Page 71 of Takes Two to Tango

Her head jerked up. "What do you mean?"

"You need time. Okay. I think what we've got is worth waiting on. I'm going with my gut here, but if you need to double-check your heart with your head, then I'll be patient."

She stared at him for a moment, her eyes glazed with emotion. “You’re going to …what?”

He shrugged. Rayne blowing into his life was a god send for him, but not for her. She'd come to Oak Stand to clear her head and he'd clouded her vision more. He understood.

"It's not bad. I'm not asking you to choose me and Oak Stand over your career. I'm asking you to open yourself to the possibility of a whole new direction. A path we can blaze together. I don't want you to stop being you. I like the adult Rayne. You're responsible, levelheaded, and fiery. But there's nothing wrong with merging her with the girl who made origami birds and daisy chains. With the girl who took chances andchased dreams. This isn't a do thisordo that sort of thing. It's a be thisandthat sort of thing."

She lifted the throw that had fallen to the crook of her arms and wrapped it tight around her as she stared at the moon. She looked lonely and lost. "Have you been watching self help shows?Because you're making a lot of sense. Not that those shows always make sense."

He let go of a smile. Maybe things would turn out okay. He had to believe that they were meant to be."Dr. Phil has me on speed dial."

She smiled in spite of her conflict. "I'm leaving for New York tomorrow. My agent texted me earlier tonight. The executive producer ofFood Live!is interested in developing my show. I have a meeting Monday because the network is making an offer."

Suddenly, his heart didn't feel so secure. It felt like it had jumped from his chest with no parachute. Not good. Not good at all.

"This is it. It's what I've been waiting for. Once in a lifetime opportunity for me and everyone associated with Rayne Rose Enterprises," she said, shaking her head in a resigned manner. "You'd be here in Texas, and I'd be in Manhattan working umpteen hours a week. It wouldn't work."

He stood like a statue, trying to pretend disappointment hadn't lodged in his gut. Trying to pretend her words were untrue. That they didn't prick him like thorns. Irony had raised its head and laughed. "You'll have to decide what you want, Rayne Rose. Go to New York and see what they say. I'll be here when you come back."

She raised her gaze to his. Her dark eyes filled with regret. "I may not come back."

He couldn't stop the flinch that came with her words. He felt as if he should try and get his feet beneath him, for the rug hadbeen yanked out. He pulled his gaze from hers and searched the night sky as if he could find some help from the celestial bodies glowing above him. No shooting star fell. Just a void.

"Even so, you'll have to decide," he said to the moon.

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE STREETS OF MANHATTAN had been brutal with hundreds of bodies pressed together moving like salmon up a stream. It was as if after an endless stretch of ice and snow, every New Yorker decided to leave their winter-weary burrows and venture out along all the numbered streets they could find. And there were a lot of numbered streets in New YorkCity. For three days, she pressed against strangers while balancing a cup of chai tea, trying to keep her game face on.

Playing the corporate game had exhausted her.

When the plane hit the tarmac at Dallas-Fort Worth airport, she literally felt the stress melt from her shoulders. Back in Texas. Back to slow talking, open land, and sweet iced tea.

And now, as she climbed into her Volvo in the long-term parking lot of DFW, she took a moment to relish the sun-warmed leather seats, the faint scent of fresh cotton from the fragrance clip, and the possibility of miles and miles of open road.

She took a deep breath.

She'd come back to Oak Stand. Sort of.

After paying the exorbitant fee for parking, she headed southeast toward the small town where her son waited. Where Brent waited. Nerves settled like lumps in her stomach, but she ignored them. What she'd done had been for the best. Everything would be okay. It had to be. The decision had been made.

As she looped around 1-635, she noticed dark clouds hanging over East Texas. Dark and ominous, they swelled larger and larger over the silent prairie, causing unease to grow each mile her car traveled. About an hour into her drive, the sky grew darkly pregnant and the wind picked up.

She drove thirty minutes more into the darkening sky before reaching for her phone and giving the voice command that would dial her aunt's cell phone. Screw the warning against using a cell phone while driving. Something told her she needed to check on things in Oak Stand.

The phone rang endlessly before she heard her aunt's voice. The connection wasn't good, but she managed to ask about the weather conditions.

"Honey, I'm leaving Longview with Mrs. Upchurch. Her endodontic appointment ran late and the weather's bad here." Her aunt's voice faded in and out.

"I'm worried about Henry. The bus will pick him up at the school soon, and it looks like a big storm is coming."

"I should be home when he gets off the bus. I think. Isn't Meg there? She said-" Rayne couldn't hear the rest of her aunt's statement after the first drop of rain hit the windshield. Several more large ones plopped against the glass before a deluge opened above her.

"Aunt Fran," Rayne yelled into the phone even though she knew her aunt couldn't hear her. ''Aunt Frances!"

The connection had failed. No sense phoning her back. Not when the rain had gotten so heavy Rayne could barely see thehighway in front of her. To try and dial in those conditions would be stupid.

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