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“Me? Easy?” I throw my head back and laugh. “Clearly, you don't know me that well.”
“Probably better than you think.”
It is such an odd thing to say that I'm not sure how to respond.
“Where'd you learn to dance like this?” I ask as he pulls me in.
He looks surprised by the question. “I don't know. I just watched a lot of old movies and tried to copy them.”
I count at least fifty women scattered around the barn, watching us.
I can see their envy in the dark.
“So you're from Texas?”
He nods. “A little town called Pine Lake. You know it?”
I shake my head.
“I wouldn't expect you to. There's not much there,” he says, but he doesn't sound bothered, only honest.
“Just you.”
He grins, a beautiful thing, like a guitar string stretched too far. “Do you want to go somewhere and talk?”
“Sure,” I say. I bite my lip, thinking of my father. Mona is there, I remind myself. It’ll be fine if I stay a while. “I just need to use the ladies room first.”
“How about my truck?” he asks, leading me off the dance floor. “It’s quieter there.”
“Okay, but I have to get home soon,” I say. I don’t know what it is, but a heavy feeling has washed over me. There’s a deep pit in my stomach. Maybe it’s Daddy. Maybe it’s something else. I have a strange feeling something bad is about to happen.
The smile fades from his face. “No problem.”
“My father is ill.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he tells me. “I’m in town for a few days. We have time.”
At the entrance to the bathrooms, we part ways. He leans in to tell me he’ll be waiting for me by the exit. His hand brushes the small of my back. I get a familiar tingling feeling in the pit of my stomach.
When I come out of the ladies room, I can’t find him. I search the crowd and eventually spot his hat, but suddenly, there's a wall of people between us. He’s on one side of the barn, me on the other.
“Gina!” a familiar voice calls. I’d recognize it anywhere. “There you are! We need to talk.”
“I have nothing to say, Chad.”
“Well, I do...” He lowers his voice. “I have things I need to tell you. Important things.”
I look at him and shake my head. “I have to go.”
“You don't have to do anything,” he insists, throwing his weight against me.
I take a step back. “You're drunk.”
“It's a party, baby. That's the point.”
My eyes scan the dance floor and then the bar area. “Where's Alice?”
“Alice who?”
