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Roasting hot dogs and marshmallows with her baby sister. Taking Pen outdoors to do things together for cheap, because they couldn’t afford to do anything else. Rock climbing with Daryn and Darrell and Shelby, camping, and hiking and just being with the ones she loved. Outside, and simple, and real.
That was her. Therealher. Thehershe missedmore than anything.
Since the shooting, her world had been that of the moneyed and privileged. Hiddenaway with her rich brother’s friends so they could protect her.
While she’d healed.
Well, she was healed now.
Physically. The emotional trauma would always be with her. She would neverfully get over that. That just wasn’t possible. She was finding ways to live with it. To go on living,too.
But she missed the Zoey she had been before.She always would. Always. This Zoey in the fancy red dress just really wasn’t her.She was just playing the role, now.
Why hadn’t she realized that before?
This? This wasn’ther.
Murdoch didn’t see her as Ballroom Zoey.
Maybe being with Murdoch tonight was opening her eyes a little now, too. He saw her as the Zoey she had been in Garrity. The Zoey she thought she had lost that day in the concert hall.
It was more than just a dance right now. She understood that as she slipped her arms around his waist and pressed closer to him than she ever had a dance partner before. His arms dropped to the small of her back, and he pulled her as close as two people could get during a dance.
This moment was a connection to her past life.
A final goodbye to the dreams she had built around Garrity, without even knowing she was doing that.
More than anyone, in her heart,Murdochmeant Garrity.
Garrity had beenhome.
And Garrity was over for her now.
It was time for goodbye.
She knew that. Even if he didn’t.
Maybe this was her goodbye tohim,too?
Her hold on him tightened.
Zoey gave in. She rested her head on his shoulder and just danced beneath the moonlight with a man for the first time in her life.
Probably the last, too.
She wasn’t the soft, sweet, romantic type. Zoey never had been, and she never would be.
She knew herself well enough to know that much at least. The Zoey before the shooting and the Zoey after. But…
But his arms…
Damn it.
They felt so real.
“I think you’re overthinking again, Zoey Sofia,” Murdoch told her. That was something he had said to her so many times before. The familiar words had her smiling just a little. “Just let me hold you now. We don’t have to worry about tomorrow or yesterday—just now.”
Zoey closed her eyes as they danced. This was Murdoch—and she just wanted to let him hold her. If only for a little while.
