have acquired somewhere along the line but never had. She left the dessert line and caught up with her.
“You know what, Mom? You might change your mind about Luke if you actually got to know him.”
“Glenn Dawson’s son? I don’t think so.”
“Luke isn’t like his father.”
“Evidently you’re not like your mother, either.”
“Given the awful things you’ve said about Luke, I’m pretty proud of that.”
Loucinda shot her a dirty look and kept on walking. “Speaking of awful things, Dr. Morgensen seems to think you’re no longer interested in seeing him. Are you seriously that short-sighted?”
“Russell and I aren’t right for each other.”
“How can you say that? You’re perfect for each other! If you’re fortunate, he’ll consider asking you out again.”
“And the day I feel about him the way I feel about Luke, I’ll take him up on it.”
Loucinda stopped and spun around, her mouth falling open. “The way you feel about”—she shook her head with disbelief—“Just the fact that you’re sitting with that man is an embarrassment!”
“Eve has been dancing with him. How does that make you feel?”
“Eve has been flaunting her poor choices all her life. I’ve always expected more of you.”
“Yeah, and sometimes those expectations get just a little hard to handle.”
“All I’ve ever tried to do is to set you on the right path and protect you from bad influences. Have you ever appreciated that? Ever?”
Suddenly things were coming back to Shannon. So many things. The really nice boy who’d asked her to a dance in the tenth grade, but his father was a welder and his mother worked at the dry cleaners, so going with him was out of the question. In junior high, she’d wanted to be on the yearbook staff, but one of the boys was rumored to be gay, so that was inappropriate. When she was in grade school, she couldn’t go to another girl’s house to play because she had a single mother who was struggling and they lived in an apartment on the wrong side of town. Shannon had been listening to this crap all her life, and she wasn’t taking it anymore.
“Grandma North,” Shannon said. “That’s where all this comes from, doesn’t it?”
Loucinda looked horrified.
“She always made you believe you had to tie yourself in a knot to live up to the family name. Stop trying, Mom. You’ll never be perfect. Just stop trying, and you’ll be a hell of a lot happier. I know I will be.”
Loucinda’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “I don’t want you to ever speak another word about that!”
“I’m so tired of you telling me what’s right for me. What to say. How to act. Who to associate with. I’m just so tired of it. Stop judging me. And while you’re at it, stop judging Luke!”
With an ugly glare, Loucinda wheeled around and stormed off again. Shannon waited for anxiety to overtake her, but it never came. She knew there would be fallout, but for maybe the first time ever, she wasn’t afraid of it. Instead, she felt as if a dark cloud had lifted and she could see clearly for the first time.
Suddenly she realized what a fool she’d been. She knew Luke was avoiding any affection in public because he was afraid of the fallout it might cause for her. So she’d spent the last several days acting as if they were just acquaintances, as if there was nothing more between them.
Never again. Never again was she going to be swayed by what anybody else thought. She knew there was no future for her and Luke, but they still had the present.
And she intended to live every moment of it.
Luke finished dancing with Tasha and sat down at the picnic table, feeling exhausted after the long day at the festival and the dance marathon that followed. Eve told him Shannon had gone to get dessert for them, but he didn’t care about eating another bite. He just wanted her back there with him. He’d been a good sport and danced with other women, but enough was enough.
A voice came over the loudspeaker. “It’s been the best festival ever, and one heckuva party tonight! But all good things must come to an end. So grab your honey and hit the dance floor one last time before we call it a night.”
Just then, Luke heard his phone. He pulled it out of his pocket to find a text from Shannon. He looked up, searching the crowd for her. Finally he saw her standing near the edge of the