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She has to be.
I shook my head. “What does it matter? I’m leaving this town come morning, anyway.”
“You think Big Paw won’t track you down to kick your ass for ruining his mailbox?” she asked.
Well, yeah.
I knew he would. He’d carved that mailbox by hand over twenty-five years ago. That mailbox was older than me, and it had probably pissed Big Paw off a lot less than I did.
I stood up from my tire and pointed a finger her way. “If I dance with you, you can’t hold the mailbox thing over my head again.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
She took her fingers and made a cross over her chest. “Cross my heart, hope to die.”
If she weren’t so annoying right then, I would’ve thought she was cute.
Who was I kidding? She was beautiful.
“I get to lead,” I told her.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” she replied, holding her hand out.
I reluctantly took her hand into mine, and we began to dance to the slow song that she hadn’t known but was certain was her new favorite.
“Ouch!”She jumped back seconds after I stepped on her foot.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I told you I don’t slow dance.”
She regrouped and moved in close again. “It’s fine. You can only get better with practice.”
We danced back and forth, and Hazel laid her head against my shoulder. As we swayed, she hummed the song as if she knew every word.
“See?” she whispered. “Isn’t this nice?”
I didn’t reply, but truth was I didn’t hate it. I hated a lot of things about small-town Eres, but slow dancing with Hazel wasn’t one of them.
“Are you scared, Ian? About leaving home?”
“Not at all,” I quickly replied. There was nothing scary about leaving town and going off to Los Angeles to chase my music career. The only scary thing to me was staying in a small town and never reaching my dreams.
If I didn’t leave Eres tomorrow, I was almost certain I’d never get away.
“Then I’ll be scared for you,” she commented, holding me tighter, and I allowed it, because all I wanted to do for the next fifteen hours was hold her close to me. “I just don’t want you to lose yourself, you know. People often go chasing after this big Hollywood dream, and they lose themselves.”
“What do you know about people chasing their Hollywood dreams? Nobody we know has ever done what my band and I are doing.”
“I know, but I’ve seen enough movies to know that Hollywood changes people.”
Maybe.
Not me, though.
I just wanted to play my music for a bigger crowd than the old folks down at the barn house.
“I’ll be fine,” I told her.
