Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,98

of the lady,” Marco said, spinning Amelia before sweeping her up and over. “And ladies, the one leg all the way up and in the air looks really impressive.” He came back to right and stood Amelia next to him. “Just don’t kick anybody.”

They all laughed.

“This is a more advanced version of the pass-by dip we showed you last week. Let’s try this slow the first time,” Marco said. “Just pick her up but don’t do the full dip. And-a-one, and-a-two.”

It would have been so much better if it had felt like they were in the same room. As it was, a million miles would’ve felt closer. Taylor put her hand around his neck, and Greg lifted her with nearly no effort.

“Good. Good,” Marco said. “Okay, now try a quarter dip, and we’ll see how that goes.”

Greg could hardly look at her as they practiced the move. His heart hurt over how they had gone from friends to strangers so quickly. The move itself was simple and getting easier. The third time, he managed to do the whole thing without any momentum at all. However, when he stood her back to right, she instantly let him go and wound her arms in front of herself as she turned and watched the others.

“Great,” Marco said. “Let’s put a little music to it and we’ll do a free dance before we call it a night. As usual, feel free to use any moves you know and any you would like to practice.”

What Greg really wanted to do was chuck it all and just leave, but he couldn’t do that. So when Taylor turned back to him, he ignored his stupid heart that was saying how amazingly beautiful she was tonight, and he took her in his arms. This song was a faster one. They hadn’t done many of those, but it was better than slow dancing with his treacherous heart in the trying-not-to-fall state it was in.

He spun her and caught her hand behind his back. Twisting her back around in an easy arc, he caught her and dipped her across him. That was weird, he thought, when she came back up, he wasn’t even truly sure how they had done that so smoothly. Knowing he would mess this up and hurt them both if he dwelt on it too long, he gave up trying to figure out how or why this was happening, and he simply moved with her. There was no verbal communication between them, but it wasn’t necessary. He lead, she followed, twisting, turning, spinning, dipping, gliding—in perfect rhythm and trust. They did the new side dip, and her foot ended up well above his head.

Someone across the room sent up a whoop, but he didn’t bother to see what they were cheering for. Setting her down, he guided her hand around his waist and lifted it over her head before taking her other one, lifting it and spinning her. She smiled at him as if she was enjoying this, and he grinned back. In all truth, this was fun, so long as he didn’t get all stupid about it and let the other stuff get in the way.

The song ended, and five seconds after he stood her back to right after the final dip, awkwardness returned to fill the space between them.

Because they weren’t really a part of the other group, Greg got their water bottles from beside the wall and handed her one. He noticed how she stayed close to him. Clearly she wasn’t keen on joining the others either. Together but not going anywhere near each other, they ambled in a wide arc over toward the door where they met Clara and Ryan only because they all happened to be going the same way.

“That was awesome, you guys,” Clara said to them, and Taylor ducked at the compliment. “Really, you guys made that lift look easy.”

The four of them, followed by the others, went out into the hallway toward the slightly winding staircase.

“So, you’re coming tomorrow night, right?” Clara asked Taylor who glanced at Greg for help.

“Oh. I… uh…” Taylor started but didn’t get more out.

“Yeah, we only kind of talked about it… but we hadn’t really…,” Greg said, glancing behind himself.

“Come on. You’ve got to come,” Clara said. “You are singing with the guys, right?”

Taylor’s eyes went wider still as the group started down the stairs. “Oh. I… uh…?”

From behind him, Greg could feel the tension starting to ping its way through his friends.

“You asked