Page 47 of Save the Last Dance
“Because I didn’t row you out into the center of the lake to seduce you.” As much as the idea tempted him. “I only wanted to hold you because I know moving back here was never what you envisioned for yourself. But it’s not easy for me to touch you and not…want you.”
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want you too.” She tipped her forehead to his, the warmth of her skin seeping into his as the water lapped gently against the sides of the rowboat. “But I don’t have anything figured out beyond tomorrow. I’m not sure what to do about my business. I don’t know if I should get a house in town or live on the farm. And I definitely have no idea what to do with the feelings I have for you, so it wouldn’t be fair to start something when I’m not sure where I want it to go.”
“Don’t worry about what’s fair for me.” He couldn’t say what tomorrow held either, but he did know she’d been on his mind constantly since he’d cruised into town. “I realize I can’t have forever with you, Nina. But what if we just enjoyed the time we have together again. Here. Today.”
“You make it sound so simple.” She bit her lip.
“It is simple.” His cell phone started to buzz in his back pocket; their window of time was closing. But he couldn’t let the moment pass without making his point. “Nina, you say you want to be less impulsive and I get that. But what we have isn’t some random itch to scratch. We said as much that night we danced at Lucky’s and I kissed you on the swings.”
A breeze blew through the nearby trees, casting shifting shadows over her face and stirring the scent of fall leaves.
“And what about that night on the bleachers? We didn’t follow the impulse then, or later when we parked the car and seriously considered climbing in that backseat.”
“I’ve been trying so hard not to be impetuous and make another mistake with you.” She stared at a point in the water and he could almost see the thoughts racing through her head as she weighed his words.
His cell phone buzzed again.
“Maybe this time our mistake will be not being impetuous.” He reached for the oar next to him and then slid an arm behind her to grab the one near her. “And ironically, while you’re struggling to be more deliberate with your decisions, the years since Vince’s death have had the opposite effect on me.”
She shifted to the seat across from him, studying him with wary gray eyes. “What do you mean?”
Dipping the oars in the water he leaned hard on one to get the boat turned around. They needed a new direction.
“Losing a friend showed me that life is too precious not to make the most of every second.” That’s what had finally pushed him to leave Heartache. And it was the drive behind his business success at a young age. “I’m not second-guessing myself these days, Nina. We can’t possibly think through all the consequences of our actions when the future is impossible to predict.”
“You’re right.” She nodded, her eyes shiny with unshed tears.
Damn it, he hadn’t meant to upset her, and he definitely hadn’t meant to talk about Vince.
“I didn’t mean to bring that up.” Frustration threaded through his muscles and pulsed at the base of his neck. “The past has stolen too damn much from both of us.”
“Not anymore.” She met his gaze with a level one of herown. “I’m not any happier when I drive myself crazy worrying about a decision before I make it.”
“What are you saying?” He didn’t want to jump to conclusions about what that might mean for them, but his nerve endings were already humming at the possibilities. He leaned harder into the oars, driving them faster toward the shore.
“That I’ve decided you’re right. I’m ready to enjoy the right now.” She arched back to look up at the sky and lifted her hands in the air like she was on a speeding roller coaster ride instead of a rowboat. The wind tossed her hair and fluttered through her blouse, making her smile and exposing a patch of skin just above the waist of her jeans. “I’m ready to live in the moment.”
His mouth dried up at the sight of her.
“Then come home with me tonight.”
Chapter Eleven
Nina checked herwatch for the fifth time in as many minutes. She was back at the main convention building at the fairgrounds. Now that she’d made her decision to be with Mack, the clock’s movement had slowed to a crawl. She wondered if she could push the second hand to make time speed up so she could steal him away and have him all to herself.
“Everything okay, Nina?” Bethany asked from a spot at one of the sinks in the kitchen. She’d dropped by to help with the catering prep while Nina had been out in the rowboat. Nina had put her to work cleaning and sorting navy beans once she returned. “You seem distracted.”
Understatement of the year.
“Just trying to make sure I’ve got all the necessary components for the catering,” she fibbed as she cleaned a vat for a brine to soak the brisket. “The kitchen is fairly well stocked, but we’ll have to bring in the right spices and condiments, plus serving items and a generator…” She set aside the large kettle and dried her hands. “I’ve got a list going somewhere.”
Country music played through an outdated PA speaker as someone tested the fairgrounds’ sound system outside while volunteers set up a smoker for brisket. No matter how much Nina’s food service volunteers cleaned the kitchen, dust continued to be swept in from the parade of trucks delivering supplies to the kitchen and all the extra traffic on the main driveway from farmers donating hay bales for the straw maze. A couple of groundskeepers for the fair property had dropped in during the afternoon to make sure Nina had everything she needed, but right now the kitchen was quiet except for Bethany, Nina and Gram, who shuffled to the sink to take over Bethany’s bean-sorting duties.
“Do you have enough volunteers?” Bethany zeroed in on Nina’s half-completed list that she’d left on a countertop. “I can tap some friends if you need more hands in the kitchen.”
Nina only listened with half an ear. Her mind was on this evening and being with Mack again. Would she have time to change? At least the underwear she was wearing was nice, a fact she was foolishly grateful for. If only she had perfume. And what about condoms? It had been two years since she’d been with a guy, so she would have been rattled anyway.
But this wasn’t just any guy. This was Mack, and that somehow made the stakes higher at the same time it seriously ramped her up.
