by Owner
“Thanks. I know how difficult this is for you.”
“Take care.” Jon hung up the receiver and rejoined Maddie.
“Bad news?” Her eyes filled with sympathy.
“Nah,” he lied. But she hugged him close anyway. She felt warm, comforting, and loving. Soon his heaviness, unspoken but somehow shared, lifted.
“Let’s dance.” He held her away, suddenly feeling foolish and overemotional.
“Oh, we will.”
She smiled, broadly. And yet, her words had sounded more like a warning.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Over here.” Jill waved to Maddie and Jon as they entered the church hall.
“She wants me bad.” He grinned. “Last chance to lay claim to me.”
She nudged him along, and they joined her friends, who were congregated in a corner. Gray metal folding chairs lined the beige-painted walls to leave the wooden floor clear for dancing. A band tuned up their instruments in front of the maroon velvet curtains where Christmas and Easter plays were staged.
“I’m so glad you came.” Jill zeroed in on Jon.
“I’m not too sure how glad I am, yet. I never contra danced before.” He shoved his hands into his jean pockets, which were nowhere as roomy as his khakis. The denim tightened around his butt and groin, defining his attributes. Maddie couldn’t help but notice and drool.
“Not to worry,” Jill assured him. “Most of the footwork is a walking step.”
“The only way to learn it is to do it. You really can’t pick up much by watching.” Lyndsey’s red hair bobbed with her explanation.
Tim seemed intrigued by its movement. Maddie wondered if a reconciliation was in the works there.
“I told Jack eye contact reduces the dizziness, especially during the swing.” Lyndsey elbowed Jill’s cousin, Jack.
“If someone gazes into your eyes,” Maddie told the two men, “it’s not because they want your body. It’s because they don’t want to throw up on you.”
Everybody laughed, except Jon and Jack.
“But eye contact does add to the flirting.” Lyndsey winked at Tim, who was eager to wink back. This was going to be an interesting night.
“Oh, look.” Jill pointed toward the door. “Elmer and Helgie brought the cute bouncer from Cubby’s.”
“That’s Helgie’s brother,” Jon said to her surprise at both knowing and spreading the news. “He moved home to keep their mother in line.” He glanced at Maddie as she shook her head. “I heard it from Cubby.”
“He is a hunk.” Jill’s brown eyes twinkled as she waved them over.
“Am I last year’s technology already?” Jon whispered near Maddie’s ear.
“Uh-huh,” she whispered back. “Looks like you’re up for grabs.”
“I like the way you grab. And I especially like the little murmurs that follow.”
“Shush.” She glanced around to see if anyone heard, but they were all busy talking to Elmer and Helgie.
“Would’ve been a great night for a bike ride,” Elmer said. “But Helgie didn’t want to mess up her hair with the helmet.”
“Oh, you.” She fussed with her tight gray curls before introducing her brother, Waldo. Jill maneuvered next to him.
“How’d the shopping in Tinkerport go this afternoon?” Elmer asked Maddie.
Before she could reply Helgie blurted, “Are you two dating?”
Jon sputtered while Maddie shook her head. “No, Jon’s my parents’ houseguest. We’re here with a group of my friends.”
“Well, you two sure make a cute couple.”
That remark moved Jill even closer to Waldo. She looked up at him hopefully. “Are you glad to be back on the island?”
Her doe-brown eyes must’ve won him over. Waldo had her undivided attention. Sue, who’d just joined the group, gave cousin Jack more dancing tips. Tim stared at Lyndsey.
Looked like all her friends were matched up, which left Maddie and Jon coupled for the entire church hall to see. Maddie figured it was a good time to corner her client. She steered Elmer aside. “Should you be dancing on that heel?”
“It’s not bothering me today.” He grinned.
“It very well might after this dance workout,” she warned.
“More business for the clinic.”
Just then the fiddlers bowed up and the caller announced, “Longways.” Elmer disappeared.
As everyone scurried to form two long lines on the dance floor, Jon grabbed her wrist.
“If you need, they have ginger capsules in the first aid kit.” She pointed to a door on the far wall. “They act like Dramamine. But usually the more you dance the less dizzy you get.”
“Great.”
“Just remember eye contact and you’ll be all right.”
“Why do I feel like I’m cliff-diving instead of dancing?”
“The caller teaches every dance before it’s actually performed to the music. You’ll enjoy yourself.” She hurried to the opposite line.
The caller guided the dancers through a series of moves, and then the musicians struck up their fiddles, horns, and accordion to play a jig.
Jon danced with her at first and did well. When their eyes linked, he sent her heated sexual signals, and more. A connection that tugged at her heart. A confusion as whirling as the colors in the room as the pairs swung in circular motions.
During the next tune, a reel, the music sped up, partners changed, and she lost track of him.
The church hall teemed with energetic dancers and enthusiastic musicians, and after four songs Maddie needed a break. Overheated, she headed for the punchbowl. While sipping the cold, fruity pink liquid, she scanned the dance floor for Jon. He was holding his own to Cotton-Eyed Joe while swirling arm-in-arm with Helgie. She grinned. He’d certainly loosened up from the laptop-toting exec she’d met on the ferryboat.
When the song ended, he searched her out. After swallowing what was left in the paper cup she held, he panted, “Does it ever slow down?” He pulled his handkerchief from his back pocket and mopped his moist forehead.
She was losing it. Suddenly, she found the fact that he carried a hanky endearing. Refilling her cup, she said, “The band usually mixes it up.”
“If they play a waltz, you’re mine.”
She nodded over the rim of her paper cup. If he hadn’t asked, she would’ve.
All day, her mind had strayed to notions of romance and love. Slow dancing in his masculine arms while their bodies exchanged heat and swayed in sync to some sweet ballad topped off her list at the moment. Later, something more naked might replace it.
“I didn’t realize we switched partners for each dance.” He swigged from her cup again.
“That’s the idea. By the end of the night you’ll probably dance with every woman in the church hall.”
“But go home with the one I brought.” His voice sounded husky and enticing. His warm breath brushed her cheek. A tingle lit up her nipples.
“Hey, you two, quit hogging the punch bowl.” Lyndsey elbowed in between them with Tim hot on her dancing heels.
Tim gulped down a small paper cupful in one long gulp, while Lyndsey was more refined and took two swallows.
“Have you seen the others?” she asked Maddie.
“Jon finished a set with Helgie a few minutes ago.”
Lyndsey raised her red eyebrows. “No bruises.”
“She’s lighter on her feet without her purse.”
Before they spotted anyone, the caller announced, “Couple dance.”
Jon latched onto Maddie’s hand and started toward the empty floor as people milled around seeking out partners.
Lyndsey blocked his way. “Advanced warning, slugger. A couple dance could be a polka or jitterbug instead of a waltz.”
Jon rocked back on his heels, but held onto Maddie’s hand. The musicians struck up the chords to a waltz, and he breathed easier.
The announcer leaned into the mike. “Here’s a favorite, Dance with the One Who Brough
t You.”
“It’s a song, and it’s ours.” A smile creased his mouth.
Maddie had never had an ‘our song’ before. It made her feel giddy on the inside. But that was nothing compared to how she felt when he encircled her in his arms and held her close.
They fit like her old sneakers. Comfy, secure, impossible to give up.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I told you how hot you look, didn’t I?” Jon clasped Maddie in his arms to the throbbing rhythm of the slow music. Their movements were more grind than dance. A shadow couldn’t slip between them.
“Thank you again.” Her violet eyes shimmered in the dimmed lights, beckoning, welcoming, holding him captive.
“And your sandals, I mentioned those?” His voice felt tight in his throat as her hips swayed against his in tempo with the music.
“Oh, yes.” She nodded, and her blonde hair teased against the hand he rested on her shoulder, sending a hot shiver of want through his body.
She was so damn desirable from her bare toes to her hair, which hung loose and flowing and tempting. He tangled his fingers in the ends of the silky strands, imagining her hair splayed across the pillow in his room. No, make that her room. The yellow bedroom. With the bug-eyed loon looking down.
“Now there’s a match made in heaven.” Maddie glanced away, breaking the smoldering contact of their eyes. But her breasts were crushed to his chest and her crotch remained on a collision course with his.
He followed her line of sight, but the only match he cared about was his and hers. Fiery and torching. All the same, he asked, “Jack and Sue? Or Jill and Waldo?”
“Both couples.”
“I wish our synergy would optimize.” Merely being Maddie’s houseguest was getting harder to pull off with each shift of her body and torturous, slow chord of the music.
She peered up at him, her eyes more captivating than usual. The blue from her dress reflected in the violet, giving the irises a darker, larger appearance. Breath-stopping.
“Sue thinks our synergy is wicked good. Of course, she doesn’t know about your problem.” Her lips were so close they almost touched his, as if begging him to convince her otherwise.
He breathed in her breath. But if he kissed her, right here in the middle of the dance floor and to hell with their agreement, he’d kill his chance at a final goodbye. And Maddie’s goodbyes were getting more erotic each time and impossible to pass up.
So he backed off. “I have many problems. All of them revolving around you.”
Almost all. The christening didn’t.
“The problem I’m concerned about is the one where you run interference for me.” Her warm, supple body cradled his dick, which was way too warm and anything but supple.
“I only interfered with your mother once.” He concentrated on the conversation, trying to ease his focus away from his steamy desire. He’d take on either parent on her behalf. He crooked his eyebrow. “What’s so wrong about that?”
“I can stand on my own feet and handle my own problems, in my own way and in my own time. There’s nothing wrong with me.”
She was fooling herself. If she hadn’t said anything in all these years, she was never going to. But he humored her. “Nothing wrong with you. I love everything about you.” And that was as close as he was getting to talking about love, for now.
“I love everything about you, too.” Her words touched his jaw in wisps, but her feet missed a step and her body stiffened. “Except for your meddling.”
“I haven’t interfered since. Have I?” he said in a low voice to soothe her back to the undulating dance moves their bodies had clung to moments ago.
“I fear since is the key word.” When she pulled back to look into his eyes, her hips thrust forward, shoving to mind other more carnal things he’d rather meddle with.
Her slit and her clit and her mouth and her buttocks. His dick had no preference which. Desire raged through him at the slightest provocation on her part.
“You don’t need to fear.” And that was all he intended to say. He was sure he could hold out on butting in with her mother until he left tomorrow. Although, he’d love to set the old broad straight on a few points.
Tucking Maddie tighter, with his hand low on her spine, he shut his eyes and buried his face in her hair. Her special, citrusy scent zinged right to his sac. She felt lush and familiar in his arms. Need pumped hot in his blood.
Then the music stopped and saved him from dry-humping her right here on the dance floor, and probably getting smacked for his actions.
He released her, and they strolled to the open exit to catch a cool breeze.
“Have you had enough?” She tilted her head and her blonde hair brushed her naked shoulders.
Her hair was driving him especially crazy tonight. He imagined its silkiness brushing his bare, burning skin in intimate places.
“Enough of this. Yeah.” He twirled her under his arm in contra fashion to break the thick sexual tension. The skirt of her blue dress swirled slightly. Her sandaled feet skipped in a circle. His heart beamed. “I did tell you how beautiful you look tonight.” She nodded. “But did I mention your sandals?”
“If I’d have known my toes were such a turn-on I’d have taken my sneakers off sooner.”
She teased him wiggling her toes, making the blue leather flowers bounce.
“Where to now?” He pulled her nearer, curving his hand around her waist. “Your place or mine?”
“Since we’re both at my place…” She sounded breathless and her lips looked delectable as she teased him with her words and her mouth.
“What’s going on here?” A slap on the back changed the subject, fast.
“Taking a break, mayor.” Jon removed his arm from around Maddie’s waist.
“Dad.” Maddie kissed her father’s cheek. “You’re getting a late start. We’re talking about calling it quits on the dancing.”
“I don’t dance to this music.”
A jig had started up.
“I checked on your mother, and since she’s taken a sleeping pill and is in bed for the night, I stopped by to do some campaigning. Election time.”
“He doesn’t have to canvass for votes.” She shook her head at Jon. “He’s a shoo-in every term.”
“Large crowd for it though.”
Her father smiled, gave her a hug, and sauntered away in the direction of the punch bowl where the most people had gathered.
“He’ll be here a while.”
A sultry look darkened her eyes, sending Jon heated messages.
A throb settled in his balls.
“Nobody will be in the bedroom between yours and mine. Barbra will be out like a light.”
He had a good shot at seeing her yellow walls at last.
She hushed her voice.
“We’ll still have to be quiet though.”
“Wicked quiet.”
He took her hand and led her silently out the exit door and into the darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When Jon killed the headlights and pulled up to the driveway at Tidewater, he parked behind one of the tall pines flanking the house. Suddenly, he didn’t seem in a rush to see her bedroom, and Maddie wondered why.
“Let’s talk before we have to muzzle ourselves,” he said.
She smiled across the darkness of the car. He was so adaptable. He adjusted to any situation, eventually, even to the idea of farewell sex with no talking.
“What’s on your mind?” she asked.
“The call I had earlier that I didn’t want to talk about.” He shrugged. “It looks as if I do. I’d like to kick it around with someone not involved in the outcome.”
He sounded confused and hurt. She reached out to cover the hand he rested on his thigh. His was warm and tense.
His mouth was grim. “My father went to see his granddaughter.”
“I’m sorry. I know you didn’t want him in your lives.”
“When we did, when we needed him years
ago, he ran off. Now, I, we…my sister, my niece, we don’t need him.”
“Are you sure there might not be more to it?” she asked, softly. “Maybe you want to punish him?”
He stared across the seat at her, his forehead creased, his eyes thoughtful. “I never considered that dynamic.”
“To lash out is an understandable reaction.” She let go of his hand to hug him. He stiffened at first before relaxing into her arms and giving in to the need for understanding.
After a few minutes, he held her away from him. “But it’s not what you would do, is it?”
“I can’t say what I’d do or feel in your situation.”
“As soon as I told my brother-in-law I was okay with it, the matter got even worse. He informed me the old man’s planning to attend the christening.”
“That means you’ll have to see him face-to-face. Can you handle that?”
“I doubt it. I’m afraid he’ll become a part of my sister’s life.” He tugged at the steering wheel. “And mine through association.”
“As unfair as it to you, there’s the baby to consider. Your father may have thrown away his parental rights, but he appears interested in his grandparental ones.”
“That’s what makes this so difficult.” He ruffled his hand through his thick, dark hair. “I hope I can handle being around him without my animosity kicking in. I was set to toss him out at my mother’s funeral until Sarah and Craig intervened.”
She squeezed his hand until his tense knuckles relaxed and his grip on the steering wheel loosened.
He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Want to come to the christening with me?”
“I’d lose my outsider status and then where would we be?”
He slouched back in his seat.
“It’s a good bet that if you didn’t throw him out then, you won’t this time either. Christenings are happy occasions.”
“I’m the godfather.” He cracked a proud smile.
“You’ll make an excellent one. From my understanding the job gives you the right to interfere, and you know how you love that.” She touched his arm. His muscles felt looser, less taut. “There’s a chance something good will come from opening up communication with your father.”