Page 30 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
Dan heard the words as he and everyone else inside the Swing Through Cafe came outside. Leah was placing the coffee and food on the roof of her car, but when she turned, it was to smile at the older man now talking to her. A genuine smile that lit her face and removed all traces of the wariness he’d seen there.
“Hi, Judge. I’ve been back a few days now.”
“I’ve been out of town, and no one told me,” Judge Sykes said.
Dan made himself look away as she hugged the older man becausehewanted to hug her. The urge had come over him so fast, he hadn’t been able to stop it. Leah Reynolds was a wound he thought he’d closed. But it was open again, and all that emotion she’d once created inside him was still there, bubbling beneath the surface.
But you’re an adult now, so keep it together.
“I should put in a claim for all the money lost in ruined baking,” Ryder muttered, joining Dan in a circle along with JadeHeckler and the Barones from the pizza place. “Every time we have to dance, I have something in the oven.”
When this particular music started playing in the town of Lyntacky, you dropped everything and danced.
Shelly Lyntacky had been dedicated to square dancing, and by all accounts, she’d excelled at it. She’d spent so much time practicing for all the competitions she’d entered, her family set up speakers around town that would play music so she could dance to it through the streets. After her untimely death, the residents were forced to do the same in her memory when her uncle, Mayor Tripp Lyntacky, decided to play the same music from the speakers placed strategically all over town.
“It’s not my favorite activity either,” Dan muttered, looking at Leah, who was across from him in the next group, and talking to Owen Sykes, retired judge, and longtime Lyntack. He’d been a friend of her father’s, which had surprised most people, as Chuck Reynolds couldn’t lie straight in bed, he was so crooked. But he, the judge, and a few others had enjoyed cribbage, and this had brought the odd assortment of people together every Thursday night until Dan had arrested Leah’s father.
“She’s not the same Leah who left,” Ryder said as his girlfriend, Libby, came running out of the cafe. She wedged herself between the Duke brothers.
“You smell sweet,” Ryder said, kissing her cheek.
“She is a chocolatier, so I think the reason for that would be obvious,” Dan said, feeling annoyed for no reason.
“You pissed off at anything in particular, little bro?” Ryder asked, taking his girl’s hand.
Libby Gulliver was the latest addition to the Duke family and the love of his brother’s life.
“I’m good.”
The music started, and Ryder and Libby moved, weaving through them. Dan’s eyes went back to Leah. He’d always beendrawn to her, even when he didn’t want to be. She’d been full of life. Loud, fierce, and everyone’s champion. When the day came that they finally gave in to the sparks between them, it had been intense and right. She’d fit him like no woman before her. So much so, it had shocked him, and then it had fallen apart spectacularly, and she’d left Lyntacky.
He ran his eyes over her as she moved. That body he’d mapped every inch of with his hands and mouth.Shut it down. That was never happening again.
The music kicked up another notch.
“Tripp’s messing with the volume controls again,” someone called.
All around Lyntacky, everyone would be outside dancing. Even the kids in school had to do it. It was tradition, and the only one that could land you in jail if you didn’t observe it. He knew this, as he’d been forced to put a few people in there who had rebelled, including Sawyer.
An odd custom, but one he actually respected even though it annoyed the shit out of him constantly. It was a chance for everyone in town to speak to someone. If you had a problem, it could be worked through while you danced. If you were lonely, you had company briefly. Recipes were exchanged, arguments settled or reignited. For all he bitched about it, he liked it.
Looking at the next group of dancers, he could see the Hyland brothers in work boots and Bart in his running shoes. Dancing like this was a leveler. Everyone was briefly the same as they stepped out of their lives for a few minutes.
“I never got that,” Ryder said to Dan.
“What?”
“How a respected retired judge could be friends with that lowlife Chuck Reynolds.”
Dan’s eyes went back to Leah. She was smiling at something the judge said. Not one of those wide smiles that made her entireface come alive. This was just her lips moving. He wondered what her life had been like for the past seven years. How she was coping raising her nephew and with Cassie’s death.
“Not sure they were friends, bud, but they did play cribbage together. Mom and Phoebe’s dad played too.”
“Right, I forgot about that.”
“Deputy Dan, what’s being done about the trash dumped by tourists?”
“What trash, LouJean?” he said to the woman wearing a matching orange outfit who was part of the walking group.
