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elizabeth verdusco
Dancing was dangerous.
I should know all about dangers and the shit life could toss at you when you weren’t paying attention. I saw it day in and day out when I was at work. As a traveling emergency room nurse, I’d seen it all. It didn’t matter if you were in a small mountain town or a busy, bustling metropolitan city.
The dangers of life were always there.
Lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce and take you out of your routine.
And dancing was no different.
Well… maybe it was just dangerous when you ended up dancing with a man who knew how to hold you? Whose warm scent and heat seeped into your bones and made you feel human again? It didn’t help that when said handsome man stared down at you with the most gorgeous blue eyes you had ever looked into, it made your heartrate pick up. Not to mention when the owner of said blue eyes was handsome as hell and a known player about town.
Austin Hart.I was two years below him in school, but our paths had never crossed. Not when I had been busy studying,working after school, keeping my grades up as high as possible, and making sure my sisters were okay while he was chasing girls. But that was high school and a seriously long time ago.
We were both grown now. I rolled over in bed and stared out the huge window that faced my backyard but stayed still.
Still.
That was the goal for this year.
To be present and still.
My sisters, Alejandra and Jackie, were always on me about how much I traveled for work. How I could never stay in one place for too long. And I had a feeling they were right. Though, I had a feeling if either of them suddenly dropped by, they’d be taking my temperature to make sure I wasn’t delirious with a fever since it was after seven in the morning and I was still in bed.
Not that they stopped by much now.
As the oldest, I’d always been the one hovering over them, and now it felt like they didn’t need me as much. Or at all. Heck, Ale had hooked up with a guy and was in a serious relationship. And Jackie… well, Jackie was still Jackie—my little pink-haired Tasmanian devil who whirled around everywhere with her camera and bubbly personality. My sisters and I couldn’t be any more different.
I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. No one really needed me anymore. Maybe that’s why I loved my job so much? There was always someone in need of something, but the travel and grueling hours of an emergency room nurse had started to wear on me, and I’d decided to kick off the year with a break.
A whole two months off.
“This is why you don’t make important decisions when you’ve had two bottles of wine,” I muttered to myself, sitting up in bed. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. “Eight minutes after seven. So much for staying still. Tomorrow is a new day,” Ireminded myself. Even with having gone to bed just four hours ago after slow-dancing all night in Austin’s arms, I’d come home and wished I’d asked him over.
A one-night stand never hurt anyone.
I glanced at my phone. He’d given me his number and told me to call him. I doubted he actually wanted me to. He probably said that to be nice. It was probably a fake number. But what if I tried it? If I called to ask if he wanted to scratch an itch… No. I couldn’t. We both lived in an incredibly small mountain community where everyone knew everyone. Not that he’d recognized me from high school. Not that I blamed him. I shook my head.
No. No one-nighters with guys you could bump into or, worse, become friends with their wives when they foundthe one. A knot tightened in my gut at the thought of Austin with someone else. A knot I’d never felt before.
I’d never been a jealous or possessive person. But when it came to thinking about Austin and seeing him around with a woman he created a whole life with… I didn’t like it.
Which was insane!
I didn’t have any claim to the guy. He’d just danced with me. That was all. He hadn’t even tried to kiss me, much to my own disappointment. Jesus! I was losing my head over a guy.A guy?That was not me. I had to be bored or something, for him to live in my headspace rent free this morning.
It had to be the lack of sleep from the jetlag of flying back from Denver. Mixed with lack of caffeine, that was messing me up.And an orgasm, a soft, slightly shrill voice murmured in the recesses of my mind.
The lack of those was… well, adding up. But that was what toys were for. A shower and coffee would cure these crazy Austin-filled thoughts.And then delete his number.That samelittle cynical voice sprung up in my head. Because one thing I didn’t need was complications or temptations.
This was the year to be present and learn to stay still. And figure out what I wanted to do with the rest or my semi-lonely life. The thought filtered through and stuck like old gum on the bottom of my shoe.Semi-lonely?How about totally lonely.
Earlier last year, I’d even invited my sister to move in with me, and that was before her apartment caught fire. Not that she took me up on it. Not when her very own knight in shining armor had popped into her life, rescuing her from the flames, and they’d fallen in love before the flames had been put out.
Love is unpredictable, I thought to myself, grabbing some workout leggings and a sports bra before I headed into my master bathroom. Austin’s face popped into my head. Love? I shook the thought away and turned the water to scalding.
