Hidden Summit

we wanted to show you so we decided on the spur of the moment. It’s a nice drive.”
    “Must have been kind of uncomfortable in your fancy clothes,” she observed.
    “Don’t be silly, we stopped at a service station and changed,” Candace said. She put her iPod with speakers on Leslie’s coffee table.
    Robert was back, brushing his hands together. “There! Coffee’s on. Let’s make a little room here.” He pushed the chair back against the wall, the coffee table against the sofa, the dining table back, chairs pushed in. “You’re going to get the biggest kick out of this, Leslie,” he said.
    “I’d better.” Leslie crossed her arms over her chest.
    “It’s spectacular,” Robert promised. “Now stay right there. Candace, press Play.”
    Just as Candace pushed the button, before the music even started, Conner stepped into the room looking like pure sex. His short hair was mussed, and he had a scruffy growth of beard surrounding that tight, trim little goatee. He’d pulled on his faded jeans that hung low on his delicious hips, his feet bare. He wore his white T-shirt and had carelessly stuffed a handful of it into the low waist of the jeans right at the center, over the zipper. The hair on his chest was visible in the V-neck, and she wanted to run her fingers through it. His eyes were sleepy and his smile small and one-sided. He came to stand next to Leslie.
    “Oh!” Candace said, startled. A tango began to play, and Candace looked at her husband. “Robert, we should have called! We’re intruding.”
    “No problem,” Conner said.
    Candace smiled. “You must be Conner,” she said.
    “Luckily,” he said, causing Leslie to laugh.
    Candace grabbed Robert’s hand and said, “We’ll be along now and call you in a couple of hours. Maybe we can get together for lunch or something....”
    “Don’t be silly,” Leslie said. “You’re here now. Let’s see your surprise. Then we’ll plan lunch.”
    “Are you sure?” Candace asked.
    “The tango, I presume?” Leslie asked, lifting a brow.
    “I guess we got a little excited. We’ve been taking some dance lessons.”
    “Getting ready to knock ’em dead on the cruise! You’re the only one we’re showing,” Robert said. “This sort of thing was a lot easier when you lived in Grants Pass.”
    “Well, let’s see, then,” Leslie said.
    “Are you absolutely sure, honey?” Candace wanted to know.
    “Go for it, Mother. Believe me, you have my complete attention.”
    Candace started the music again, Robert swept her up in the traditional embrace, and they glided back and forth across the living room floor. Nicely, as a matter of fact. They were very agile and coordinated, and their moves were well matched. They looked into each other’s eyes like practiced partners ready for Dancing with the Stars. Her mother’s short, spiky blond hair even looked professionally done. Leslie tilted her head and glanced up at Conner. He lifted his brows in amusement.
    After watching them dance for a couple of minutes, Conner turned and pulled Leslie into his arms. He put her arm around his shoulder and tucked her hand into his chest. Then with his cheek against hers, he simply rocked back and forth, dancing his own slower dance, keeping time with the music. Sort of.
    “Your parents are very interesting,” he whispered in her ear.
    She laughed. “Aren’t they?”
    “Your mother is gorgeous for almost seventy.”
    “I know. I hope I got her genes.”
    “I do, too. Otherwise you might find yourself dying your hair with some reddish-black concoction.” She giggled. “Your dad has the worst dye job I’ve ever seen.”
    “I know. Mom fusses about his thinning hair all the time, but apparently to him it looks good.”
    “He got a lot of it on his bean,” Conner said. “I think he stained it good.”
    “I know,” she said as she chuckled.
    “They’re fun, aren’t they?” Conner asked.
    “Sometimes a bit too much fun,” she answered.
    “Look at them,” he said. “They’re having the time of their lives, doing the tango in their daughter’s living room. How long have they been married?”
    “Forty-three years.”
    “When the dance contest is over, here’s what we should do,” Conner said. “I should go home to shower, shave and change, you should have coffee with your folks and get dressed, and then we should meet at Jack’s for lunch so they can interrogate me a little bit.”
    They turned and looked as Robert dragged Candace