Page 29 of One Good Crash
Jax gave her a long, rude look, starting at the top of her head and ending at the toes of her shiny red boots. "In that getup?" he said. "You'll find one easy enough."
She gave a little gasp. "Just what are you implying?"
"If you don't know, I'm not gonna explain." With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He tapped something onto the screen and shoved the phone back into his pocket.
He then looked to me and said, "You ready?"
I gave a confused shake of my head. "For what?"
"You owe me."
He was right. I did owe him. But the reminder did nothing to ease my embarrassment. I glanced around, unsure how to respond.
And then, he reached for my hand. "A dance, remember?"
Chapter 13
I remembered no such thing, but I knew an escape route when I saw it. With a grateful smile, I let him lead me toward the front of the house and tried – not terribly hard, I'll admit – tonottake any satisfaction from the look on the redhead's face as we passed.
She didn't look smugnow, and no one was snickering.
Jax and I were halfway to the front when my steps faltered. "Oh, no."
He stopped moving. "What?"
"My champagne." I glanced back over my shoulder. "I must've left it near the powder room."
He smiled. "Don't worry. There's plenty more."
"I know. I'm not worried aboutthat," I said. "I just don't want to leave a mess. Like, what if someone spills it?"
"Then someone'll clean it up," he said. "Not a big deal." He gave a gentle tug on my hand. "Now come on. It's our song."
We had no song, at least not yet. Still, I listened. The song was purely instrumental and probably a hundred years old. But I liked it. It was slow and sultry, like the prelude to a kiss.
As we moved through the crowd, I glanced around. "Where's the music coming from, anyway?"
"When we get there, you'll see."
He was right. Ididsee as soon as we entered a sizeable room off to the side. Here, the crowd was noticeably older, but that wasn't the thing that surprised me. It was the presence of a full band – meaning at least a dozen musicians, all decked out in formal attire. Like something out of the movies, they were playing atop a raised platform on the room's far side.
Silently, Jax led me to the middle of the dance floor and gathered me close like he knew exactly what he was doing.
And just like that, we were dancing. For a long, lingering moment, I let myself savor the feel of him as we swayed in time with the music.
None of this felt real. None of this looked real either, and part of me wanted to check for hidden cameras or to listen for a movie director to suddenly holler out, "Cut!"
But all I saw were other couples, and all I heard was music blended with the muted sounds of glasses clinking and laughter coming from the other room.
I felt like I could do this all night, sway in his arms like this was the only reality that mattered. But this wasn't the case, and there was something I needed to say. "Thanks." I laughed awkwardly against his shoulder. "Again."
"For what?" he asked.
"You know. For rescuing me. And what was that? The millionth time?"
With a hint of humor, he said, "How do you know you weren't rescuingme?"
I pulled back and gave him a playful eye-roll. "Oh, please. We both know that's not true."
