Page 70 of The Only Heart that Matters

Clearly, I’ve misread things, because as quickly as desire flashes in his eyes, it’s gone. Closing the distance, he places a kiss on my temple, before addressing the group. “Please excuse me.”

No explanation.

No eye contact to give me a clue as to what might be wrong. He simply rushes out of the ballroom as if he can’t get away from me fast enough.

My heart sinks to my stomach while embarrassment heats my face. How could I have been so wrong?

Dr. Goff fills the quiet left by Angus’s quick departure with a story about the first time his dog played in snow after his moveto Central Oregon. I grab a glass of red wine when it’s offered, taking a big gulp to calm my worried nerves.

He’s only been gone ten minutes, but it feels like hours. Blakely and her husband and the doctors and their spouses are all dancing to a slow Adele song and I’m standing where Angus left me.

Alone.

“You look way too pretty to be standing over here all by your lonesome,” Devon, one of our lab techs, says as he joins me at the high-top table where my wine glass sits empty and my ring spins around my finger. “Where did Angus go?”

Smiling, I ignore his observation and his question. “Where did your date go?”

I’m not sure what else to say, because Angus’s location is a mystery to me. Hell, I don’t even know if he’s coming back.

He wouldn’t leave me here, would he?

“Who, Cindy?” He looks at me incredulously. “She’s not really a date. Just a good friend.”

“You sure about that? She wasn’t looking at you like a friend.”

“Okay, you got me. She wants more than the friend situation we’ve got going, but she’s a single mom and I’m not ready to be anybody’s daddy.”

Wow. Devon is kind of a dick.

“So, why did you bring her?”

“Well, she’s still a lot of fun when the kid is with his dad.”

Devon, you're an asshole.That’s what I want to say, but unfortunately, I don’t think that would make for a productive working relationship. But seriously, what an asshole.

“So, while we wait for the ones we brought, should we dance with the one we’re with?”

I don’t have to shoot him down, because a hand reaches around my waist to rest on my hip and electricity races through my veins.

Angus.

He came back.

“Sorry, but my wife only dances with her husband.” There’s not an ounce of humor in his voice. “It was in our vows, so them’s the rules.” He tries for lighthearted but sounds anything but.

Wife.

He called me his wife and, by doing so, told his first lie of the night.

It’s the most beautiful lie I’ve ever heard.

Without another word to Devon, the hand resting on my hip releases me, seductively sliding over my low back before his hand finds mine as if they were magnets drawn to one another without effort.

Angus walks us to the dance floor, taking me in his arms just as the Adele song ends. I assume the next song will be a fast one, but strangely, the same song begins to play again. A song about wanting to be someone’s one and only.

I look over my shoulder to see if anyone else has noticed, but everyone continues to sway in the arms of their dates.

“That’s strange. I wonder if they realize they’ve restarted the song?”

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