Page 108 of Undeniable

“And he’s tall,” Shelby added.

“He’s the quiet, mysterious type,” Amanda said.

“What are we talking about?” Josh asked, unceremoniously lifting Amanda from her chair and nearly making her spill her beer before he sat down with her on his lap.

“How hot Devon is,” Hazel supplied, and Luke playfully nipped at her neck in warning. She only giggled and kissed him. “You are the only tall, tattooed man for me, so calm down.”

“Come on, brother,” Josh said to Luke, brushing a hand through his messy blond hair. “You can’t deny he’s a good-looking guy.”

Luke mumbled something that sounded like agreement when James, Reed, Will, Devon, and Piper rounded the fire in front of us.

“We’ve all agreed, Devon—you’re hot.”

Devon slowly shut his eyes, shook his head, and, if I wasn’t mistaken, blushed at the compliment. I suppressed my laughter at seeing the extremely large, tattooed man blush.

He squeezed the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable with the spotlight and next to him, Piper just smiled.

But James quickly stole my attention. He plucked the beer bottle from my hand and deposited it in the cup holder in the arm of the chair. Then he held out his hand, and with a smile I couldn’t contain, I slid my fingers into his.

I stood and his other hand rose to clasp my cheek. “Dance with me?” he asked against my lips before kissing me softly.

“Always,” I whispered back.

There were a few awws around us, and someone else pretended to gag. James promptly gave them all his middle finger and led me to the empty side of the fire several feet away.

Immediately I recognized the song that was playing as the same one we’d danced to that night at the festival. I already knew it when the cover band had started playing, but I’d listened to it on repeat since then.

James spun me once and then tugged me into his chest. His right hand landed on the small of my back, right above the curve of my ass, as his left hand gripped my right.

He leaned down, his breath hot against my ear and neck. “Do you remember when we’d dance out here?”

His hold on me tightened, and I let him keep us as close as possible. My fingers brushed against the skin at the nape of his neck as he led us in a slow, easy two-step.

“Of course,” I murmured and he leaned back enough to look at me. “We listened to that old CD of your dad’s over and over again.”

We neared the fire, but James switched directions before he got too close. As we spun around, I saw Luke and Hazel also dancing a few feet away, and a few feet beyond them, Josh and Amanda and Shelby and Will were also swaying to the music. Devon, Reed, Piper, and Forrest were engrossed in a deep conversation in the chairs we’d just vacated.

And no matter that all of those people were there to celebrate me, James was the only person I could focus on.

He laughed at the mention of his dad’s CD and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“And somehow, we managed to make our way back here.”

“Somehow,” I muttered, considering the long journey it took.

For several silent seconds, we swayed in the tall grass and clung to each other. Like we were both remembering the long time we’d spent unable to do just that. I pressed my cheek against his firm chest and with one ear, I listened to the low hum of the music while, with the other, counted the steady beats of his heart.

He propped his chin on the top of my head and quietly began singing along with the song. It was too quiet for anyone else to hear, and a smile I couldn’t contain tugged at my lips.

He was so tone-deaf it was actually sweet. And I loved every second that he sang to me.

“But do you remember the first time we came out here?”

One of his hands ran down the length of my back while the other weaved through the hair at the back of my neck. He idly ran his fingers through the slightly tangled strands. I tried to think back to the first time we’d ventured into the field by ourselves, but his reverent, intoxicating touch scattered my thoughts.

“Umm… wasn’t it the night after the graduation party?”

“Mm-hmm,” he agreed softly. The song playing in the background changed, but neither of us moved. “You’d gone somewhere with your mom, so I hadn’t seen you the entire day. And after deciding the day before that we’d spend the summer together, I was eager to see you. To spend as much time with you as I could.”

---