Shannon looked toward the jukebox and just about spilled her margarita.
Luke?
Chapter 10
For several seconds Shannon held her breath, feeling as if the world had suddenly jolted to a halt. Luke looked good. No, not good. Great. When she’d seen him that afternoon, he’d been dirt and sweat from head to toe. But now…
He wore a denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and even at this distance, she had no difficulty admiring the way that shirt stretched across his broad, muscled chest. His straw hat dipped low over his forehead, and his hands were wrapped around a beer. A second later, he tipped that bottle up to take a sip, highlighting those tanned, muscled forearms. Just watching him made her mouth go dry as dust, and she could have cheerfully sat right there and stared at him for the rest of the evening. Hell, the rest of her life. She fought the feeling, but she was one margarita down already, making resistance impossible.
But what kept her from enjoying the view were the two young, attractive women who sat at his table, one on either side of him. Luke seemed to be listening to them as if they were actually saying something interesting, which Shannon doubted. After all, they weren’t exactly dressed to impress him with their intellect, which meant he was probably more fascinated by what was below their necks than what was above them.
Then he turned around and looked directly at Shannon.
She swallowed hard, wishing she’d turned away before he looked at her. Now she felt compelled to play the game—who was going to blink first? The music pounded inside her head, mingling with her friends’ mindless chatter, but she kept her attention on Luke. She put the straw to her lips and sipped her margarita, the icy liquid doing nothing to counteract his hot gaze. But she didn’t care if a meteor hit, she wasn’t blinking. Then one of the women tapped Luke on the arm, and he automatically turned to look at her.
There. She’d won!
But then the woman was running her fingertip up and down Luke’s forearm, sitting so close to him their thighs were almost touching. Shannon frowned. If she’d won, why did she feel like such a loser?
“Has he been there the whole time we’ve been here?” Eve asked.
“He showed up about ten minutes before you guys did,” Terri said. “Do you know him?”
“Oh, yeah,” Eve said. “That’s Luke Dawson.”
“Oh, my God,” Tasha said, her big eyes even wider than usual. “I see why you’re stressing. He’s way hotter than he was in high school, and that’s saying a lot.”
“I didn’t think you liked cowboys.”
“I don’t.”
Then came another surprise. Luke rose from his chair, took one of the women by the hand, and led her to the dance floor. Moments later they were two-stepping to the music.
Shannon watched with astonishment. Even favoring his knee, he danced with the kind of grace a man his size should never have had, looking far more at ease in front of a crowd than she could ever have imagined. The Luke she’d known would have hung back in the shadows, his hat brim shading his eyes and emphasizing his brooding expression. Yet here he was dancing like a man who’d spent hours in honky tonks from coast to coast, picking up women and twirling them around dance floors.
“I don’t believe it,” she said. “He’s dancing.”
“I know,” Tasha said.
“Why is that weird?” Terri asked.
“You didn’t know him before,” Tasha said, looking confused. “He wouldn’t have…it just wasn’t like him to…” Finally she just shook her head. “Luke Dawson dancing is just wrong.”
Shannon agreed wholeheartedly. And yet there he was doing it.
The song ended. Luke escorted his partner back to their table, and when the band started the next song, he danced with the other woman he’d been sitting with. Shannon just sat there, stunned. And when song number three came, he headed to the dance floor with yet another woman.
“He sure likes to have a good time, doesn’t he?” Eve said.
“Yeah, he’s really energizing the place,” Terri said. “Maybe I can pay him to show up every night just to keep things hopping.”
“You could have a Ladies’ Night,” Eve said. “Promise them Luke will be here to dance with every woman in the place.”
Not every woman, Shannon thought.
Not that she cared one way or the other. She took a hefty sip of margarita number two,