LITMIR.BIZ

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beginners. Everybody clapped to the rhythm until the very end, when the couple left the dance floor. Leo thought nobody could top that display until Harley walked to the bandleader, and the band suddenly broke into a Strauss waltz. That was when Harley and Janie took the floor. Then, even Matt and Leslie stood watching with admiration.

      Leo stared at the couple as if he didn’t recognize them. Involuntarily, he moved closer to the dance floor to watch. He’d never seen two people move like that to music besides Matt and Leslie.

      The rhythm was sweet, and the music had a sweeping beauty that Janie mirrored with such grace that it was like watching ballet. Harley turned and Janie followed every nuance of movement, her steps matching his exactly. Her eyes were laughing, like her pretty mouth, as they whirled around the dance floor in perfect unison.

      Harley was laughing, too, enjoying her skill as much as she enjoyed his. They looked breathless, happy—young.

      Leo finished his drink, wishing he’d added more whiskey and less soda. His dark eyes narrowed as they followed the couple around the dance floor as they kept time to the music. “Aren’t they wonderful?” Marilee asked wistfully. “I don’t guess you dance?”

      He did. But he wasn’t getting on that floor and making a fool of himself with Marilee, who had two left feet and the sense of rhythm of a possum.

      “I don’t dance much,” Leo replied tersely.

      She sighed. “It’s just as well, I suppose. That would be a hard act to follow.”

      “Yes.”

      The music wound to a peak and suddenly ended, with Janie draped down Harley’s side like a bolt of satin. His mouth was almost touching hers, and Leo had to fight not to go onto the floor and throw a punch at the younger man.

      He blinked, surprised by his unexpected reaction. Janie was nothing to him. Why should he care what she did? Hadn’t she bragged to everyone that he was taking her to this very dance? Hadn’t she made it sound as if they were involved?

      Janie and Harley left the dance floor to furious, genuine applause. Even Matt Caldwell and Leslie congratulated them on the exquisite piece of dancing. Apparently, Harley had been taking lessons, but Janie seemed to be a natural.

      But the evening was still young, as the Latin music started up again and another unexpected couple took the floor. It was Cash Grier, the new assistant police chief, with young Christabel Gaines in his arms. Only a few people knew that Christabel had been married to Texas Ranger Judd Dunn since she was sixteen—a marriage on paper, only, to keep herself and her invalid mother from losing their family ranch. But she was twenty-one now, and the marriage must have been annulled, because there she was with Cash Grier, like a blond flame in his arms as he spun her around to the throbbing rhythm and she matched her steps to his expert ones.

      Unexpectedly, as the crowd clapped and kept time for them, handsome dark-eyed Judd Dunn himself turned up in evening dress with a spectacular redhead on his arm. Men’s heads turned. The woman was a supermodel, internationally famous, who was involved at a film shoot out at Judd and Christabel’s ranch. Gossip flew. Judd watched Christabel with Grier and glowered. The redhead said something to him, but he didn’t appear to be listening. He watched the two dancers with a rigid posture and an expression more appropriate for a duel than a dance. Christabel ignored him.

      “Who is that man with Christabel Gaines?” Marilee asked Leo.

      “Cash Grier. He used to be a Texas Ranger some years ago. They say he was in government service as well.”

      Leo recalled that Grier had been working in San Antonio with the district attorney’s office before he took the position of assistant police chief in Jacobsville. There was a lot of talk about Grier’s mysterious past. The man was an enigma, and people walked wide around him in Jacobsville.

      “He’s dishy, isn’t he? He dances a paso doble even better than Matt, imagine that!” Marilee said aloud. “Of course, Harley does a magnificent waltz. Who would ever have thought he’d turn out to be such a sexy, mature man…”

      Leo turned on his heel and left Marilee standing by herself, stunned. He walked back to the drinks table with eyes that didn’t really see. The dance floor had filled up again, this time with a slow dance. Harley was holding Janie far too close, and she was letting him. Leo remembered what he’d said about her in the hardware store, and her wounded expression, and he filled another glass with whiskey. This time he didn’t add soda. He shouldn’t have felt bad, of course. Janie shouldn’t have been so possessive. She shouldn’t have gossiped about him…

      “Hi, Leo,” his sister-in-law Tess, said with a smile as she joined him, reaching for a clear soft drink.

      “No booze, huh?” he asked with a grin, noting her choice.

      “I don’t want to set a bad example for my son,” she teased, because she and Cag had a little boy now. “Actually, I can’t hold liquor. But don’t tell anybody,” she added. “I’m the wife of a tough ex-Special Forces guy. I’m supposed to be a real hell-raiser.”

      He smiled genuinely. “You are,” he teased. “A lesser woman could never have managed my big brother and an albino python all at once.”

      “Herman the python’s living with his own mate these days,” she reminded him with a grin, “and just between us, I don’t really miss him!” She glanced toward her husband and sighed. “I’m one lucky woman.”

      “He’s one lucky man.” He took a sip of his drink and she frowned.

      “Didn’t you bring Marilee?” she asked.

      He nodded. “Her wrist was still bothering her too much to drive, so I let her come with me. I’ve been chauffeuring her around ever since she sprained it.”

      Boy, men were dense, Tess was thinking. As if a woman couldn’t drive with only one hand. She glanced past him at Marilee, who was standing by herself watching as a new rhythm began and Janie moved onto the floor with Harley Fowler. “I thought she was Janie’s best friend,” she mentioned absently. “You can never tell about people.”

      “What do you mean?”

      She shrugged. “I overheard her telling someone that Janie had been spreading gossip about you and her all over town.” She shook her head. “That’s not true. Janie’s so shy, it’s hard for her to even talk to most men. I’ve never heard her gossip about anyone, even people she dislikes. I can’t imagine why Marilee would tell lies about her.”

      “Janie told everybody I was bringing her to the ball,” he insisted with a scowl.

      “Marilee told people that Janie said that,” Tess corrected. “You really don’t know, do you? Marilee’s crazy about you. She had to cut Janie out of the picture before she could get close to you. I guess she found the perfect way to do it.”

      Leo started to speak, but he hesitated. That couldn’t be true.

      Tess read his disbelief and just smiled. “You don’t believe me, do you? It doesn’t matter. You’ll find out the truth sooner or later, whether you want to or not. I’ve got to find Cag. See you later!”

      Leo watched her walk away with conflicting emotions. He didn’t want to believe—he wouldn’t believe—that he’d been played for a sucker. He’d seen Janie trying to become a cattleman with his own eyes, trying to compete with him. He knew that she wanted him because she’d tried continually to tempt him when he went to visit her father. She flirted shamelessly with him. She’d melted in his arms, melted under the heat of his kisses. She hadn’t made a single protest at the intimate way he’d held her. She felt possessive of him, and he couldn’t really blame her, because it was his own lapse of self-control that had given her the idea that he wanted her. Maybe he did, physically, but Janie was a novice and he didn’t seduce innocents. Her father was a business associate. It certainly wouldn’t be good business to cut his own throat with Fred by making a casual lover of Janie.

      He finished the whiskey

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