“Instrumental, huh?”
“Chief nail sorter. I had topick out the usable nails from a bag someone had grabbed from their old man’sworkshop,” he said, grinning up at the lopsided structure.
“There were good times here,”he added. “I’m just… trying to remind myself.”
“That bad, huh?” I asked.
Ashley shrugged. “I was ten yearsold when I first wanted to kiss a boy and twelve when I did it and got a blackeye for my trouble when someone else saw.”
My stomach dropped. I’d been through alot of shit in my life, but it wasn’t likethat. The shit I’d been throughwas specific to me, but it wasn’t about whoIwas. It wasn’t because I wasdifferent, just because of the family I’d been born into.
I could walk away from it.Hadwalked away from it.
Ashley couldn’t escape his.Not as a kid, and apparently, not now.
“C’mere,” I said, waving himover as I stepped out into the middle of the clearing.
Ashley raised an eyebrow.
“Come here,” I insisted.
Iwantedto wrapAshley up in a blanket and promise him everything was going to be okay, but Ididn’thave a blanket on me. This was the next best thing.
He moved to stand in frontof me, brows drawn together.
“Why?”
“Dance with me,” I said,offering my hand.
After a moment’s hesitation,Ashley’s fingers curled around mine. The heat of his body soaked into me as hestepped close, the familiar scent of shampoo and moisturizer and half a dozenother things that werehimhitting the back of my throat.
A tendril of anxiety curledaround my heart, squeezing tight.
I was losing him. We onlyhad a few more minutes, maybe an hour before I dropped him home and went onwith my life.
Without him.
One last dance wasn’t enough, but Ineeded it.
“What’re we dancing to?” heasked, shifting his hold.
“You pick,” I said. Heneeded this, too.
Ashley hummed, taking a stepback so I’dfollow. I didn’t mind him leading. I knew how to do this, but he was all long,graceful lines. It was a pleasure to watch him dance.
“Something slow,” hedecided. “I neverdidget my awkward slow dance at Prom.”
I laughed at that. “I’d love to beyour awkward date.”
“See, that’s smart, becauseI’mguaranteedto put out.” He grinned atme, leading me into another step.
Ashley was easy to dancewith. Not just because he was good at this, but because heenjoyedit.
For the first time since we’d seen the bigWelcome toArizonasign on the freeway, I could feel him relaxing.
When he rested his headagainst my shoulder and sighed a deep, heartfelt sigh, all the tension I’d been carryingmelted, too.
My eyes fell closed as weswayed together, the breeze, the birds, and…
