How Cassie Got Her Grind Back(Divine Creek Ranch 23)(11)

“What?”

“Bill hurt her, and it’s taken time for her to recover, but it looks to me as if she has. You know she’s as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside, and other men see that as well. She won’t be single forever. You going to take your chance before you lose it again?”

“I plan to. We plan to.”

Hank’s eyebrow arched, and he smiled. “We? As in…”

“Yes. And we’ll be at the damned high school reunion  . But Cassandra isn’t to know that yet.”

“I can keep a secret. I’ll drop the tickets by your dispatch office one day next week. There she is, buddy. Go get her,” Hank said, lifting his rocks glass in a toast.

Samson set his empty glass on the bar and approached Cassie after her dance partner had returned her to her group of friends, standing in the corner near a marble statue.



* * * *



“Oh, he’s coming this way,” Grace whispered to Cassie. “He’s looking right at you.” Cassie nearly sputtered on her gulp of lukewarm champagne as she looked in the direction Grace indicated.

“Do you know him, Cassie?” Violet Tyler, soon-to-be-Abbott, asked as she snuck a look at the intimidating man crossing the lounge with his gaze focused on her. Cassie thought his time in the military must’ve been where he’d acquired that steely-eyed stare.

“Yes,” Cassie said, looking down at the champagne flute she’d been nursing since the toast Samson had given earlier. She had to drive later, and she wasn’t much of a drinker anyway. “We attended Divine High School together. Graduated the same year.”

Violet’s eyes widened as she said, “I remember him from my Fantasy Weekend. He’s Joseph’s right-hand man here, I think.”

Grace nudged Violet and gestured at the dance floor. “Hey, I hear my song playing. Cassie, the cake is taken care of, and the bridal duties are over. Go have fun, okay?” she added in a whisper. “Oh, hey there, Samson. Violet and I were just going to grab our men and dance.”

Samson returned Grace’s gentle hug and gave Violet a friendly nod. “Hello, ladies. Enjoy yourselves.”

Cassie’s pulse leaped as he turned his full attention on her. She was glad she had something in her hands, although a champagne flute wasn’t much of a shield. Her breath caught in her throat as she said, “H-Hi.”

“Hi.” His bright blue gaze slid down her throat and swept across her shoulder, leaving a shimmer of heat in its wake. Feeling as clumsy as a teenager with a crush, she looked around the gathering, coming up with exactly nada to say by way of conversation. Just as he reached out to touch her hand, she lifted it to shift her glass into it and then looked up at him, realizing he’d been trying to reach out to her and she’d unconsciously cut him off. She hadn’t meant to.

“I’m…” Her face felt so hot, and the more she thought of it, the hotter it got.

“It’s okay,” he said with a smile, sticking his hand in his pants pocket. “All the wedding guests were raving about the wedding cake. That had to have been a big job.”

“Not too bad for a few days’ work, but I enjoy it.”

“I’m glad,” he murmured, moving an inch closer to her as he lightly fingered one of the uncooperative curls escaping from her hairdo again. When he touched it, the ends drifted across her skin, raising goose flesh. His roughened fingertips followed the same path, and a shudder raced through her, probably hard enough for him to feel it.

For just a moment, thirty years were gone, and she responded to him as if she was still an innocent teenager, aching for his touch but not having any idea what to do if she got it. She hadn’t taken more than a sip of the champagne earlier, but she felt as if the bubbles were coursing in a heated path through her bloodstream, and her body loosened, relaxed, as if to lean into him. Looking around, she felt the heat rise in her cheeks again, and she was glad she’d caught herself before she acted on the impulse.

“Dance with me?” he asked, sliding his hand down her arm as the music shifted from the end of one song to the beginning of the next, and she nodded.

“Sure,” she said in a strained whisper as she put her glass on the tray of a passing waiter. Gooseflesh trailed down her arm when he took her hand in his very large one. She’d always loved holding his big hands when they’d been young. He’d made her feel safe.

Looking very cozy, curled up in her new husband’s lap, Bunny winked at her, and Joseph nodded, as if in approval, as Cassie followed Samson out the doors to the dance floor on the veranda.