I could hardly believethat mylittle sisterwas married. That she’d gone off and found someone to love and was about to really start a life and a family of her own.
As much asIwouldn’t have dated Damien, she seemed to like him. Love him, judging by the way she was glowing.
Good. This had turned out to be the wedding she deserved.
Mom had been at the ceremony, but now that the reception was in full swing, she was nowhere to be seen.
And now I was sitting with my dad, and his boyfriend, andmyboyfriend, and I could barely contain my excitement when I thought about that last part.
Temporary boyfriend, my brain reminded me.Honorary boyfriend.
But I wanted more than that. I wantedboyfriend, no modifiers required.
“You should ask him to dance,” Dad said, right beside my ear, as if he’d read my mind. “He wants you to.”
Dad was right. Aiden had been watching the dancefloor since Hallie and Damien stood up, and he’d taught me how yesterday. He’d neverask, but I didn’t actually need to be able to read his mind to know what he was thinking.
This was a whole lot of people to make an idiot of myself in front of, though.
“If he didn’t like that you’re an idiot he would’ve caught a bus home by now,” Dad said. He knew me too well. “He likes you just as you are.”
I wasn’t necessarily convinced that was true, but if Iwantedit to be, then I probably needed to step up and show him that I likedhim, too, and I wanted to be the kind of person he could enjoy hanging out with after all this.
Now or never.
Taking a deep breath, I stood and offered my hand to Aiden, stomach doing backflips.
“You, uh…” I licked my suddenly-dry lips. “Would you dance with me?”
The look on Aiden’s face was worth any amount of embarrassment. He smiled at me all the time, but this one was brighter than I’d ever seen.
“I wouldloveto dance with you,” he said, grabbing my hand and dragging me out onto the floor, grinning the entire time.
He was beautiful. Always, but especially like this, scrubbed up and polished, eyes sparkling again, still looking at me like…
Like helikedme. Really liked me.
“You can lead, if you want,” he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Just do what I showed you in reverse.”
“That simple, huh?”
“That simple,” Aiden said.
He had all the confidence in the world in me. No one else had ever had that.
“I’m better at this than ice skating,” I said, glad there was an especially slow song playing right now. I could handle this.
Aiden wanted this, and I wanted to promise him the world, and the moon, andme.
Even though I didn’t deserve him and probably never would.
“I don’t care that you suck at ice skating,” Aiden murmured. “Just, y’know. For the record.”
“Well, for the record, I don’t mind doing it with you,” I said, and it suddenly felt like too much. Too exposed. Worse and more intimate thanI love you.
But Aiden only laughed, and glowed at me. “Anytime you wanna try again…”
“You’ll be the first person I ask,” I promised, still recovering from the shock of telling him that I was happy doing something I hated if I was doing it with him.
