I jerked so hard the table rattled. Wine sloshed over the rim of my glass and spilled across my napkin.
“Shit.”
I grabbed for it, but only managed to spread the stain further across the tablecloth. A nervous laugh slipped out of me.
When I finally looked up, our table had emptied. A few people had drifted toward the dance floor, others toward neighboring conversations. Only Dane remained beside me.
Dane’s hand settled over mine before I could do any more damage to the tablecloth.
“Seth.”
The concern on his face softened something in my chest immediately.
“I’m fine,” I said, but it came out flatter than I intended.
I stared down at the wine stain spreading across the napkin. “I guess hearing all that just brought back memories.”
Dane studied me for a moment longer, then nodded. Whatever he saw seemed to be enough. Or maybe he simply decided not to press.
“Okay,” he said.
Dane’s hand stayed over mine for a moment longer before he finally eased back. Around us, the reception picked up again, the low hum of voices and music settling into place.
The tension from earlier loosened slightly, though not completely gone. The speech still lingered somewhere at the back of my mind, just less sharp than before.
Maybe it was the noise of the room, the laughter and music, the warm glow of hundreds of lights overhead, but it was harder now to stay inside the thoughts I’d been circling earlier. Harder to hold onto them without everything else pressing in around them.
I let out a quiet breath.
The truth was, I liked my life. I liked my café, I liked the friends I’d made. Janine alone had probably improved my quality of life by at least twenty percent.
Everything that mattered to me now existed because things had unfolded exactly the way they had, because some doors had closed and others had opened, because I had ended up here.
And because I’d met Dane.
The band started another song, one I vaguely recognized, and couples began drifting toward the dance floor.
I considered suggesting we head out for another walk instead. The idea wasn’t bad. The beach, the quiet, the short walk back to the hotel the same way we had the night before. Instead, I stayed where I was.
The music rolled softly through the tent while conversation blurred into the background.
The wine I’d been nursing all evening left a pleasant warmth under my skin, though I wasn’t entirely convinced that was the reason I felt so light.
Across the table, Dane was watching me. I’d noticed it more than once over the last couple of days, those brief moments when his attention lingered a little too long, or when that faintly thoughtful look crossed his face when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.
Every time I caught it, there was that same flicker of something I couldn’t quite place, like I was supposed to understand it but kept missing the point. I didn’t know what it meant. I wasn’t sure I wanted to start naming it either.
“What?” I asked.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Nothing.”
“That wasn’t a nothing look.”
His smile widened slightly, but before he could answer, the music shifted into something slower. Around us, people began drifting toward the dance floor.
Dane’s gaze flicked briefly in that direction before returning to me. “You want to dance?”
It should have made me hesitate. A few weeks ago, it probably would have. Instead, I was already looking at his hand as he offered it.
