As I moved away from him, I spotted Natalie, one of the nurses I worked with.
“Thank God,” I mumbled.
By the time I pushed through the crowd and made it to the table, I was positive I’d worked up a sweat.
“Natalie!” I nearly shouted.
She looked up and grinned. “It’s about time you showed up!”
I glanced to her right to see her talking to a handsome cowboy. He tipped his hat at me as I sat down.
“Saryn, this is Luke. Luke, Saryn. She’s the new nurse I was telling you about.”
The way he looked at me made me glance at Natalie with a questioning look.
“He’s my cousin.”
Ahh…that explained the way he was eye-fucking me. “It’s nice meeting you, Luke, was it?” I asked as I stretched my hand out to shake his.
“That’s right. It’s my pleasure.”
I glanced over my shoulder to look in the general direction I’d just come from. A small part of me was disappointed Truitt hadn’t followed. Quickly dismissing that thought, I focused back on the table.
“Is everyone dancing?” I asked, looking directly at Natalie. I didn’t want Luke to think that was a hint for him to ask me.
“Yes. Luke and I just finished taking a spin and I needed a break.”
I smiled and looked out at the dance floor. When I saw Truitt, I felt my entire body tense. He was dancing with a beautiful blonde. He had her tucked up nicely against his body, and the two of them moved across the floor like they’d done it a thousand times. I tried to ignore the instant pang in my chest. Holy hell, was that jealousy?
Nonsense.
“Do you know Truitt?”
Natalie’s voice pulled my gaze away from the dance floor.
“What?” I asked, flustered by her question.
“Truitt Carter, do you know him?”
“Um, sort of. He’s friends with my older brother, and he’s building a playhouse for my parents.”
Luke and Natalie both looked confused by that.
With an awkward laugh, I corrected, “Well, not for them, for my daughter. They hired him to build her a playhouse.”
Natalie grinned. “He does amazing work and has a long waiting list of clients.”
That little bit of information was interesting. How had my mother been able to get him to build Liliana’s playhouse so quickly?
“I’ve heard he’s amazing. At his work. With playhouses,” I said like an idiot.
Luke stared at me, then tilted his head. Crap.
“I mean, I don’t really know. My mother is handling most of it since it’s on their property.”
He smiled warmly, but there was a bit of lust in his eyes that caused an instant rush of heat to my cheeks.
“What do you do, Luke?” I asked, hoping to shift the subject off of Truitt.
“I’m a deputy sheriff for Kendall County.”
A cop. There was something hot about that. “Well, thank you for your service, sir.”
He winked, and I wanted it to make my stomach dip, but it didn’t.
Damn it.
“Luke, you should really ask Saryn to dance,” Natalie said. “I need a bit more time to recover. I’m so out of shape.”
Turning to look my way, Luke raised his brow in question. “What do you say, like to take a spin around the dance floor?”
This was it. The moment I was officially moving on from my divorce. Could I honestly hook up with a guy for a night of meaningless sex? That I wasn’t sure about, but a little bit of personal contact would be nice. And Luke was for sure giving me signs he was interested.
“I’d love to dance, thank you.”
He stood, reached for my hand, and led me to the dance floor. A Chris Young song played as Luke expertly drew me close to him as we started to two-step. For the first time in a long time I felt a little reckless. Free. Like a girl who was finally able to enjoy herself.
And tonight, I had every intention of enjoying myself to the fullest.
Truitt
LUKE BARNES WAS dancing with Saryn, and I didn’t want that to bother me as much as it did. Why should I care who she was dancing with? But when I first looked over and saw her standing there, staring at me with a beer in her hand, that old familiar feeling of want and desire rushed through my body.
“Truitt, if you glare at Luke any harder, you’re going to burn a hole right through him.”
Shay’s voice pulled my gaze off of Luke and Saryn. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
She raised a brow. Shay Barnes probably knew me better than I knew myself. We’d had a off and on friends-with-benefits thing going for the last couple of years. Neither of us were looking to settle down or get into any sort of relationship. I’d known Shay since high school, she was a friend and one of the few people who knew I had once upon a time had a thing for Saryn. She was someone I could trust. And someone I could fuck and walk away from the next morning knowing she wasn’t after my money or a ring.