“I was alone for three years.” He’d never forgive himself if he was the reason Lori didn’t take her life and career by the horns again and show it who was boss. “I’m pretty good at it, you know.”

She shook her head. “You’re too good at it. That’s what worries me.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“All this time you’ve been looking for a way to make me leave,” she said, clearly trying to tease him, but sounding more sad than anything else. “But just as you couldn’t get rid of Sweetpea, you’re not getting rid of me this easily, either.” She looked deeply into his eyes, as if to make sure he really saw the truth of what she was saying to him.

I’m coming back to you.

He kissed her then, long and sweet and soft, before saying all the things he should already have said to her a thousand times over. “I’ve never had food as good as what you make, the chickens don’t want to eat scraps from anyone but you, the crops have been growing twice as fast since they first felt your green thumbs...and Mo and the pigs and I have never loved anyone more than we love you.”

“Oh, Grayson.” Her face finally crumbled, her beautiful mouth wobbling, tears running down her cheeks. “It would be so much easier if you’d just be cranky and bossy right now.”

God, the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life was giving up what he wanted so that the woman he loved could get what she needed. “Now that you’ve whipped my farm into shape and taught everyone in Pescadero how to line dance just like they do it in Nashville, it’s time to go show that idiot in Chicago what you’re made of.”

She sniffled, nodded, hugged him close and held on tight. They stood together in her hallway, two people who should never have been together...but who couldn’t ever have found what they’d found with anyone else.

When she suddenly pulled back, her eyes were dry and filled with the resolve and determination that he’d seen on the farm every time he’d challenged her—and she’d challenged him right back. “Before I head off for Chicago and you go back to your farm to feed your chickens, I think that I should teach you a new dance.”

“What’s the dance called?” he asked as she led him into her bedroom.

She was already pulling him down over her on the bed as she answered, “The tangle.”

Chapter Twenty-four

“Lori!” The minute she walked into the Chicago dance hall, her friend Alicia ran over and threw her arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re back.” Alicia pulled away and did a quick once-over. “You’re gorgeous and glowing. I hope that means you’ve found someone to replace the scumbag.”

Scumbag? “What do you know?”

Alicia scowled. “That Victor is a pathetic excuse for a man and a dancer.”

“Who else knows?”

“Everyone.” Her friend’s scowl deepened.

“But—” Lori didn’t get it. How, after nearly two years of hiding the truth about Victor from everyone, did they all suddenly know the score? “How’d you find out?”

“Didn’t your sister tell you?”

Lori raised an eyebrow, at once filled with love for her meddling twin and annoyance that she’d felt she had to step in to deal with Lori’s mess. “My sister didn’t tell me anything. What did she do?”

Alicia looked a little worried now that maybe she’d stepped into something she shouldn’t have. “Just made a couple of calls, I think...”

“And?”

“And, uh, some people came by to talk to Victor. Some big people. With lots of tattoos.”

Perhaps it wasn’t nice of her to laugh at the picture of her ex having to deal with Jake McCann’s Irish-pub-owning friends, but she couldn’t help it.

“Besides,” Alicia added, “when you walked out like that, we guessed something had to be up. The only reason anyone ever put up with Victor was because of you. We love you, Lori. But him?” Her friend made a face. “It’s been horrible since you’ve been gone.”

Lori had done a lot of thinking in the past two weeks, not only about what Victor had done, but about what she’d done, too. It wasn’t her fault that he was an asshole, but hadn’t she shielded her friends and family from his true personality? Because if they had known what he was really like—that he was selfish, and demanding, and unfaithful—then she would look like an idiot for sticking with him.

“Thank God you’re back to take over for the last week of the show.”

Lori hadn’t planned to stay, tried to form the words to explain to her friend that there was somewhere else she needed to be...but she couldn’t. Not when she felt terrible about leaving her dancers in a bad situation like this in the first place.

And not when she knew that staying to shepherd her dancers through to the end was the right thing to do.

“I’m sorry I left you with Victor.”

“None of us blame you for going. And trust me, no one has any plans to work with Victor or Gloria again. Please say you’re going to chew him to pieces.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Lori assured her friend, “I’ve learned a lot these past couple of weeks about dealing with animals.”

* * *

Victor couldn’t hide his surprise when Lori walked into the small office upstairs.

“Get out of my seat. I have a show to fix.”

At the clear command in her voice, he immediately stood, before realizing he should have stayed right where he was. Holding on to the back of the chair as if to keep his claim on her show intact, he gave her a hurt look.

“How could you have walked out on all of us like that, Lori? If anyone is responsible for the show going downhill these past two weeks, it’s you.”

If she hadn’t gotten mad and disillusioned enough to walk away, she never would have found Grayson. Which, she was more than a little shocked to realize, meant that if she had it to do all over again, she would hope it all played out exactly the same...if only so that she could finally learn what true love was.

But even if everything she had been through had been worth it just to get to Grayson, she still deserved her pound of revenge. Ten pounds would be even better.

“You’re right,” she admitted. “Walking out on the show wasn’t at all professional. I shouldn’t have done it. But,” she added in a calm tone that did little to hide the ice behind her words, “you shouldn’t have been a lying, cheating douchebag who slept with the lead dancer I hired for my show.” She smiled, baring her teeth at him. “So I guess we were both wrong, weren’t we?”

They’d had more than their fair share of arguments while they were together, but Lori had focused more on the make-up sex than what was behind the fights. She had told herself it made their relationship exciting. Really, though, all it had done was make her a fool. Because in all the time she and Victor had been together, she couldn’t think of one kind thing he’d done for her that hadn’t been for his own gain.

Whereas Grayson had taken her to that barn dance, and then to her family’s Sunday lunch, when they were both the very last places he’d wanted to be. He’d even pushed her to return to her own world despite his obvious belief that she wouldn’t come back to him, back to the farm. All because he loved her, and wanted the best for her, rather than himself.

“We were on a break,” Victor protested. “You could have slept with someone else if you wanted to.”

“Funny,” she said, though there wasn’t even a trace of humor in her voice, “I wonder how many other breaks we had that I never knew about? And I’m assuming that’s also what you told Gloria when you took her to bed? Did you also tell her she was a better dancer than I am? And was she stupid enough to believe your lies the way I always did?”

She watched his face carefully as she spoke. Now that she was no longer desperate to convince him to love her the way she’d thought she loved him, she could finally see her ex for what he was. A handsome, charismatic, underhanded snake. Right now, she guessed, he was trying to decide between hurling insults or turning on the charm. When she saw his half-scowl turn to a smile, she knew he’d decided on charm.

Grayson may have been short on charm, she thought with a secret smile, but at least she could always count on him to be honest. He would never say he loved her just to get her back into bed. And he was no slouch in the handsome department, either. If the two men were to stand side by side, Victor would look like a glossy, pint-sized poser compared to Grayson, who had earned every one of his muscles, every glorious inch of tanned skin, from good, honest work beneath the sun.

“I made a mistake, baby. I got caught up in the heat of the moment during rehearsals.”

Lori knew all about heat now, about how strong a pull another person could have on your life. That when you were meant to be together, no amount of common sense, no attempts at self-control, made any difference.

Grayson had told her that she forgave too easily, but she couldn’t imagine going through life holding onto grudges that would eat away at her. Even when someone clearly deserved the grudge.

“I forgive you,” she said, and relief immediately moved across Victor’s features. He was opening up his arms for her as she said, “Now, get out of my way.”

He stood there, his arms still reaching toward her, a stunned look on his face, but she was done with him now, so she simply sat down and started to go through the paperwork laid out across the table.

Just as quickly as he’d put on the charm, her ex stripped it away. “You’re the one who walked out on the show, not me,” he sneered. “Instead of admitting it was too big a production for you to handle, you ran off crying like a little girl who got her feelings hurt in the sandbox. No one thinks you’re good enough to manage a show this size. And no one wants you back.”

Without acknowledging anything he’d said, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed the show’s producer. “Neil? Hi, it’s Lori Sullivan. Yes, I really am sorry for leaving so suddenly, and I promise I’ll make it up to you, but now that I’m back, I just wanted to do a quick check-in with you about firing V—” When she was cut off, she listened for a moment, then said, “Yes, I’ll take care of it now and then I’ll see you backstage tonight after the show.”

She disconnected. “Looks like it’s time for you to take another break,” she told her ex, then really did completely put him out of her head as she started calling her dancers one by one to let them know about the emergency rehearsal she was scheduling for that afternoon.

Now that the nearly two-year break she had taken from clear and rational thinking was finally over, Lori Sullivan was back.

And she was going to be better than ever.

* * *

Ten hours later...

God, she missed Grayson so much.

Lori had wanted to call him all day, but it had been one thing after another. When she realized that everything really had gone off the rails on her show, she’d known she had to spend as much time with her dancers as possible, both to reassure them and to get them excited again about their performance. And of course she’d had to deal with Gloria’s tears and apologies ad nauseum, too.

Lori was just pulling her phone out of her bag to finally call Grayson and tell him she loved him, and that she was going to miss him every single second of the week it took her to come back to him, when it rang in her hand. The name on the screen was one of the biggest producers in the business.

“Hi, Carter. How are you?”

“I’m freaking out!”

Lori grinned. Carter was always losing it over something. A man he had a crush on. A slightly pulled muscle. The sky not being quite blue enough to suit him. He was flamboyant and funny and brilliant. Getting to work with him a couple of times this year had not only been the highlight of her career, but even better, she’d made a very good new friend, too.