Chapter 5: Two-Step

"He won't come," I said.

"He's already said yes." Elena turned back around. "Men like that always come. They can't help looking at what they can't have."

He came.

Strother's party was in a barn the size of a cathedral, with chandeliers made of wagon wheels and a dance floor laid over the dirt.

Four hundred guests. A band from Fort Worth. A cake shaped like a crown.

On a table by the stage sat the contract in a leather folder, with a silver pen beside it.

I wore the navy dress with the long sleeves and the long jacket.

Elena had chosen it.

It covered me from my collarbone to my shins.

Andrés's ring was still on my little finger. My knuckle had swelled around it.

I saw Clyde the moment he walked in.

He'd put on a black jacket, a white shirt with pearl snaps, and a black hat brushed clean.

His boots were shined.

He stood near the door with a beer he didn't drink, and people walked around him.

Every so often someone looked down at him and smiled.

He didn't smile back.

He looked across the barn at me, once, and touched his hat brim.

My chest did something it hadn't done since I was nineteen.

Andrés stood beside me at the head table with his hand on the small of my back.

He shook hands with ranchers. He talked about interest rates.

When anyone looked at me, he answered for me.

The band played a slow waltz.

Couples went out onto the floor.

Strother's wife leaned across the table, all teeth and hairspray.

"Y'all have to dance! The engaged couple has to dance!"

People at the nearby tables picked it up. "Dance! Dance!"

Andrés smiled at them.

He leaned down so his lips were near my ear.