Page 126 of Old Acquaintances

“I heard you were going to dance with the Alabama Ballet.”

I twisted my head. “You were asking about me?”

His soft eyes drew lines over my face. “Always.” He sighed. “What happened to San Francisco?”

I forgot he would know about that. Tucker remembered everything about me. He knew my favorite food and my greatest dreams.

I pulled the bobby pins and elastic that kept my hair up for hours. “I’m not good enough,” I muttered.

“Did you audition?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know?”

“Because Iknow.” I threw my hands down. “That’s one of the top ballet companies in the country. I went there for a summer intensive once and Ibarelygot in. Everyone was so much better than me.”

“But if it’s your dream, then what’s all of this been for?” He reached out and tugged the ends of my hair. “Why go this far and not even try?”

I hadn’t thought about it like that. I’d always wanted todance for the San Francisco Ballet, that was the whole purpose of putting the effort into my ballet training, but somewhere along the way it seemed too lofty a goal. Too far away. I was afraid of trying.

I changed the subject, “Well, what’s your big dream?”

He focused on me and muttered, “I’m still working on it.”

With everything out of my hair, I scratched my head and tugged on my scalp. Tucker made a dissatisfied noise. “Can you please not make those sexy little moaning sounds.”

He gave me a knowing look and I snorted a laugh. “It feels so good to run your hands through your hair when it’s been up in a bun or ponytail for so long. It’s one of the best feelings in the world.”

“It feels better when someone else scratches your head.” He slid his hands into my hair and tugged.

My eyes closed, rolling back in my head. “Oh my God.”

“Don’t say it like that,” he groaned.

“It feels so fucking good.”

He scratched my head and pulled the roots gently. I was already out of balance, so I fell backward onto the pillows, into Tucker’s bent elbow, and he tilted over me with a look of surprise.

“Sorry,” he breathed into my face. “I didn’t realize you had the core strength of an infant.”

I sighed, contented, as his fingers massaged my scalp. Then, he kissed me. His warm, wet lips pressed into mine for a second before he moved off of me.

“I’m sorry,” he groaned, sliding his arm from under my head. “Forgot.”

Forgot what? That he couldn’t kiss me? I wanted to scream,Yes! Yes, you can!But that would be yet another line I would have trampled through.

I touched my mouth. “It’s okay,” I said, sliding up.

I pulled on my shirt and brushed my hair down and put my back on the pillows. My heart started to beat fast.

Once upon a time, Tucker wanted me. It had been four years since he told me, but I considered that it might not have gone away. I’d have to be blind to not notice he was attracted to me, but I was attracted to him, too. It was…objective, he called it. He wasattractive. To anyone. I was a scantily-dressed woman lying with him on a bed. It was easy to get signals crossed.

I heard him scratching his head.

“Don’t tell me you have lice again,” I said. My voice came out wobbly.

He cleared his throat several times. “All that scratching, you know. It made me itchy.”

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