“Not really. I’ve never lost someone dear to me.”
“You can grieve lots of things. Not just people.”
“Maybe.” I shrugged for lack of words. “So, is this your favorite brooding spot?”
He smiled. “One of them. Wherever I can stay busy.”
“Thanks for letting me barge in.”
Jesse’s gaze narrowed. “You keep doing that, you know.”
“Doing what?”
His green eyes blazed, his smile finally lighting his eyes. “Keep noticing that I’m struggling then…making stuff easier somehow.”
I looked away, swiping a curl behind my ear.
“Thank you for seeking me out.”
I lifted a shoulder. “Well, you told me to do that.”
His brow knit in confusion.
“Remember? You said to find you after the wedding.”
His full smile made butterflies erupt in my stomach. “I did say that.”
“Was there something you wanted?”
He turned away from the bench, leaning backward against it and lacing his arms across his broad chest. “I wanted to dance with you.”
Panic rose in my chest, but I held onto my poker face. “Oh.”
“Do you dance?”
I shook my head, twisted my lips. “Nope.”
“Well, I am very proficient in square dance.”
I covered my lips with a hand, stifling girlish giggles. “Proficient in square dance? Is that a line on your resume?”
We laughed together as tension spun out of my shoulders. Talking to him felt like curling up in a cozy reading corner, making cookies, or holding a warm mug of hot cocoa in cold hands. Like comfort and wonder and gratitude all bundled together. But I couldn’t figure out why we just…clicked.Could it be natural chemistry? That hardly seemed fair—to travel nine hundred miles, find him, then be forced to say goodbye less than forty-eight hours later.
Jesse lifted his hand flat between us. “Care for a spin?”
Breath wooshed from my lungs. “Right here?”
“Why not? The tack room will just make it memorable.”
I scanned the surrounding walls, taking note of the ropes and bridles neatly organized on hooks and the saddles draped over rails. Guitar strumming filtered into my awareness—muffled, distant, hardly carrying all the way from the pasture.
Just enough to dance to.
My gaze roamed over Jesse, quickly soaking him in. In one singular day, his face had become familiar, evendearto me. The lines at the corners of his features, the easy smile, the sparkles in his eyes when the smile was real. And I knew from last night just how warm and inviting his body could be.
I wouldn’t need atack roomto remember a dance with him.
A deep swallow pulled at my throat.
