Secondary Characters (Novella) - By Rachel Schieffelbein Page 0,25
I want without her thinking I’m some kind of creeper. Which is good, because I can’t help but stare at her tonight.
She’s wearing a short silver dress with black high heels and her legs look about six feet long. Her dark, soft hair is hanging down her back in big loose curls I can run my fingers through. She looks incredible. I am still amazed she is here with me.
She sways back and forth to the music. It blows my mind she could have ever thought I liked Amber. To think I thought I had been embarrassingly obvious over the past six months.
I wrap my arms around her. She smells like lilacs.
I think about that afternoon on the float and how scared I was to talk to her. I lean down and kiss her cheek.
Thank God for Amber and Nick, I guess.
***
Amber looks like a movie star in her red dress, and all eyes are on her and Nick as they stride through the dance. All eyes except Lance’s. He’s looking at me. He’s standing behind me, with his arms around my waist. He’s bent down, his chin resting on my shoulder.
“Have I told you yet how beautiful you look tonight?” he whispers in my ear. It causes little shivers to run down my spine and a smile to spread across my face.
“Yes, like three times. But that’s okay. I don’t mind.” He laughs and kisses my neck. Then he follows my gaze to Amber and Nick.
“They’re a beautiful couple,” I say.
“Yeah, I have to say, I really don’t care.” He laughs and spins me around to face him. He looks all kinds of gorgeous in his dark grey suit. His silver tie matches my dress. It’s cute and flirty and I feel stunning in it.
Of course, the way Lance is looking at me has a lot to do with how amazing I feel tonight.
“You know what the best thing is about not being the leads?” he asks me. “When all eyes are on them, no one will notice if we do this.” He leans down and kisses me. His arms wrap around me and lift me up off the floor. We’re both laughing when he sets me back down.
I peek around him at the crowd of dancers, and he’s right. No one so much as glances in our direction. It’s great.
“Besides,” he says, leaning toward me, his voice low, “you are, by far, the most beautiful girl in this room tonight. You are my Aphrodite.”
My heart fills up my whole chest. I am so glad he didn't just give up, like I did. We could have easily spent the whole school year avoiding each other for no reason.
I pull him tighter as we start to dance. I run my hands up his arms and across his broad, sexy shoulders. I look up into his bright blue eyes. He smiles and I can’t resist reaching up to kiss him again. I love his mouth. His big, stupid mouth. He still makes plenty of dumb jokes, but they don’t bother me now. In fact, it’s kind of cute.
I lay my head on his chest. For the first time, I feel like the heroine of my own love story. And the heroine always gets her man.
Acknowledgments
A huge thank you goes out to my husband for putting up with me, and taking care of the kids, while I worked on my writing. He's listened patiently every time I thought I was losing my mind and gave me encouragement when I needed it most. Thank you to Melissa, Jen, Hannah, Anna, and Cassie Mae for being the first eyes on this and helping to make it stronger. Thank you to Jennifer Walkup, whose wonderful notes on Secondary Characters not only made it so much better, but also made me believe that other people would love Mabel and Lance as much as I did. And finally, big, big thanks to Mandy Schoen and Georgia McBride for taking a chance on me!
Rachel Schieffelbein
Rachel Schieffelbein grew up in a tiny town in Southeast Minnesota reading books, riding horses, and participating in speech and theater. She is now married with four kids and enjoys reading books, riding horses, and coaching speech and theater. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
She enjoys writing characters she can relate to, ones she would want to hang out with, or fall in love with. She hopes her readers will love them, too.
Look for PRIMER coming from Swoon Romance this Fall.
PRIMER
Lizzy Charles
Chapter One
It’s