“What can I say? I’m feeling pretty forgiving all the way around tonight. Now, are we going to talk, or are we going to dance?”
“Yap with you or hold you in my arms? That’s not even a fair fight,” he said as he pulled me a little closer. After that, I didn’t spend too much more time worrying about Grant and why he’d reappeared in our lives.
For now, for that moment in time, I was just content being exactly where I was, keeping the company I was keeping, and being a part of the life of Timber Ridge, North Carolina.
Chapter 2
“That band is really good, isn’t it?” David asked me a little later as we took a break from dancing and stood near the group currently playing onstage. I’d been on my feet all afternoon at the Slice, and while I loved to dance just fine, it was nice to rest every now and then.
“They are,” I agreed. “The lead singer’s really pretty, isn’t she?”
“I guess so, but she’s still not as pretty as you are,” David answered.
“That’s the perfect response; you know that, don’t you?”
“How so?” David asked, his attention rarely leaving the stage.
“If you’d said you hadn’t noticed her, I would have known you were lying, and if you’d agreed too enthusiastically, then we would have had a problem there, too.”
“Hey, what can I say?” he asked as he turned to look at me. “I just got lucky.”
I laughed as I turned my attention back to the stage again. The singer was good, a sultry brunette who hit all of the right notes, and the guitar player backing her up had a knack as well. The drummer was holding them back a little, at least in my opinion, but they were still a cut above our usual town offerings when it came to music on the promenade.
I was still watching them play when David touched my arm lightly. “Eleanor, look over there.”
“Where?”
I followed his pointed finger to an area of trees on the outside of the promenade. At first I couldn’t make out who was arguing, but it took me just a second to realize that one of them was good old Grant. He seemed to have a nose for an argument tonight, the pun fully intended. He was with another man, and it was pretty clear they weren’t happy with each other at all. Heated words were exchanged, and then the stranger walked away. Grant tried to follow him, but he gave up when the female lead singer said from the stage, “We’re going to take a little break for the fireworks right now. We hope you grant us the time and enjoy the show.”
Grant’s head snapped around when he heard a variation of his name coming from the stage, and I could swear that I saw the singer nod and motion for him to come backstage when they made eye contact. This clearly upset the guitarist, and I wondered what was going on.
I was about to see if I could find out when Maddy came over to us, Bob in tow.
“After the fireworks are over, what do you think about the four of us buying more food and eating it on your front porch, Eleanor? This crowd’s getting to be too much for our tastes.”
“It sounds great to me. That snack didn’t fill me up. What do you think?” I asked David.
“I’m all for it,” he answered, just as a cup of beer came flying straight for us out of the crowd. It managed to spill onto each of us a little, but Bob took the lion’s share of the liquid barrage.
“I’ll kill him,” Bob said uncharacteristically as he started off into the crowd.
“Hang on a second. Who exactly are you going to kill?” David asked as he put a hand on Bob’s arm. The two men had become friends after being in such close proximity because of us, and I loved how they looked out for each other.
“You know as well as I do that Grant Whitmore threw that beer at us,” Bob said as he tried to pull his arm free.
David wasn’t about to let go, though. “I don’t doubt that you’re right, but we can’t prove it, can we? Bob, think it through. He wants you to come after him. Don’t give him the satisfaction.”
Bob looked hard at David for a full second, and then said, “Do you think I’m afraid of him?”
“Of course not. But you know as well as I do that you’ve got to pick your battles, and this isn’t one of them.”
Bob thought about that for a moment longer, and when he pulled his arm out of David’s grip, my boyfriend didn’t fight him on it. He could see that the fight had gone out of him, at least for now.
“I have to go home and change,” Bob said a little sullenly.
“We all do,” David answered with a laugh, trying to make light of it. He turned to Maddy and me and said, “Tell you what. Why don’t you pick up the food, and we’ll all meet back at Eleanor’s place. How does that sound?”