Page 39 of Under One Roof

“It always felt like she didn’t like us, but we never even played any tricks on her,” Grace whispers to me. “So she didn’t like us for no reason.”

Andthatis reason enough for me not to like her.

“Did your dad know that?”

“We never told him,” Logan says after chugging half a can of Coke.

“But he broke up with her?” I guess, and the kids shrug. I turn back to Griffin and Elsa, irritation simmering in my gut. The thought of him with someone so clearly awful makes me want to march over there and tell her off. But that would be ridiculous, right? I have no claim over him.

I force myself to finish my food, even though I’ve lost my appetite. The kids are done eating too, and since I’m in need of a distraction so I don’t do something stupid, I tug on Logan’s arm. “Come dance with me.”

There’s music playing, a ska band from the ’90s, I think, and he makes a face. “What? No way!”

“Oh, come on!” I stand, pulling him up with me. “It’ll be fun.”

He fights me the whole way as I drag him to a little open space under the pavilion. “Dancing is not fun.”

“Yes, it is.” I hold his hands, urging him to move. He doesn’t. Merely stands there, glaring at me like I’m embarrassing him.

But it’s a rite of passage.

“I don’t know how to dance,” he grumbles, and I grin.

“Good thing for you, I do. Your future girlfriends will appreciate that I taught you. Now, look, all you have to do is find the beat. Stick with this side-to-side motion. Yeah, like that.”

He keeps his head down, following me as I lead him, step-touching right to left.

“You can get fancy, like this,” I say, opening our arms out wide and then pulling them in between us, forcing him to step toward me, and he crashes into me. I laugh. “Not like that.”

“This is so dumb,” he mutters.

“No, it’s not. You just have to avoid stepping on my feet.”

He fights a smile and starts to loosen up, so I make a suggestion. “Can I teach you a two-step? It’s super simple.” When he shrugs indifferently, I show him how to hold his arms, and for once, I’m glad I’m so short. There isn’t too much of a difference between us when he reaches up to hold my right hand. I explain that he should lead. “You’re going to guide me with a little bit of pressure to show me what direction to go in.”

He listens intently as I show him how to take two quick steps to the side and then one slow to the other. “Get it, two-step?”

“Ha-ha,” he says, with a roll of his eyes like he’s too cool for this, even though I can feel how damp his palms are.

“Let’s try it. You lead, ’kay?”

He nods and all but shoves me to the left. I laugh, trying and failing to make this simple two-step work. Even though he’s smaller than me, it doesn’t feel great when he keeps stepping on my toes. I playfully shriek whenever he does, earning a mumbled apology and half smile. I want him to have fun. Which he seems to be having, especially when he attempts a spin move.

“Look at you!” I toss my head back to laugh when he smashes into me again, and that’s when I notice Griffin watching us, his gaze hot on me, even as Elsa is still talking to him. My steps fizzle out as I’m unable to tear my gaze away from him. Logan tries to pivot us again, and he steps on my foot, hard this time.

I bend over, hissing in my pain, and he immediately jumps away. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean it.”

“I know, buddy. It’s all right. It’s?—”

“Mind if I cut in?”

Both Logan and I look up to find his dad next to us, and Logan eagerly hands over the reins. “See ya!”

“Thanks for the dance,” I call after him as he runs off. Right into Ian’s daughter, Juniper. From the little I know of her, she’s in college and the apple of her father’s and brothers’ eyes.

“Not so fast, Romeo,” she says, pulling him into her. “Dance with me. I love this song.”

“Not you too!”

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