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“Step, kick, tri-ple step,” she said, overexaggerating each syllable as she tried to demonstrate.
He seemed to finally get it, but then came the part where they were supposed to shuffle forward and he was still stomping and kicking. She grabbed his arm and dragged him forward, laughing so hard her stomach was starting to hurt.
God, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had this much fun. Maybe never?
She’d been so nervous while Mel was doing her hair and showing her how to apply some light make up. The dress alone had been so daring Calla hadn’t been sure she’d be able to go into public in it. So she hadn’t said no when Mel offered her a shot of tequila before they headed downstairs to the ballroom. She might have snuck a second while Mel went to the bathroom, barely able to hide her scrunched face before Mel came back out.
Calla was usually a strict beer drinker. But she couldn’t say she didn’t like the way the tequila heated her chest, burning all the way down. Then there was how, just moments later all her limbs went nice and loose and suddenly she’d been eager to get down to the party. To Mack and Liam.
Maybe it was wrong of her not to have chosen one over the other yet.
Then again, screw that. It wasn’t like she was looking for marriage. She just wanted to have fun tonight without stressing over all the shit she usually did.
Mel had tried to get her into a pair of heels but it took about zero point three seconds to determine that nope, there was no way she’d be able to take two steps in the damn ankle breakers. In the end, Mel agreed that Calla’s good cowboy boots—as opposed to her daily work ones—with the dress did look pretty cute. Cute wasn’t a word that had ever been applied to Calla before, so with Mel’s encouragement and one more shot of liquid courage, they’d come downstairs.
All her old anxieties came back the second they walked into the crowded ballroom. God, people she knew were going to see her in this get up.
Before she could start hyperventilating and running back to the exit, though, Mack had come up to her. It was impossible to miss the appreciation in his eyes as he looked her up and down. She was sure she’d gone beet red, but he pulled her out to the dance floor.
The song came to an end right as Mack started shuffling the right direction. She held onto his arm to hold herself up she was still laughing so hard.
“Glad I’m entertaining you,” Mack said gruffly, but she could tell by the twinkle in his eyes he wasn’t actually put off.
On impulse, she went up on tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek. She meant it to just be a quick peck but he wrapped an arm around her waist, his other hand slipping around to cup the back of her head.
His gray eyes were more intense than she’d ever seen as he leaned down. He wasn’t aiming for her cheek, either. Calla dropped her eyes closed, waiting for their first kiss with bated breath. She’d only kissed one other boy her whole life and it turned out Tommy Shelton had been dared to kiss the class tomboy for five bucks.
But a hairsbreadth away from Mack’s lips touching hers, a voice cut in loudly. “Can I have the next dance?”
Calla pulled back from Mack in surprise to see Liam standing right beside them, a broad grin on his face. He held his hand out toward Calla. Calla could feel Mack’s body stiffen, they were standing so close.
But Calla could only smile back at Liam. He looked more handsome than ever in his tight jeans, black shirt and shiny black cowboy boots that had silver embellishments. He might not be from this country but damn, he wore Western well.
“Now the Sleazy Slide,” the band leader called out and everyone around them hurried to line back up.
Calla stepped away from Mack but she grabbed his right hand. “Let’s dance!” With her other hand, she took Liam’s, then she pulled them both into the line, one on either side of her.
“Watch me,” she squeezed Mack’s hand and he looked at her with an expression that said, help.
“Left slide,” she called out as the whole line started shifting that way. This one was more complicated than the Cotton-Eyed Joe.
Liam picked it up quickly and when he did the little shimmy along with the slide, she couldn’t help appreciating his ass in those tight jeans. The next second, though, she was distracted by trying to help Mack figure out how to do the half-turns. She’d abandoned trying to get him on the beat a long time ago, but the whole crowd was facing a new wall and Mack was still trying to slide.
Mack stumbled his way through the song and Calla continued laughing harder than she ever had in her life. Liam was hamming it up on her other side, making sure to wiggle his ass in an overexaggerated manner.
When the song was over, Calla clapped and whooped as loud as anyone else. She fanned herself with her hands. With all the bodies in the room plus the dancing—not to mention the tequila earlier—she was definitely past comfortably warm.
She lifted her hair off her neck as the band started up the next song. Couples around them started pairing off for the two-step.
“May I have this dance?” Liam asked, taking hold of her hand and pulling her toward him. Calla glanced over her shoulder to see Mack glowering so she reached back and squeezed his arm. “Next one’s yours!”
But then Liam had her pulled up against his body, one hand in hers and the other tight around her waist. And damn, it was like the man was born to two-step. He took command as he led her around the floor and Calla felt her body sinking into his. While she had plenty experience line dancing, she’d only two-stepped like this a handful of times—and when she had, she was usually standing in for the guy because there were too few of them at the dance. She’d certainly never been able to just lose her body to the rhythm and follow the lead of a man with a strong, firm grasp on her waist.
As they rounded the edge of the dance floor, Liam spun her out. She shrieked and laughed as the next second, he was spinning her back into him. Her hands rose to his chest as he pulled her snugly against him. Her breathing was erratic and not just because she was short of breath from the dancing.
Liam O’Neill had her in his arms. When had she stumbled into this alternate universe and when was reality going to come smashing back down like it always did?
Liam grinned and rolled his hips into hers before pulling them back into the whirling crowd of dancers.
