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Since last week, he hadn’t looked back, and now that she was in his arms, he intended to keep moving forward—as fast as she would let him.
He took a deep breath, losing himself in the scent of her. He wouldn’t let himself overthink it. He would just go with it.
The dance floor was crowded, but it was nice holding her in his arms. They danced to three more songs before Lily suggested, “How about we drink that champagne now?”
He stepped back to lead her off the dance floor, but she was frozen in place, staring at a man dancing with a blonde a few couples over from them. The guy, who was staring back at her, seemed just as surprised to see her.
“Is everything all right?” Cullen asked.
Lily leaned in and whispered, “That’s Josh.” By this time, the guy had maneuvered his date so that they were dancing next to them.
“Lily.” The guy leaned in and planted a kiss on her, a little too close to her lips for Cullen’s liking. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Cullen didn’t appreciate the way he was looking at Lily.
“Well, surprise. Here I am. I didn’t expect to see you, either. Cullen, this is Josh Stockett.” She smiled, but Cullen could read between the lines. It took him a moment before he put a name with the face and realized this was her ex-fiancé. “Josh, my date, Cullen Dunlevy.”
Cullen offered his hand. Josh gave a perfunctory shake, and Cullen picked up on the tension.
Josh’s full attention was on Lily.
“How have you been?” he asked.
“I’ve never been better,” she said.
“Hi, Lily,” Josh’s date said, inserting herself into the conversation. “I’m Ann-Elizabeth Hardy, soon to be Ann-Elizabeth Stockett.” The woman giggled and flashed a diamond solitaire on her left hand. “Josh and I are getting married. How do you and Josh know each other?”
* * *
How do we know each other?
Had the jackass not told her he’d been engaged? She slanted a look at Josh, who looked as though he was holding his breath.
It would be fun to torture him or introduce herself as the former future Mrs. Josh Stockett. But the guy wasn’t worth it.
“Oh, Josh and I? We go way back.”
“We sure do,” said Josh. “In fact, how about a dance for old times’ sake?”
Lily looked at Cullen, hoping he would intervene. But he was no help.
“By all means,” he said. “Be my guest. In fact, Ann-Elizabeth, would you do me the honor?”
Traitor!
The orchestra was playing a jazzy version of “Fly Me to the Moon.” Josh slipped his arm around Lily’s waist. She put her left hand in his, in the obligatory formal dance position. The guy couldn’t dance, but he was pretending to.
Lily was damned if she was going to be the one to start the conversation. So they moved in awkward fashion in the opposite direction of where Cullen and Ann-Elizabeth were dancing.
She wasn’t about to address the elephant between them, the fact that he hadn’t bothered to tell the woman he was going to marry that he’d almost married someone else. Wasn’t that just so Josh Stockett?
“How have you been?” he finally said.
“You already asked me that, Josh. And I said I’ve never been better.”
“Cullen seems like a nice guy.”
That was a layup. A chance to go on about how Cullen was a man who knew how to talk about his feelings, didn’t ignore the things that were hard to talk about until he was backed into a corner and a camera was rolling to capture the whole thing on film. But there was no sense in rehashing it tonight on the dance floor at the Jingle Bell Ball.
Josh had already proved he had a talent for leaving Lily to discuss the good and important things. She wasn’t going to let Josh taint this night.
So, digging deep into her Southern manners, she said, “He’s such a great guy.”
“Thank you for being cool with Ann-Elizabeth.”
“Cool? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Obviously I haven’t told her about us.”
Us?
Hearing the word used in that context made Lily feel a little sick and grateful they were no longer an us.
“You might want to do that,” Lily said. “Maybe not tonight…. Or you know what, on second thought, maybe you should do it tonight. You owe it to her, Josh. You owe it to the woman you’re going to marry to be honest with her even if it’s a hard conversation. Because if the relationship can’t survive honesty, it’s doomed from the start.”
