Page 52 of A Christmas Celebration
‘Best foot forward,’ he muttered.
‘That’s right,’ said Miss Sanderson, mishearing, ‘you need to be left foot forward and I’m right foot back.’
I bit my lip to suppress a giggle and honed in on what Rodger was saying. In my head I imagined I looked likeStrictly’s finest as he patiently put me through my paces and twirled me around the town hall, but in reality, I knew I looked far more like Jack. It was impossible not to laugh athis mortification as Miss Sanderson pushed and pulled and more than once came down heavily on his toes, causing him to turn bright red and insist that it didn’t hurt at all.
‘Having fun?’ I asked when there was an eventual break and we found ourselves next to each other in the queue for glasses of thirst quenching, non-alcoholic punch.
The look he gave me was withering.
‘Why did you come?’ I asked him as a result. ‘I had no choice, what with working with Kathleen. I would never have heard the last of it if I didn’t turn up, but you could have got away with staying away.’
He handed me a drink and we moved to the side of the hall.
‘Because,’ he said, taking a long and clearly much-needed swig, ‘I was hoping to spend the evening with someone in particular.’
When I looked at him again, I found he was staring down at me and for the briefest moment wondered if I was the person in question. I hoped not. Jack was a lovely guy, but it was his brother I felt drawn to. Then I remembered how he had acted around Tilly…
‘So, how are you getting on?’ asked Kathleen as she bounded over, cutting through my thoughts and looking the picture of health and without a curl out of place. ‘Having fun?’
I, in complete contrast to the way she looked, felt thoroughly dishevelled. I could feel my hair was escaping its formerly tight ponytail and I was far too hot in the trousersand blouse I had picked out of my limited wardrobe. At least my feet were holding up in flats. I didn’t own a single pair of heels so the temptation to wear them hadn’t come up. Painful feet on top of everything else would have been too much to bear.
‘I’m exhausted,’ I told her, ‘but yes, I’m having a good time.’ I supposed it could have been worse. ‘And Rodger is the perfect partner.’
Jack remained stubbornly silent. I daresay the state of his poor toes were stopping him from feeling anywhere near enthusiastic about the evening’s entertainment.
‘Samba next.’ Kathleen beamed. ‘You two can buddy up for that. It’s ever so easy to pick up, but be prepared to get sweaty!’
She sashayed off again and Jack groaned.
‘Bugger this,’ he said, draining his glass. ‘I’ve sweated enough for one evening. I’m off.’
‘Oh, no you don’t,’ I said, catching his arm as he went to walk away. ‘You’re not leaving me, Jack. Kathleen will partner me up with some expert if you go and my muscles will never forgive you. And neither will I.’
Before he could object, the pulsing music started up and our host ushered everyone back on to the dance floor.
‘Come on,’ I said encouragingly. ‘How bad can we be?’
It turned out, we werereallybad. We spent far more time knocking into each other having not grasped in which order we should be stepping back then forward and were in a constant muddle as a result. The other couples made it lookquite sexy and sultry, but Jack and I could only lump about and laugh. A lot.
‘I hope no one’s recording this,’ I giggled breathlessly when there was a break between the beats. ‘We’ll never live it down.’
Jack shook his head, then fanned me with his shirt which he’d pulled off and tucked into his jeans pocket. The T-shirt he was wearing underneath it looked decidedly damp around the edges and I laughed all the more when I realized it was just the two of us in such a sorry state.
‘Having fun?’ asked a deep voice behind me and I spun around to find myself face to face with Brodie.
‘What are you doing here?’ was my immediate response, which I realized wasn’t the nicest of greetings. ‘I mean, I thought you were out of town.’
‘I was,’ he said, frowning at Jack, ‘but now I’m back.’
‘I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow,’ said Jack, pulling his shirt back on.
‘Clearly.’ Brodie scowled, sounding miffed.
‘Jack was hoping to see someone here,’ I heard myself say, ‘but the poor chap has got lumbered with me.’
I don’t know why I felt obliged to explain.
‘How come you’re here?’ Jack asked his brother, his bluntness matching how I had started out.
