she had gained a few feet of space, she turned around, almost running out of the barn in her need to get away from Jake’s magnetism.
“Are you ready?” Ronny said, waddling into the kitchen of Jake’s house. Rick was right behind her and smiled as soon as he saw Elissa.
He whistled as he watched her walk into the room. At Veronica’s urging, Elissa had borrowed an outfit. She was now wearing a red, cotton skirt that flew out around her legs when she twirled. She had a white button-down shirt tucked into the skirt and a denim jacket over that. On her feet were a pair of red cowgirl boots and a black Stetson on her head.
Elissa twirled to show off her new digs. “Do I look like I belong?” she asked, the skirt flying up around her legs as she spun.
“I don’t know. Jake, what do you think?” Ronny asked, laughing at Elissa’s eager expression.
Elissa almost tripped on her feet as she spun around to find Jake watching her in the doorway. He was leaning against the kitchen doorway, his eyes traveling from the top of her head down to her red boots, then back up to her face that was now flushed with color.
“I’d say she’ll fit the part,” he smiled. “Ready to go?” he asked and pushed away from the wall.
“You’re coming too?” Elissa asked. If she’d known that, Elissa never would have agreed to come to the dance tonight. She definitely didn’t want to watch Jake dancing in the arms of another woman but she didn’t delve into that reasoning too much.
“Of course,” Ronny laughed. “Practically the whole town shows up for these dances. It isn’t much, but it’s fun and we all have a good time. I promise,” she said and put her hand through Elissa’s arms to guide her out of the house.
“Are you driving Jake?” she called behind her.
“Yep,” he said and pulled the keys off the hook in the kitchen. The two men followed closely behind the women and Veronica nudged Elissa into the front seat next to Jake while she and Rick took the back seat.
Elissa sat nervously in the front seat, letting Ronny and Rick do most of the talking. She tried to keep her eyes on the road, but her gaze kept straying to Jake’s thigh clad in black jeans. She liked his hands as well and she noticed that his strong hand was hanging casually on the armrest between them. He laughed easily and talked about the latest activities from town that Ronny relayed to them. Elissa didn’t know the people they were talking about but she liked to listen to their discussion. Or more to the point, she liked listening to Jake’s deep voice with it’s western accent and his easy banter. Was there anything about this man that didn’t fascinate her, she wondered?
The drive to the dance took less than a half hour and Ronny was almost jumping up and down in her excitement to get inside and start dancing. Elissa laughed but remembered her friend’s reasoning for dragging Elissa to the dance so Rick would have someone to dance with.
Elissa suspected that Ronny was doing a little matchmaking. Jake and Rick walked behind Elissa and Ronny, both chuckling over some private joke. As soon as they were inside, Ronny pulled Elissa over to a table already full of couples. “Everyone, this is my friend Elissa Stone,” She said and introduced her to everyone at the table. There were several other couples, all of whom slid over to make room for the four new people.
Elissa was instantly brought into the conversation with the other women. They talked about babies and their men and Elissa could only listen and nod her head as if she understood. She didn’t though. She had no idea what it was like to know a man so deeply that they could share teasing jokes about house chores and children together. Her eyes glanced up and searched out the one man she wanted to know more about. Just as she found him, he glanced over at her as well. Their eyes held for a long moment. Finally, he took a long swig of beer, then strolled over to where she was sitting. He put an arm around her chair. “Want to dance?” he asked.
“Oh, no. I don’t know how,” she said breathlessly.
“Well, then, I think a lesson is in order,” he said and took her hand in his and pulled her onto the