“I think that’s enough socializing for now, don’t you, Ariadne?”
Her eyes were stars when she looked up at me. “You always look a little like you’re up to no good. Do you know that?”
I bent down to hover my lips over hers. “Baby, you have no idea.”
13
JUST A DANCE, RIGHT?
LANEY
Iwas starting to think I needed to be more open-minded about weddings. This one continued like a dream as my best friend moved through the various milestones. A choice of salmon and steak. A reception line a mile long. A cavalcade of sweet and only slightly inappropriate toasts (mine even went reasonably well).
When she and Kevin had finished their first dance to the band’s rendition of “Lover” (Megan was an avowed Swiftie), I couldn’t help dabbing my eyes with a tissue. I was seeing stars, and a fair amount of them were due to the curly-headed tower who hadn’t left my side all evening.
“You’re a good dancer,” I observed as Ronan swept me around the parquet floor that had been set up in the center of the tent.
By this point, we were surrounded by guests. Megan had just led everyone through the Wobble, and the band had decided to slow things down with a blues song, if only to give everyone a chance to catch their breath.
“Would you believe it if I told you that dance classes were required at boarding school?” He guided me through another turn before swinging me back in.
“Where was that? Andover?” I thought I had read something about that on his Wikipedia page.
“Ah, no. Well, it was, but they kicked me out after a year. Then it was Exeter, Deerfield, two others I still can’t remember, and finally, St. Anne’s for the last two years of high school. Honestly, I think Dad paid them to keep me for as long as it took. I spent a lot of time in solitary.”
I grimaced. “Sounds more like a jail than a school.”
I was rewarded with another quick turn and a quicker grin. “Well, the priests weren’t too far from wardens. But it was the nuns who insisted on the dance training.”
“How very scandalous of them.”
“Sister Margaret always wore red stockings under her habit.” He swung me around another turn. “You’re pretty graceful yourself, wife.”
I tried not to think about how that set an ember aglow deep in my gut. “Thank you. And thank you for coming, by the way.”
I found I meant it. On top of acting as a solid guard against Derek’s advances, Ronan also had the knack of drawing conversations away from uncomfortable topics, like my dad’s absence from the wedding and Mom’s death.
“My pleasure.” He guided me through another turn and, as if he knew what the band was going to do before they did it, bent me over his arm in a dip at the end of the song, producing applause around us.
When he brought me back up, I could feel the flush rising in my face.
He grabbed my hand, clearly concerned. “All right? You need water or something? To sit down?”
My heart was thumping away, but it wasn’t because I was overexcited. Nor was it because I’d been drinking (I’d had half a glass of champagne with the toasts and nothing more). “I’m fine. I promise.”
He had a knack of looking at someone with concern without pitying them. Other than Megan and maybe my mother, Ronan was probably the only other person who’d ever learned about my heart condition and managed to do that.
I swallowed as the band started up with a cover of “Wild Horses.” The dance floor cleared out but for a few couples, and I was just turning to leave when he caught my hand again and pulled me close.
“This is a good song,” he said, like that explained the sudden intimacy.
My head fit neatly under his chin, and we swayed like that for a bit. It was nice. Too nice, maybe. Especially since I knew the entire reason he was here in the first place was to end things, not start them again.
But a part of me couldn’t help wondering what it might be like to have someone like this in my life all the time. Not just for one night in Vegas or under the stars of a wedding, but in my normal life. Someone to make dinner with at the end of a long day. Someone to chat with about the news or the latest bit of gossip Megan had told me. Someone to help me talk through my problems, who would let me help him with his.
A partner.
Which was definitely not Ronan Black.
