Searching For Treasure - By L.C. Davenport Page 0,9

did the best I could to raise him."

"For what it's worth, from where I'm sitting, you did a great job." Dana smiled genuinely to Oscar.

"Thank you," she said. She remained silent for a moment before continuing. "Jack helped. Sometimes I think he did more for him than I ever could. There are some things about becoming a man that a woman can't teach. And shouldn't even try. Jack's been a best friend to me and a big brother to Noah. Sometimes even a surrogate father. I don't know what we would have done without him."

Oscar cast a shrewd glance at Dana who was watching Jack carry on a lively conversation with Henry about line dancing. To the uninitiated, the reference to ball changes, brush fan, jazz box and paddle turns sounded like a foreign language. But Oscar merely said, "It must have been tough."

"I suppose it was. I remember thinking so at the time. It doesn't seem so tough now. We got by. We still get by. I'm putting him through college now and soon he'll be on his own."

Jack looked up and caught Dana's eye. He grinned boyishly. "Hey, D,”he called, pulling Henry towards her. "Guess what? Henry is into line dancing, as well. He was just telling me his theory about which kind of music it should be danced to."

"All I was saying was that I thought line dancing to anything but country music takes away from the purity of it. When I see someone steppin' and stompin' to pop music, it makes my skin crawl."

Jack shook his head as they wandered away again. "Music is expression. Dance is expression. You shouldn't try to limit the experience by disallowing certain combinations."

Dana smiled at Oscar. "Knowing Jack that could go on for awhile.”Oscar laughed. "So how did you find Raven Keep Castle?"

"On the internet. It was posted as a property being sold for back taxes. As you can tell, it was left to fall into disrepair. The grounds had grown wild and the castle was beginning to decay. But I saw not what it was but all that it had been and the promise of what it could be again."

"You're a romantic, Mr. Gaston," Dana said.

"Oscar, please. I admit that I am."

"Is that why you opened it up to the public as a treasure castle?"

"No, frankly I needed the money. I'm an old man following his last dream and I love every minute of it, but it cost most of what I had to buy this place and make it livable again. Good heavens, what are they doing?"

Dana looked to where he was staring. The band was now playing a fast-paced song and Jack and Henry were trying to teach Rose and Grace how to line dance.

"It's the Electric Slide, it's one of the easiest line dances to learn," Jack said.

For the last several minutes Dana had been catching furtive glances being cast her way by Noah and Josie, followed by whispering and giggling. Noah was up to something and had recruited Josie as co-conspirator.

Realizing that they had caught Dana's attention, the pair came forward sheepishly. "Dana, Noah was just telling me that you used to dance for a living."

Everyone within earshot stopped what they were doing and looked their way. Dana cut an irritated look at Noah. "That is a gross exaggeration. Jack and I used to enter dance contests to earn extra money. That hardly makes me a professional dancer."

Henry was clearly intrigued. "Were you any good?"

Jack grinned at Dana and bumped her playfully with his shoulder. "We won a few, didn't we D?"

"Oh, will you please show us?" Josie was wide-eyed innocence itself, but there was a mischievous glint in Noah's eyes.

He called to the band to play a requested song. As if just waiting to be asked, they began to play. The song selection was no accident. Dana and Jack had won a couple of competitions with this very song.

Jack seemed oblivious to the nuances Dana had been picking up, but she had a funny feeling Noah was setting them up for something. She just didn't know what. Jack led her out to the dance floor and they began dancing the familiar routine. As usual, they meshed together perfectly.

The first part of the song was danced in an energetic swing dance style. This was always their favorite type of dance and their eyes shone with the pleasure of it. Two-thirds of the way through the song, the music changed into a slow-dance bridge. Jack pulled