Page 84 of Stay this Christmas
Before either of us could think too hard about it, she tugged me to an empty space on the dance floor and started kicking up her heels, mimicking the other dancers. I went along, my heart ricocheting around in my chest at the way she’d taken me by surprise. I loved it.
I loved her.
Not just the Harper I’d known when we were teens, but the woman she’d become. The Harper who gave everything she had to her patients at the retirement community. The one who showed up when I needed her without question. The one who tackled adventures, faced her fears, and loved Christmas with all her might. I adored this woman.
The time apart, the distance, the mistakes—none of that mattered now. We had each other again, and I intended to hold onto her for as much and as long as she’d let me.
Line dance, chop down a tree, take a job in my dad’s firm—I’d do whatever it took to make a life with her happen.
TWENTY-SIX
harper
Okay,so it turns out line dancing is a lot harder than it looks. And it looks really dang hard.
“Maybe this is expert night.” I had to shout at Sam to be heard over the upbeat music. He just raised his shoulders, flailing along about as well as I was. At least he looked cute in his button-down and jeans.
I’d never thought of myself as all that uncoordinated, but like my fear of heights on the climbing wall, my inner klutz had shown up without an invitation. Although, to be honest, it wasn’t just my two left feet tripping me up, it was the whole night with Sam.
“I never stopped thinking about you.”
Would have been more poetic if my overflowing heart had turned me into a graceful swan, but the big, unwieldy emotions swirling around inside me made it hard to focus on the moves. After a line like that, I should have pulled Sam out the honky tonk’s doors and kissed his face off.
But instead, here I was shimmying around on the dance floor, moving a second too slow on every step. But at least I had a big smile on my face while doing it.
I shifted the wrong way and collided into the woman next to me, who laughed as we steadied each other.
“I don’t know if that was you or me,” she said with a wide grin.
“Pretty sure it was me. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“This your first time here?”
I nodded, still kind of trying to follow along with the steps even though we’d stopped moving in our little section of dance floor.
“My first time here, I broke a guy’s toe.” She laughed but gave me aseriouslylook.
She looked younger than a lot of people here, maybe even younger than Eliza, but she’d clearly done her time on the dance floor. Wearing red cowboy boots, jeans with a red plaid hem, and a matching red plaid flannel button-down, she fit right in with the themed bar. Maybe best of all, she wore a miniature Christmas light necklace that created a sparkling little glow as it switched colors.
“I don’t feel so bad, then.”
“You want a few pointers? I hardly injure anybody anymore.”
Now I laughed at her easy-going attitude. “I’d love pointers.”
She clapped her hands. “Great. Let me show you a few basic steps.”
She moved through a dance number I’d been struggling to master. Keeping the footwork slow, she walked me through the steps, and my stiff legs followed along like Frankenstein’s monster figuring out how to walk. When I finally got the maneuver down without kicking my own feet in the process, I felt like I’d just mastered an essential life skill. She led me through a few more steps, patiently explaining the moves as she demonstrated them. Folks around us spread out to give us room, and I almost forgot my little tutorial was happening in view of the whole bar.
Nerves still threaded through me, and my stomach churned over how foolish I must have looked, but I reminded myself I’d come here to face a fear. I would get through it, even if I needed Sam beside me and this guardian angel to show me how.
“You’re doing great,” she said when I’d successfully completed another step. “Now you can do any of the dances.”
I laughed at her optimism. “I don’t think I’m there yet.”
The songs switched, and as the opening strains of the new tune started, the woman’s eyes lit up. “This is the perfect song for you. Very beginner-friendly.”
If a beginner zero song existed for line dancing, I would welcome it. Although, I hadn’t exactly aced the beginner rock climbing wall.
