Page 59 of Knox

He rolled his eyes. “What didn’t my mom tell you?”

“She didn’t tell me if you could dance.” She met his eyes, tucked her lower lip between her teeth.

Oh. Really. He glanced at Tate, who picked that moment to meet his gaze and raise an eyebrow.

Mentally, Knox wrapped his hands around the bull rope, knocked himself in the chest a couple times. Then he got up from the chair, and held out his hand. “Yeah, I can dance.”

She smiled, the distance leaving her gaze.

And when she wiped her hand and took his, something sweet curled through him.

Just because he’d etched a few bad memories into the walls of the Bulldog didn’t mean he couldn’t carve out a few new good ones.

And in case anyone in this small town thought he wasn’t over Chelsea Bower and her windy exit from his life…

He swung Kelsey into his arms. He took her left hand and put it on his shoulder. Then he took her other hand. “Hold on to me and let me lead. I got this.”

She looked up at him, just a little hint of question in her gaze. He leaned his mouth to her ear. “Quick, quick, slow…”

He moved with his words, and she caught on quick, probably already knew the two-step. But she hung onto him and in a moment, they’d joined the other dancers circling around the floor.

Her hand curled around his neck, those pale blue eyes in his, and he had that sense of the girl he’d met on the Ferris wheel, her heart right there, offered up for someone to claim it.

A strange emotion simply swelled through him, the sense that maybe no, he wasn’t Tate, wasn’t the guy who could charm a girl into her forgetting her name. But he was the guy who’d show up and catch her heart. Keep it from hitting the ground.

Turner ended the song and slowed the next one down. A love song that had Tate and Glo exiting the dance floor, but Knox curled his arm around Kelsey’s waist and let out a tiny, long-forgotten piece of himself. “Stay here and dance with me.”

He drew her in close, aware of how perfectly she fit against him, and began to sway with the music. A Florida Georgia Line song about dark days and broken hearts.

You’re an angel, tell me you’re never leaving

’Cause you’re the first thing I know I can believe in…

She was mouthing the words as Turner sang, her eyes holding Knox’s, and he could hardly breathe.

What was happening here?

Then she laid her head on his chest, and he nearly closed his eyes with the strange effect it had on him, suffusing his cells with an overwhelming tenderness, the nearly frightening sense that he would do nearly anything for this woman.

No, this wasn’t fun.

This was a little bit of heaven.

The song ended, and he could have sworn that Turner was conspiring against him when he rolled into an old Elvis remake.

Wise men say only fools rush in

But I can't help falling in love with you…

Yeah. But…shoot.

What was he thinking? Kelsey had a big life. His was here, on the ranch.

Yet, when the music died out and Turner suggested a break, Knox found his throat so thick he had no words. Just stood like an idiot on the dance floor as Kelsey slipped out of his arms.

She smiled, and the trust in her eyes shot through him, took a hold of his brain.

“Wanna get some air?”