The bar was loud and noisy with cowboys and cowgirls of all shapes and sizes from the rodeo. Hoots and cheers were heard from here and there as celebration was taking place. Lance was immediately grabbed by some cute girl and was asked to dance. Lance just grinned and accepted and was whisked off toward the dance floor. Wesley had distanced himself somewhat from Lacey since they had settled the hell-bitch, but not too much. He was thinking.... just about stuff. All kinds of stuff. The look on Lance's face had made him pull up short a little. Had he been too brash to pull Anne's hat out of its secret place? Had he moved too quickly?
Lacey moved through the crowd, squeezing through the groups of cowboys and cowgirls, gently turning down offers to dance and smiling at the looks she was getting. She could see Wesley sitting off somewhat by himself, deep in thought, as she came back from a trip to the restrooms. Stopping by the bar, she leaned over the edge to loudly order another beer for him, the bartender having to lean close to hear her and then grinned, pulling out an ice-cold bottle of Coors for him and a Corona with a lime wedged in the neck for herself. Taking them both, she moved toward where Wesley was sitting, glancing to see Lance dancing with a cute young cowgirl. She couldn't help but chuckle, seeing his hands roam over her curves and shook her head some before reaching Wesley with a soft smile. "Here ya go, cowboy," she chided gently, offering the ice cold bottle.
Wesley jumped a little when she neared him and he looked up. Clearly his thoughts had been somewhere far off. He reached for the beer and nodded his thanks with a smile. "Thank ya, Ma'am." He watched her as she sat next to him and he tilted his head toward the crowd. "Whatcha think? Diff'rnt than it is in the city, eh?"
Lacey sat down and sipped at her beer. What a question. Different from the city indeed, but in a way that spoke to her, and she found that her time in Wyoming was quickly coming to an end. Just this morning, she had been on the phone with the magazine and they were practically going nuts that she had already been too long. It was time to go back. "Yeah," she sighed, almost wistfully and took another sip of her beer. "A lot different."
He set his beer down, looking at the woman a long moment and smiled. "Care to dance?" he said as he stood, offering her his hand.
Lacey glanced at the standing cowboy and smiled gently, her eyes seeming to take on a kind of sadness as she realized that she didn't want to go back to the city, or her job, or the townhouse waiting for her. It just didn't feel right anymore. Being here, with him, DID feel right. Slipping her hand into his, she set down her beer and stood as he gently pulled her to her feet. "I would love to," she said with a soft voice.
He grinned and leaned in close as he escorted her to the dance floor. "I wouldn't have given you a choice had you said no." He grinned and winked at her before turning her in his arms to take her by the waist and hand. He was a much practiced dancer. It was something that came as naturally to him as did taming a spooked horse. Wesley didn't seem to have to work at much of anything. He was just the way he was. A down home country man.
Lacey followed his strong lead well and it wasn't long before Wesley had her doing moves that made it look like they had been doing this for years. She was more relaxed and more refreshed than she had been in ages, even though a bit of sadness hinged around her eyes as the reality of her having to go back to the city was looming in the back of her mind. But for the time being, she held onto the cowboy that had strolled into her life, snatched away her false pretenses of being happy, and replaced them with a longing that she hadn't realized she had been missing until now. When a slow song came on, she could feel Wesley pull her closer in his strong arms and her body seemed to naturally fit against his as their cheeks grazed one another's as they danced slowly in time with the music.
His lips grazed her cheek gently as he held her and they swayed to the music. With a smile he gazed into her pretty eyes and tucked her hair back. "If I didn't know better I'd say you were a cowgirl through and through. What kept you in the city?"
Lacey tightened fingers on the back of his shirt as she felt his lips and day's bristle growth graze her cheek and leaned back a bit to look at him as their eyes locked. By god, she wanted to stay like this forever, but how could she? She smiled tenderly as his question and shrugged her shoulders gently, "I don't know, really. My mom left when I was 14, and I just was thrown into city life. That's who she was ... who she had always been. My father couldn't quite get the city out of her, and he wouldn't let me stay behind without a mother either." She sighed gently, moving her free hand to rub at Wesley's strong shoulder, her fingertips absently stroking the strong cords of his neck. "I never wanted to leave here, but I didn't have a choice, and I think that a part of me just thought my father didn't want me out here."
Wesley smiled a bit. His fingers grazed her lower back and he massaged her palm as they turned and swayed to the selection of slow songs amongst the other dancers on the floor. "He always talked about you, you know. It was Lacey this, Lacey that, Lacey the other thing. He was planning on inviting you out for Christmas last year, but never sent you the letter. He was a good old man to work for. Best boss I ever had."
Lacey smiled tenderly, grateful that she had someone to tell her about her Father. She had adored him, but when she and her mother had left, she had felt somewhat rejected by him. "I ... I never knew that," she said, turning her head to see Lance dance by with yet another girl, the grin on his face at seeing Lacey and Wesley pressed together contagious and she smiled at him. She turned her gaze back to Wesley, her eyes roaming his handsome face before she asked the question that she had wondered about for a long time ... ever since she had met him. "I'm surprised a good-looking cowboy like you isn't taken," she said with a soft smile.
Wesley's eyes darkened a bit as he heard Lacey's words, then he relaxed again, forcing the pain away. She didn't mean any harm by it. She didn't know anything more than she'd learned in the past week. "I was. Once," he said gently, almost like he wanted to avoid the subject. She was going to figure it out soon enough anyway.
Lacey stiffened some in his arms as she saw the look cross his face. It was obvious that she had inadvertently crossed a line that she wasn't supposed to cross and she wanted to kick herself for it. Leave it to her and her big mouth to say just the one thing that probably didn't need to be said. As the song ended, she smiled and affectionately squeezed his shoulder before stepping back, feeling the need to give him some space. "Thanks for the dance, cowboy ... I think I'm going to fight the crowd and try to make my way to the ladies' room."
