Always on My Mind Page 0,52

over a rock in the dark and Grayson caught her in his arms. And when she looked into the barn over his shoulder, she realized everyone was gawking at them.

"I don't think you'll have any problem convincing the neighbors that you're off the market," she murmured as she drew back from him.

"Good," was all he said as he brought her fully inside the barn.

The barn was just as beautifully lit up inside as it was outside. She saw the hay bales lining the large space, the country band playing up on the stage at the far end of the building, the dance floor that had been cleared in front of them, and the drink and food stations positioned all throughout the rest of the barn.

She was the only person in satin and heels, although there were plenty of sequins on display, so at least she'd gotten one thing right. She'd intended to make Grayson look ridiculous...only now she was the one who had to get through the night looking like she should be at the Oscars rather than at a community dance. Whereas Grayson looked exactly right in his dark jeans, denim shirt, cowboy boots, and hat.

"Grayson, glad you could make it." A man in Wranglers and a big black cowboy hat that matched his shiny black boots patted Grayson on the shoulder hard enough that she could feel it vibrate through her.

"Place looks great, Joe," Grayson responded. "I'd like you to meet Lori."

The man tipped his hat to her. "Pretty girls are always welcome in my barn." He winked at her. "Just don't tell my wife I said that."

"What are you not supposed to tell me?" asked an attractive middle-aged woman with honey-blonde hair wearing a jean skirt that fell to her knees and a leather vest over a fitted white shirt. She smiled at Grayson, but her eyes chilled a bit as she took in Lori's outfit.

"That I've never been to a barn dance before," Lori said with a smile that she hoped didn't betray how out of place she felt. She hadn't met this woman at the CSA pick-up, but everyone else had been so nice there she had no reason to think this woman wouldn't be nice, too. "Everything looks amazing."

"Thank you," the other woman said with perfect politeness, before turning back to Grayson and saying, "I'm so pleased you finally decided to come to one of our dances. You'll have to tell me what changed your mind."

Lori looked at Grayson in surprise. He'd never been to one of these before? He'd made it sound like they hadn't had a choice. What reason could he have had to force her to come with him?

But before he could answer the woman's question, more people started coming up to talk to him. He was, she realized, a very popular man. And yet, they hadn't had a single visitor on the farm in the week she'd been working for him. It was almost as if everyone was scared of ruining the perfect wall of solitude he'd built up around himself over the past three years.

A short while later, a little girl with pigtails skirted through the adults' legs to touch her dress, but just as Lori was about to bend down to say hello, the frosty woman pulled her away.

I'm not here to cause any trouble, Lori wanted to tell her. All I want to do is help Grayson, I swear.

The band began to play a song by one of her favorite bands, and from around the men with whom Grayson was talking about tractors, she could see the people on the dance floor trying to do a line dance. She craned her neck to see better, but her view was impeded where they were standing.

She felt Grayson's thumb brush lightly across her palm as he said, "You want to dance."

He said it as if he didn't know that she wasn't interested in dancing ever again, as if she hadn't already told him that dancing meant nothing to her anymore.

"No," she said firmly, even though she was getting that little itch in the soles of her feet that always happened when just the right song was playing. "It's just that if, instead of doing a brush kick on the two, they pivoted - "

She realized, too late, that he was giving her a funny look, and clamped her lips shut.

"Sounds like you know this dance pretty well," he pointed out.

She would have tried to play off her reaction to