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“Love Denzel,” I say, “but I have to go with Yul. Assuming, of course, you’re only talking about that title. Now, if we’re talking cowboys in general, nobody beats John Wayne.”
Noah’s eyes narrow. He opens his mouth to say something, but Amy’s giggle cuts him off.
“Well it’s been nice chatting with you again, but we’d better get going. Noahpromisedhe’d dance if he didn’t have to dress up.”
The muscle in his jaw clenches as Amy uses her death grip on his arm to steer him away, tossing a “Nice to meet you” at Grumpy over her shoulder as they leave.
Noah? Dancing? This I have to see.
I turn to conspire with Grumpy on how best to follow them without being obvious, but one look at her face scuttles that idea. When she catches me watching her, she wipes a tear away and does her best to reinstate Grumpy.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say, refusing to be disappointed at missing Noah’s dance. I can’t even begin to imagine him cutting loose, but Ivy is more important than satisfying my curiosity. “You’re miserable.”
“I’m fine,” she insists, but even if I were excited to be at this party, I wouldn’t ask her to stay any longer. It takes only a nudge to get her moving in the direction of the parking lot.
“Movie?” I offer.
“Sure,” she says.
As we make our way through the crowd and back to my car without so much as a glimpse of Noah or his date, I can’t help wondering how the dancing went. And whether Noah would pick Denzel over Yul Brynner.
Chapter 14
Chance
Ivy and I blunder ourway through the rest of the weekend on a steady diet of ice cream and classic cowboy films. Ivy doesn’t love old movies, but when given the choice between guns and chick flicks, she chooses wisely. Watching other people’s happily ever afters would just rub salt in her wound.
Of course, mooning over cowboys isn’t much better.
Sunday proves to be a challenge, as Ivy spends extra time trying to look irresistibly unattractive in hopes of regaining Dave’s attention. How he manages to escape either one of us spotting him at church has both of us perplexed, until a mutual friend spills that he left Friday to go home for the weekend.
Coward.
Knowing that he chose to hide instead of facing her ticks Ivy off enough to pull her out of her pout and get her focus back on school, though she has developed an interesting new habit of mumbling man-hate whenever she thinks she’s alone.
I’ve forgiven her for making me leave the Halloween party before I could spy Noah dancing, mostly because she let me pick the movies. Besides, it’s given me something to look forward to needling Noah about today.
Despite the sunshine, a cold breeze again compels me to abandon my favorite tree in favor of the dreaded but warm math lab forty-five minutes early. Installing myself at our usual table, I pull out my math homework and make some lame attempts to tackle it but end up texting Ivy most of the time. It seems Professor Plum has finally moved past her prune fixation and on to fertility foods.
Stifled amusement at Ivy’s latest comment fades when Noah shows up, deposits himself in a chair, and commandeers my assignment without so much as a hello. Forehead resting against his fingertips, he’s taking this simple-for-him math far too seriously. I can’t resist the temptation to tease him.
“Hey, Noah. Glad to see you too!”
“Number four requires a different formula than the one you used. Can you see why?” He points to my paper and picks up his pencil.
“It was a great weekend, thanks!” I’m pretty impressed with my approximation of Amy’s enthusiastic chatter. “Especially seeing you dance at the Halloween party. Definitely the highlight of my week.”
He levels me with dagger eyes, and I give him my brightest fake smile. “You didn’t see me dance,” he says.
“Oh, but I did! And can I say you were fantastic? Amy really brings out the—”
“Nice try, but I didn’t dance with Amy.”
Dang. Called my bluff. “You didn’t?”
One eyebrow lifts to break the ice in his glare.
“You didn’t. Huh. Amy was pretty convinced she could—”
