“What it looks like is they are keeping the students occupied. No shenanigans here.” Robin dabbed a hand at her forehead. “Let’s head toward the math wing.” They walked a few minutes, Robin’s blue heels clicking on the tile flooring. “It’s so strange to be back here after all these years.”
“I know what you mean. Everything seems smaller.” The hallway was quiet and cool after the press of the gym.
“I suppose you’ve come back many times since graduation day.”
“I’ve been back once or twice. Mostly in the past few years. Some of the kids I’ve tutored have been in the school plays and stuff.”
“Was it weird to come back?” Robin paused and looked fully at him, waiting for his answer. Like she actually cared what it would be.
“Kind of nice, actually.” Sammy hesitated. “I always felt a little lost in the Army. A little fish in a big pond. Coming home was good for me. I wasn’t the big fish I used to be, more of a just-right size.”
“Ah, the Goldilocks of fish.”
“You got it.”
They walked in silence a moment more.
“I have to know, where did you get those moves?” Sammy pulled Robin to a stop at a pillar near the ninth-grade math room.
She leaned against the brick. “I told you—Zumba. I also took some swing dance lessons when I was in California at culinary school.”
Looking at her with that half smile on her face, he knew he was a goner.
“A better question is, what exactly did you think you were doing at the end?” She laughed and mimicked his improvised sprinkler.
He caught her hand. “No, it’s more like this.” He twirled her around and pressed her back against him, then showed her how to do the dance move, rhythmically shooting their arms out shoulder high, then bopping them in the air.
She laughed and spun back to him.
His breath stilled.
She tipped her head up, and he brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. Her eyes held his, a question in them. He leaned closer and she nodded slightly. He closed the final gap and pressed his lips lightly on hers. Heat radiated in the inches between their bodies. She deepened the kiss, tucking her arms around his neck, one hand tangling in the short hair at his neck.
This was nothing like high school.
seven
Some enchanted evening. The music filled Robin’s senses.
Sammy filled her senses.
When he’d walked into the gym earlier that night, her breath had caught as he’d stood there dressed in a light blue shirt topped with a gray jacket, a blue-and-gray tie around his neck, his broad shoulders straining at his sport coat. She’d crossed over to him and, oh, wow. He smelled divine. Woodsy and warm, with a hint of cinnamon.
Then they’d danced that wild, off-the-hook dance, and he’d made her laugh. And the dance again in the hallway a moment ago and locking onto his forest green eyes… Swept up in the moment, she’d kissed him.
Was still kissing him.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, one hand buried in his hair. He had one arm around her and the other propped above them.
This was not good.
She couldn’t be kissing Sammy. She was leaving. She needed to stop. Like, right now. He needed to know she planned to go back to Paris.
Stop.Now.
She pulled her head back, breathing heavily. His slow smile quieted her words for a moment.
“That was—”
