When Jamie saw Leland coming up, he stopped dumping the ice and smiled.
Jamie was sweating beneath his arms from the work on this warm night, and damp curls of hair were sticking to his temples. He never looked so sweet, and never so much did Leland want to carry him off. But they’d made promises to each other about courtship, and Leland wanted to take it slow.
“Working hard, I see,” Leland said, taking his hat off.
“Yeah,” Jamie said, taking a piece of ice and putting it between his teeth to crunch loudly.
“Would you care to dance with me?” Leland asked, ducking his head. He had meant to say the words so that only Jamie could hear him, but Levi was smirking when he walked off with the empty ice bags. “In the next couple’s dance?”
This stopped Jamie, and Leland drank in the surprise and pleasure sweep that swept over him, but maybe he saw a little worry, as well, on that sweet face.
Leland’s heart jumped in a painful way to think back on how he’d hurt Jamie. He didn’t want Jamie to doubt him, and if he did, even just a little, Leland was going to double down on making sure Jamie knew just how much Leland cared about him.
All of this swept over him. He took a step forward. Then Jamie took a step forward. And it was as if the guests faded away, leaving only the two of them on the edge of that dance floor with jaunty music in the background as Leland reached out and Jamie took his hand.
“The very next couple’s dance,” Jamie said. “But remember, I don’t know how.”
“You’re a fine dancer,” Leland said. “I’ll do my best to lead, and maybe next winter, we could take lessons.”
“In Chugwater?” Jamie asked, his eyebrows going up. “With your mom?”
“Yes,” Leland said with no hesitation whatsoever. “It’s fun. It’s a good winter activity, when—” Leland stopped and looked down and realized that he was turning his hat like he was nervous and didn’t know what to say. And while both were true, he was a man, fully grown and needed to stem those nerves. Needed to say what was in his heart. “I would love to dance with you this winter,” he said.
Jamie’s smile streamed from his eyes, and Leland didn’t let go of his hand. Jamie didn’t let go of Leland’s hand either, and when the dance leader came out and announced it was a couple’s dance, Leland led Jamie onto the dance floor.
Jamie’s body fit into Leland’s arms as though he’d been designed for them, as though they, in their separate lives, had been waiting for just this moment, for when the music started and the band began to play. They swirled and circled on that dance floor, in step and sometimes in misstep, when Leland would step on Jamie’s toe by accident, or Jamie would bump into another dancer.
Leland gathered Jamie close after each mishap, and reset their hands, and they would begin again, over and over, as many times as it took. And all the while the music swept around them like a bright and jaunty cape, seeming to separate them from the other dancers within a bubble all their own.
And all the while, Leland held Jamie’s hand and circled Jaimie’s waist, and looked into those bright green eyes, and though he felt he was falling, he was perfectly safe. He could see into Jamie’s soul, and Jamie could see into his soul. It was as though this moment had been destined to be, forever and forever.
Leland kissed Jamie then, right then, as they stood on the dance floor. Paused a brief moment to stop their motion and kisshisJamie, his eyes closing while he savored Jamie’s nearness.
Jamie tipped up on his toes, his hands going around Leland’s neck, and whispered in his ear. “This is so nice, so nice.”
Such a simple thing to hear at a dance on a ranch, the dance floor only dust, the band rushing the notes from time to time. But it was perfect to Leland, and he loved the feel of Jamie against him, so brave and bold, and didn’t care who was watching.
That’s who Jamie was, a brave soul, the bravest. To have come all this way without knowing what was at the end of his journey. Well, the end of that journey was them, Leland and Jamie, together.
And as Leland swirled them back into the dance, pleasure and delight seemed to stream from his fingertips and his skin and everywhere. And in return, Jamie’s eyes were like green jewels in a beautiful wine-dark sea. It made Leland’s heart explode in his chest and he tipped his head back and sighed and laughed, up to the sky, now filled with stars abounding beyond the twinkling fairy lights around the dance floor.
When the dance ended, the guests lingered or left, chatting and hugging as the staff cleaned up and the band packed up. The dance announcer wished everyone goodnight as the fairy lights turned off one by one.
“Thought I might walk you back and pick up that pie to put it in the fridge,” said Leland.
As they walked off the dance floor together, him and Jamie, Leland nodded at the staff and guests, at everyone in general, so they would understand that he saw them, but that he was going to spend some time with Jamie now. Except when Levi came up with a broken gear in his hands, Leland paused to respond with a quick suggestion, and when Brody came up with a question about when bags of feed grain were set to arrive, he had to pause again and check the calendar in his head. After that, he determined that everyone would have to manage on their own, or get someone else to help them.
“Let’s go, Jamie,” he said.
“Okay.” Jamie wiped his damp hands on his jeans, and Leland’s eyes were drawn to those slender hips, and the dust on his shirt, and everything about him.
They walked back, side by side, not quite holding hands, but close enough so their shoulders brushed. It wasn’t too far to the staff quarters, and he followed as Jamie led the way up the steps to his room. There, Jamie paused, looking up at Leland like he expected something from him. And while Leland had soft and honied words just waiting in the wings, he was too breathless, his heart was beating too fast, to say any of them out loud.
“Let me just kiss you good night,” Leland said. “I’ll take the pie and go.”
“Is this the courtship part?” Jamie asked, his eyes bright.
“Yes,” Leland said.
