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“You okay?” she asked me, lacing her fingers through mine as we walked.
“Yeah. I’m more okay right now than I’ve ever been. You?”
The smile on her lips said it all. “Never better.”
“Good. Although I think I maybe shouldn’t have worn these shoes.” I looked down at the pain-inducing leather cowboy booties currently squeezing my toes. “They’re cute, but they hurt like a bitch.”
“Take ’em off,” Devo said.
“What, and just go barefoot?”
“Why not? Nothin’ should ever cause you pain.”
She stopped walking, pulling me to the stoop outside Your Local Bookie. In the window, Aubrey stood behind the counter, ringing up her last customer of the night, and she smiled and waved, then wiggled her eyebrows in a bawdy way. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at her, then sat when Devo pulled me down with her.
The cold of the concrete step seeped through my dress, sending a shiver through me as she crouched in front of me and unzipped my boots, then pulled them off slowly, like I was Cinderella and she the prince.
I wiggled my toes and flexed my feet. “Thank you. Feels better already.”
“Does your uniform come in a dress option?” she asked, eyeing my rack again. “’Cause a girl could really get used to seein’ you like this more often.”
“Yeah, they do. Skirts for desk duty, but they’re brown and awful. I ain’t wearin’ that shit. Ever.”
Devo laughed. “Fair enough.” She stood, gripping the ankles of my boots in one hand as she reached for me with the other. “Ready?”
The celebration in full swing down the road lured us again, and we could see people dancing around the edges of the dance floor, men twirling women around, some teenagers swaying to the rhythm awkwardly, but before I looked back at Devo to take her hand again, two women caught my eye.
They danced the two-step together and held onto each other as if the rest of the world didn’t matter.
My heart swelled, and I had to hold back tears as I watched them.
This was for me. Cal and Phil wouldn’t be dancing and showing their relationship to the rest of our small town if it hadn’t been for the struggle I’d been going through. I knew it had to have been Cal’s idea. Phil never would’ve been able to talk Cal into it if she hadn’t wanted to do it.
Finally, I took Devo’s hand and let her pull me up. “Look,” I said lifting my chin in their direction.
Devo turned and squinted. “What? I don’t see any—” Her mouth popped open. “Is that… Is that Phil Beasley and Cal DuBois? Holy shit!” She turned to look at me, her eyes wide. “Is that who you meant when you said you knew of two other lesbians in Wisper?”
I just smiled. It hadn’t been my secret to tell, but I figured it was a secret no longer.
“How the hell did that happen?”
“Love is love,” I said, shrugging. “Sometimes, you think you know what it is, what it means, and sometimes you don’t. Friends can turn into lovers for lots of reasons. In Phil and Cal’s case, I think it had somethin’ to do with soup.”
Devo laughed, and we held hands again as we sprinted toward our first real date.
More lightning flashed above us, lighting the way, and as soon as we stepped under the safety of the tent, Devo stashed my boots behind the wooden stage someone had built for the occasion. Finn and Evvie Cade were up there, surrounded by slow-pulsing stage lights, Evvie crooning away as Finn strummed his guitar.
He gave us a wink as we looked out at all the couples dancing. I saw an open space, so I led Devo there and turned to face her. As we merged into traffic, I noticed Theo and Brady on the sidelines, Theo with his arm around Brady’s shoulders while Brady’s hand snaked around Theo’s back. They gave me courage.
“I don’t actually know how to do the two-step,” Devo said nervously. “But I watched a YouTube video.”
I chuckled and placed my hand in hers when she held it out. We came together, face to face, and she reached up, resting her other hand on my shoulder as mine wrapped around her waist.
“Nothin’ to it,” I said, taking the first step backward. She followed my lead, stepping with her left foot when I stepped backward with mine. “One two, one two. Fast fast, slow slow. Fast fast, slow slow. There ya go. You got it.”
“Is this really dancing though? Isn’t this just walkin’?”
“I s’pose it is walkin’, but we’re doin’ it together and to a rhythm. Isn’t the waltz the same thing?”
