She’d done it.
Well, they’d all done it, the whole valley, but when Samantha went on and on about the amazing way this wedding had come off and the glowing article she planned on writing, Kelly wanted to dance with joy.
Actually, she wanted to dance with Bruce. And laugh with him. And talk about God and love and loss and little girls with him. Oh, she and Bruce tried to put up a respectable amount of resistance to the obvious schemes of the girls, but it wasn’t working. She was falling for him. Hard. And all the convincing she could muster about this being some kind of fantasy bubble certain to pop wasn’t helping to stop her feelings one bit.
“How did they learn to do that at their age?” Bruce muttered with unconvincing annoyance as Lulu and Carly practically shoved them out together on the dance floor.
“I have no idea.” Oh, why did he have to be such a good dancer? Different from Mark, but still wonderful. She’d always loved to dance, and hated being a “pity partner” of generous husbands at valley functions. “You can cut a rug, Mr. Lohan.”
His face softened with memory. “Sandy loved to dance. Sorry, I’m probably way out of practice.”
“No, you’re not—no more than me anyway.” After a moment, she said, “It’s okay, you know. They’re here.”
“Who?”
“Mark. And Sandy. We were married to them. They’re part of us, part of our daughters. They’re here today, in a way, and that’s okay.” She dared a look up into his eyes. “How are you?”
His smile sent her heart to a host of unwise places. “Okay.” After a moment, he took a shaky breath and said, “Fine. A surprising, scary kind of fine, actually.” He stared into her eyes, and suddenly it was hard to feel the floor under her feet. “Kelly...”
If it wasn’t the first time he said her name, it felt like it. Close and quiet, whispered like a secret. She both wanted him to say whatever was on the tip of his tongue, and dreaded any admission. It had to be the same thing she was thinking: I’m scared. I’m unsure. I’m not ready. I’ve missed this so much.
“Tuesday’s coming,” she managed to blurt out, citing the day he’d told her he and Carly would drive back home. The day reality would push its way back into their lives. The day that, right now, she couldn’t bear the thought of coming.
His face fell. “Actually, Monday’s coming. I haven’t told Carly yet, but we have to leave a day early. The service called, and with the weather they’re shorthanded and they need me back.”
Kelly forced a casual, friendly tone to her voice. “And are you ready to go back? You said you’d taken the time off because things hadn’t been going so well.”
He gave her a lopsided, almost bittersweet smile that she found far too endearing. “I figured a few things out while I was here.”
“I’m glad,” she said, and it was mostly true. Glad he found some of the peace he sought, but unsettled by his readiness to return to the job she found so difficult to embrace. Did You send this, God? Kelly wondered to herself. A reminder of what he does to knock some sense into me? Mark’s ever-changing schedule had been challenge enough. Bruce’s job frequently dealt with unplanned emergencies, and could pull him away from her at any moment—or a crucial moment—leaving her alone. She didn’t want to learn to depend on someone again only to have them called away by duty or disaster. Who could ever say, “I’m sorry about that forest fire or flood, but I could really use you here”?
“Hey,” Bruce said, touching her cheek in a way that made her head spin, “I’m still here now. We have an amazing wedding reception to enjoy.”
She knew what he was trying to say. To stop planning and analyzing and just enjoy the moment, relish her accomplishment. But being here, with Bruce, was so much more than that. No matter how lovely tonight might be, Monday would come. Monday always came. “I...”
“Carly told me last night she wanted to move here and be Lulu’s little sister and grow up to run Marvin’s ice-cream shop.”
Kelly allowed herself a soft laugh. “She told me that, too. I like a girl who can plan.”
Bruce looked over her shoulder, likely in the direction of where the girls were sitting. “What would you say if I told you I liked her plan?”
It wasn’t fair what that question did to her. All the wishing it unleashed. All the practicality it denied. All the very fragile hope it ignited. “How?” was all she could manage, and even that was more of a sigh than a word.
“I’m not sure,” he said. His eyes told her he wanted to try, and she felt the last of her resistance crumbling away under the power of his gaze.
“I’m not sure, either,” she replied, even as his arms tightened around her. How could she be sure of anything right now, except how delightful the moment felt and how much that delight scared her to death? If they were alone, she would have kissed him. And he would have kissed her back, and it would have been wonderful. But they were not alone—half the town was around them, and more important, the girls.
As if in defiance of that fact, the music slowed. Bruce pulled her close to him. “How about we just stop talking about it. Just put your head on my shoulder and enjoy the music.”
Oh, the one thing sure to pull her under, the one thing she missed most of anything, was having a shoulder to lean against. The safe, blissful sensation of leaning her cheek against a strong shoulder. If any gesture meant “you’re not alone” to her, it was that one. Kelly knew that if she allowed her head to rest against Bruce’s shoulder, any hope of keeping sensible margins—of Bruce being just a customer or even just a friend—would be lost.
She’d faced down a storm, faced down a grouchy reporter, faced down a mountain of problems to see Darren and Tina married, but nothing felt as treacherous as the moment where Kelly tilted her head and felt Bruce’s entire body change with the contact of her cheek against his collarbone.
Bruce’s sigh was full of wonder and relief and fear. It sounded exactly like the tumble of sensations going through her heart. It was so much more than the embrace he’d given her in the hardware store. That one was careful and tentative. This one was full and strong and splendid. Her guard dropped even as his had, and she let herself lean into his strength. Kelly let herself be held up and swept across the floor by this man, this father, this soul seemingly so well matched to hers.
Did two dances go by or twelve? Kelly lost any professional sense of time and place, enthralled by the moment.
“Do you know what I’d give right now for Monday not to come?” he said softly.
She looked up at him, even though she knew it would spell the end of her resistance. “Probably the same as what I’d give,” she replied. “But Monday’s coming anyway, isn’t it?”
His eyes gleamed. “So let it. We just pulled off the most unlikely wedding in North Carolina. What’s a Monday in the face of that?”
She pulled back just a bit to look at him. “You’re serious.”
“Look, I know Kinston’s not exactly close. And I know what I do frightens you. But they’re all just details in light of the big things, aren’t they?”
“Those details are big things, Bruce.” And they were.
“We’ve got bigger things. Four of ’em. And according to a certain florist I know, they’re all we need.” When she raised an eyebrow, he added, “In fact, we’ve got six by my count.”
“Six?” Her heart felt like it tumbled over the falls with his words.
“A man, a woman, a valley, God and two amazing little girls. I’d pile that up against any set of logistics any day of the week.” He gazed into her eyes with a certainty she’d not seen in him before this moment. “Would you?”
“You know,” she said, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck, “I believe I would.”
His smile matched the glow she felt in her heart. “How should we tell the girls?”
“Like this,” and with that, she titled her head up and kissed him. The room, the wedding and even the whole valley fell away from her awareness, leaving just the exquisite bliss of new love. A surprising, wondrous second chance she’d never seen coming.
Kelly thought it was her pulse pounding in her ears until she slowly realized it was clapping. And the gentle vibration of Bruce laughing as the elated yelps of two little girls filled her ears. She pulled away just enough to see the entire reception staring at them and applauding, led by Darren and Tina.
“Way to steal my thunder, Lohan,” Darren said with a shameless grin.
“Sorry,” Bruce said, sounding anything but.
“I’m not,” Darren said, clasping Bruce on the back.
“We’re not!” yelled Lulu and Carly in unison, jumping up and down. “Mom and Dad! Mom and Dad!”
“What is it about this valley?” Samantha Douglas said as she stood holding hands with Rob Folston.
“I don’t know,” Bruce said, holding Kelly’s hand tight. “But I sure am going to stick around long enough to find out.”