Page 44 of The Wiener Across the Way

I laughed and danced right along with him, matching his moves, and getting nice and close. I prayed for a dirty dancing song to come on next. Instead the beat shifted into a slow, tender melody. Declan extended his hand with a playful glint in his eyes. “Shall we show them how it’s really done, sweetheart?”

I took his hand, my heart skipping a beat. “Only if you promise not to step on my toes.”

Declan’s hand slid down and rested gently on my lower back, guiding me with confident ease. We moved in sync, lost in the music’s embrace. His gaze, intense yet soft, locked with mine, speaking a language only our bodies and the music understood.

“When were you going to tell me you could dance?” I was surprised by his smooth moves. Was there anything sexier than a dude who could really dance? He wasn’t just moving his hips around, he could keep up with my backup dancers.

He leaned in, his breath warm against my ear. “I’d rather show you.”

The world around us faded, leaving us alone in our own little sphere. His grip tightened slightly, pulling me closer, as if we were alone in the room.

“Is this all part of the show?” I murmured, my voice barely above the music.

Declan’s lips curved into a mischievous smile. “Do you want it to be?”

The song dwindled to a close and I didn’t want to let go. This electricity between us had me in a chokehold. It was more realthan any showmance or any other romance I’d ever had. What did that say about my past relationships?

Trixie pushed through the other people around us with her phone out. “Kelsey, Declan, you guys are blowing up the internet. Look at these hashtags, #KelsandKing and #Delsey.”

She flipped her phone around, showing us a feed of photos and videos from tonight, each one with us in the center. There we were, dancing, laughing, looking like a couple straight out of a fairy tale. My heart skipped a beat at how perfect we looked together.

Declan took the phone from her, scrolling through the images with a frown.

I leaned in to look, my stomach doing somersaults. Each picture, each comment, it was all so public, yet so intimate. A part of me thrilled at the attention, but another part worried about how real it all seemed.

One picture caught my eye, a candid shot of us during our dance, where I was looking up at him with what could only be described as adoration. It was a look I couldn’t fake, a moment of genuine emotion caught on camera for all the world to see.

Wow. I really needed to rein this in. If anyone else saw that, they’d think I was in love with Declan Kingman.

And from the look on his face in these pics and videos, unless I was crazy, he was in love with me too. We would definitely have the world fooled. I was almost fooled myself that this was real. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t, couldn’t be. Ever.

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

DECLAN

Something was different about Kelsey tonight.

I’d been prepared to rush her out of the party when we saw how social media was blowing up. Those posts were far too up close and personal to me, and some of those clips had definitely come from people here on the rooftop with us. But she wasn’t bothered by it at all. She’d smiled and said she wanted to dance some more because she was having fun.

My girl might appear like she was having fun on a daily basis to the world around her, but I saw how her life was taking a toll on her. There were dark circles under her eyes that she hid with makeup and those smiles that made me go weak in the knees. But she was also more relaxed tonight, hanging with my teammates and our friends and family, than I think I’d ever seen her.

She needed this. Needed downtime in her life. I had the whole damn offseason to refresh and re-coop. When was heroffseason? Never. And I was worried as fuck she was going to crash and burn.

So we stayed. Although, I gave a lot of my teammates and their partners the side eye for posting about us on social media. They knew how much I avoided that kind of shit, and I expected better from most of them. But could I really expect anyone not to get starstruck in Kelsey’s presence? Probably not. Her star was so much brighter than everyone else in the whole damn world. And not because she was an ultra-famous musician.

Everett slapped a bottle of beer into my hand. “If you’re not careful, brother, that woman is going to rock your world and then break your heart.”

“Shut up.” I took a swig of the beer and didn’t even bother looking at him, not that I could tear my eyes away from her anyway. The Kingman family resident love guru was going to tell me what he thought regardless.

“I’m serious.” He leaned against the bar and watched her with Trixie, Marie, and the others along with me. “You’re so fucking in love with her the whole damn world can see it. On national television I might add.”

“I don’t care what’s on TV or FlipFlop or wherever.” I only cared what she thought.

“She’s got a long line of broken hearts in her path. Have you seen what a wreck her last guy is? You’re already a sullen asshole. None of us want to see what you’ll turn into when she moves on. Although it will make for a killer album, I’m sure.”

I had to grip my bottle real fucking tight so I didn’t slam it down and sock Ev in his stupid mouth. “The other fuckers she dated were boys who cared more about their hair than her. She’s not going to break my heart.”

“They always do, my man. They always do.”

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