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“Excuse me, sir,” Jack said, appearing at their sides. “Do you mind if I steal Robin away for a dance?”
“Of course, Jack. She’s off the clock tonight. Have fun, you two.”
They thanked Andrew and waved to his family, then Jack took Robin’s hand and placed it in the crook of his arm as he led her toward the dance floor. Robin had a fleeting thought that she’d suddenly stepped into a different century, and instead of a Marine-turned-cop on her arm, he was some kind of duke or earl or someone with much more sophistication than she’d expected.
When he twirled her into his arms with a surprising amount of grace, a laugh bubbled out of her. “Wow, look at you.”
“What?”
“Do you have experience with fancy balls or something? You’re so… I don’t know. You seem right at home.”
Jack chuckled, and the sound hit Robin low in the belly. “Actually, yeah, the Marines have a birthday ball every year. It’s as formal as this one, only instead of suits, we wear our blues.” He looked around the dance floor with a shrug. “Some people even bring kids. But there are no crafts to keep them busy, and the dancing is a lot different.”
“How so?” Robin asked in a daze.
She was too busy imagining Jack sporting the classic Marine Corps dress blues. She made a mental note to ask Holly for a photo of him wearing them. She’d be too embarrassed to ask him herself because, honestly, the whole point would be to drool over the man, and he’d likely know it.
“Well, sometimes they do slow dances like this,” he said, adjusting his hold on her in such a tender way her insides squirmed, “but it’s mostly a bunch of Marines doing the Cupid Shuffle or break dancing or generally acting a fool.”
Robin threw her head back and laughed. “Well, the night is young. I’m sure the Cupid Shuffle is coming soon. It’s Abby’s favorite. How did you get so good at these slow dances, then?”
“Observation. Being Holly’s bodyguard while she attended formal events led to a lot of people watching, and I’m a quick study.”
Robin’s chest tightened in response to the sly smile he flashed. But then, just as quickly as it appeared, it fell away as his gaze traveled around the room again. His mouth was bracketed by hard lines for a long moment before his dark features finally smoothed out with what looked like relief.
“Everything okay?” she whispered, trying to discreetly scan the room for whatever he’d been looking at.
“Yep. Just keeping an eye on the munchkin. And him,” he added as he strategically turned her so she could see the portion of the ballroom that’d been previously obscured from her line of sight.
Holden stood with some friends she recognized from the Snow Hill Fire Department, laughing and chatting like he didn’t have a care in the world. As much as it bothered her to see him smiling when the man quite possibly covered up the murder of her husband, she was glad that he seemed to be enjoying the ball like he normally would.
Maybe it meant they didn’t need to worry about his brother showing up and causing trouble for them. If CJ were on his way here from Philly, Holden would likely know about it. And if that were the case, she imagined he’d look much less at ease. Jack’s casual conversation with him at her kitchen table must have helped, too, which was good. Whenever this case finally got resolved, she wanted it to come as a surprise so Holden and CJ wouldn’t have time to stop it.
The first song ended, but as Jack started to release her, Robin held on tighter. “Can we keep dancing?”
“You don’t want to go get your photo taken with Santa or anything? Looks like they have plenty of activities for you Christmas lovers to enjoy besides dancing.”
Robin cut him a look. “I’m not as Christmas obsessed as your sister, remember?”
“True.”
“Which means I’d rather be out here with you than doing that stuff. Besides, Abby is over there crafting with Joan, and that stuff is mostly to occupy the kids so their parents can dance.”
Jack’s throat bobbed the second the words left her mouth, and Robin closed her eyes. Had she really needed to word it like that? Talk about coming on strong. She should have said something aboutmomshaving fun. That would’ve been more relevant to her situation. Saying something so general, something that insinuated that Jack was the other half of the parental unit she’d referred to, probably crossed some kind of single-mom dating rule that she was too inexperienced to know about.
Jack’s strong hand moved in a wide circle over her back. “You okay?”
“Me? Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“You looked… uncomfortable, I guess.”
She took a deep breath. It was now or never. If she wanted to make sure Jack was okay with her giving him a piece of her heart while part of it still belonged to Matthew, now was the time.
“Jack, you understand that I’ll always love Matthew, right?”
“Of course.” He shrugged, and she was relieved to find that it wasn’t in a dismissive way. More like the truth behind her words was a nonissue that didn’t give him an ounce of pause.
“And you’re okay with us getting closer even though that’s the case?”
