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“With you?” Because I didn’t care about anyone else. The shift of her stance pulled her away from me and I was already missing her.
Water finished, she held out her hand. “Yes, with me. Slow dancing can be fun…but it means more touching.”
Heat flushed my face this time. “You noticed I didn’t know how to dance.”
“You dance really well, Hot Shot,” she said with a wider smile.
Embarrassed, but pleased, I put my hand in hers and let her pull me out onto the dance floor. The slower music was different, I didn’t recognize the artist and I really wasn’t listening to the words, not with KC pressed up against me and her arms around my neck.
“You can put your hands on my hips,” she said. The satin or silk or whatever the fabric was made out of, was soft under my hands. I kept the touch light, but there was no escaping how close we were.
The soft feathering of her breath against my chin distracted me almost as much as the press of her to my chest. Everything about KC was soft, and warm. She lifted her head and held my gaze all the way through the song, and when it segued to another slow one, she rested her head beneath my chin.
I could have floated out here forever. When the music changed tempo though, she didn’t flow away, just danced right up next to me and I kept an arm around her waist for when she wanted to dip.
The third time I swung her back up, her hand pressed to my shoulder as her gaze locked on mine. I don’t know how long we hung there but one moment we stared and the next our lips connected.
The kiss lit me up as her mouth opened to mine. Soft, silken, electric, and the throb of the music seemed to match the rhythm of my heart as it thudded out a base note for how she tasted.
I’d kissed exactly three girls in my life. The first one had been Natalie Porter in fifth grade. She’d kissed me on a bet. It had been gross.
The second was Melissa Tarrington in sophomore year. She’d been really sweet and kissing her had been… weird but not unpleasant.
Kissing KC was like fireworks on the fourth of July while eating the hottest wings on the planet. I was burning up and dazzled at the same time. When I lifted my head, she opened her eyes to stare up at me then dipped her gaze to my lips again.
Hers were shiny, and pink, damp from the kiss and she tasted a lot like more. I wanted the hot burn of her on my tongue, and I wanted to feel the way her breath changed. I flattened a hand against her back, the pound of her heart the tempo I wanted to follow.
We flowed apart as the music changed again, but her eyes were shining and her smile was even wider. The next time there was a slow song, she nuzzled a kiss to my chin and then I stole another from her lips.
It was how the rest of the evening passed, Aubrey and Forrest had slipped out earlier, but KC and I stayed until it was almost midnight. Then our walk back to the dorm was slow. We held hands, traded little kisses, but no words. KC didn’t need words from me.
We were almost back to the dorm when my phone went off with a news alert. I only had a handful set, usually about Mom and Gibs, so I pulled it out and stared at the screen. It was a video.
KC leaned against my arm. “Someone send you something?”
“It was uploaded,” I told her. Maybe I should just watch it later.
“I don’t mind,” she said. “He is your stepfather.”
So she had recognized the screen, and I hated Gibs a little bit right now because there was a shadow passing over her eyes, diminishing the soft glow of the earlier light.
“Go on,” she teased, almost playful. “You know you want to.” And was she being playful to make it easier for me?
With a sigh, I hit play. It was a video from a concert. Were they on the road again? I honestly didn’t remember. They’d been working in the studio at Christmas.
Then suddenly the camera zoomed in on Gibs where he stood on the stage with a guitar strapped on and a wild smile on his face. “Glad to be out here tonight and I’ve got a little something I want to share with all of you thanks to one of my favorite kids…Jonas, man, this is for you.”
The first three notes vibrated out of the phone, and I recognized it instantly. Where had he gotten that? I jerked my gaze up to KC and all the light was gone. The animation in her face had disappeared behind shutters and her smile vanished.
The look on her face crushed me. The apology she was desperately owed seemed glued to my tongue, and my mouth wouldn’t work.
“So… you gave it to him.” The song I’d written, the one she’d put the lyrics to and Gibs was singing them with such passion it would totally be a hit. “Cool.”
Then she just walked away and didn’t look back at me once.
Forty-Two
KC
