for it to still be possible. When Harvey kissed Melissa, Lois sighed a romantic sigh that had Barney rolling his eyes and Lucy giggling, her breath creating little puffs of white air Daniel wanted to kiss away.
‘You can come in, you lot,’ Harvey called out, his eyes not leaving his bride-to-be.
Lucy opened up first and ran to Melissa, to see the ring, to throw her arms around her. Daniel shook hands with his brother, Lois embraced the both of them and so did Barney. These two were special to him and Daniel didn’t mind one bit.
‘We saw the entire thing,’ Lois admitted.
‘We know,’ Melissa laughed. ‘You weren’t exactly discreet about it.’
Barney had already turned the volume up on the iPod speaker. He and Lois were obviously on the same wavelength and, her with one hand on his shoulder and the other nestled in his hand, they began to dance. Melissa did the same with Harvey, dancing as though they were the only two people in the barn and hadn’t had an audience witness the proposal at all.
Daniel, heart pounding against his chest beneath his coat, looked at Lucy. In jeans and boots, her coat buttoned up to the wine-coloured scarf to keep the chill from her neck, blonde hair curled into big sexy waves and a hint of the cold creating a redness on her cheeks, she looked more beautiful than ever.
‘Come on, you two,’ Barney encouraged, ‘you can’t be in here if you’re not dancing.’ But he was an intuitive man and instead of forcing them together, he came over to take Lucy’s coat and put it on the stage before taking her hand to dance. Lois did the same for Daniel and soon they were dancing too, then he danced with Melissa, then it was back to their original partners as though the two warm-up dances had been put on by the others for his and Lucy’s benefit. Daniel had never been to one of the Wedding Dress Balls that Barney held. He’d seen people heading in this direction for the village event of the year, and until now he hadn’t understood the hype. But he could see it tonight. Even without any crowds the barn held a magical atmosphere. Or perhaps it was him being swept up in the moment, wishful thinking as he looked at Lucy.
Both on the sidelines as the others danced once again, he braved stepping closer to her. ‘I don’t bite, you know.’ For a moment he thought she was going to refuse but, instead, she let him take her hand.
Holding Lucy in his arms was something he’d wanted for a long time but having her so close was going to make it even worse if she wasn’t willing to give him a chance. He was supposed to be back at the pub right now offering to walk Lucy home, talking to her with nobody else around. But the plan hadn’t unfolded as expected and he was kind of glad it hadn’t. He wouldn’t have wanted to miss Harvey’s big moment and he definitely wouldn’t have wanted to miss this dance.
‘Can we go somewhere?’ he whispered into Lucy’s hair as the tune shifted to the next track, a throaty laugh escaping when he realised what his request sounded like. ‘I mean to talk.’
She nodded and they quietly grabbed their coats. With Barney and Lois happily dancing and Melissa and Harvey doing the same, they doubted they’d be missed.
‘Do you think it’ll snow soon?’ Lucy asked the minute they were outside the barn. She was nervous, he could tell. And somehow it made him calmer to know he wasn’t the only one.
‘It’s on the forecast tonight. The village is pretty spectacular covered in white, it snowed a couple of Christmases when I was younger.’
‘I’ve seen pictures,’ she smiled as she finished buttoning her coat and they passed through the archway and out of Barney’s front gate to the road that would lead up and around to The Street.
‘What did you think to the proposal?’ Bereft of anything else to talk about apart from the serious things weighing on his mind and hanging between the two of them, he went for the easy option.
‘It was special, he really took Melissa by surprise. Lois had us girls over for lunch yesterday. The barn was all decorated and Barney said they were trying to envisage what it would be like for winter parties or events. Melissa really had no idea this was on the cards.’
‘As far as