Page 118 of Just Like Home

“Yeah.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I’ve been trying to get him to play confidently for over a year, and today, in practice it dawned on me that everything I’ve been telling him about stepping up and being a leader, it’s what I needed to do here.”

“So you’re a dancer now.” She smirked.

His eyes widened. “Not even close. But hopefully my performance won’t be humiliating.”

She shook her head. “You’re full of surprises, Coach.”

His face turned serious for a moment, the way it sometimes did, in an unreadable expression she’d yet to crack. It was almost as if he had more to say, but every time they found themselves here, one of them pivoted.

“Let’s go on, shall we?” She moved to the center of the floor, but he stood his ground, still watching her, eyes concentrating on her.

“Charlotte, has anyone ever kissed you?”

The words caught her so off-guard she couldn’t find her voice.

He stood, unmoving, only a few feet away. “You said you’ve never dated anyone. I guess I just wondered.”

Her face flushed. Why was she embarrassed to admit the truth? Because it made her feel unlovable? Or because it made her feel naïve? Or both?

“That’s really personal,” she said, mostly because she wasn’t ready to admit this to him or anyone else.

“Sorry.” He raked a hand through his hair, leaving it perfectly disheveled.

She found his eyes. “We should keep going.”

“Right,” he said.

She did her best to pull it together and teach him the end of the dance, but the only thing she could think about was what his lips might taste like and about a million different ways she could’ve answered his question.

Any one of them may have ended like a fantasy.

36

Cole spent the rest of the rehearsal kicking himself.

Never mind that he’d been wanting to ask her that question for days.

He wasn’t proud of it, but he’d dipped back into the box of letters and found one from when Charlotte and Jules were in ninth grade. In it, Charlotte recapped Julianna’s first kiss, peppering her with questions about what it was likeWhat did it feel like?andHow did you know what you were doing?andWas it slobbery?

He could only assume this was in response to whatever Julianna had shared in her previous letter.

And it was sweet and innocent, but if he hadn’t already been wondering about her dating history, he certainly was now.

Because Charlotte Page had the kind of lips that needed to be kissed. Full and soft and the perfect shade of pink.

She made him think, for the first time since Gemma, that maybe it would be worth it to try again.

They finished the rehearsal and Charlotte gave him a polite smile. He’d turned the air awkward between them, and he was desperate to change that.

“You hungry?” The words were out before he could properly consider them. She looked as startled by them as he was.

“Kind of,” she said.

“I’m guessing you’ve never been to a fair,” he said.

She frowned, but a smile played at the corners of her lips. “What makes you say that?”

“Just a hunch.”

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