quick smoke. My heart was practically pounding out of my chest, just from a simple touch. “I respect her. You know I do. I don’t need you making this any more awkward than it is.”
He studied me a beat, then gave me a chin lift. “Okay. But you bring her back here.”
“Of course. Before midnight, right? So the limo doesn’t turn into a pumpkin.”
“No.” His brow creased. “So the record deals we have on the line don’t go to shit because of some interpersonal band drama involving you, War, and my sister.”
“I got all that.”
“Good.” Dizzy nodded approvingly. “You really got a limo?”
“Doing this right.”
“Apparently so. Okay, well, have fun and all.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m heading to the drugstore for War, then I have a date with the lovely Elaine.”
“See ya,” I said, turning away without calling him out about the less-than-fifteen-minute bullshit he did with his women that he called dating. I had dates of my own that I didn’t want to be called out on.
When I pushed through the door, Lace was right there on the other side of it.
“Where’s Dizzy,” she asked, and I wondered if she’d been eavesdropping and what she’d heard.
“He went on.” I placed my hand on the small of her back and guided her toward the front door. “We’d better get going. We’re already too late for your dinner reservation. We’ll miss the dance if we don’t leave soon.”
Outside, we stepped onto the porch together, and she locked the front door.
Turning around, she gasped when she saw the black stretch limo. Looking up at me through her sooty lashes, she said, “You don’t have to do this for Warren.”
“I’m not doing it for him.” I stared at her, suddenly not in the mood to hide anything. Not with her right there, and a night ahead of us that was all ours. “I’m doing it for you.”
The porch light made her hair shine like polished gold. I reached out and ran my fingers through thick layers that were as soft as silk.
Somewhere in the distance, a car door slammed, or maybe that was just my heart slamming around inside my chest.
I gave her a small smile. “You deserve a night like this. Come on.”
I took her hand and led her to the limo. The woman of my dreams was off her pedestal for a one-night engagement.
Lace
“It doesn’t even look like the gym,” I said, taking it all in.
In deference to the winter wonderland theme, paper snowflakes were everywhere. They dangled from the rafters on strings and were piled into snowdrifts, dusted in glitter and sparkles. Small, medium, and large, they were all different patterns and different shapes.
“It’s beautiful.” I turned to look at Bryan.
“It certainly is.” He wasn’t looking at the gym. He was looking at me, and his gray-green eyes sparkled more enchantingly than all the glitter in the world.
I wanted to ask him a million questions—about the kiss, Missy, the record deals, but on the other hand, I just wanted this. A night for the two of us, no War between us, and Bryan looking at me the way I’d always wanted him to.
“Shall we dance?” He offered me his arm.
“Yes.” I took it, curling my fingers into the material of his jacket, wishing—wishes were allowed tonight—that I could remove the black jacket and the crisp white shirt to discover the man underneath.
He led me out onto the crowded dance floor where couples in their finery swayed to the slow beat of “Faithfully.” A mirrored disco ball slowly twirled overhead, casting tiny beams of brilliant light downward to transform the wooden boards and the dancers into something nearly magical.
I lifted my arms and twined them around Bryan’s strong neck, shivering from the whisper of his silky hair on my skin and the warm stamp of his hands low on my back.
I wanted to lose myself in this bliss, but those niggling questions remained.
Why had War asked Bryan to take me?
Why had Bryan agreed?
There was something at play I couldn’t see, and the curtain with the answers behind it could be ripped aside at any time. But rather than preemptively pull it back myself to see what was behind it, like I might have in the not-so-distant past, tonight I gave myself over to the moment. I surrendered to the bliss and the man who seemed to conjure it.
The Journey song that wasn’t my favorite ended, and another slow song started with a little slide guitar and a