Tyler peered over my head, behind me, to Leslie. “Cheerleading days?”
“That’s right. You’re looking at UCLA’s class of 2004 cheer squad’s captain and co-captain,” Leslie reiterated as she placed her arm around my shoulder.
“Is that so?” Tyler dropped those goddamned magnetizing eyes back to me again.
“You bet your ass. We were runner-up at nationals. I still think we got robbed if you ask me.”
“But nobody asked you!” I snapped at Leslie who was talking too damn much.
“Well, I can’t pass up an opportunity to dance with class of 2004’s cheer co-captain, can I?”
I felt myself being pulled farther out onto the dancefloor. It hadn’t been until that moment that I realized Tyler’s big hand had mine firmly wrapped up in it. My feet moved as if he was the one instructing my brain what to do instead of me. At that precise moment another Maroon 5 song came on. “Moves Like Jagger” began playing and instinctively my body began swinging.
“That’s it,” Tyler encouraged, clapping to the music.
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Embarrass yourself if you want,” I responded cockily. If he wanted to set himself up in front of all these people to get staged up on this dancefloor, it was his funeral. I turned and shimmied my hips lower, nearly touching the ground before coming back up and tossing my hands overhead to clap in time with the music. My intention had been to keep my back to Tyler during the entirety of the song, but unable to keep my eyes off of him, I turned around. To my surprise, Tyler had no problem keeping up with me just fine. When his hand reached out, pulling me by the waist, closer to him, I went willingly, our hips making contact in rhythm to the music. I should’ve been shocked that he was so good at dancing but I was starting to learn that Tyler was full of surprises.
“And I thought tonight was going to suck,” he leaned down and said low in my ear before nipping my earlobe.
The shiver that ran through me knocked me off balance but I was steadied by Tyler’s strong, competent hand at the small of my back.
“Easy, Destiny. We’ll take this round nice and slow,” he whispered soothingly in my ear.
I swallowed and inhaled deeply, trying to steady my heartbeat that had become erratic. Not due to the dancing but due to the man that I was now pressed up against.
Only by the grace of a loving being did that song finally end and was replaced by The Pussycat Doll’s “Don’t Cha”. A screeching Leslie ran over to me, pulling me by the arm that wasn’t wrapped around Tyler’s waist …When the hell did that happened?
“Sorry, Mr. Townsend, but this is one of our theme songs. Right, D? We have to do the dance to this. Show these young girls we still got it!” Leslie exclaimed, pulling me free from Tyler’s hold.
I ignored the feeling of loss I felt when he willingly let me go. But instead of leaving the dancefloor as I’d expected he would, he turned, folding his arms across his broad chest and blatantly watched. At one point he narrowed his eyes and glared dangerously at a man who looked like he was heading in the direction of Leslie and I. Obviously, using his sense of self-preservation, the man veered off course, and steered himself clear of us.
“Let’s go, D!” Leslie yelled, shaking me by the shoulders, pulling my attention from Tyler to her.
Soon enough, Jackie joined us and we began performing the coordinated dance to the song that we’d come up well over a decade prior. Something happened to me when I remembered that Tyler was still watching me as I danced. I bent at the waist, poking my ass out, and came up swiftly, glancing over my shoulder to see him still smirking in my direction. Leslie, Jackie, and I spun in a circle before dropping low and picking it up, biting our pointer fingers. I threw caution to the wind as I fully embraced my inner stripper that this, and any song by the Pussycat Dolls, brought out in me. Knowing I had an audience made it all the more fun.
“Woo!” Leslie exclaimed.
“We still got it, ladies!” Jackie panted once the song finished.
We all turned and bowed and waved to the patrons who were standing around clapping for us.
“That was fun!” Leslie stated.
“It was even more fun to watch.” Tyler’s deep voice cut through the surrounding sounds of the lounge, reaching my ears. How he was able to do that, I had no idea. “I still can’t believe you were a cheerleader,” he stated, eyeing me as if challenging me to prove it.
“Believe it. Look!” Leslie butted in, pulling out her phone and bringing up a picture to show Tyler.
He peeled his gaze from me and peered down at the screen Leslie had thrust in his face. His smile increased. Reluctantly, I sauntered over, but even in six inch heels I had to lift up on my tiptoes to see the image Leslie was sharing with him. It was a picture of one of our cheer competitions. Leslie and I were front and center, me at the top of the pyramid due to my being one of the smallest members on the team.
“Good to know,” Tyler stated before eyeing me suspiciously.
I narrowed my gaze, wondering what he meant by that, but was too bound by pride to ask. At least, I was too proud to ask in front of Leslie because as soon as she walked away, once her phone began ringing, I questioned, “Why’s that good to know?”
Tyler looked down at me, lifting his auburn eyebrows at me before leaning over close to my ear. “Good to know as much information as possible about my future wife.”
If I’d thought my steps had faltered before, that had been nothing next to the stumble I’d almost taken at that comment. Again, however, my unsteady body was kept upright by the steady embrace of Tyler.
“See? Falling for me already.”
