Sam eventually coaxed Nate out and a few of the ranch hands danced with their significant others.Jill sat next to Grandma and enjoyed the simple, casual moment of pure light.Not shadowed by any darkness.
When Cal approached, Jill ignored the little jitter of anticipation in her stomach and smiled at him.But his gaze was on Grandma.
“Well, Glenda, I think you owe me a dance.”
Grandma made ahumphnoise and pointed at Jill.
Cal’s dark eyes moved to her.
Humor curved his mouth.“Oh, she’ll be next.You first.”He took Glenda’s hand and helped her to her feet.
Jill felt kind of silly.Okay, alotsilly.She didn’t want to dance with Cal, except she kind of did, but he was just doing some kind of… make the rounds, host of the party thing.
Apparently his current role was going around to every unattached woman and entertaining them with a dance.
Jill watched him with Grandma.The easy way Cal moved with her, even though Jill knew there were complicated feelings between the two of them.He even made Grandma smile, and Jill just didn’t know what to do aboutthat.
He was a complicated guy.One she didn’t fully understand, and she was worried the desire to was tied up in the fictional world she was creating around his very real-world issues.
She didn’t want to be that person, but when the song ended and he walked with Glenda back over to their seats and turned to her… well, Jill forgot all about her book.
“Alright, Jill Harrington.You’re up.”He held out his hand.
All gallant charm meant to amuse.Since it seemed to give him some satisfaction toamuse, she went ahead and slid her hand into his.
Much larger.Rough—probably from helping around on the ranch even if he didn’t do it much.Oh, he was all big-city lawyer polish, but underneath all that was a boy who’d grown up right here.
Under some really awful circumstances.
As if he understood the wave of sympathy she felt for him, he twirled her, and she couldn’t hold back a laugh of surprise or delight.The awful floating away in amusement.
She’d been in Montana for years now, and she’d had moments of fun and entertainment and even joy.But it had all felt like it existed in a weird kind of isolation.This—the wedding, the dancing—it all felt a bit more like… life.The kind of three-dimensional life an adult should have.
And to think, she’d found it way out here in Montana, in the shadow of taking care of her ailing grandmother.
But she wasn’t thinking about Grandma or the past or anything when Cal easily pulled her into his arms for the slow dance.Like he danced with women every day.Like it was commonplace to have one of her hands in Cal Bennet’s, while his other rested lightly on her waist.
He was tall.Nothing about the past year could take that away, and even when he was a little gaunt, he was handsome.And knew it.He had a poise and self-possession the other two Bennet brothers didn’t carry the same way.
Landon knew exactly who he was and where he belonged, but he didn’t much care for how that looked to anyone but Aly.Nate… well, Nate was more closed off.But there was an alertness, always, that spoke to a man who always knew where he was and what he was doing.
Cal’s confidence was all on the outside.He knew how to smile, deflect, argue, maneuver.All to keep anyone from looking too deeply at that mess going on inside.
She had a soft spot for messes.Grandma, case in point.She nearly laughed at the thought.They were awfully alike on the inside, and even how they dealt with people—knowing just what buttons to push to keep people at a distance.
Would either of them see that?
“I’m working my way up,” Cal told her quietly, a glimmer of mischief in those usually somber or haunted or pissed-off brown eyes as he looked around the makeshift dance floor.“Sam’s next—can’t wait to see how Nate takes that.Then the pièce de resistance, I will dance with Aly and do everything I can to make Landon’s head explode.”
Jill shook her head.She wanted to scold him, but she also knew this was kind of his weird love language to his brothers, and more, there was a… lightness in him she didn’t think she’d ever seen.
She didn’t claim to be any great friend of Cal’s, but they’d crossed paths enough in the past year.She’d seen the aftereffects of everything he’d remembered.She’d watched the weight drop off.She’d seen him in the aftermath of being shot to help save Aly and Landon in the summer.
This was a different Cal than any of those times.Like seeing Aly and Landon vow to love each other forever actually made him really happy.
“I read your chapters.”
Broken out of her reverie, she narrowly missed stomping on his foot.“What?”
