We stand together at the edge of the dance floor while the band warms back up after a quick break, and I watch the park fill in around us. Kids on their parents' shoulders. Couples are spreading blankets on the grass. Mrs. Winslow claimed a bench near the gazebo, having arrived three hours early. Sue is beside her, clutching a cup of warm coffee.
The band eases into something slow. The fiddle leads, and people drift back onto the dance floor in pairs.
Bo turns to me.
"Dance with me, Miss Williams."
“I would love to, Mr. Gates.” I take his outstretched hand.
Bo places his hands on my waist. We find the rhythm, and I rest my head on his chest as we dance.
"You're good at this," I say.
"Pearl made me take lessons when I was twelve."
"She's a smart woman."
"She's impossible," he says, his chuckle vibrating his chest.
We move through one song and into the next, and the crowd shifts around us.
The fiddle goes soft on the bridge of the song.
I look up at him.
He looks down at me, and there it is. That steady, certain look in his eyes. The rope lights glow above us. The music is quiet.
His hands slide from my waist up to cup my face, warm and loving, and he lowers his head.
His lips meet mine.
The kiss is slow, his lips moving on mine.
The sounds in our little corner of the dance floor fade. Bo's hands remain on my face, and the fiddle plays somewhere behind us.
Then his lips left mine. My cheeks are warm. I smile.
His forehead was nearly touching mine, and that’s when I saw it in his eyes. His hands slide back to my waist, and he dips his head so his lips are at my ear.
"Tyler," he says. Just that one word meant only for me.
I turn around.
The crowd opens a small gap near the far edge of the dance floor. And standing right there in that gap, still in his civilian clothes, a white cast on his left arm, looking like he just stepped off a transport and walked straight into the worst possible moment, is my brother.
Tyler is watching us.
His jaw is set. His eyes move from me to Bo and back again.
The fireworks go off.
Nine-thirty, right on schedule. The first one cracks open above the mountains in a wash of red and white, and the whole park gasps, looking up.
But Tyler keeps his eyes on Bo, and Bo keeps his on Tyler, and I am standing between the two people I love most in the world.
Chapter 25
Detonation
