Elly: Cowgirl Bride (7 page)

“Elly, your friend knows about the dance, right?” Maryanne asked, a mischievous look on her face.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Will said to Maryanne. When he looked back at Elly, the bright look in his eyes warmed her chilled skin.

“Guess I’ll see you later, then,” she said. Before she made a blithering fool of herself, she kicked Jasmine into a trot and headed for home.

It wasn’t until she came within view of the homestead that she realized she’d been with Will for several hours and not once thought of Mark Hansen or Will’s involvement in the situation.

Maybe she didn’t have to hold herself away from what she wanted more every day after all.

T
HE BARN DANCE WAS BY
no stretch of the imagination a formal affair. Still, Elly locked herself in her room and changed into clean jeans and a bright aqua shirt, things that didn’t smell horsey. She washed her face and applied a smattering of makeup, just enough to give her pale complexion a little color.

After brushing out her hair, she considered leaving it down. But that seemed like too obvious a gesture. Sure, she wanted to figure out if Will was really interested, but she didn’t want the entire barn full of people wondering what was up. After all, she hardly ever wore her hair down. So a fresh ponytail it was, even if she did use the curling iron to add a little extra femininity to the end.

She slipped a pair of silver hoop earrings in, then stood straight to examine her appearance in the mirror, wondering if Will would like what he saw.

Only one way to find out.

She heard the band begin to play as soon as she stepped outside. People were still making their way from their vehicles, and she joined the stream heading inside.

“Going to save me a dance, Elly?” Chester Goodlaw asked her as she walked in next to him.

Chester, who was eighty if he was a day, was nonetheless as cute as he could be.

“I always save room on my dance card just for you.” Elly leaned over and kissed him on his cheek, weathered from many decades of riding the range in all kinds of Wyoming weather. Chester’s family, like her own, had been in Wyoming since the territory had more Shoshone residents than white settlers.

Elly adopted a casual demeanor as she made her way through the crowd, chatting with neighbors and accepting good wishes for her upcoming ride in Denver. When she arrived at the refreshment table, her mom poured her a cup of punch.

“You look pretty, dear.”

Elly shrugged. “Just cleaned up a little.”

“Wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain young man, would it?”

Elly took a drink while she tried to come up with a response.

Anne laughed, and the sound lifted Elly’s heart. It amazed her that her mom could still find joy in teasing her about a man when her own husband’s actions should have destroyed any belief she’d ever had in romance.

“Have to say that boy grew up very nicely,” Anne said.

Elly decided not to deny it and said, “Yeah.”

“Go ask him to dance.” Anne pointed toward the far corner of the barn. “He’s back there talking to your brother.”

Elly spotted Will with Jesse and her heart dropped.

Surely they weren’t discussing the case here, among all these people.

“Go on,” her mom urged.

Elly gulped down the rest of her punch and placed the empty cup on the table. “I owe Chester a dance first.” Without waiting for her mom to say anything else, she started weaving her way through the guests.

Instead of making her way to Chester, however, she edged along the back of the crowd surrounding the dance floor, not making eye contact with anyone. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk. Laughter, music and the thump of boots on the wooden dance floor that had been pulled together for the occasion filled the barn.

Elly found a less populated spot and leaned against the wall. She watched as the couples spun around and two-stepped like pros to the band’s enthusiastic playing of new and classic country tunes. She wanted to be among them—with Will.

She couldn’t see him and Jesse from where she now stood, and maybe that was best. The pang of loneliness she’d experienced before the trail ride swamped her again. Not just for a man, but for the life she’d led before her world had tilted on its axis. And for Janie. Her absence weighed heavier now than it had even on the trail ride. Everything was just…wrong. And Elly was left feeling like she was grasping for something, anything to hold on to.

“May I have this dance?”

She almost thought she’d imagined the request, but when she looked to her side, there stood Will with his hand out, waiting for hers. The oddest sensation of being a princess at a ball enveloped her as she placed her hand in Will’s and let him lead her into the whirl of dancers.

“So, lawyers dance, too?” she teased.

He leaned close to her ear. “Men dance when there are pretty women to dance with.”

Elly loved the delicious warmth those words sent through her.

Will proved to be a good dancer, which made him even sexier. Even if he’d been atrocious, Elly didn’t think she’d care. Just being this close to him and having him touching her was enough.

No, it wasn’t enough. But she wasn’t going to demand or hope for anything more because fate might decide she was greedy and take away this bright spot in her life.

One song led into another, and Will didn’t show any sign of freeing her for any other partners. Her heart swelled at the same time her commonsense brain was telling her not to read too much into the situation.

After one song ended, Chester pecked on Will’s shoulder. “Hey, pup. You’re hogging the prettiest girl in the place, and this little lady owes me a dance.”

Will handed her off to Chester with a smile and a wink for her.

“Got it bad, do ya?” Chester asked as she watched Will pair up with Delia.

Elly returned her attention to her dance partner. “Just being neighborly,” she said in a halfhearted attempt at denial.

“Uh-huh. My eyes ain’t that bad yet.”

Elly realized Chester wasn’t the only one who’d noticed when she glanced toward Will. Delia played at wrapping her leg around him then laughed her infectious laugh.

Elly’s brothers didn’t look as amused. Walker, a veteran of the war in Iraq, stared at Will like he wanted to toss him in a dungeon and try some interrogation tactics on him. Dex and Dusty just looked as if they wanted to put the fear of God in him. She didn’t dare try to find Jesse in the crowd.

They all made her want to scream. When the song ended, she thanked Chester for the dance then made her way toward Will, not caring what anyone thought. She was an adult, and she could dance with whomever she wanted to.

“I kept him warm for you,” Delia said as she backed away from her boss.

Heat suffused Elly’s cheeks.

“I’m going to dock your check for being ornery,” Will said.

“No, you won’t.” With a little wave, Delia sashayed her way through the crowd, her shiny, deep-red bob swaying.

The band struck up a slow song, and Will wasted no time pulling Elly into his arms, close. He was indeed warm, causing her to want to wrap herself in him. He smelled so deliciously male—musky, simple with a hint of the Wyoming outdoors. She found herself stepping even closer, inhaling, nearly laying her cheek against the fabric of his cream-colored shirt.

She closed her eyes and let him lead her, focused on the feel of his larger, calloused hand clasping hers, felt his breath atop her head.

She caught her brothers’ stares a couple more times, including the dark look on Jesse’s face. But Will seemed oblivious. That or he just didn’t care. That possibility caused a ridiculous amount of happiness to well up inside her—a welcome sensation since so much of her life was turned upside down.

Toward the end of the dance, Will leaned close to her ear. “Can I walk you back to the house?”

She glanced up at him and nodded. He guided her off the dance floor, stopping a couple of times to talk to people he hadn’t seen in years. When she saw him do a casual scan of the crowd before urging her toward the exit, she realized he hadn’t been as unaware of her brothers’ stares as he’d made it appear. When she glanced back, the crowd blocked them from anyone with the last name Cody.

Oh, Will was good.

She giggled. Slipping away like that felt naughty, and she liked it.

The coldness of the clear night soaked in as soon as they stepped outside, and the frost crunched beneath their boots. Everyone would be scraping their wind-shields before they could head home. Despite the chill, Elly warmed when Will slipped her hand into the crook of his arm and placed his large hand atop her smaller one.

“Think that will go down in the annals of great escapes?” he asked.

She laughed. “Right up there with Houdini.”

When they reached the front steps of the house, Elly climbed two until Will tugged back on her hand, halting her so that she was almost eye level with him.

“I had a nice time tonight. Today, too.” His voice was low, sexy. It almost caressed her, temptation itself.

“I did, too.”

They stared at each other for a couple of suspended moments before Will lifted his hand and grazed her cheek with his fingertips.

“What would you say if that geeky Billy the Kid character wanted to kiss you good-night?”

A surge of undiluted adrenaline shot through her. “I don’t know because I don’t see him anymore.”

Will’s hands slid to the back of her head. She closed her eyes in anticipation as his mouth moved toward hers. His kiss, soft and firm at the same time, promised so much more. The tingling that raced through her had nothing to do with the chill in the air and everything to do with the need Will Jackson had awakened in her.

Will pulled away, leaving Elly in a daze. A beautiful daze, but a daze nonetheless.

“Will you go to dinner with me tomorrow night?”

“Yes.” No hesitation. She’d go with him right now if he asked. She loved this feeling of breathlessness and warmth and yearning he brought out in her. So incredibly different from every man she’d ever dated.

She felt him smile against her lips as he moved in for another kiss. As he sent her mind spinning like a windmill in a storm again, she ran her fingers through his hair to grip the back of his head, urge him closer.

Will made a sound—part moan, part plea—and deepened the kiss. His hands went to her back and pulled her closer. Then it was her turn to make appreciative sounds against his mouth.

When Will broke the kiss, he placed a sweet peck on her forehead. “I think I better go before your brothers get curious and come to investigate.”

“They always were annoying.”

He laughed and she liked how the sound rumbled in his chest.

“So, tomorrow night?” he asked.

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll call you.”

She nodded and forced herself not to pull him back into her arms when he broke contact and headed for his vehicle out there in the sea of Fords, Chevys and Dodges. She stood on the porch, hugging herself against the cold now attacking her without Will’s warmth encircling her body in a protective cocoon. Only when the taillights on his SUV faded into the night did she turn and head inside.

Her good mood dimmed when she stepped inside to find Jesse sitting on the couch. Great. He’d come in the back way. How much had he heard or seen?

He nodded toward the front door. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

Fed up with her brothers thinking she needed bodyguards, she crossed her arms and stared at him. “Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”

“What is it they say? Mixing business and pleasure is a bad idea.”

“He works for you, Jesse. Not me.”

He locked his eyes with hers. “He does work for you, whether you like it or not. You will be affected by the outcome of this situation as much as I will.”

“What exactly is it that you think I’m going to do? Keep him from digging around in Dad’s sordid past? Finding out that you’re not the oldest Cody brother?”

She shouldn’t have said it. The hardness in his face deepened until he looked so much like their father when he was angry that it shook her.

Elly uncrossed her arms and took a step forward. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. It’s just…well, having you all still hovering around me like I’m a teenager gets really old. I’m a grown woman. I can make my own decisions.”

“Can you? Seems like you ought to be focusing on your training and not getting sidetracked.”

Her hackles rose. “Did you tell Walker that? Dex? Dusty?” She cursed and stalked several steps across the room. “You all need to back off. And if I make a mistake, then it’s no one’s fault but mine. I don’t need you all riding in like the damn cavalry to save me and stringing up the guy.”

As she said it, she couldn’t imagine Will ever hurting her. Though this new, older Will was a lot different than the boy he’d once been, she’d still seen the calm, kind soul she’d always associated with him.

Maybe that’s what really attracted her. He wasn’t like her brothers—or her father. She loved them all, but she didn’t think she wanted to end up with someone like them. She had never realized that before. Could that be why she’d never gotten serious with any of the guys on the rodeo circuit either? They were cut from the same cloth, and it had never occurred to her that it wasn’t the cloth she wanted in a man.

“Fine.” Jesse’s single word was clipped, hard, final. “Just remember what’s at stake.” He stood and stalked out the back door, slamming it hard enough to rattle the windows.

She wasn’t sure if he meant the state of their family’s legacy or her chance at the Finals, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t do anything about the situation with Mark. And she was perfectly capable of seeing Will and devoting the time needed to her training.

She ignored the tweak of doubt. Hated Jesse for causing it to bloom into existence.

With a shake of her head, she walked to her room. She had an early practice planned for the morning. But fifteen minutes later she was still sprawled across her bed, fully clothed, staring at the ceiling and thinking of Will and the way his kisses had made everything else fade away.