’t seem to realize that anything strange was happening at all. With the music pumping through her veins, not the least bit daunted, Lori grabbed a teenage boy’s arm so that he could twirl her around in a modified do-si-do. By the time she let him go, the teen was grinning and jumping in beside her, picking up each move she’d just done perfectly.

Soon the two of them turned to half a dozen and, as the band launched back into the song from the beginning, it seemed like every person in the barn was claiming a spot on the dance floor to kick up their heels and laugh with the person twirling in their arms.

* * *

Grayson stood against the wall and watched as Lori worked her way through the dancers to help get them back on track and to call out the moves when things got a little hairy.

My God, she could dance. He’d never seen anyone move like her, not even in his old life, when he’d had the chance to mix with professional dancers from time to time.

Her dress was clinging slightly to her skin now as the barn heated up from all of the dancers, and her long, dark hair was starting to curl against the damp nape of her neck. Watching the way she moved so effortlessly in the heels and beautiful dress gave him a clear view into the world she’d come from. One that he guessed was very similar to the one in which he used to live in New York City.

And yet, she’d been just as comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt, and even though she muttered about going into the pigpen, he knew she secretly loved mucking around like a little kid let loose in a mud puddle after a storm.

Grayson honestly couldn’t choose which version he liked better—the made-up Lori was just another side of her, yet another one he hadn’t been prepared for. All he knew was that she was beautiful...and that, somehow, despite everything he’d done to try to stop it from happening, she’d managed to steal his heart one sassy smile at a time.

Chapter Sixteen

Applause rang out in the barn at the end of the line dance that had gone on for a good fifteen minutes straight. Lori loved how the little kids didn’t think twice about wrapping their arms around her waist to hug her.

“You’re so pretty, ma’am. What’s your name?”

Lori smiled down at the little girl with the big brown eyes and bright pink cheeks, the same one who had wanted to touch her dress earlier. She couldn’t have been more than four years old, but she’d been out there dancing up a storm, following the moves even better than most of the bigger kids and adults.

“Lori. What’s yours?”

“LuLu.” She barely paused for breath before saying, “You’ll be here for the next barn dance to teach us some more, won’t you, Ms. Lori?”

Lori felt a lump descend into the bottom of her stomach. Could she stay here forever? Could she hide out beneath the beautiful blue sky and have dirt under her fingernails every day? Could she dream about more of Grayson’s kisses?

Still feeling the rush of the dance floor beneath her feet, the thrill of moving her body to the music, instead of answering the little girl’s questions, Lori smiled down at her and asked, “Do you want to fly?”

The girl’s pigtails bounced as she nodded. “Oh yes!”

Lori held out her hands and when the little girl took them she winked and said, “Hold on tight.” And then she started swinging them both around in a circle, a perfect pirouette with a giggling partner’s sweaty little hands grasped tightly in hers. Again and again they spun until she thought the little girl must be getting dizzy, and finally put her down.

“Mama, Mama, did you see me?” the girl said to her mother as soon as her little cowboy boots hit the floor. “I was flying.”

LuLu’s mother no longer looked frosty as she stroked her daughter’s cheek. “Like a beautiful bird, baby.” As she hoisted her daughter up into her arms, the woman finally smiled at Lori. “You’re a wonderful dancer. Thank you for teaching all of us how to do the line dance tonight.”

Couples quickly paired up all around Lori as she stood and watched the mother and daughter walk away with a longing that frankly stunned her. When she’d been line dancing, she’d felt like she belonged, that she wasn’t just some city girl playing around on a farm.

But now that aloneness came back to hit her smack dab in the center of her chest with a hard thud.

The lump in her throat grew bigger as she caught sight of Eric grinning at her from across the barn. She smiled back and when he started to move toward her with the clear intention of asking her to dance, she fought to keep her smile in place. Eric was sweet. He was good looking. He was a gentleman. He was everything she should want, especially in the wake of the snake her ex had turned out to be.

But, stupid her, who did she wish was coming for her on the dance floor, instead? Grayson, who was more deeply wounded than any man she’d ever met before.

When Eric was less than a dozen feet away and she was just about to make herself move toward him, a large hand suddenly took hers and she was spun into a hard chest.

The very hard chest she’d been so foolishly dreaming of.

Lori was so stunned—and so pleased to be close to Grayson again as he led her in a country waltz—that she simply laid her head against his shoulder and moved with him.

Just one dance. That was all it was.

One perfect, beautiful, impossibly romantic dance with a man who made her heart pound like crazy and her brain turn to mush.

There were a million reasons why she shouldn’t be here in his arms, moving to the music. And yet she was so dazed by the sure way he led her across the floor, so wrapped up in the dance, in the feel of his body against hers, his muscles contracting against her, that there was no room for thinking, no space to do anything but be putty in his talented hands.

Second by second he’d taken over more of her thoughts, her dreams, until she had begun to forget what her life had been like before he was in it. All she knew now was that it couldn’t have been as full of sparks, emotion...or desire.