His First and Last (Ardent Springs #1) (18 page)

Slipping her hand into the one dangling over her left shoulder, Lorelei whispered, “I can’t decide if that makes you a sap or an idiot.”

“I’m a man, Lorelei,” he said, staring into moonlit blue eyes. “A man who likes what he sees, faults and all.”

She didn’t have a comeback for that one, and he was fighting the temptation to lay her down in the truck bed and take advantage of her lowered defenses. But since he didn’t feel like going another four days getting the silent treatment, Spencer followed a different instinct.

“You can do this,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I have complete faith in you.”

“Now who’s being delusional?”

Ignoring her question, he hopped off the tailgate. “I know what we’ll do.”

“What?” Lorelei asked.

Spencer held out a hand. “How long has it been since you went dancing, Ms. Pratchett?”

After a brief hesitation, she shook her head. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes.” He pulled her off the truck to stand pressed against him on the gravel. “I’m taking you two-stepping, woman. This night calls for a celebration.”

Lorelei had thought walking into that first restoration meeting had been hard. Ha! That was nothing compared to walking into Brubaker’s Bar. At least at the meetings, people were on their best behavior. Social cuts were subtle, and no one made a scene. Put her in an Ardent Springs crowd loaded up on beer and bravado and all bets were off.

Which was why she clung to Spencer’s arm like a money-strapped bride holding on to the last Vera Wang at a fire sale.

Spencer stopped not far inside the front door and glanced around as if looking for someone he knew. The place wasn’t as packed as Lorelei had expected, but then it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet. The real party wouldn’t start until closer to ten, she assumed.

“Over there,” he said, yelling over the volume of the band. “In the corner.”

Lorelei craned her neck in the direction Spencer indicated, but the only thing she saw in the corner was the back of a man with broad shoulders wearing a sleeveless black-and-green flannel and a ball cap turned backward on his head. Before she could ask who it was, Spencer was cutting a path around the dance floor, pulling her along behind him.

“Heya, Coop,” he said in greeting, drawing the attention of the flannel wearer. The first thing Lorelei spotted was a substantial bicep with a tattoo that looked like . . . Were those tire tracks?

“Boyd!” the man exclaimed, doing the guy-hand-grab-and-pat-on-the-back thing. Turning in her direction, he said, “Hey there, Lorelei. You’re looking as good as ever.”

This person knew her? What had Spencer called him? Coop? The name sounded familiar, but it took several seconds before the revelation came. “Cooper Ridgeway?”

The mechanic had at least two inches on Spencer, and his arms looked as if he’d spent the last twelve years bench-pressing cars instead of fixing them. The Cooper she remembered was a scrawny kid with greasy hair and the perpetual black under his fingernails. His hands still showed signs of years working with his hands in grease, but the hair looked clean, if shaggy, with brown curls swirling around the brim of his hat. Green eyes twinkled as he flashed her a genuine smile, revealing the dimple in his chin.

“The one and only,” he said, giving her a half hug and dropping a kiss on her cheek. “How you doing, lady?”

Lorelei was so stunned by the show of affection, she struggled to produce verbal communication. “Good,” she managed. “I’m good.”

“Spencer says you’re working out at Lowry Construction. You liking it?” Spencer was deep in conversation with a brunette on the other side of the tiny cocktail table, making Lorelei want to kick him. Even if they weren’t there as a couple, he didn’t have to pick up another woman while Lorelei fended off the boy-mechanic-turned-hunk.

In response to his question, she nodded, keeping a smile pasted on her face. Though Cooper had been part of their high school group, he’d been more Spencer’s friend than hers. She wasn’t even sure they’d ever held a conversation. But here he was, chatting as if they were old buddies catching up. So this was the difference more than a decade could make. Everyone acting like grownups. Lorelei couldn’t decide how she felt about that. She sure didn’t feel like a grownup.

“You want a beer?” Cooper asked.

“I’ve got it,” Spencer said, patting his friend on the arm. “Put the order in just now.” So maybe he hadn’t been trying to pick up another woman. He’d still left her to fend off Cooper. “Time to give Lorelei here a dance floor refresher course.”

Before she could argue, Lorelei was facing backward on the edge of the dance floor. Spencer turned his ball cap around, presumably so the brim wouldn’t poke her in the forehead every time she looked down at her feet. The change made him look younger. And hotter. Damn him.

“You ready?” he asked.

“I don’t remember how to do this, Spencer.”

“Sure you do. It’s like riding a bike.” He took her right hand in his and tossed her left onto his right shoulder. “Step back with your right and follow my lead.”

With that instruction, he moved them onto the floor, and by some miracle, Lorelei’s feet did exactly what they were supposed to do. The shuffle step that started with the right foot, then a step with the left. Shuffle step, then left. They did two turns around the sawdust-covered floor with her body pressed tight against Spencer’s frame. She knew dancing so close made it easier for her to follow, but it was also making it difficult for her to think. Good thing her feet were operating independently of her brain.

Just when she was feeling lulled into a daze, he leaned down to whisper in her ear. “You ready for a spin?”

“I’m barely staying upright,” she answered, panic clear in her voice.

Spencer wasn’t fazed. “You trust me?”

The answer yes came too quickly to mind. “Is that a trick question?”

Instead of responding, he pushed gently on her left hip while applying pressure with his left hand. Lorelei did a full turn, landing back in Spencer’s arms and on the correct step. The move happened so fast, she wondered if maybe she’d imagined it.

“You can fight it all you want,” he said, his lips touching her left
earlobe, which sent a shiver down to her toes. “But your body still follows my lead.”

Leaning back to look him in the eye, she said, “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, winking as he twirled her into another spin.

Chapter 15

Lorelei had agreed to take a turn around the floor with Cooper, who wasn’t nearly the skilled dancer Spencer was. The man could rebuild a ’55 Chevy with his eyes closed, but he had the rhythm of a three-legged water buffalo. Spencer watched them fade into the crowd around the far corner, then emerge again with Lorelei laughing at something Cooper had said. Or she was laughing
at
him. Either was possible.

Spencer liked to watch her like this. He’d never been a jealous man, which turned out to be a fatal flaw when it came to his marriage, but with Lorelei he never doubted. She wasn’t a saint, by any means, but even in grade school she’d had a strong code of ethics that she stuck to no matter what. Part of that code had been loyalty and never taking what belonged to someone else.

He remembered back to a time during sophomore year when one of their friends had thought it would be funny to snag some candy bars from Puckett’s Pharmacy. Old Puckett wouldn’t have missed a few bits of chocolate, but Lorelei wouldn’t do it. And it wasn’t because she worried
about eternal damnation of her soul or going to jail. She simply believed in wrong and right, and you didn’t take something you didn’t earn or pay for.

The same went for people. When they’d been together, she’d been loyal to a fault. Lorelei took commitment seriously, and in that way she’d spoiled him. Made him believe everyone lived life by the same standards. Learning he was wrong, and in such a humiliating fashion, had been a dark day in his history. Spencer didn’t trust easily anymore, but he’d trust Lorelei to the ends of the earth.

His mission now was to get her to trust him back, because there was still a mess of baggage she was hauling around. If she’d let him, Spencer was ready and willing to help lighten her load.

“And I appreciate your efforts,” Lorelei was saying, as the pair returned to the table.

“It was my pleasure.” Cooper snagged his longneck off the table and held the cold bottle to his sweat-covered forehead.

“Did you come back with all your toes intact?” he asked Lorelei, gaining an irritated glare from Cooper.

She took a drink of her own beer before answering. “Yes, I did,” she answered. “Not everyone can be a twinkle toes like you.”

Cooper did a spit take, then offered Lorelei a fist bump, which she accepted. “I also thanked him for keeping Beluga running all these years. As much as I hated that old boat, it’s nice to have something to drive that isn’t going to leave me stranded on the side of the road.”

“That’s why you should always make friendly with your mechanic,” Cooper chimed in, adding a brow wiggle for emphasis.

“Is that Haleigh Rae over there?” Spencer said, leaning over Cooper’s shoulder.

“Where?” the big guy said, jerking around so fast he nearly knocked Lorelei over.

“Whoa, there!” she cried, trying not to spill beer down the front of her dress. Cooper continued to search the crowd, and a hint of guilt settled in Spencer’s chest.

“I was kidding, dude. She isn’t here.”

When Cooper turned back around, he looked as if he’d been punched. His guilt got stronger.

“That’s not cool, man.”

“What am I missing here?” Lorelei asked.

Spencer hadn’t intended to be mean. He’d had a gut reaction to Cooper flirting with Lorelei and lashed out in a way he knew would get the man’s attention.

“We have to be talking about Haleigh Rae Mitchner. Is she still in town?”

“Nah.” Cooper shook his head. “She moved to Memphis.”

“Then why would you think she was in the bar?” Lorelei asked.

“She comes home every year for the Main Street Festival,” Spencer answered, sparing Cooper the need to explain. Though Lorelei could probably guess how their friend felt about the former schoolmate by his reaction seconds earlier.

With a slow nod, she said, “Oh.” There was more enthusiasm in her voice when she said, “Then she’ll be home soon. Maybe we can all hang out?”

Lorelei didn’t have a lot of female friends in high school, but as Haleigh wasn’t a cheerleader or one of Becky’s followers, they’d spent some time together. Not best friends doing the slumber party thing, but they shared some classes and hung out at a bonfire or two. The fact that Lorelei was trying to find a way for Cooper to spend time with Haleigh took Spencer by surprise.

“That’s a good idea,” he said.

“Haleigh Rae is a doctor now. She won’t be interested in hanging with a grease monkey.” Cooper took a swig of Bud Light and kept his eyes on the swirling dancers passing by.

“You make her sound like a snob,” Lorelei said, tapping him on the arm. “I don’t remember Haleigh being that way at all.”

Instead of responding to Lorelei, Cooper rose on his toes to peer
at something across the room. Spinning around, he said, “Farmer. Five o’clock.”

Not what Spencer wanted to hear.

“Did he say there’s a farmer at five o’clock?” Lorelei asked. “What does that mean?”

“Not
a
farmer,” Cooper clarified. “Patch Farmer. The asshole who took Spence’s wife.”

And that was not how Spencer would have preferred to answer her question.

“He took your wife?” Lorelei’s voice rose an octave on the last word. “Like, kidnapped her?”

“No,” Spencer said through clenched teeth. “She went willingly.”

“The rat bastard,” Cooper growled.

Spencer appreciated his friend’s support, but this wasn’t a subject he wanted to discuss, nor was he interested in making a scene.

“Do you want to leave?” Lorelei asked, her hand suddenly in his. “I don’t mind.”

With a shake of his head, Spencer said, “This place is big enough for the both of us. It’s been five years. We’ve run into each other before.”

Cooper tapped his nearly empty bottle on the table. “I don’t know how you’ve never knocked his head off.”

“What’s done is done.” He could have let pride win out, but in the end, Patch had done Spencer a favor. If Carrie hadn’t slept with the factory worker, it would have been someone else. Spencer was better off without her.

Lorelei squeezed his hand. “Are you sure?”

Giving her a reassuring smile, he said, “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Okay then. I think Cooper needs another beer, and I need to visit the little girls’ room.”

The overpowering urge to keep her with him shot down Spencer’s spine. He pushed the weakness away. “Go on then. Do you want another beer, too?”

She yawned before answering. “I better switch to Coke or I’ll be asleep on a barstool soon.” Staring hard as if to reassure herself he was okay, she hesitated before turning toward the bathrooms. “I’ll be right back.”

Yes, she would. And maybe by the time she got back, Spencer would have tamped down the urge to ask her never to leave him. He hadn’t even won her back yet and already the thought of losing her again made him sick to his stomach. This was a stupid side effect of knowing Patch was around. Of having history thrown in his face. Screw history, Spencer thought. It was time to focus on the future.