Page 52 of Sean

Tara shot her a look and took the bra from her younger girls. “This isn’t something that we show everyone, and you shouldn’t be digging through my drawers.”

“Told you,” Eden, the eldest, said. “I’ll put it away, Mom.”

“Thanks,” Tara said. “Then, it’ll be time to go show off our looks.”

The kids left but Emmy continued to snicker.

“I like to have something special for when Jude comes home.” Tara’s cheeks were red, but she was smiling.

“That’s how she got three babies so close together even with a husband who’s gone most of the time,” Emmy informed Julia with a smirk.

“Can’t deny it.” Tara was laughing, too.

Julia felt another little twinge that she’d no longer be able to share such moments with her sister. She missed the good-natured teasing. She missed being part of something. It was almost worse that she came so close to it here, that she was treated so much like a member of the family. But she wasn’t family. She was just a guest who’d be leaving soon. But thinking about that would just make her sad again, and why be sad when she had a party to go to?

She put on a smile and followed the other women toward the music that had just started.

TWENTY-SIX

Sean smiled as his mother came from the house in her party dress. She walked straight to Joe, who stood next to Sean on the lawn, and gave her husband a kiss. Making a grand entrance was part of the birthday party tradition. The kids came next. Amos escorted Eden, even though she was significantly taller than him. Ally Mae, Alice, and Lucy came out next in their finery with their arms linked.

Sean hooted and applauded for them. Their getups were a little ridiculous, but that was also part of the tradition. His sisters each made an entrance. Both wore fancy dresses, but with a level of sophistication that the kids lacked. He kissed each of their cheeks as they joined the rest of the family and the party guests on the lawn.

“Julia?” he said softly to Emmy.

“She’s coming,” Emmy assured him.

Just then, Julia stepped onto the porch and came down the two steps to the lawn. Damn, she looked amazing in a white dress that showed off every curve. He already thought she was beautiful—had from the first moment he saw her—but he felt like he was seeing her for the first time again now that she was done up to impress. Her smile was nervous, though, as she walked toward him in her high heels. He could tell that she wasn’t used to being the center of attention, even if she deserved to be.

“Hi,” she whispered, taking the arm he offered.

Everything in him wanted to pull her closer and kiss her—to hell with keeping what was between them private. But that wasn’t what they’d agreed to, and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. “You look amazing.”

“So do you.”

When he’d gone inside to change, he’d found a pair of dress pants and a collared shirt on his bed, which he had to assume was his mother’s doing.

Soon, everyone had a plate of food and a drink in hand. It was more people than Sean had been around in years, and it felt right. Everyone wished Emmy a happy birthday and piling gifts on a table for her. She was smiling and flitting among the well-wishers.

Julia had left his side to help with the food and now she had her camera in hand, capturing the event. She was moving around, as unobtrusively as a woman in a killer dress could, to take pictures. If she thought that was her only role for the party, she was wrong. Sean broke off his conversation with one of the ranch hands when the music shifted to something slow and sultry.

Seconds later he was at Julia’s side, taking the camera from her hand. “Time to dance.”

“Oh, I…I shouldn’t. I was planning to—”

“Dance with me,” he said quickly and added in a low tone. “If I don’t get my hands on you, I’m going to lose my mind. Dancing is the only way I can do that without making a scene.”

She pursed her lips together and glanced over the party-goers before responding. “You’ve got a point. I want your hands on me.”

“Then, we’re good.” He put her camera in a safe place and led her onto the makeshift dance floor. His parents were already there along with four other couples, swaying to the music.

“I didn’t expect dancing,” she said as she settled against him.

“Always part of the celebration. Awkward as hell when I was a kid. But I like it now.” He really did. She fit so perfectly in his arms. He didn’t have to look to his family members to know that they were making assumptions about him and Julia. At the moment, he didn’t give a damn. All he wanted was right here.

One song had transitioned to another when Lucy ran up and tugged on Julia’s dress. “Aunt Julia, Pedro says that two of the horses are going to have babies in July. Will we be here?”

Julia let go of him and knelt in front of her niece. “We won’t be living here then, but maybe Tara or Emmy will send us pictures or video of the babies.”

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