Page 127 of Scars and Crowns

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm holding you." The answer is so simple that my feet stop worrying quite so much.

We move again. One step. Then another.

I stumble. His hand tightens around mine.

"Sorry."

"Stop apologizing."

"I nearly stepped on you."

"I told you. You can step on my feet."

"That sounds painful."

"I've survived worse."

I laugh. He guides me through the turn, patient when I get it wrong and quietly pleased when I get it right. I smile. The room feels smaller somehow. The music continues, soft beneath the sound of our breathing, and his hand remains at my waist as we move around the study.

After a while, my steps stop feeling like something I have to consciously calculate. I simply follow him. And then I realize I'm not looking at my feet anymore. I'm looking at him.

"You know," he says, "you used to hate dancing."

"I hated being watched."

His smile fades into something gentler. "I remember."

I look down at our joined hands. "You always wanted to dance."

"No." He gives me a look. "I wanted to dance with you." My eyes lift.

He keeps moving us slowly around the room. "When we were children, you used to say you'd never learn properly because you hated people watching you make mistakes."

"I was very wise."

"You were terrified."

I make a face. "Same thing."

He laughs softly. "I used to think I'd teach you one day."

My steps falter. He catches me easily, pulling me back into rhythm.

"You thought that?"

"All the time."

"Why?" He looks at me like the answer should be obvious.

"Because I wanted to be the person you felt safe making mistakes with."

Something warm spreads through my chest. "You really have been waiting a very long time, haven't you?"

His fingers tighten around mine. "Seven years was only the part where I had to wait without you."

I don't know what to say to that. So I lean into him instead. My cheek finds his shoulder, and his arm shifts around me automatically, drawing me closer without interrupting the rhythm. His heartbeat is steady beneath my palm.