Page 6 of I Wanna Dance

She pushed her sunglasses up onto her head, and for a brief moment, I noticed her blue eyes—bright and curious.

“Small world.”

“Hi,” Sofia and Isabella chimed in chorus.

I’d for a tiny instant forgotten about myvery curiousdaughters standing beside me. “Leah, these are my daughters. Sofia and Isabella.”

Leah’s expression softened. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you both.”

“Hi.” Isabella grinned. “We’ve heard a lot about you.”

I shot her a warning look, but she wasn’t going to give a shit what I thought.

“We heard that you’re an amazing salsa dancer,” Sofia piped up.

Leah laughed, a light, effortless sound that made me feel less self-conscious. “I doubt it. Your father probably still has bruised toes because of me.”

“Oh, Papi has powerful toes,” Sofia said seriously and then dropped her voice to add, “We call him Señor Steel Toes.”

Dios mio! These girls.

Leah was charmed, which wasn’t a surprise. My kids were freaking awesome.

“That’s good to know,” Leah remarked and then adjusted her tote bag on her shoulder. “It was…ah…nice seeing you and?—”

“Papi lives right around here,” Sofia spoke over Leah. “Where doyoulive?”

Leah cleared her throat, unsure of what my daughters were doing. Before I could warn the girls off, Leah replied, “I have an apartment two blocks away.”

“That’s awesome. You can carpool to the salsa classes.” Sofia clapped.

I took a deep, patient breath.

Leah glanced at me, amused. She could see what my daughters were trying to pull. “That’s good to know as well. Marco, I’ll see you at the next class.”

“Oh, he’ll be there,” Sofia interjected.

“We’ll make sure,” Isabella assured all of us.

I sighed. “I’ll see you next Thursday, Leah.”

As she walked away, Isabella nudged me with her elbow. “That was a sign from the universe, you know that, right?”

“You’re both out of your mind. Come on, let’s get you both home so I can go take some Tylenol because you girls are giving me a headache,” I said in mock irritation.

“Oh, you love our brand of crazy.” Sofia snuggled into me.

I slid an arm around Isabella.

As I walked to my car, I couldn’t hide the smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Yeah, I was looking forward to Thursday and dancing with the exquisite Leah again.

CHAPTER 3

Leah

Ilost most of our so-calledfriendsafter the divorce, except Rose Rutherford.

Rose had recently moved to Angel Island in the Georgia Golden Isles, where she ran a bed and breakfast. For a while, I’d worried about her because she had left her husband, who had plenty of money and a very tight prenuptial agreement. But then Gray surprised me and Rose. He left his company and Atlanta to be with his wife. This was the first time Rose had been back since she left.

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