Unhinge - Calia Read Page 0,59

his head toward the people dancing.

I like to have fun in different ways but dancing in front of people was not one of them. I shook my head. “I’m good right here.”

“Something tells me you’ll be good wherever you are, but come on, it’ll be fun.”

Sinclair said it with a small smile. He didn’t know how his words struck me straight in the heart.

“Come on,” he urged. “Just let go, a little.”

I nodded and released my tension and grabbed his hand.

The song was something from the eighties, one I vaguely remembered my mother listening to when I was little. The people around us, they didn’t care. They were locked in their own time, reliving happy days. Their energy was infectious, making it impossible for me not to smile.

Yet I still hesitated, and moved awkwardly from side to side.

Sinclair tilted his head. “You didn’t strike me as someone too shy to dance.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to dance. It’s the fact that we’re surrounded by strangers.”

At that he lifted a brow.

“And you know…” I flung a hand in the air. “It’s awkward.”

“Not really. The fact that these people are strangers should be the one incentive to dance.”

I smiled; he had a point.

“You look like an idiot? Doesn’t matter. You’ll probably never see these people again.”

“Except for you,” I pointed out.

“Except for me,” he agreed, a devilish look in his eyes. Sinclair reached out and grabbed my hands, swallowing them whole with his own. “And you better believe I’ll tease you mercilessly.”

Our hands were the only parts of our body touching, yet there was this electric charge between us. He kept them in the air and wildly moved them left and right until I had no choice but to follow his lead.

Then he spun me around. My skirt twirled and I smiled so wide. I couldn’t remember the last time I had had so much fun.

Two, then three songs went by. My feet started to ache. Yet we continued dancing, having fun in our own little world.

When we finished, my cheeks were red.

“Was that so bad?” Sinclair asked, his eyes gleaming with energy as we walked back to the table.

“It was fun,” I replied, but the truth was more than that: Dancing with Sinclair was the most alive I’d felt in months. Maybe years.

My smile faded as I realized that I needed to find things bad about Sinclair, to keep my distance. Not more and more redeemable qualities that imperceptibly pulled me closer to him.

But maybe it was always going to be this way.

Maybe this attraction would always be inexorable.

“You really can dance. I knew you were holding out on me.”

Moments later an older woman asked Sinclair to dance. I let her take my place and sat down at the empty table, just watching everything around me. Such happy, joyful people—and all I could think about was whether Wes and I would ever be like them.

I pulled out my phone. It was 10:43. My eyes widened, though not because of the time. It was the fifty missed calls that had me on edge. Every single one was from Wes.

“You okay over there?”

I gave my phone one last look and dropped it back into my purse. The smile I gave Sinclair was one of my weakest. “I’m great.”

He crossed his arms and I knew he could see right through my words.

Abruptly I stood. “You ready to go? It’s getting late.”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

Side by side we walked out of the building. My mind was racing a mile a minute, trying to think of what I would say when I got home to Wes. Most times I could never predict when he would snap, but I felt it this time. I’d been careless. I had let go of my worries and now I had to deal with him.

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Sinclair said.

“I actually had fun too.”

“I know; it was the most I’ve ever seen you smile.”

“I smile all the time.”

“No, I mean really smile. A true smile.”

My grip on the strap of my purse tightened. If I looked at Sinclair right then, I knew I’d never want to look away, so I stared straight ahead. I could feel his gaze on me.

“Where are you parked?” I asked him.

Sinclair gave me a frustrated look and pointed toward the opposite side of the parking lot, toward the back entrance. “Over there.”

I nudged my head to the opposite side. “I’m over here. So I’ll see you later. This was fun.”