A Sweetheart for Jude Fortune. Cindy Kirk

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      The way she looked at him told Jude she could be persuaded to prolong the date...if dancing was part of the package.

      “Naw.” He took her arm. “Easy. Want to give it a try?”

      After a second’s hesitation, she nodded. “Sure. Sounds like fun.”

      He looped an arm companionably around her shoulders as they walked. “Have I told you I like a woman with an adventurous spirit?”

      Gabi simply laughed, the moon scattering light on the dark hair that hung past her shoulders.

      As Jude expected, the place was packed. He’d hoped to find a quiet table in a corner where he and Gabi could be alone when they weren’t on the dance floor. But the second he walked in and saw friends and relatives scattered throughout the bar, he knew there would be no alone time. Not this evening.

      They ended up at a table with two of his brothers and several ranch hands. When one of the cowboys kept talking to Gabi, Jude gave the guy a dark glance, making it clear the lady was with him.

      But was she? Though Gabi didn’t flirt with the other men, she also didn’t cling to him. It was almost as if they were buddies, out for a night on the town together.

      If that’s the way she wanted it, he’d be her buddy. In time, they’d be more. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d told Liam and Sawyer she was The One. The moment she’d run into him, he recognized her as the woman he’d been waiting for his whole life. Corny, but true.

      When the band began to play a current country classic, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to the dance floor. As predicted she picked up the steps easily. Two quick. Two slow.

      “You’re doing great. That’s it.” Approval mixed with the encouragement in his tone. “Let your feet glide.”

      Gabi had a natural sense of rhythm. Her lithe but curvy body surprised him with some great moves within the simple step. As they danced, her cheeks flushed with color and her smile flashed often.

      The band took a brief break, and he and Gabi were on their way back to the table when they ran across Sawyer and Laurel. While Gabi chatted with them, Jude excused himself.

      When he returned, her head jerked up at the Richie Ray tune that the band had begun to play.

      “That’s salsa music.” Delight filled her eyes even as they narrowed suspiciously. “Did you have anything to do with this?”

      “Do you want to stand here and talk?” he asked then held out a hand. “Or shall we dance?”

      “You can salsa?” Delight filled her voice.

      In answer, he led her to the dance floor and proceeded to show her some of his moves.

      The night passed quickly. Jude couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much fun or danced to so many songs. By the time she grabbed his arm and pulled him from the dance floor, his breath came in short puffs.

      Gabi’s own breath wasn’t all that steady. “I think I’m going to call it a night.”

      Her cheeks were pink and her lips reminded Jude of a plump, ripe strawberry from his mother’s summer garden. She looked so pretty, and he wanted her so badly that he almost kissed her right then, in front of half the citizens of Horseback Hollow.

      Then he remembered what Sawyer had said about her father being overprotective. If Jude Fortune Jones kissed Orlando Mendoza’s daughter on the dance floor of the Two Moon Saloon, news would be all over town by morning.

      And even some sixty miles away in Lubbock, before Orlando finished his breakfast, someone would mention the incident to him. There was no reason to get the man stirred up when he was trying to recover. Besides, the way Jude saw it, what happened between him and Gabi was personal. That’s how he preferred to keep it. For now.

      Gabi paused at the edge of the dance floor, leaning close to ensure he could hear her over the twang of the steel guitar. “My father’s house isn’t far so—”

      “Hey, Jude.” A leggy redhead he’d dated last summer sidled up to him, her fingers traveling up his sleeve. “I got the band to promise they’d do the electric slide next. Told them it’s our song.”

      “Sorry, Lissa.” He put his hand on the small of Gabi’s back. “We were just leaving.”

      Gabi opened her mouth as if to protest, but he closed it with a brief, hard kiss.

      His pretty Latina’s long lashes fluttered, and when he pulled back, she appeared slightly dazed.

      “Oh.” Lissa frowned, her gaze shifting between Jude and Gabi. “I saw you dancing, but I didn’t realize you two were together, together.”

      “We are. Great seeing you, Lis.” Without giving the redhead a chance to respond to his pronouncement, he took Gabi’s arm and propelled her out the front door.

      Once they reached the sidewalk, Gabi dug in her heels. “Stay. Dance with your friend. My father’s house isn’t far. I can walk myself home.”

      “Not alone.”

      The flat quality to his voice must have raised red flags. Concern filled her eyes. “Isn’t it safe?”

      “It’s not that.” No matter how much Jude wanted her to stay with him and not take off on her own, he refused to lie. “You’d be perfectly safe. The fact is, I’m not nearly ready for the night to end.”

      “Oh,” she said, then again. “Oh.”

      “Unless this is your way of saying it’s been fun but it’s time for me to get lost?”

      Gabi slowly shook her head and the tight knot in his belly dissolved. She rested her hand on his biceps. “I enjoy being with you.”

      “Good.” He tucked her fingers more firmly around his arm.

      In no particular hurry, they strolled down the sidewalk, soon exchanging the noise and lights of the downtown district for an occasional barking dog. Still warm from the dancing, Jude let his coat hang open.

      Gabi kept hers firmly cinched around her waist. Thin blood from the hot Florida weather, he decided.

      Jude gently locked his fingers with hers. Their hands swung slightly between them as they walked. For a second, he could see his parents strolling down the lane in the evening after supper, holding hands in companionable silence.

      He and his siblings had thought it strange. For the first time, though, he understood that contentment. Feeling the warmth of Gabi’s hand against his, seeing her face bathed in moonlight, he was happy sharing this moment with her, simply being with her.

      They were almost to her father’s house when out of the corner of his eyes, he saw her lips twitch. “Something funny?”

      “Just remembering my high school days.” She gave his hand a squeeze and smiled. “Back then my father would be waiting up for me with the porch light blazing.”

      Her СКАЧАТЬ