The Rancher's Dance (12 page)

They reached the clearing through the trees where Leandra and J.D. were already setting out food on a folding
table. Sarah's two older children, Megan and Eli, were clambering over the boulders along the edge of the water, while her husband, Max, was already in the water with four-year-old Ben on his shoulders. Lucy also spotted J.D.'s twin stepsons, Zach and Connor, looking like wet seals bobbing up and down beneath the water's surface. Their father, Jake, was watching from the bank, holding his and J.D.'s baby, Tucker, and smiling. His aunt Susan was stretched out on a folding lounge next to him, reading a book.

“Where's Evan?” Lucy didn't immediately spot Leandra's husband.

“He got called out on a colicky horse,” Leandra said. “He'll try to make it later.”

“Any news on Angel yet?”

J.D. shook her head. “I talked to my very impatient sister this morning. She's not real happy that yesterday came and went with no baby. She had her doctor's appointment last week and everything's looking good, though, and they've already told her they won't let her go too long before inducing labor.”

“You going to go over and help for a few days?”

“No, she's not,” Jake said loudly from bankside.

J.D. just grinned and waved her husband off. “He's afraid I'm going to leave him alone with Tuck and the boys,” she whispered. “He
hates
changing diapers. I caught him actually trying to bribe Connor into doing it the other day.”

“Sounds like a typical man to me,” Tara said, walking up with a stack of paper plates and cups under one arm and her one-year-old, Aidan, under the other. “Axel always manages to somehow disappear whenever there's a diaper change coming.”

Lucy grabbed the plates and cups and leaned over to nuzzle her nose against the toddler's. He grinned,
showing off his little white teeth and slapped her face. “Can I take him?”

“Please.” Tara smiled wryly and Lucy plucked the boy out of her cousin-in-law's arms, swinging him around before hugging him close.

The boy chortled and jabbered away, kicking his legs.

Lucy grinned back. “I have no idea what you're saying, but it's
fascinating.
”

“He talks nonstop,” Axel drawled, coming up behind them with an enormous ice chest in his arms that he set next to the table. “Don't you, bud?” He stuck his face in front of his son's, who squealed and kicked even harder.

“Daddy, daddy, daaaaaaaaaddy!”

“Now that's pretty understandable,” Lucy admitted, handing him over to his dad before he completely jumped out of her arms.

Axel swung Aidan onto his shoulder and the boy's fingers grabbed hold of great hunks of his dad's blond hair. “Looks like most of the gang's all here.” He sketched a wave toward Jake and Max. “Ryan and Mall were just driving up. I think I saw Courtney sitting in the back with Chloe even.”

“And Casey and Erik went on a beer run,” Leandra added, naming two more of their cousins. “They should be back anytime now.”

Lucy rubbed her palms down the back of her cutoff jeans. “I, uh, I invited a few more,” she admitted and felt several sets of eyes swivel her way.

“More the merrier,” Axel commented easily on his way toward the water's edge.

Sarah, however, was looking at her knowingly. “Your friendly neighborhood rancher-slash-builder, perhaps?”

“Yes.” She shrugged casually. “All of the Venturas, actually.” She nodded toward Susan Reeves across the water.
“That night at Colbys it looked like Stan was pretty taken with Susan. And Shelby will fit right in with all the kids here. She's so shy, but this crowd's not going to let that stand in their way. She'll have a blast.”

Sarah nodded, but she clearly wasn't fooled. “You know I agree with Ax. We all do. The more the merrier. But are you sure you're not getting into something…else?”

Lucy wasn't sure of anything and her cousin obviously knew it. “I just want to see them all have a good time,” she insisted. “Maybe see a smile on Beck's face.”

“Good luck with that,” J.D. murmured as she tore open a bag of tortilla chips and pulled out a handful. “Jake met with the guy a while back to see if he'd be interested in designing the horse barns out at our new place and he said he'd never met anyone so solemn.”

“Beck's working on Crossing West?” J.D. had met Jake Forrest when she'd worked as a horse trainer for him at Forrest's Crossing, his thoroughbred farm in Georgia. He'd also been president of Forco, one of the largest textile firms in the country. But then he'd followed J.D. back to Wyoming and they'd gotten married, and now Jake's sister had assumed the helm of their family business and he had turned his focus solely to horses. He still raced the thoroughbreds he bred, but now he and J.D. were building Crossing West outside of Weaver where it wouldn't necessarily be thoroughbreds running in the fields but rescue horses.

“Nope.” J.D. was succinct. “He turned Jake down. Didn't say why.” She rolled her eyes a little and smiled faintly. “But as we all know, not many people ever turn down my husband. It's just made him more determined than ever to get Beck on the project. Jake says he's one of the most well-regarded architects of his generation, but he up and sold his entire practice a few years ago.”

Lucy stared. She'd known he was an architect, but she hadn't known that. Given the timing, she assumed he'd left his practice around the time his wife had died. “Well,” she spread her hands, “he said he'd come. So…I hope everyone's okay with it.”

“Of course,” Sarah assured.

“Heck, yeah,” J.D. agreed. “My husband's probably going to try to use the situation to his advantage, but maybe I can keep him otherwise occupied.” She batted her lashes.

“Take off the shirt covering your swimsuit,” Leandra advised drily. “That usually does the trick.”

J.D. laughed and did just that, whipping her oversized shirt off her head to reveal the shining aqua one-piece that showed off a figure just as whipcord lean now as it had been before she'd had Tucker nearly five months earlier. She tossed the shirt aside before sauntering toward the water.

And they all laughed outright when Jake's dark head swiveled in his wife's direction like a heat-seeking missile.

“They're still newlyweds,” Sarah said.

“You're all still newlyweds as far as I'm concerned,” Lucy countered. The longest any of her cousins had been married was three or four years. She looked back through the trees when she heard footsteps crunching over the ground.

But it was just Casey and Erik returning with the beer and her pulse settled back down again. They also had cases of soda with them, and for several minutes after that, Lucy kept herself busy helping them store the bottles and cans inside the coolers.

She was sweating by the time she was through. She spread her own beach towel out on the bumpy ground that
was made soft by the clover that grew thick and lush right down to the water's edge, peeled off her T-shirt and toed off her sandals, and headed toward the boulders. Specifically the largest—and flattest—one that stuck out over the water. She grabbed the thick rope that dangled down from the tree branches above and felt the familiar, rough knots against her palms.

Lucy looked from the trees where there was still no sign of Beck, back to the water where her cousins had all gravitated, splashing babies' hands and tossing the older kids around. Before the hollowness inside her could get too deep, she took a bounding leap with the rope in her fists and swung out over the water, dropping through the surface with a splash.

She came up shivering and shoved the hair out of her face. “Oh my
God,
” she choked on a laugh. “I forgot how freaking cold it is!”

 

Beck could hear the laughter and the screams even before he parked his truck next to the haphazard collection of vehicles.

“You're doing the right thing,” Stan said, sitting next to him.

Beck grimaced at his father. Spending the anniversary of his wife's death like a hermit hadn't made the day pass any easier the previous year or the year before that. But he seriously doubted that spending the day this year among people he barely knew was going to be any better.

So why on earth had he agreed to come when Lucy had asked?

“Daddy, come
on.
” Shelby leaned over the back of his seat as far as her safety belt would allow.

And maybe the fact that she hadn't whispered it was the reason why. She hadn't been whispering for a week now,
and the only thing different in their life was her ballet lessons with Lucy.

He was grateful for that. But that didn't mean he was happy about his daughter's fascination with the woman. Lucy was still going to leave, sooner or later, and he didn't want Shelby heartbroken as a result.

And yet, here they were.

He exhaled roughly, shut off the engine and got out. His father did, too, and opened the back door for Shelby while Beck grabbed the towels and the folding lawn chairs they'd picked up on their way through Weaver at the big-box store on the edge of town.

Shelby chased ahead, poor Gertrude flopping by the ear she was clutching, and Beck had to bite back the words cautioning her to slow down. When he reached the clearing just a few seconds after her, the first thing he saw was Lucy.

She was wearing a deep red bikini top and a pair of soaking wet cutoffs that hung so low on her bare hips that he couldn't help but wonder if she was wearing anything else beneath.

She was standing on an enormous, flat rock, clutching the end of a rope fastened above her and even as he watched, she let out a whoop and swung out over the water, her wet hair streaming in the air behind. And then she let go of the rope and sailed, shapely butt first, into the swimming hole. Which—a small portion of his working mind recognized—was more like a lake than a mere “hole.”

She came up laughing and slicking her hair back from her face, and when her gaze turned in his direction, the sparkle in those aquamarine blues hit him square in the gut.

“Hey!” Her head bobbed above the water as she stroked toward them until her feet must have been able to reach
bottom and she began walking, rising out of the water like some sort of teenage boy's fantasy.

Or a grown man's.

“You
did
come.” She was smiling. “I was beginning to wonder if you'd changed your mind. I'm glad you didn't.”

The smile felt like it was all for him, but she looked downward toward Shelby and leaned over his daughter, dribbling water on her.

Shelby giggled and squirmed and wrapped her arms around Lucy's middle, hugging her tightly as her face beamed.

“If you're going to get wet hugging me,” Lucy told her, “you might as well get wet in the water. You have some catching up to do. We've all been in the water at least an hour.”

Shelby's head swiveled toward him. “Can I?”

Beck swallowed his misgivings and nodded. “That's what we came for.” It was just as much a reminder to himself as permission for her.

In a flash, Shelby was out of her sundress and sandals and bouncing through the clover in the purple bathing suit she'd had on underneath. Her hand clutched Lucy's as they splashed into the water.

His father's hand closed over his shoulder for a second, squeezing. “This is a good thing,” Stan said under his breath. Then he, too, was heading off toward the lake. Not surprisingly, his aim wasn't the water but the attractive Susan Reeves who'd leaned up on one elbow from the lounge where she was laying to watch his approach.

Beck dumped the chairs and the towels on the ground and slowly leaned over to pick up Gertrude, lying discarded along with Shelby's dress.

Everyone was moving on.

Everyone except him.

He looked away from the merriment going on in the water and unfolded the chairs.

“Here.” A bottle of beer came at him from the side and he looked up to see Jake Forrest holding it. “You look like you need it.”

“Shows, huh?”

Jake smiled faintly. He was holding a beer himself, and he sat down easily in one of Beck's cheap lawn chairs as if he'd been invited. “Changed your mind about that job I proposed?”

Beck bit back a sigh and sat, too. He didn't really want the beer, but he twisted off the top, just for something to focus on. “No.”

“I'd think a man like you would get bored playing around with small-time construction jobs like the room you're doing for Cage and Belle.”

“You'd be wrong, then.” Beck tipped the bottle to his lips and swallowed. “I grew up working as much construction as I did working on a ranch. It was only because of my late—” he made himself say the word “—wife that I got into architecture.” His gaze strayed back to Lucy, who was standing on one of the smaller boulders, this time with his soaking-wet daughter shivering beside her. “Is that water deep?”

“Deep enough they won't hurt themselves jumping in,” Jake assured. “Why'd you give up architecture?”

Beck eyed the other man. “None of your business,” he returned just as evenly.

Jake didn't look fazed. Beck hadn't figured the man would. He might have walked away from a fairly successful career, but he damn sure hadn't ever run a company the likes of Forco, which employed people all over the country.

He sat back in his chair. “My dad's interested in your aunt,” he commented just to change the subject.

“She seems interested in him. Is that a problem?” Jake sat forward suddenly. “Zach.” His voice was warning and one of the kids in the water guiltily set the frog he'd been holding behind a skinny girl's head down on the bank. Jake sat back again and propped his ankle on his knee. It was obvious that he, too, at some point had been in the water.

“No,” Beck returned truthfully. “Not a problem at all.”