Page 59 of Wilde Ride

“You can’t avoid her forever, you know.”

“If I can get back to the table to sit, it’ll be easier to let her down.”

With a confused expression, she asked, “Why is that?”

“You stepped on my foot and made me twist my ankle. I can’t possibly dance now.”

Her mouth dropped open. “I have never in my life stepped on a dance partner’s foot!”

Winking, I replied, “First time for everything.”

Once we got back to the table, we found Caden and Lilibeth in a heated discussion. Sitting, I glanced between the two.

“How would you even know, Caden? Have you ever done the swing?”

Emeline was about to say something when Caden shot her a warning look, then focused back on Lilibeth. “What makes you think I haven’t?”

Lilibeth looked him up and down, then smiled. “I’m sorry, you just don’t seem like the type of guy who’d swing dance.”

Caden leaned forward. “Are you suggesting that just because I’m a man, obviously I can’t dance?”

She motioned toward him with her hands. “Of course not, but you’re so…”

He raised his brow. “So what?”

She shrugged. “Not a very…cheerful kind of guy, and the swing is a cheerful kind of dance.”

Caden’s brow rose. “Are you saying I’m too grumpy to dance to a country swing?”

Lilibeth’s eyes sparkled. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Tipping his hat, he replied, “At least you’re honest.”

She stood. “Okay, cowboy. Give me two minutes.”

The three of us watched as Lilibeth walked over to the DJ, then made her way back to the table. She held out her hand to Caden, who I was pretty sure had drunk just enough beers to actually do this.

The woman sitting beside him, the same one he’d been talking to earlier, shot Lilibeth a scathing look.

Still holding out her hand patiently, Lilibeth said, “Let’s go, cowboy. Show me what you’ve got.”

Emeline grinned widely. Meanwhile, I felt bad for Lilibeth. She had no idea what she was getting into.

As they walked to the dance floor, the DJ told everyone to make a bit of room in the middle of the space.

“She has no idea Caden can dance, I take it?” I asked Emeline.

“No,” she said on a laugh. “And he has no idea Lilibeth took almost twenty years of dance lessons!”

I tossed my head back and laughed. “This is gonna be good.”

Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” started, and we both laughed again.

I couldn’t tell who was more shocked, Caden or Lilibeth, when they started to dance. They instantly fell into a rousing country swing.

“Oh my gosh! Look at her spinning!” Emeline shouted as she clapped, and Ensley whistled.

I watched, thoroughly entertained, as Caden and Lilibeth moved across the dance floor with so much ease, it seemed as if they’d been dancing together for years.