Save the Last Dance

by Save the Last Dance (epub)

  “It’s fine.” And that was true, because it was fine now.

  She smiled up at him. She had on more makeup than usual and her brown eyes looked bright.

  “You look really pretty.”

  “Thanks.” She looked away.

  “I brought you a corsage.”

  Her eyes widened. “Have you been holding it this whole time?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but it’s okay. Here.” He handed her the box, silently thanking Kimber for suggesting a wrist corsage instead of one that had to be pinned on. He could only imagine how awkward that would be, with half the school watching him attempt to pin the flowers on the tiny strap of her dress.

  She carefully opened the plastic container and pulled out the flowers. He set the box on a nearby table and helped her put it on her wrist. When it was in place, she looked up at him and smiled. “I love it. Thank you.”

  Even though he felt all their friends watching them, he reached for her hand. “It looks better on you than in the box.”

  She laughed. “So . . .”

  “So do you want to dance?” he asked. When she nodded, he carefully led her through all the other couples who were slow dancing.

  Holding her hand in his, seeing his buddies’ looks of approval, Jeremy felt like everything in his world had changed again.

  This time for the better.

  CHAPTER 36

  “It is never too late to live happily ever after.”

  —Unknown

  It had been the craziest night. Rehearsal had been so long and chaotic, which was saying a lot since everyone knew that Miss Kimber had been abducted the night before. Everything that had gone wrong had, and one of the girls in her main ballet had come down with strep throat and had to quit, which had meant that they’d had to rechoreograph the whole thing.

  By the time they’d finished the run-through, Bethany had grabbed her dress and followed Gwen into a private bathroom in the back of the building. Gwen had let Bethany store her things there. She’d even offered to take Bethany’s dance things back to the dance studio at the end of the night so she could head right over to the dance.

  She’d been so ready to get out of there and go to the dance, Bethany had hardly cared if Miss Shannon was going to be mad at her or not.

  When she’d finally walked into the gym, she’d thought Jeremy was going to be at the door. When she didn’t see him at first, she’d really thought Jeremy had decided to skip the dance. Or worse—that he’d take some other girl and was going to ignore her the whole time.

  Of course, that had been stupid. He was there, he’d just been waiting at the other side.

  And now, here she was, with her hands linked around his neck, his hands loosely holding her waist, and they were swaying to Bruno Mars. It was awesome.

  Even better than all of that, he hadn’t looked away from her once, like he didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world than with her. And that was perfect, but she didn’t want to be anywhere else either.

  “Hey, are you okay?” he whispered.

  “Yes.”

  “Sure?”

  “Very sure.” She smiled up at him. “I’m really glad you still wanted to go to the dance with me even though I had to come so late.”

  He looked away, like he was trying to come up with the right words but he couldn’t think of what they were. “I wasn’t sure what to do about twenty minutes ago, if you want to know the truth. A couple of hours ago, sitting at home, I started thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have made Gunnar buy me clothes for it and everything.”

  “You look really nice.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. What I’m trying to say is that I didn’t know if you were going to show up. I thought maybe you would ditch me.”

  “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “I was being an idiot.”

  “I’ll tell you about rehearsal later, but for now, I’ll just share that it was terrible. I’m glad we’re dancing now.”

  “Yeah. Me too.” He pulled her a little bit closer. And his hand kind of felt heavier on her back, like he suddenly didn’t want to let her go. Looking troubled, he said, “I kind of lied about worrying about my clothes. The fact is, Gunnar said that there was no way I couldn’t not come.” He lowered his voice. “He told me that I needed to see this through.”

  “This?”

  “You and me.”

  She liked the sound of that. She liked that they were a “you and me.” It sounded permanent. Good.

  As more couples joined them, the space got even more confined and he pulled her closer so the couple to her right didn’t knock her over. Now her chest was practically touching his and her lips were almost against his neck. She could feel the heat from his body and smell the soap on his skin. It felt good to be right next to him. Good and a little intense. She wondered if everyone around them was watching.

  “Sorry,” Jeremy said when he stepped back. “I thought he was going to step on your foot.”

  “I didn’t mind.” When he smiled at her, she gathered her courage. “Hey, uh, Jeremy?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why did you worry so much?”

  “I guess I got scared. I let all the crap that I was worried about in my head get the best of me. I started thinking that maybe you’d get smart and would want someone better.”

  Now he was starting to confuse her. “What do you mean by better?”

  “You know. A guy who isn’t a foster kid with no parents and not a lot of money.”

  “Stop. You’re not that.”

  “That sums me up, Bethany.”

  “You’re more than that. And you can’t help either of those things.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “I know you can’t.” Before she could stop herself, she added, “And one more thing. I don’t care that you’re ‘just a foster kid.’ You think about things more than most other boys. You are more mature. You don’t do stupid stuff either. I like how you are, Jeremy. I don’t want you to change.”

  “I’m going to get adopted soon.”

  “When you do, I’m going to go to the ceremony with you. It’s going to be great.”

  He chuckled then smiled at her. “If we weren’t dancing in the middle of the whole school, I’d kiss you for saying that.”

  “Maybe you should kiss me anyway.”

  “You won’t get mad?”

  “Why don’t you kiss me and find out?”

  And so he did. Right there during the last dance of the night.

  CHAPTER 38

  “Without love and laughter there is no joy;

  live among love and laughter.”

  —Horace

  Months later

  After much discussion, they’d decided to keep the meeting to the three of them. It felt right—like how they’d started. Sitting in the living room of Kimber’s house, the beautiful, modern house that Gunnar had built for someone else but later married Kimber in, Shannon giggled.

  Kimber shared a smile with her. It was a fact. Traci Rossi was hopeless at opening champagne bottles.

  At last, on her third attempt, the cork went flying through the air.

  Shannon clapped and cheered, which had earned her a put-upon glare from her sister.

  “You know, for a know-it-all cop, you sure can’t open a bottle of champagne too well,” Kimber said.

  “Ha ha. I didn’t grow up drinking fancy stuff like this. A beer has always been good enough for me.”

  “We could have split a six pack, Traci,” Shannon said. It wasn’t like any of them were big drinkers anyway.

  “No, I agree with you. This is a special occasion,” Traci said as she carefully poured the sparkling wine into the three flutes. Picking up her glass, she raised it high. “It’s not all that often three sisters get to celebrate two years of knowing each other
.”

  “Amen to that,” Kimber said as she reached for her own flute.

  Shannon picked up her own, thinking Traci had, indeed, made a very good point. Tonight marked the second anniversary of the first day that they’d met.

  She’d had every intention of making a big deal about their first anniversary the year before, but life had gotten in the way. She’d still been all moony over her newlywed status. Then there had been Gwen, her baby Bridge, Traci’s adoption of him—and then her engagement and quick marriage to Matt.

  In the midst of it, Kimber had been working nonstop, taking just “one more modeling job” again and again. Now, here they all were, married, and Kimber was a perfectly happy stay-at-home mom to Jeremy. It turned out that she loved carpooling, helping with homework, volunteering at the dance studio, and Jennifer’s cooking lessons.

  They were all doing really well.

  Kimber cleared her throat. “Ah, Shannon? I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re all sitting here, waiting to say cheers.”

  “Sorry. I was just thinking . . . well, never mind.”

  “Take your time,” Traci said. “I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing myself lately.

  Taking a deep breath, she began. “I wish I could think of the right words, but as far as I’m concerned, there are no words to sum up how I feel about these last two years. All I can say is that I love you both dearly and you’ve made my life better. Cheers.”

  “I love you both too,” Traci said. “Cheers.”

  “Cheers,” Kimber said. As usual, she was the least demonstrative but also the one who was fighting back tears.

  After taking a sip, Shannon smiled. “Oh, my goodness, this is the expensive stuff. Where did it come from?”

  “Where do you think? Bev,” Traci said.

  The house mother who took in Traci at the group home in Cleveland had visited them two weeks ago, saying she needed to see just how they’d all turned out.

  It had been a great visit, and now Shannon felt like Bev was yet another relative into their already large and varied family. She, Traci, and Kimber had laughed that between Kimber’s parents, Shannon’s parents, Traci’s Bev, and all of their in-laws, they now had more family than they knew what to do with.

  Reflecting on that, she said, “Sometimes I feel like I went from being an only child with two doting parents to having two sets of parents, a fairy godmother, a husband, two new brothers—among other people.”

  “I feel the same thing,” Kimber said. “So much in my life has changed. I went from living with a bunch of models and focusing on my career to being a wife and mom and . . . well, everything.”

  “I’ve learned a lot from both of you,” Traci said quietly. “You taught me to trust myself and other people. And now I have Matt and Bridge and Gwen.”

  Shannon smiled. “I love how much you love Gwen.”

  “She would be hard not to love.”

  Looking at both of her sisters, Shannon wondered if she’d ever felt more at peace. Yes, she loved her parents, and her husband Dylan was everything she’d ever dreamed a husband could be. He loved her for everything about her, flaws included. She never felt that he loved her in spite of them.

  But as she gazed at her two sisters, she decided that there was something special about sharing blood. There was something in their genes that was irreversible, that was meant to be. And somehow, they’d manage to find each other.

  Putting her champagne flute down, Kimber said, “What’s going on, Shannon? You got quiet all the sudden.”

  “I was just sitting here thinking how amazing it is that we’re sitting here, so happy with our lives. We’ve each found men who we really love and are planning futures all in the same city. And if it wasn’t for one little DNA test, we wouldn’t have found each other at all.”

  “I think about that all the time too,” Traci said. “But, you got something wrong, Shannon.”

  “What was that?”

  This time it was Kimber who spoke up. “It wasn’t just a little DNA test. It was you reaching out to us. It was you taking that first step. You’re the reason we’re all together.”

  “It was also you two being willing to give up so much to move here. To give us a try.”

  Kimber chuckled. “And now look at us. Three peas in a pod.”

  Three peas in a pod. It was a silly expression but one that felt fitting—because that’s what they had become. In spite of everything, they were three unique women who fit together imperfectly.

  But she’d long ago decided that perfection was overrated.

  Tucking her legs under her, Shannon said, “Well, we’ve got the whole night to ourselves. What should we do?”

  “That’s easy,” Kimber said. She picked up the remote control and tossed it to Traci. “Pick a movie. I’m going to go put on sweats. And yes, I brought y’all some sweatpants and old T-shirts too.”

  As Traci started flipping the channels, Shannon said, “That’s what you want to do? Put on old sweats and watch a movie?”

  “And eat ice cream,” Traci said. “Don’t forget that. Oh! How about You’ve Got Mail?”

  Kimber rolled her eyes. “I’ve only seen that four or five times.”

  Looking delighted, Traci smiled. “Me too. So it’s perfect, right?”

  Shannon was about to disagree when she realized that when she was little, moments like these were just what she’d always wanted.

  Time to do nothing. Just sit with two people she cared about. Because she could.

  And right then, right at that moment, she realized something for the first time.

  These were the moments you couldn’t put a finger on, couldn’t really explain, but that meant everything.

  These were the moments that counted.

  They counted for everything.

  “Don’t eat all the cookies and cream!” she shouted.

  When Traci and Kimber just laughed, she followed them upstairs. Because what they did didn’t really matter.

  All that mattered was that her sisters understood just what she meant—and she had a feeling that they always would.

  That was all that mattered. Maybe it was all that ever had.

  The End

  Excerpt from

  Edgewater Road

  rumors in ross county, book 1

  CHAPTER 1

  It had been a really bad idea. Staring at the five vehicles parked haphazardly in the long driveway leading to her neighbor’s farmhouse, Jennifer pressed hard on her Camry’s brakes and seriously contemplated turning around.

  But the two guys drinking beer on the front porch had already seen her. One of them waved.

  If she turned around, Jennifer knew that John Bennett would find out. And when he did, he wouldn’t let it slide, because that was the way he was. Shoot, he’d probably show up at her front door tomorrow morning and ask her a dozen questions about why she hadn’t parked and gone in.

  He might even decide to stop by later that night.

  Though she’d only spoken to John, who also went by Lincoln—his better known and preferred nickname—a couple of times, Jennifer had already gotten the feeling he didn’t suffer fools. Or liars, which was what she would be if he asked why she’d decided to show up at his house without calling first.

  Jennifer wasn’t typically a liar, but she knew herself well enough to realize that she’d feel so foolish, she’d start making up all kinds of excuses that were as flimsy as a sheet of tissue paper.

  So she had to go inside and do what she came to do.

  Feeling a weight on her chest, Jennifer carefully pulled off to the side of the driveway, leaving plenty of room to turn around. That wouldn’t be hard to do. Lincoln’s house was on a full two acres, just like her own. There was plenty of space for parking.

  And, it seemed, parties.

  Turning off t
he ignition, Jennifer came up with a plan. She was going to walk up to John’s front door, say hello to his friends, deliver this really bad idea, and then hurry home.

  Feeling the men’s eyes on her, she walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, and pulled out her whole reason for being there. One triple layer chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse filling and a creamy white seven-minute-frosting. It was a beautiful dessert, if she did say so herself.

  She’d baked it for Lincoln. As a thank you present. She’d thought it was the kind of gift her grandmother, Ginny Smiley, would have delivered back in the day.

  But now that Jennifer thought about it? She was starting to get the feeling that MeMe would have done no such thing.

  It was just another example of how her grandmother had been far cooler than she could ever hope to be.

  The longer she lived in MeMe’s old Victorian farmhouse, the more aware Jennifer became that she really hadn’t known her grandmother all that well.

  Then again, there was a lot to know about MeMe. She’d had a really interesting life. Even at eighty years old she’d been far more confident and vivacious than Jennifer, Ginny Smiley’s namesake.

  Yep, Jennifer was plain, store-brand vanilla, while her grandmother had been a lot more like one of those crazy Ben and Jerry’s flavors that were filled with ten different mix-ins and cost double the price. Side by side, there was no comparison.

  “Hey.”

  Startled, she turned to face one of the men who’d come over to help her unload the U-Haul when she’d moved in next door a week ago. He’d shown up barely ten minutes after Lincoln had stopped by. Lincoln had pulled in her driveway to introduced himself but then had quickly realized she was moving in all by herself. That she was completely alone.

  He’d frowned when she’d told him that she was fine and didn’t need a single thing.

  Seconds after that, he’d sent a text, and then his friends had arrived.

  Now, looking at the man dressed in a long-sleeved T-shirt and worn jeans, Jennifer couldn’t remember what his name was. All she could recall was that he’d been a lot easier to talk to than John Bennett.