And So, We Dance

and so, we dance MILITARY ON MAIN BELLA MICHAELS To Lucas. . . I’m grateful you came into my life. It has been enriched for knowing you. contents get a free prequel 1. charlee 2. lucas 3. charlee 4. lucas 5. charlee 6. lucas 7. charlee 8. lucas 9. charlee 10. lucas 11. charlee 12. lucas 13. charlee 14. lucas 15. charlee 16. charlee 17. lucas 18. charlee 19. charlee 20. lucas 21. charlee 22. lucas 23. charlee 24. lucas 25. charlee 26. lucas 27. charlee 28. lucas 29. charlee 30. lucas 31. charlee 32. charlee 33. lucas 34. charlee 35. lucas 36. charlee Epilogue become a vip enjoy this book? also by bella michaels About the Author get a free prequel Get a free prequel novella by becoming a Bella Michael’s VIP! Sign up here to receive Bella’s weekly newsletter full of exclusives and fun shenanigans. CHAPTER ONE charlee Kitchi Falls, Finger Lakes, New York I thought I had everything I wanted, but now he’s back. And all I want is him. “Charlee, don’t look now.” Natalie grabbed my wrist and pulled it away. Too late. I’d seen him already. “You nearly spilled my drink,” I said, trying, unsuccessfully, not to breathe as if I were running on a treadmill. “And it’s a fresh Deep Eddy’s.” “I’m serious,” she said. The sounds of “Sweet Home Alabama” played as we edged out a space for ourselves in the corner of the new bar in town. About time we got a fresh haunt to frequent. About time you’ve come home. “Me too,” I said, lifting my glass. “See? The pours here are legit.” I wasn’t fooling anyone. I’d known Natalie since freshman year in high school, when she had called me, of all people, with questions about our algebra homework. For the fifteen years since she’d moved to Kitchi Falls that long-ago September, we’d been navigating life together. Specifically, navigating our lives around boys. Specifically, that boy. Except, Lucas was clearly no longer a boy. After ten years in the US Army, he was all fucking man. “Where are you going?” Easy. To hide. I’d thought about our possible reunion for years, and it definitely didn’t include meeting him after work with barely refreshed makeup and my hair in a ponytail. “Charlee.” Natalie caught up with me in the exact opposite corner of the crowded bar where Lucas stood talking to the owner. “Are we really going to hide in the corner?” “Is that a real question?” Natalie took another peek. “Jesus,” she said. “I thought he was hot then. This Lucas is an absolute beast.” I didn’t need to look again. I’d seen it all, brief as my previous glance had been. Same dark hair, if a bit shorter now than in high school. Same chiseled cheekbones. Same extremely kissable lips. I should know. I had kissed them. But everything else was different. He’d always been in good shape, having played baseball in high school. But he was much bigger, muscles everywhere, confirming that he was as disciplined now as he’d been then about his body. In high school, he’d had one tattoo. But now, a sleeve covered one of his arms, giving him a proper, badass, ex-Army-sniper look. He oozed confidence and maleness. He oozed sex. “Are you okay?” “No,” I said. “I’m not.” “Do you want to leave?” Natalie and I exchanged a gaze. We looked nothing alike. Her blonde hair to my black. Her petite frame to my more hourglass figure. For years people had commented that, together, the two of us were a force of nature, and usually I agreed. But not tonight. At this moment, I wasn’t sure I could blow a leaf off a tree, never mind pull the thing from its freaking roots. I could barely breathe. “I appreciate it,” I said, especially knowing how excited Natalie had been to come tonight. “I’ll be fine.” “Maybe go talk to him?” I laughed. “Like this? No thanks.” Natalie rolled her eyes. “Of course,” she said. “Everything always has to be perfect—” “Perfect? Fat chance. Look at me,” I said, then quickly changed topics to talk about the singer instead. “I wonder where Mazzie found this guy? He’s really, really good.” Lucas is here. In Kitchi Falls. In this bar. “I heard she had him flown in from Scottsdale. But you know the rumor mill.” Natalie took a sip of her vodka soda, watching the singer, who strummed his guitar like he’d been doing it all his life. “I do.” The rumor mill in Kitchi Falls was as legit as Lucas’s new and improved body. “Sounds right though. Her dad owned a honky-tonk there, so it makes sense if she had connections, and what better time to get someone that good here than opening night?” We fell into the kind of companionable silence that was comfortable between old friends. The bar hummed with conversation and laughter. The singer fired up a new song, “Wagon Wheel.” By all accounts, it was the kind of night most people would probably picture in a town like this. One that just yesterday I might have been content to enjoy. “Is he still here?” I couldn’t help asking. Natalie peered around me. “Maybe a touch more subtle?” She gave me a “seriously?” look and continued to search for Lucas. Apparently without luck. “I don’t see him. He’s either in the men’s room or. . . gone.” “He’s gone,” I said. “How do you know?” Natalie looked toward the bathroom. I just. . . knew. There was a reason I hadn’t seen Lucas in ten years, despite the fact that he’d been back at least twice since joining the Army and leaving Kitchi Falls. The same reason that, even though I would not mind shaking my sheets and having Lucas Warner fall out, it would probably never happen again. We hadn’t ever slept together, but I was sure sex with that man would be unlike anything I’d experience in my life.