Dash pulled her close. She placed her hand on his shoulder, immediately struck dumb by the hard muscle beneath her palm. He started moving, and Savannah was amazed to discover that he was light on his feet and knew exactly how to lead. They danced for quite a long time without speaking a single word, and the silence became charged.
She needed to break it. “This is quite a production, isn’t it?”
“Yup,” he said as he suddenly changed direction and put her through a number of steps that had her moving forward and then backward and then forward again.
The silence swelled between them.
“You know,” she said, “people usually talk while they dance. Of course, I guess you and I don’t have much to say.”
He glanced down at her with a tiny quirk of his lips. “I reckon.”
He moved her through another pattern of intricate steps.
“But maybe we should have more to say,” she said.
“You think?”
“Yes. I do. It would be kind of weird for us to just dance here for fifteen minutes and say nothing.”
“I don’t know. I’ve danced with plenty of women who talk up a blue streak and manage not to say anything important. So if you’re talking to be sociable, you can quit. I like dancing just for dancing’s sake.”
“You know, Dash, you and I are more alike than either of us would like to admit.”
“How’s that?”
“We’re fatherless, to start with. And pigheaded. And kind of willful. And bratty.”
He laughed. “Yep, princess, that describes you to a T. Probably describes me, too.”
Just then Hugh and Rocky danced a little closer, and Rocky said, “See, I told you Dash was a great dancer. And y’all look so good together. I have to admit that I didn’t know how to waltz until Hugh taught me. And the band was playing this song. But you seem to have it down pat.”
Hugh twirled his wife away in a swooping turn. Hugh’s dancing style looked like it might have been in vogue back when Johann Strauss was burning up the charts in Vienna.
Dash’s technique was way more western, and infinitely more intimate. He glanced down at her. “What were we talking about, darlin’? I seem to remember it was a scintillating subject.”
“Not hardly,” she muttered.
“Okay, so maybe we should talk about books. Y’all have gotten pretty cozy with the ladies of the book club.”
“Do you read books?”
“Mostly automobile repair manuals. I reckon that’s not a good subject then.”
The band moved from “Can I Have This Dance” right into “You Were Always on My Mind,” and Dash pulled her close enough so that his rock-hard thighs grazed hers. He dropped his gigantic hands and spanned her waist. She had to move her own hands up over his shoulders. Only a couple of layers of denim separated them. That fabric was simultaneously not enough and way too much.
“Did Hugh bribe the band so they would play this song?” she asked.
The Stetson shaded his eyes, but the lopsided smile on his face told her all she needed to know. “You did?”
“Honey, you should know by now that actions speak louder than words. And we’re sending messages here. Did Rocky ever tell you about the barbecue dance last summer?”
“No, but the book club was talking about it.”
“Well, see, Rocky and I took one of Aunt Mim’s marital pronouncements and used it to match up Rachel and Bubba. So, see, I figure you and me are doing Bill and Jenny a big favor right now.”
Savannah cast her gaze in the minister’s direction. He was definitely enjoying Jenny’s pie, but Savannah didn’t get the feeling he was really enjoying Jenny all that much.
She watched him for a long moment and realized that he was looking off into the distance, and he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Hettie.
And Hettie, who was sitting with the book club, was looking at him, only she was trying not to be obvious about it. Goose bumps crawled up Savannah’s skin, and she got this odd feeling, halfway between an itch and a buzz.
Hettie and Bill?
Of course. Why didn’t anyone else see it?
Just then Dash pulled her so close that she was practically in the shade of his hat. And she momentarily forgot about everything else but him.
This was not the way cousins danced. Especially when he tucked her head under his chin, and she lost herself in the sturdy feel of him, the rhythm of the music, and the heat he kindled in every cell of her body.