Page 456 of A Matter of Time

“That’s bullshit. Pat took his girl and left, same with Chaz… I get to take my boy home and go to bed too. Fair is fair.”

I smiled at him. “Who was the girl you were dancing with?”

“I have no idea.”

“You can’t dance at all,” I assured him.

“Yeah, no shit. That’s why I don’t do it.”

I nodded, moving to walk by him.

“Though I can, in fact, line dance.”

“Really?”

“You don’t have to sound all shocked.”

I was laughing as he grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. “Where were you before you got here? Why were you late?”

I winced.

“Oh shit,” he groaned, narrowing his eyes as he looked down at me. “What’d you do, J?”

“It’s what you did.”

“What did I do?” he growled at me.

The furrowed brows, his deep dark eyes, the way the muscles in his jaw worked…all so usual, all to be counted on, depended on—his annoyance with me, the love that permeated it all.

“What the hell are you smiling about?”

I shook my head, my lips pressed tightly together.

“Tell me,” he demanded, his hand slipping around the back of my neck.

“I just—I had a weird day, and seeing you…I feel better.”

His head lifted, he was unsure how to respond. “Oh.”

I sighed deeply. “How ’bout we go home and you cook? I’ll make it worth your while.”

He eased me close to him and nodded.

Back in the ballroom, several women came to grab my hands and lead me back to the dance floor, but Sam’s grip on my shoulder was solid and unrelenting. I was not leaving his side for the rest of the short time we would be there.

“Whose shirt is this?” he said as we walked back to the barstool where my things still were.

“It’s Ersi’s.”

“It’s sticking to you.”

I chuckled. “That’s because it’s hers, not mine, so it’s a bit small for me.”

He grunted.

I pulled my trench coat on over it. “Better?”

“You could put your own clothes back on.”