Laurie shook her head. “Not in that dress. That dress belongs on a dance floor, where he can see it. If you’re in a movie, you could be wearing jeans and a T-shirt and it wouldn’t matter.”
“Good point. We’ll go dancing,” she said, all but sold on the dress and hang the nagging voice in her head that called for something more sensible. Being in Slade’s arms on a dance floor held too much appeal. Being in Slade’s arms at all was practically irresistible.
“Wait a second.” Laurie was shaking her head before Val finished the statement. “His leg, remember? He might hate the idea of dancing.”
“We’ve danced at parties here,” Val argued.
“Among friends.”
“He was a little awkward at first, but after that he was into it,” Val insisted. She grinned. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he’ll be glad to get his hands on me any way he can. He seems to have crossed the great divide between being pursued and becoming the pursuer.”
“And how do you feel being on the other side?” Laurie asked.
She considered the question thoughtfully. “Scared. Giddy. Confused.”
“Confused? Because you’re not sure of your feelings for him, after all?”
“That, too. More important, though, I have no idea what turned him around.” She sank down on the edge of the bed, clutching the heels that matched the red dress. Because it was Laurie asking, she forced herself to dig deep and try to explain her greatest fear. “A week ago, it was all about Annie. Now it seems to be about Slade and me. Did he just wake up one morning and decide he wanted me? Or is this some last-ditch effort to get me for Annie, after all?”
“So you still don’t trust his motives?” Laurie asked.
“Would you?”
“Probably not, which is why dating is good. If this is all pretense just to win you over, you’ll know soon enough. There’s not a man on earth who can actually fake being in love. They just aren’t clever enough to fool a woman, not for long, anyway.”
“Are you so sure about that?” Val asked, unable to keep a plaintive note out of her voice. “What if I get suckered in, just the way he wants me to, and find out I’m wrong?”
To her dismay, Laurie actually laughed at the question. “Sweetie, the person hasn’t been born yet who can fool you for long. You’re very intuitive about human nature. You’re warm and generous and caring, which is why Slade wants you in Annie’s life and his. He might be able to keep up a pretense for an evening or two, but you’ll see through it in a heartbeat. Besides, I don’t think Slade’s capable of long-term deception. Deep down, he’s too honest. That’s why he put his cards on the table in the first place. If he’s playing a different hand now, it’s because he wants to.”
“I suppose.”
Laurie gestured toward the red dress. “I say go for it. Make the man pay for holding out for so long, for making you doubt what you feel for him.”
Val grinned. “That dress is meant to make a grown man weep, isn’t it?”
“I imagine that depends on whether or not you decide to let him get you out of it,” Laurie replied with a wink. “Don’t let Harlan Patrick get a glimpse of it. He’ll be down at the barn warning Slade that you’re in a take-no-prisoners mood. It will ruin the element of surprise.”
* * *
Slade took one look at Val and almost abandoned his plans to take her to Garden City. The only place he wanted to take her was bed.
He was pretty sure he’d never seen a dress that slithered over a body as cleverly or as seductively as the red silk scrap she was wearing. Worn in winter, it would guarantee frostbite. It bared shoulders and cleavage and legs. In fact, he was hardpressed to decide what it did cover beyond the necessities. He swallowed hard and tried to find his voice.
“That’s...you look...”
She twirled around. “You like it?”
He ran a finger under his collar and wished he weren’t wearing a jacket. The temperature had to have gone up a good thirty degrees just since she’d opened the door.
“It’s, um... Are you sure you want to wear that just to go to the movies?”
“I thought maybe we’d go dancing instead,” she said, striding past him with that provocative sway that was devastating enough when she wasn’t encased in red silk. Practically overnight she’d turned