Savannah placed her hand in his and stood.
“Be warned, I might step on your foot,” he muttered under his breath as they approached the dance floor.
“I suggest you watch your own feet. It’s been a long time since I did anything like this.”
Laredo should have known Savannah would find a way to put him at ease. Being with her always made him feel...special. As though he alone, of all men, was worthy of this good and beautiful woman. Right this minute he could almost believe it....
Several couples swayed to the romantic music, holding each other close. One couple was deeply involved in a kiss.
Laredo drew her into his arms and concentrated on moving his feet in a box step, mentally counting to four. One step back, one step to the right, one step forward and then to the left.
“Laredo,” she whispered in his ear, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Relax, okay?”
“But—”
“All I really wanted was for you to hold me.”
That was all he wanted, too. He shut his eyes and pulled her into the shadows. He kissed her ear, smiling when he felt her shiver.
“Like that, do you?”
“Oh, yes.”
He rubbed her back.
“I like that, too.”
Laredo was just beginning to feel that he had the hang of this when she captured his earlobe between her lips and gently sucked on it. His eyes flew open and his blood went hot. He slowly let the breath drain from his lungs, then locked his hands at the small of her back. Soon she was flush against him. With her softness touching him like that, in the most intimate places, Laredo lost count of the steps. Not long afterward, he discontinued dancing altogether, other than to shuffle his feet a little.
“Laredo,” she whispered. “I’m glad Grady asked you to stay. I’m glad for a lot of reasons.”
“Me, too,” he whispered. “So glad...”
The song continued and he closed his eyes again, wanting to savor these moments. His heart felt so full it actually hurt. Until now, with Savannah in his embrace, Laredo hadn’t thought such a possibility existed. But his heart ached. Not with grief or pain but with love.
Of all the memories that could have come to him at a time like this, the one that did was of his father. The last memory he had of his father still alive.
Laredo had been a young boy when his father left for Vietnam. He didn’t understand about war; all he knew was that the man he adored was going away. He’d hidden in the barn, thinking if no one could find him, maybe his father wouldn’t have to leave. Naturally his childish plan hadn’t worked, and he’d been found in short order.
Then his dad had taken him on his lap and held him for a long time without saying a word. When he did speak, he’d promised Laredo that, no matter what happened while he was away, nothing—not distance, not time, not even death—would separate Laredo from his father’s love.
Months later, when Laredo had stood in front of a cold casket and watched his father’s body lowered into the ground, he’d recalled those words. At the memorial service he’d stood proud and tall. His mother and grandparents had wept, overcome with grief, but Laredo’s eyes had remained dry.
Emotion welled up inside him now and he understood, perhaps for the first time, the intensity of the love his parents had shared. The depth of it. With this revelation came the knowledge that he felt the same way about Savannah. His mother had never remarried, and Laredo finally understood why.
A gruff voice broke into his thoughts and he lifted his head from Savannah’s to see her older brother standing by the side of the dance floor.
“I don’t like the way you’re holding my sister.”
Laredo released Savannah. Grady Weston’s face was flushed and angry.
“Grady, please!” Savannah reluctantly moved away from Laredo. “You’re making a scene and embarrassing me.”
“Leave us alone,” Laredo warned. Their eyes met, challenged, clashed. His willingness to make peace with Grady had vanished after that talk with the sheriff.
Before he realized exactly how it had happened, he and Grady were facing off, their fists raised.
“Grady, stop!” Savannah cried, and when it did no good, she turned to Laredo. “If you care for me, you won’t do this.”
Laredo did care, so damn much it terrified him. But this was one fight he wasn’t walking away from.
“Please,” Savannah said, stepping directly in front of him.
Laredo felt himself weakening.
Caroline Daniels arrived then and slid her arm through Grady’s. “It seems to me that what you need is a nice hot cup of coffee,” she announced, steering him toward the kitchen.
Laredo watched the two of them walk toward the house.
Savannah slipped her arms back around Laredo’s neck. “I believe this dance was mine,” she said, nestling close to him once more.
A lot more than this dance belonged to Savannah Weston, Laredo realized. She also owned his heart.
Seven
The early-morning sun shone cheerfully on the Yellow Rose. Savannah had been much too tired the night before to worry about cleanup, but in the revealing light of day, the entire front yard was a disaster. The Chinese lanterns sagged. Paper plates and napkins littered the once-flawless grass amid a welter of abandoned tables and chairs. The straw from the dance area stretched like a spiderweb from one end of the lawn to the other.
While the coffee brewed, Savannah dragged a garbage can into the yard. She’d only been working ten or fifteen minutes when Grady joined her. Wiley and Laredo followed, yawning. Savannah quickly distributed plastic garbage bags, since there was far too much trash for one container.
“Where’s Richard?” Grady demanded.
“Sleeping,” Wiley said with a chuckle. “What did you expect?” He began picking up litter and stuffing it into a bag.
“Then drag his sorry ass out here. It was his party. The least he can do is clean up the mess he created.”
“Why should he start now?” Again the question came from Wiley.
“I got better things to do than this,” Grady grumbled, stuffing his own armload of garbage into a bag.
“I didn’t hire on to do housekeeping, either,” the foreman put in.
Savannah had heard enough. “Stop it—both of you!” she shouted, unable to bear the bickering. It was rare for her to raise her voice, let alone yell, and she immediately got everyone’s attention. Grady and Wiley stopped and stared at her; even Rocket lifted his head, as if shocked by her outburst.
A frown creasing his brow, Laredo paused in his raking and waited.
“I didn’t ask for your help,” she said. “If you’re going to complain, then leave. I’d rather tend to the cleanup myself than be subjected to your foul moods.” The comment was directed at Grady. Her good feeling about her brother—the fact that he’d hired Laredo—was rapidly fading.
“I’m in one hell of a fine mood,” Grady barked, grimacing in a parody of a smile. “I’m as happy as can be.” Savannah thought he looked like he was posing for the cover of Mad magazine, but restrained herself from saying so.
“You’re happy?” Wiley asked, his words drenched with sarcasm. “You look about as happy as when you wrote out that check to Adam Braunfels for the barbecue.”
This was the first Savannah had heard about it. “Why’d you pay Adam?”
“I didn’t have any choice,” Grady snapped. “He wanted his money and Sleeping Beauty in there—” he gestured at the bunkhouse “—didn’t have it. What the hell else could I do?”
Savannah wished she hadn’t asked, since the money was obviously a sore spot with Grady. Not that she blamed him, but surely Richard expected his check soon, otherwise he wouldn’t have thrown himself this party.
“It was good of you to pay Adam,” she said, wanting Grady to know she appreciated his dilemma. “Money’s tight just now.”
“My money got even tighter with the party,” Grady muttered. “I hope to hell he doesn’t expect me to pay for everything, because I won’t do it.” He sounded as though he wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince, her or himself.