His Texas Bride by Deb Kastner

Author:Deb Kastner
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2010-05-03T22:00:00+00:00

The music, which had moments before been an up-tempo country song, slowed down. Ellie felt more than saw Travis reach for her in the semidarkness of the Ferrell Rangers’ home gym, lit only by stage lights and a sparkling silver glitter ball twirling slowly over their heads.

“I’m parched,” she said with a quick step backward.

Travis looked disappointed, but he nodded. “I’ll get us some punch. Be right back, okay?”

Ellie nodded absently, her mind distracted from Travis’s words. She wasn’t really that thirsty. She just didn’t feel like dancing with Travis right now.

Which wasn’t fair to him and she knew it. Nor was it fair the way her eyes kept wandering back to the door every time there was some movement there. People walked in and out regularly, friends she’d known her whole life.

But none of them was Buck.

And every time it wasn’t him, a new stab of disappointment hit her chest. Buck had stated quite clearly he wouldn’t be coming to his twenty-year reunion, but Ellie held out hope he’d change his mind, though she refused to acknowledge why that mattered to her one way or another.

“You dance with the guy that brought you,” her father used to say. And that was what Ellie was doing—but for all the wrong reasons. She wondered for the millionth time if she’d made a mistake accepting Travis’s invitation to the reunion.

Her own reunion was up next year. Maybe she should have waited until then—and attended without a date at all.

Travis returned to Ellie’s side with two cups of frothy punch. He handed her one, and she sipped absently, not really tasting the tart beverage. She just wanted to call it a night and go home, but the reunion had barely started. She wouldn’t do that to Travis. He was too good of a friend. It wasn’t his fault Buck Redmond had suddenly returned to town.

She smiled up at him, though her heart wasn’t in it. Travis deserved better than she was giving him, and she rallied herself to try to be a good date. When the music sped up to a lively Texas two-step, Travis set Ellie’s cup down on a nearby table and gestured to the dance floor.

“I, uh, never really learned to do this dance,” she said, stalling awkwardly. So much for being a good date, she thought, although the part about her not knowing how to do the dance was the honest truth.

“That’s okay. I’m not a great dancer, either. We’ll just have to wing it. Nobody’s watching us, anyway.” Travis held out his hand to her.

Ellie shrugged and, against her better judgment, allowed Travis to lead her out toward the middle of the gym. He spun her under his arm as they walked.

“This is nice, isn’t it?” he asked a little too brightly. Ellie could feel his discomfort and knew she was the cause. She wondered if he could feel her tension, or see it even, written plainly in the expression on her face.

She had to try harder. Maybe

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