Page 105 of Dance with Me on New Year's Eve

Yes, I, Roxy Swan, kissed a man. In public. Iinitiatedthat.

I began with an awkward peck and then another and another. I pulled back just a couple of inches to look into his eyes. And then I leaned in to kiss him again, or maybe he leaned in first. I didn’t know, and I didn’t care.

When his lips were fully melded to mine and his hands ran through my hair, I lost the ability to think. There were only his soft, warm lips and mine, meshed together in a fiery dance that starkly contrasted with the freezing winterscape around us.

He pulled back first, holding my upper arms gently. “Roxy, thank you.”

“I had no idea you were into me all along,” I said in wonder. “None. You hid it very well. Too well.”

We both laughed.

Then I took a deep breath and said, “Jeff, thank you for making me want to try again. I … I should have forgiven you immediately. Or maybe I did, but I was so afraid of getting hurt again. Because that seemed inevitable. But I’m trying to trust. Not just you but myself.”

He leaned forward to kiss me again and then wrapped me in a long, warm hug that was so amazing it would later make me want to reevaluate whether I liked hugs or not.

I pulled back slowly, placing my hands on the soft fabric of his jacket over his chest. “I was just thinking. My friend Julia would love our game. I bet she’d even have some good ideas. Maybe this grand gesture of yours could include flying her out to me this weekend to celebrate?”

Suddenly, a woman’s voice startled me. “That wouldn’t be great timing. We already told Lila you’d come to our slumber party on Friday night.”

I turned to see Abby grinning ear to ear.

“Were you eavesdropping on us?” Jeff asked, his hands on his hips.

“Hardly at all,” she said breezily as she pulled us together into an awkward group hug. “I mean, the outcome was obvious. Both of you lovesick fools.”

I turned to the man at my side, touching his shoulder gently as my heart was ready to burst in my chest. “That’s a serious accusation. She’s calling you a lovesick fool.”

He pretended to think about it. “Fine. I’ll be a lovesick fool for you, Roxy. Only for you.”

Epilogue

Nearly one year later

“Ican’t handle this, Jeff!” I whispered, gripping his shoulder tightly. “I hate waiting. Just tell me what it is!”

He peered down at me with a quirk of his lips. “They say good things come to those who wait, right?”

“They also say you should create your own destiny,” I said with a frown, “and being patient is not part of my destiny.”

A laugh erupted from Jeff’s smiling lips, and I found myself returning his smile.

He spun me out with his arm outstretched, my shimmery red dress flaring as I twirled out and back toward him, laughter dancing in my eyes. Back in his arms, I gazed up at him and wrapped my hands around the back of his neck.

“Fine, I’ll wait a little longer, on one condition.”

His right eyebrow rose. “Demanding now, are you?”

“You know I am,” I said, a shiver running down my spine as I realized how much more confident I was than the Roxy of one year ago.

Jeff stepped in closer as our feet still moved in time with the slow tune playing distantly, outside our bubble. “I know just what you need,” he murmured just a breath away from my ear.

Before I could utter some saucy reply I’d never imagined I was capable of, his lips captured mine as his palms cradled my face. As his lips moved over mine, I let out a sigh of happiness, and I felt his lips form a smile as he continued kissing me gently. When I parted my lips, he accepted the invitation to deepen thekiss.

But before I lost all sense of where we were and why we were here, I gently pulled back. “You know how to stall with me—I’ll give you that.”

He laughed once again as our feet resumed the rhythm we’d apparently lost during the kiss. As I gazed into his deep hazel eyes, I started to speak but then noticed his eyes veering left.

I shot him a questioning look and swung my head around before nearly tripping on his feet.

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