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“You know how to dance,” I tell her. “You’re taking dance lessons with Dani, aren’t you?”
She shrugs. “Yeah. But I don’t have anyone to dance with.”
“I’ll go with you,” Willow offers.
“Okay.”
They walk off together. Only Evie, Noah, Liam, and I remain.
“So…?” Noah glances at Evie. “Evie, do you want to…?”
She gapes at him. “You want to dance with a lefty?”
He rolls his eyes. “I was just kidding. You want to dance or not?”
“Fine. Only because it looks like a lot of fun.” They walk off.
Now only Liam and I remain.
I keep my eyes on my plate, then slowly lift them to him. His eyes are on me. But as soon as we make contact, he quickly looks away.
Things have never been so awkward between us before. It’s hard to imagine we competed together at a cooking competition only a few days ago. We’re like strangers now.
I open my mouth to say something, but Liam jumps to his feet. “Sorry. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I’ll leave.” He bolts away before I can say anything. Before I can tell him that I don’t want him to run away from me. I don’t want things to be awkward between us. I just want to be close to him again.
I watch him head over to our friends and join their dancing. He doesn’t look my way once, as though he’s worried that just looking at me would make me uncomfortable. He’s so sweet and selfless to give me space, but I think I’ve had enough space. The only thing I want between us now?Nospace.
Taking a deep breath, I stand on shaky legs and head to the dance floor. There are so many couples here. All of our parents, Vivian and her husband Robert—I’m so glad she’s taking a break from the kitchen and having fun—Aunt Bailey and Uncle Zane, plus Manny and his wife, lots of other guests, and Brock and Lexi. Lexi is trying to teach him some moves she learned in dance class, and it’s so freakin’ cute how Brock is trying so hard to impress her by getting the steps right.
Liam’s eyes widen when I approach. There’s so much I want to say to him, but my words get stuck in my throat. So even though I have two left feet, I dance my way over to him, offering him a small, hesitant smile. His eyes widen again, in total disbelief that I’m actually dancing right next to him. I can’t deny the immense amount of hope practically shooting from his eyes.
“Hi,” I say with a nervous smile.
“Hi, Chloe.”
We dance next to each other in silence.
“I like this song,” I say.
“What?” he yells over the music.
“I like this song.”
“Oh, yeah. Me, too.”
“The perfect music to dance to.”
“What Oh, yeah. Totally.”
Quiet.
Awkward.
Ugh.
The music suddenly changes to a slow song. Some couples take this as a sign that it’s time for a break, others think—and maybe hope—it means the next course will arrive. Some are embarrassed and hightail it back to their tables, while others wrap themselves in each other’s arms. Lexi makes a move to charge to the kids’ table, but Brock grabs her hand and wraps his arms around her. Lexi gets a horrified expression and is about to yank free, but then her eyes flutter shut and she wraps her arms around his neck.
“I can’t believe my little sister is slow dancing with a guy when I’ve never even held hands with one,” Skylar says.
