Page 53 of Pick Me This Time

My cheeks flushed. “Right.”

He chuckled, bending his head closer to mine. “Did you ever go to prom?”

I shook my head. “I never got asked.”

“I would’ve taken you,” he murmured, sounding completely genuine.

I arched a disbelieving eyebrow at him. “You hardly even spoke to me back in high school, Mr. North Star.”

“I’ve come to realize what a mistake that was,” he said, and I almost swooned when he kept staring right into my eyes as he said it.

“That tongue of yours really is dangerous,” I murmured, feeling myself stepping into him, holding him even closer despite the fact that I hadn’t intended to.

A slow smirk spread on his lips. “You have no idea.”

I groaned, resting my head on his shoulder to hide how very red I’d gotten. Sterling adjusted his grip on me, his hands covering my lower back as he held me gently but tightly to him. When the song finally ended, we separated, but he stuck close by and followed me off the dance floor as I resumed my post as a chaperone. It was nice to have him next to me, even though we weren’t as close as I would have liked.

Eventually, the dance started drawing to a close and the students started leaving group by group.

Sterling winked at me. “I wonder where the after-party is this year.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said, starting to look around for the chaperone I’d come here with. He was nowhere to be seen, though, and I sighed. “I think I’ve been left stranded.”

“What do you mean?”

“I got a ride with a guy I used to work with, but it looks like he snuck out early.”

Sterling’s eyebrows rose slowly, something dark and dangerous flashing in his eyes. “You were on a date?”

I smacked his shoulder and laughed. “No. Man, why is everything always so serious with you? I used to teach with Caleb at the elementary school, but he’s filling in here at the high school at the moment while Mrs. Anderson is on maternity leave. When he found out I was chaperoning, he offered to give me a ride. He lives two houses away from my parents.”

“So he just wanted it to be a date and he neglected to tell you.”

I scoffed. “He’s married with a toddler and a baby on the way. Trust me, it wasn’t a date. It was a ride, but he must’ve been called home or drank too much spiked punch.”

After holding my gaze for another beat, Sterling suddenly relaxed again. That glint of darkness vanished from his eyes and he smiled. “It looks like we’re the last ones standing.”

I jerked, realizing he was right. “Damn, how did the place empty out so fast?”

He chuckled, shrugging his shoulders as he looked around the room. “People had better stuff to do. It’s always like that with homecoming. The official events are only a cover for everything else that’s happening.”

I snorted. “That sounds about right for the popular crowd. For me, the parade was always the main event.”

He dipped his chin in a nod, taking a step back and surveying the damage. “Do we have to clean up before we can go?”

“Just the basics,” I said. “There are people coming in tomorrow to clear it out, but I promised my mom I’d get started. Do you feel like helping me pull down the streamers?”

He nodded and moved a chair into position for me as we got started. We ended up making more of a mess with the pieces of streamer that disintegrated as we pulled them down. Then Sterling grinned and chucked a handful of the stuff at me.

I squealed with laughter, dodging before I grabbed a handful of my own and tried tossing it at him. In the process, we accidentally knocked over a punch bowl and I groaned as it splashed all over the floor.

“Crap,” I said. “I’ll get a mop.”

Dashing to the hall, I fetched a mop and a bucket, but when I got back, he was already rolling up his sleeves. His jacket was hanging across the back of a chair nearby and he held out his hand for the mop. “Let me do it.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded. “It’s the least I can do.”