Page 23 of Older Cowboy

Erika: That’s a yes.

Right there in the garden spot he’d so diligently tended, he pumped his fist and whooped out loud, garnering him a few stares from ranch hands within earshot. He didn’t care, though. He didn’t care one bit.

Cody: How about Saturday afternoon at four, so we’ll have plenty of travel time? If you give me your address, I’ll come pick you up.

Her next text was nothing but her address, which totally worked for him. He and Erika Cantrell were going out again.

As thrilled as he felt to have a second chance with her, though, his nervousness had ramped itself up to an eleven. It was stupid when he thought about it. He was fifty years old, not some pimply teenager. Yet he couldn’t seem to dispel his anxiety. Maybe it was because this woman had already pseudo rejected him once after he’d had his hopes up about her.

But that was what dating was. It was asking and getting a “no.” It was trying on someone for size and finding out more often than not that they weren’t quite the right fit. The difference here was that he suspected that Erika Cantrell might just fit him to a T.

It wasn’t only that they’d shared a delightful handful of hours together at that dessert shop. It was that he felt as if he already knew her somehow, this sense that if given the opportunity, they’d discover how compatible they were and how successful they could be going forward.

Maybe.

Even compatible couples could fall apart, a fact he knew only too well.

So, he suppressed the most outlandish of his hopes and kept things limited to a simple nice time out in the nearest bigger town. He could do that much.

Still, when she whisked her way out of her cute little cottage and toward his pickup, causing him to jump out and open her door, he’d had to stop himself from reaching for her hand. She’d brought all that lovely jasmine scent with her, and he inhaled it deliberately, filling his nose and lungs with it.

He’d seen her in scrubs and in her ankle-length bridesmaid’s dress from Callie and Zeke’s wedding, but today she wore a dress that only went to her knees. Its red shade complimented her waist-length dark hair and slim figure. The skirt had this swishy quality to it—he didn’t know the correct term—that meant with every move she made it floated around her like fluff from a dandelion.

Cody felt not a desire, but aneedto touch her hand, to make contact with just a little bit of that soft skin of hers. He felt stunned at the power of the impulse, but he didn’t obey it.

Not now. Not yet.

“Your carriage awaits,” he said, being purposely cheesy as he opened her door with a bow. His Durango was five years old and even had a ding on the fender from Gabe running into it with his bike a few years back, but it would do.

He told her more jokes on the drive to Billings, and soon had her cracking up. It did his heart good to hear that laughter, to catch glimpses of that smile of hers as they zoomed along. See, this wasn’t going to be difficult. Not at all. He convinced himself he’d been worried over nothing.

Once they pulled into their first destination, Erika peered up at the sign created with loopy scripted letters.

“For the Love of Swing? Let me guess, the building is full of swing sets? If it is, I’m going to warn you right now that don’t want you doing any flips out of the seats. That sort of behavior leads to nothing but fractures and concussions.”

He grinned at her while raising an eyebrow. Cody loved it when she used her medical jargon. “No swing sets inside, though a lazy porch swing would be right up my alley. No, this is a dancing place. You’ll have to excuse me for being a little rusty.”

Cody had learned swing dancing while he and Stacey had been engaged. She’d wanted them to dance at their wedding—which they had—and he’d felt surprised at just how much he’d adored going out on a dancefloor and performing all the steps.

Taking Erika out on that floor and holding her in his arms had been better than receiving gifts at Christmastime for Cody. It’d been so long since he’d felt something so powerful building between him and another woman, and her uncertainty aside, having her swirling and twirling around him now was his idea of heaven.

She teetered a bit early on since she was unfamiliar with the dance steps, but as they continued on, she became better and better. She had a natural feel for movement, and as much as he loved being her partner, he knew he’d love it almost as much if she’d been out there by herself as long as he could watch her.

Turned out that the sign on the building was slightly misleading because after an hour of swing, the band mixed things up and played a mixture of country line dancing music, classic rock tunes, and even square dancing. Erika wanted to sit out the square dancing, for which Cody felt grateful. He’d never so much as tried it, and it looked pretty complicated from where he sat.

A slow ballad started and he took her hand to lead her to the middle of the dance floor. He gently pulled Erika closer to him, letting all their steps evaporate into a simple swaying embrace. He’d never had her pressed up against him like this, and if the world had decided to implode at that point, he would’ve died ecstatically happy for the chance to share such a moment with her.

Cody gazed down at her as she peeked up at him, her face so close he could make out the individual lines of the starbursts in her eyes, that he brushed his lips against her temple, then her brow line.

“Are you having fun?”

“So much.”

He smiled at the acknowledgement. Some of her hair fell into her face, and with each hand, he tucked those loose tendrils behind either ear, his focus lowering to her mouth. Her lips. Almost of their own accord, his own lips dropped to hers, and when she kissed him back, he closed his eyes, relishing the sensation of her warm lips on his, on their breathing becoming one.

Something glided sideways behind his ribcage, like a gear sliding into place with a noticeableclunk, and as he lengthened their kiss, he knew he and Erika could have endless possibilities together. Being with her had something to it he’d never experienced before. He couldn’t even identify the exact feeling, only that he needed it to go on, needed it to continue.

Only as vigorous movement surrounded them did Cody realize that the band had switched back to swing dancing, and that the song they’d chosen was a fast one. Considering how rapidly everyone else was cascading around them, he wasn’t sure how he’d missed it.

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