Page 21 of Taming I Do
“That sounds kind of cool. Let me see what I can come up with to work with that.”
“Really?” Lacey turned a questioning eye my way. “I suppose butterflies are kind of romantic.”
“Doesn’t matter what you think. It just matters what Ms. Stone thinks.”
Lacey shrugged. “That’s true.”
I glanced over at Delilah, who sat clapping her hands along with the music coming from Kirby’s steel guitar. As I reached for two cups of fresh-squeezed lemonade, Lacey bumped me with her hip.
“Who’s that?”
“Who’s who?”
“Sitting down next to our judge. Please tell me that’s not Adeline.” Her eyes narrowed.
I followed her gaze. Adeline took the seat opposite Delilah at the two-top table. She reached over and shook hands. Then bent her head toward Miss Lovin’ Texas like she was about to divulge world secrets.
“Jasper, we’ve got to get over there and find out what’s going on. We can’t have Adeline messing with our chance to win.” Lacey drained the rest of her lemonade and tossed her cup in the trash. “Let’s go.”
I covered the short distance to the table with Lacey on my heels. “Here’s your lemonade.”
“Thank you.” Delilah wrapped her hand around the red plastic cup.
“Jasper. Lacey.” Adeline nodded, making her short bob swing. “I was just telling Delilah how disappointed we were to be out of the running. We all know Swynton is a much more romantic place to spend some time.”
“Maybe if y’all hadn’t cheated you’d still be up for consideration.” Lacey lifted a shoulder.
“We didn’t do anything wrong. And I’m going to prove it.” Adeline got up from her seat. “Ms. Stone, if you’d like to experience some real Texas hospitality, you let me know. Wehave a gorgeous bed-and-breakfast right downtown that would be happy to host you during your stay.”
Something jabbed into my shin. I winced and bent down to rub my hand over the spot. As I glanced up at Lacey, she made her eyes go wide and nudged her chin toward the dance floor. What was that supposed to mean?
“The music is lovely, isn’t it?” Lacey asked. “Are you much of a dancer, Ms. Stone?” Again, with the tilt of the head toward the dance floor.
“I’ve taken some variety of dance classes most of my life. But mainly to help with posture. Definitely not to perform.” Delilah turned her upper body to glance at the couples twirling around the dance floor.
“Would you like to dance?” I asked, finally connecting the dots on what Lacey was trying to get me to do.
“I’d love to. Will you excuse us?” She stood and took a step in front of me.
I put my hand at the small of her back and guided her toward the small clearing they’d set up for dancing, praying I wouldn’t make a fool out of myself. Lacey hadn’t mentioned dancing as a requirement of taking on the role of hospitality host. I hadn’t led a woman around a dance floor in a long time.
“Sorry about that.” I clasped Delilah’s hand in mine and put my arm around her waist. She smelled like every happy memory I’d ever had—a mixture of lemons and bright summer days. Who could have imagined someone could bottle up the scent of joy?
“I’m used to women getting territorial. Comes with competing in pageants.” Her hand rested lightly on my shoulder.
I wanted to pull her close and let myself breathe her in, one long breath at a time. But we were only on day one. I had twenty-nine more days of being subjected to the sunshine of Delilah Stone. Best not ruin it all the first night.
“Adeline doesn’t like to lose.”
“I gathered.” She smiled. “No one really likes to lose though, do they?”
From this close I could catch the way the light sparkled in her smoky green eyes. “I suppose not.”
“The way a person handles a loss can tell you quite a bit about them, don’t you think?”
I thought back to the year my high school football team lost the division title to Swynton. Some of the guys wanted to head across the river and interfere with their parade. Coach had pretty much told them the same thing. Winning was great but showing that you could handle a loss said more about a person’s character.
“I think you’re right.” I lifted my hand from her waist and twirled her around before nestling her against my chest.
