I’m not going to lie. I consider it, just to teach him a lesson—just to show him not all men are willing to take the backseat and a passive role in pursuing me.
Junior waggles his brows. “I’m a real good dancer.”
I think back, trying to remember a time when I wasn’t weighed down by poverty, responsibilities, or expectations. A time before I had to watch everything I did. A time when I wasn’t restrained.
What would that girl have done?
You know what? Maybe Caden needs to be taught a lesson.
“Keep that beer cold for me.” I wink at him and turn to the younger man. “Come on, junior. Show me what you’ve got.”
I get a secret kind of pleasure when I hear Caden growl before I disappear into the crowd.
Caden
As Cat wanders off with the manchild, I contemplate my next move. Because she’s clearly issued a challenge. Why, I’m not totally sure. But I know enough about women to know she’s thrown down a gauntlet, and if I don’t pick it up, it doesn’t bode well.
The only real question is the reaction she’s hoping for.
We’ve had a very nice evening.
It’s been casual and fun. We talked about work, the growth of the business, the crops, the restaurant opening, and the new group interested in stocking the rum.
I kept everything light and easy.
She relaxed around me for the first time.
I thought we were getting somewhere, so why exactly has she decided to go dance with some dude in his twenties?
She’s not interested in him. I overheard her conversation, and she was as dismissive with him as she appears to be with most men. So her actions must be about me.
Should I go after her and cut in? Or hang back and wait?
My instinct says to hang back, to play it cool, because that’s what I’d do with most women. I don’t chase. I make them chase me—keeps them more motivated.
Except Cat doesn’t respond the way other women do. My attempts at chivalry and gentlemanly behavior seem to annoy her. Maybe, in this case, my instincts are wrong—like all my instincts in my effort to court her appear to be.
With a sigh, I push past the crowd and find her in the sea of bodies.
She’s really dancing up on the guy, her hips a slow sway, her arms over her head, her hair falling down her back. Her eyes are closed, and she’s wearing a seductive smile on her face.
She looks sexy, like the woman on the balcony that night I sat in the dark.
And just like that night, she’s a mystery to me—far away and too distant to touch. Only she’s not distant. I can reach for her. I think she wants me to reach for her.
Or at least, that’s what I tell myself.
I come to stand in front of them, and I tap the dude on the shoulder. “I’m cutting in.”
Cat’s eyes flicker open, and she gives me the most satisfied smile.
Junior shakes his head. “She made her choice, old man.”
Hey, I’m only thirty-six—hardly an old man. I shake my head. “If you think her dancing has anything to do with you, you’re even more stupid than I thought.”
The child turns and puffs out his chest. “You think so?”
Ireallydon’t want to deal with this right now, but it appears this is the way to her heart.