“You said you’re going stir-crazy. The activity will be good for you.”

Activity? Something intense flared through him, something he wasn’t certain he’d ever felt in exactly this way. It was the knowledge that she was a virgin. It messed with a man’s head, making him think about the darnedest things. It took the simplicity out of a man wanting a woman. And Kane believed in keeping things simple.

“Come on, Kane, let’s dance.”

“Dance? That’s what you want to do...dance?”

“What did you think?”

Since Kane wasn’t about to admit what he’d been thinking, he said, “There’s no music.”

She started to hum. Seconds later she broke out into song. Lord, there she went with the singing again.

“Come on, Kane,” she said, drawing him with her to the center of the room.

“I can’t dance,” he said, stalling.

Totally undeterred, she placed his good hand on her shoulder and his other one on her waist, talking all the while. “I’ve watched every Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie ever made a hundred times. I can teach even a mule with four left feet to dance.”

She hummed a few bars of the “Tennessee Waltz.”

“Josie, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Don’t worry,” she whispered, inching closer. “I’ll be real careful of your bad shoulder. There, how’s that?”

She started humming again, swaying slightly, easing him into his first step. “Dancin’ ain’t—isn’t—hard. It’s like playing leapfrog or making love.”

He swallowed, his feet moving him around the room, her voice sending his thoughts to the other side of the moon. “It’s all about trust and consent, about swaying this way and dipping that way. You hold me just so. And I hold you just so. There. Feel that?”

Kane felt that, all right. He felt her breasts against his chest and her hair under his chin. He felt her breath on his neck and her thighs between his. He felt a lot more than he cared to admit. It left him warm and wanting, and he didn’t want to stop.

Deciding for once it might be best to keep her talking, he said, “Would you tell me something, Josie?”

She looked up at him and nodded, continuing to hum.

“I was just wondering why a girl who can sing like a lark and glide around the room on feet that don’t even touch the ground has stayed on this mountain,” he said, pausing for quiet emphasis. He really was trying to be nice. “I mean, why would a girl like you stay if you aren’t happy here?”

She stared into his eyes for a moment, and then past him as if she was seeing something in the distance only she could see. He watched her expression, intrigued.

“What makes you think I’m not happy here?” she asked.

“Are you?”

She shrugged. “I’m not unhappy, if that’s what you mean. Some kids don’t like school, but I loved it, especially geography and reading. My mama couldn’t read very well, but she was so proud of me. I used to talk to her for hours about the people and places I read about and how I was going to visit each and every corner of the world.”

“Why haven’t you?” he said quietly.

She lifted her chin, her eyes finding his. Their feet continued to move, but their steps took them in a circle that grew smaller and smaller. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Mama got sick when I was fourteen. I missed a lot of school after that. By the time she died, I was seventeen, and Daddy didn’t see much sense in sending me back.”

Kane had the feeling that for once, Josie was leaving a lot out. A lot of pain. A lot of sadness. A lot of hopelessness. A ton of disappointment. “It’s never too late,” he said.

“To go back to school? Maybe not in other parts of the country, but in Hawk Hollow, it’s way too late. That’s why I was hoping to convince you to take me to Montana with you. I’d try to be quiet, Kane. I’m a good cook and a fair to middling housekeeper. And don’t all men need a woman every now and then?”

Kane’s feet froze to the floor, his hand tightening at her waist.

“Kane?”

There was something in her voice that struck a chord in his heart. Until that instant, he didn’t know he still had a heart.

All he had to do was make the next move, and he would find relief for the pent-up need wreaking havoc with his senses. He thought about it. God, it was torture, but he couldn’t do it. It seemed that along with a heart came a conscience.

Ending the little dance lesson, he touched her cheek first, and then he straightened her collar. “I’m tempted, Josie. Believe me, I’m tempted. But a girl like you can do a lot better than a man like me.”

“You’re wrong about that, Kane.”

He shook his head, thinking about Obadiah Olson and his tooth. “Maybe not here, but somewhere. You should do whatever you want to do and be whatever you want to be.”