On their recommendation, Amalia chose the pulled chicken and Ryker got ribs of some sort.
Rolls had been placed on the table when they arrived, enough for each of them to have a couple. Amalia had eaten at some of best places Europe and the island nations of the Atlantic had to offer, but these were on a different level.
“Oh, my word.” She pulled another bite off the roll and popped it in her mouth. “These are incredible.”
Ryker laughed as he did the same. “Are these standard at a restaurant like this?”
“Typically, they have some sort of bread.” The husband who wasn’t related answered the question. “Usually with a special butter or spread of some kind.”
Before she could try the spread to go with it, someone arrived with their salads.
For once, she and Ryker were included in the dinner conversation. Maybe because the Americans at the table had a much better idea of how restaurants like this normally worked.
Whatever the reason, they spent nearly an hour eating, talking, and laughing before the group moved into the other room where the music had been turned up significantly louder.
“Come on. Let’s do this!” One of the sisters-in-law grabbed her husband’s hand, and he followed her into the line on the dance floor.
The other two couples joined them almost immediately while Amalia stayed to the side with Ryker.
“Do you have any idea how to do these?” he asked her, nearly yelling to be heard over the do-si-do music.
Amalia shook her head. “I think I’ve seen it in a couple of movies, but I’ve never attempted it.”
Together, they watched as the others danced. “I think we could do the steps if we knew what order to do them in.” Ryker tapped his toe in time to the music.
One of the couples from their group came over and each grabbed one of them by the hand and pulled them to the floor. “Come on!”
Laughing, Amalia learned a couple of basic steps from one of the brothers and before she knew it, she was line dancing with the rest of them. Ryker danced next to her, laughing as he did.
In between songs, they both decided to step to the side to get a drink of water and catch their breath.
“That’s a lot more fun than I expected,” Amalia told him between sips.
“It is.”
They waited out the rest of the song before going back out for another dance.
The next time, the song switched to a much slower one with Amalia still holding Ryker’s hand from the dance before.
Someone bumped into her from behind putting her squarely in front of him. Without saying anything, Amalia put her hand on Ryker’s shoulder as his slid partway around her waist, pulling her closer to him than she’d ever purposely been.
As the song went on, Amalia found herself shifting closer to Ryker, her hand slipping farther up his shoulder until she found the back of his neck.
The warmth from his hand as it splayed on the small of her back spread through her.
His breath teased the hair at her temple.
Amalia closed her eyes and let herself imagine she was dancing in the arms of someone who didn’t love the titles or the money or the prestige, but who lovedher.
Ryker was the only person who even came close to knowing the real person without the trappings of her everyday life.
Until she found someone who could know both sides of her, she’d never find the person she wanted to spend her life with. She wouldn’t be able to truly be her full self with someone who never took the time to get to know who she was in private.
And, although Ryker knew that part of her, he didn’t know anything about the tiaras and paparazzi and political pressure to do the right thing - even if no one could agree on what the right thing would be.
For now, she could just relish being in the arms of someone who didn’t want to know what she could do for him or how she could support his pet cause.
So she focused on the way the hair at the nape of his neck felt under her fingertips and the rasp of his few-day-old beard against the side of her temple.
