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“Just so you know, I am totally staring at your sister’s ass.”

I giggle as I hear Lawson and Beckett line up behind me for the line dance at the barn party.

“Yeah, what’s new?” Beckett replies. “But now I can stare at your sister’s ass.”

“No, you can’t.”

The three words are said by two different men at the same time. One of them is Lawson. The other is Wes.

I look over my shoulder at the three men. “Hey, get ready,” I tell them. But I’m sure my scolding is ruined by my huge grin.

Lawson winks at me. Wes chuckles and elbows Beckett.

“We’re ready,” Beckett tells me. “I swear.”

“I guess you can’t stare at Andi’s ass since she’s helping out at the table,” Lawson says to Beckett.

“I don’t wanna talk about Andi.” Beckett’s tone is suddenly serious.

This has been his line to everyone, including me, whenever we have mentioned or asked about Andi since they drove home together from the hospital just a week ago.

Interestingly, Andi said the same thing when I asked her about it.

Now, of course, we’re all just even more interested in what happened on that drive back to Rebel.

Nora and Andi have been busy all night at the table where people can stop by to ask questions and sign up for dance classes, though, and I’m certainly not upset about that. She’ll have to tell me what happened eventually. None of us keep secrets for long.

I take a deep breath and look around, absorbing the moment.

It’s dark outside, and the windows reflect the warm yellow glow of the lights overhead, and the beautifully painted barn is full of all the people I love.

They’re sitting at the little tables scattered around the space, enjoying apple cider, cocoa, beer, and soda along with a variety of baked goods. I swear the air holds a faint pumpkin-spice scent.

We are still figuring out the parking situation, so everyone parked in the field across from the lane leading to the barn, and hay racks pulled by tractors brought people up to the barn.

There are long picnic tables set up outside underneath twinkle lights, and a bonfire out back behind the barn where s'mores will be served later. But everyone who was enjoying the cooler night has come inside to watch the first dance.

My little class is going to perform a line dance, and then the Virginia Reel for their “recital,” and then everyone will be invited to use the dance floor however they would like for the rest of the night. There will be more line dancing they can join in on and several dances where people can couple up if they choose. There’s also been a request for the Hokey Pokey and the Cotton Eye Joe.

I laughingly agreed to both. I am the last person in the room who will judge the dances anyone wants to do.

This is all exactly what I envisioned.

Shaboozy’s “A Bar Song” starts up over the sound system that my brother and Lawson hooked up two days ago.

It sounds absolutely amazing.

I begin the steps, loving the sound of feet on the wood floor behind me.

I don’t have to look back to know the class is doing well. The delighted smiles on the audience around us tell me they are executing the steps perfectly and having a great time.

We get through the first two turns, and everything is going well until Muriel suddenly pivots to her left instead of her right. She bumps directly into Patty, who wobbles and steps back onto the toes of Ellie Landry. Ellie’s arms windmill, her hand knocking the cap off of her husband Leo’s head. Instinctively, Leo tries to catch the cap, which causes him to lurch into Wilson.

It all happens in seconds and is an astonishing comedy of errors, but somehow Alex Olsen ends up at the bottom of the pile of people, and interestingly, in the end, the two stroke survivors and the man with Parkinson’s are still standing, looking down at the rest of them with surprise.

Someone cuts off the music and there’s a beat of silence and then Brewser says, “I’m telling you, I really don’t think it was the Parkinson’s.”

Everyone laughs and the hockey players help everyone up again.