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“What about you, Mackie?” I ask, wondering if she saw Hyla blatantly eye-fucking her earlier. I’d be worried about Hyla’s date, but he was sitting three feet away from her, making out with someone else.
High school is weird.
“Mm. I’m waiting Hyla out. She’ll come to me eventually,” Mackie says.
“Comeforyou?” Sarah quips.
Mackie blushes. “We—we’ve never—” She shoves Sarah’s arm. “Don’t be a pain in the ass.”
Laughing, we make our way across the dance floor. I try not to look at Aaron with Caity’s arm wrapped around his, but it’s impossible to miss.
Stupid dance. Stupid being in love with my best friend when I’m not sure I’m ready to be. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I’m almost back to Joel, ready to tell him I want to go home, when the mother of all nineties love songs—You’re Still the Oneby Shania Twain—comes on. I stop in my tracks, then close my eyes and take a breath. When I open them again, as if a genie summoned him to me, Aaron is standing in front of me, smiling.
“Come on, Beautiful. I know you love this song.”
“What about Caity?”
“Caity isn’t my best friend. And Caity doesn’t love this song like we do. If there’s any song we were ever gonna dance to, it’s this one.”
I smile in spite of myself. I love this song. It’s one of my favorite love songs. Aaron and I used to dance to it in the backyard as kids whenever it came on the radio. Of course, I want to dance with him. Now I need to pretend it’s just the two of us for the rest of the song.
I take his hand and let him lead me out onto the dance floor. He pulls me in tight against him. Joel and I were dancing like grown-ups. He had one arm around my mid-back and held my left hand in his right hand. We were close to each other, but not like this.
I’m so snug against Aaron it feels like we’re one person. My body nestles into his so perfectly. I have one hand across his back and the other on his shoulder. He has one hand around my lower back and the other gripping right above my waist. All I can see are his perfect eyes. Unlike in the sunlight where the gold flecks sparkle and shimmer, here in the low light of the dance floor, his eyes glow. And they are locked on me.
I can’t stop staring at him. I want to kiss him.Haven’t thought that in a while.
Kiss me,I think. Hoping he reads my mind the way he often seems to.
His eyes flit to my lips. He leans in even closer.
Whoa. What is happening? Did I say it out loud?
But at the very last second, he pulls away and puts his head against mine.
“Love you, Beautiful,” he says, then kisses my forehead.
And then the song is over, and we walk back to Joel who can see from my face that I’m about to lose it.
Why did I let myself dance with him? To that song? Ugh. I’m an idiot.
Aaron opens his mouth to say something to Joel, when Caity appears at his side. She’s laughing and chattering like nothing even happened. Maybe in her eyes, nothing did. But to me?
Fuck, I need to get out of here.
Joel, who has apparently taken up mind reading for the night, whispers to me, “Let’s get out of here. I’m thinking hot tub.”
I smile at him, grateful for the rescue. While Aaron is preoccupied with Caity, Sarah is focused on Ian, Mackie is getting handsy with Hyla, and Miles is—well, he might be screwing someone in the bathroom, hard to say—Joel and I make our escape.
Joel’s hot tub has never felt so good. It feels like it’s washing away some of my hurt from dancing with Aaron.
Joel returns from the kitchen and places a Labatt Blue in my hand.
Ah, more to help with the hurt.
He climbs into the hot tub.
