“Very sure,” I said, sipping my slushie with as much finality as I could muster. “I’m a watcher. An enjoyer of vibes. Not a participant in…whatever this is. Plus, I’m not drunk enough for public humiliation, and I still have half a slushie.”
He looked around the dance circle, where an elderly man was twirling a woman in a bedazzled denim vest, then back at me.
“Funny,” he said, sliding a hand around my waist andtugging me a step closer. “I don’t remember you having a problem with public anything a few hours ago.”
I gave him a look. “Dancing and getting railed against a tree are not in the same category.”
He leaned in, voice low and teasing. “So what you’re saying is…I need to take you back to the woods if I want to see you move like that again.”
My face flushed. “You say some pretty inappropriate things for a man who claims to have been raised right.”
“You’re the one who was just talkin’ about certain things between your thighs,” he said—even as he took my slushie and downed it, wincing.
“Jesus, Beau!”
“Brain freeze,” he laughed. “Yikes…but, hell, it takes away your excuse.”
“What?”
He caught my hand and tugged me toward the circle, Milo trailing along behind us as if he couldn’t wait to see what this strange new game was. A couple kids caught his attention and he wagged his tail, barking.
“Beau, I’m serious,” I started—but then the caller’s voice rang out, rhythmic like she was casting a spell.
“Bow to your partner, bow to the corner, swing that girl and never warn her!”
And somehow, impossibly, I was spinning.
Not gracefully. Not on beat. But spinning.
Beau caught me before I could stumble, steadying me with both hands at my waist. I was laughing—god, I wasactuallylaughing—my head tipped back, cheeks aching from the smile that had taken over without my permission.
“See?” he said, breath warm against my temple. “Told you you could dance.”
“I can’t,” I said, breathless.
“But you’re doing it anyway.”
We fell into a rhythm that wasn’t really dancing so much as swaying and half-stumbling with confidence. Milo barked somewhere at the edge of the circle, probably appalled at our lack of form, but Beau didn’t let me go.
Not even when the music picked up.
Not even when I tripped a little over someone’s discarded scarf.
He just kept moving with me like he knew how to catch every fall before I could make it.
And I let it happen.
Let the weirdness wash over me…let the music sink into my bones. Let myself be part of something without asking how long it would last or when I’d leave.
Beau spun me under his arm, pulled me back into his chest, and whispered, “You’re not gonna forget this, are you?”
I looked up at him, breath hitching. “No,” I said. “I really don’t think I will.”
CHAPTER 14
Beau
People saidyou could lose time in Willow Grove…but I didn’t know if it was the town, or Noelle that made me feel like time had ceased to have any meaning.
