Page 2 of More Than Meets the Eye

“Thanks!”

“What’s happening?”

“Cut in, young fella!” Mr. Frost shouted. “I gotta rest my old bones, and I don’t think that dern thing will let us stop dancing any other way.”

Jack blinked and then looked between me, the Frosts, and the sparkling, rotating, music-playing mirror ball. Then he groaned. “Not again.”

“I know,” I said sadly. He loved me, and I loved him, but sometimes I wondered how long he’d stick around, considering all the shenanigans that seemed to happen around me.

He grinned at me. “Cut it out.”

“What?”

“Negative thinking. We’ve survived too much over the past year and a half to let a little disco ball get to us.” He took a step forward to put the ladder beneath the ball.

And that’s whenhestarted jitterbugging.

“I didn’t know you knew how to jitterbug,” I said, admiring his form while being completely astonished by it.

“I. Don’t,” he ground out. “Tess!”

Epiphany struck, and I ran to the back and grabbed a pair of noise-canceling earplugs I’d found the other day when I was cleaning. Stuffing them in my ears as far as they’d go, I raced back out to the shop and stumbled to a stop.

Mr. Frost, Mrs. Frost, Jack, Jack’s grandfather, and Jack’s grandfather’s lady friend were all now dancing the Twist. ToThe Twist.

Millie—also known as Dr. Millicent Hernandez to her history students at the University of Central Florida—threw her head back and laughed. She said something, but the earplugs did their job, so I didn’t hear her.

I dragged the ladder over, climbed up, and found the switch on the side of the heavy ball. The moment I toggled it off, everyone stopped dancing. Since the ball stopped sparkling, rotating, and vibrating, which I guess meant it was no longer playing music, I took a chance and pulled one earplug out—blessed, wonderful silence.

After I climbed down, Jack headed for the back with the ladder, and I rushed over to the Frosts to be sure they were okay.

“That was wonderful!” Millie said. “I love Chubby Checker!”

“Who?”

Jack’s great-great-a-bunch-of-greats grandpa, Jedediah Shepherd, grinned at me. “Even I’ve heard of Chubby Checker, and I was stuck inside a statue for three hundred years.”

He was, long story, but I didn’t have time for Chubby Checker right now. I rushed over the Mrs. Frost, who brushed off my concern and glared at her husband.

“The first time I met you, you were dancing the Twist to that song with that floozy Nancy Joy Neederhouser.” She handed me the giant tote she was using for a handbag and rummaged around in it. “Where is my crossbow?”

“Now, Mrs. Frost,” I said soothingly. “You know?—”

“Don’t you ‘Mrs. Frost’ me, young lady! She was the only girl in town wearinggo-go boots!”

“That floozy!” Jack said, back from putting the ladder away. He smoothly stepped between Mrs. Frost and Mr. Frost, who was making good use of his new hip while he rushed to the door.

Jack held out his arm. “How about a hand to the parking lot, Mrs. Frost?”

She transferred her glare to him. “Don’t you dare treat me like an old lady! I don’t need your help.”

Jack looked wounded. “I was askingyouto helpme. And then I thought I’d butter you up on the way to the car, so you’d make me a batch of your famous walnut-chocolate-chip cookies.”

Tiny Mrs. Frost was no more immune to Jack’s charm and rugged good looks than any other woman in town. She looked up to meet his gaze—he was four inches over six feet, so she had to lookwayup—and started laughing. “Fine, but don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, tucking her hand under his arm and winking.

When they walked outside, with Mrs. Frost talking a mile a minute about the floozy, Jed and Millie walked over to me, still smiling.

---