The main chorus of Kenny Loggin’sDanger Zonepumped out over the speakers. “Make sure you put your hands behind your back, Brock! And no helping him Tessa!” Tommy instructed, his voice rumbling over the speakers. Brock made a show of putting his hands behind his back and dropped to his knees in front of Tessa’s legs. It took him almost a minute to get the garter off, while Tessa laughed and squirmed as if it tickled.
He finally removed the garter with his teeth and stood up, flinging it over his shoulder towards us. It landed right on Bill Armstrong’s shoulder.
“Was that intentional?” Tommy wondered aloud, laughing like he found the whole thing hysterical. Bill’s expression was bewildered, and then he buckled forward and laughed too. “Alright everyone—let’s get this party going again. Drinks are on me!”
For the next couple of hours, Elle kept herself busy. She made the rounds, dancing with Bill and the majority of Tessa’s brother’s before Ezra took her for a spin on the dance floor. I narrowed my eyes as I watched them. I knew that Ezra wasn’t a threat; he’d never go for her knowing how I felt about her.
Can’t Take My Eyes Off Youby Lady Antebellum song came on and everyone on the dance floor coupled up while memories washed over me with enough force to nearly knock me off my feet.
In high school, Elle had loved Lady Antebellum. There had been more than one occasion when her favourite song,Just A Kisscame on the radio when we were out together and I’d stop whatever it was we were doing just to hold her in my arms and dance with her. Even if we were on the highway, or in the mall. At first, it was just an excuse to get my hands on her body and my mouth on hers. Then it grew into something more when I saw how happy it made her. Making her smile like that becamemyaddiction.
While it wasn’tJust A Kiss, I could tell from the way Elle’s eyes lifted to mine that the significance of this band wasn’t lost on her. I walked across the dance floor and extended my hand out to her. “Can I have this dance?”
She looked down at my hand for a moment, then looked back up at me. The hurt still swirled around her irises. She drew in a shaky breath before placing her hand in mine. I pulled her towards me, not stopping until our bodies were flush together.
My right hand rested against her left hip, and I held her hand in mine, pressed against my heart. We swayed softly for several minutes, the woman singer’s beautiful voice lifting lyrics about how she couldn’t take her eyes off her love. The song fit our current predicament perfectly.
“Elle I—“ I said, at the same time she said “I need to know something.”
She paused, as if waiting for me to continue. Elle’s brown eyes were locked on mine. Her eyebrows were drawn together and her lips rested in a small frown. “You first,” I urged. I swallowed hard, my throat dry and scratchy.
“When I’m with you, he slips from my mind so easily,” she said, her eyes misting. “Is that what happened with…withher? Did you completely forget I existed?”
“No,” I assured her. I stopped dancing so I could cradle her face in my hands. I tipped her chin up to look even deeper into her eyes. All of the other couples on the dance floor faded away into the background as we stood there. “I never forgot you, not for a second. All I could see was your face, all I could hear in my head was your voice. But I had convinced myself that you’d leave eventually, everyone does.”
“You threw us away because you were too scared to trust that I loved you?” she asked me, my words bringing her no comfort. “After everything we’d been through?”
My thumbs brushed the tears away from her cheeks. “I never said that it made sense,” I paused. “I’ve regretted it ever since, but I wanted to be somebody before I came back into your life. I wanted to have something more than a job at the garage to offer you.”
“Your love was the only thing I ever needed,” she told me.
“You have always had my love,” I promised her. The hurt in each word that she spoke carved places on the tender flesh of my heart as it throbbed painfully in my chest. “That’s one thing that never changed, and never will.”
She nodded, looking away from me. “I think the worst part is that I’ve already forgiven you,” she said, shaking her head slowly as if she was repulsed with herself. My fingers dropped back down to press into her hip gently.
“You never could stay mad at me,” I joked, smirking.
Elle gave me a small smile in response. It faded after a moment, and she sighed. “My life is a mess right now, Braden.”
“I can handle a little mess,” I raised my brow pointedly. “What I can’t handle is not having you in my life. If all you can give me right now is your friendship, I’ll take that. I just don’t want to watch you walk away again.”
I didn’t tell her that I didn’t think I was strong enough to withstand it this time; that wasn’t her cross to bear. Whatever happened to me if she walked away was my problem, not hers.
Elle drew in a sharp breath, my words obviously affecting her. She pressed her body harder against mine, her hands coming up to wrap around the back of my neck.
Elle
I nuzzled into Braden’s neck, breathing in his clean masculine scent, our bodies swaying back and forth in perfect time to the song. I could feel his heart beating beneath my hand, the steady rhythmic thump calming me.
Lady Antebellum was one of my obsessions in high school—they still were, only I hadn’t been able to listen to them since the wholeBraden breaking my heartthing, because any time that I did, I’d think about all the times he had pulled me to him to dance with him. His hands on my hips, his lips softly exploring mine as we swayed together.
The first time it happened was on our first date. We were driving home from the movie theatre, andJust A Kisscame on through the speakers. I turned it up, because I always turned up their songs.
Then Braden pulled over to the shoulder of highway 559, hopped out of the cab of his truck. He walked around the front to open my door. “Dance with me,” he said, holding out his hand for me to take. He led me to the front of his truck and stopped. He turned to face me, pausing for a moment to brush the hair out of my face and gaze into my eyes. His right hand landed on my hip, and he pulled me flush to his body, swaying in time to the music.
He’d taken me by complete surprise that night, moving against me in the dark, the truck’s headlights illuminating the look on his face while his hands roamed my body and ignited me. Braden wasn’t known as a romantic guy, in fact—he’d been known as a dirty player. I had never seen him dance at a single school dance, but I’d watch him make out with countless girls against his locker, which happened to be three down from mine.
He used to pull my hair and drive me crazy, then he started being nice to me and flirting with me. The make out sessions with girls against his locker stopped and he started asking me out. His persistence got me interested—I couldn’t figure out why he wanted to take me out so badly. I’d always found him attractive, there wasn’t a single girl in Parry Sound that didn’t—except maybe Tessa, but it turned out she just had an eye for the other Miller brother. In the end, my curiosity got the best of me and I said yes.
