“Duly noted,” he said.
She could feel his smile against her cheek.
They moved around the dance floor with surprising grace, Ethan’s firm hand guiding her.
“Okay, what’s up with the dance moves?” she asked. “You were great the other night, too. Have you been practicing for all the wedding festivities?”
He flushed under her scrutiny. “Not really.”
Samantha frowned. “But you have had dance lessons since your injury,” she persisted. “You must have. Your moves are totally fluid.”
“Okay, yes, I had a few lessons,” he admitted, clearly uncomfortable.
“Because?”
“Lisa insisted,” he said. “The people in charge of my rehab suggested it would help with balance and coordination. Since I thought it might convince her that I wasn’t going to trample her feet, I went along with it. I think we both knew by then that it was over, but I couldn’t make myself throw in the towel. I kept trying to prove to her I was the same man.”
Samantha regarded him with dismay, indignant on his behalf. “You aren’t the same man, though. You’re a thousand times better. You’re courageous and brave. You’ve overcome a serious injury that could have destroyed you.”
“I haven’t overcome anything that thousands of other soldiers haven’t had to face.”
“And you’re all heroes, Ethan. You’re worth more than a hundred self-involved, shallow women like Lisa.”
He looked a little startled by her fierce defense, even though she’d said much the same in the past. “You sound so sure of that.”
“I am sure of that.”
“What have I done to earn that kind of support?” he asked, sounding bewildered. “I’ve done nothing but give you a rough time since we met. Never mind years ago, when I apparently didn’t even notice you were alive.”
She shrugged off the past. “You were a big-shot football hero back then. I was just a kid. It’s little wonder I wasn’t on your radar, so you’re forgiven for that,” she told him. “As for everything that’s happened since our paths crossed this time, I get it.” She held his gaze. “I really do, Ethan. Sometimes I have a little trouble believing this is real myself, and I’m a big believer in love.”
“You’ve never let your doubts show,” he said.
“I figure one of us sitting on the fence was tricky enough. One of us needed to be all in.”
He looked startled by her choice of words. “And you’re all in?”
She nodded. “And don’t you dare let that terrify you. You’ll get there when you get there.” She shrugged, trying for a nonchalance she was far from feeling. “Or you won’t.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“I’m not okay with it,” she said. “Of course not. But I can’t change it, can I? Your feelings are your feelings. I just want you to be sure you really know what those feelings are before you throw away this chance we have.”
He shook his head. “You scare me to death,” he said.
“How so?”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“I never said it was easy. Look at Boone and Emily, or Wade and Gabi. Nothing about their journeys was easy. I just believe love is worth all the hard work that goes into it.”
She glanced around the reception, then looked up into his eyes. “Looks like this party’s breaking up.”
He followed the direction of her gaze. “Looks that way.”
“What happens next, Ethan?”
He hesitated for so long, she thought she’d lost tonight’s battle, if not the war.
“You come home with me,” he said with just the faintest hint of anxiety behind the words.
She could read the vulnerability in his eyes, hear it in his voice. Even now, it was evident he feared rejection, if not in this moment, then later, when it could be even more devastating. She nodded at once, hoping that her eagerness would reassure him.
“Best offer I’ve had in ages,” she told him, meaning it.
“Maybe you ought to wait and see about that,” he said.
“Don’t,” she said emphatically. “Don’t you dare sell yourself short, Ethan.”
“Just giving you fair warning that I’m pretty rusty at this.”
Her heart swelled at the trust he was placing in her. “No matter what, you are man enough for me, okay? Nothing that happens tonight is going to change that.”
She was willing to guarantee it, but the relief in his eyes told her he was taking her at her word. She intended to see that she didn’t let him down.
18
Ethan had never been more terrified in his life, not even in Afghanistan and Iraq. There he’d put his life on the line. Tonight he was testing his heart and soul. Samantha had demonstrated a level of blind faith in him that stunned him. That alone would have made him love her, but so many other reasons had already convinced him that he couldn’t let her go. Tonight, he knew he couldn’t let her—or himself—down.
He’d made love since he’d been out of rehab, even once with Lisa, though that had been a disaster best forgotten. She hadn’t cut him even the tiniest bit of slack or done anything to put him at ease. As always, it had been all about her, and he hadn’t been able to satisfy her, not the way he once had. She clearly hadn’t been patient enough to see if his awkwardness would change.
Other encounters had been more successful but hadn’t involved emotion, just physical satisfaction. At least they’d been reassuring on that level.
Now here was a smoldering-hot woman who wanted to put him first, who believed in him completely. And whether he liked it or not, his heart was engaged. Tonight wasn’t about sex. It was about forging something lasting, something with the potential to endure. That raised the stakes to a previously unimaginable level.
When he pulled into the driveway at his place, he cut the engine and turned to Samantha. “Still time to bail,” he said, injecting a light note into his voice as he made the offer.
She blinked at the suggestion. “Why would I do that?”
He shrugged. “Second thoughts.”
“I don’t
