Page 13 of It Had to be You

He gestured for her to walk back to the front of the room and he fell into step behind her as they approached the mirror. He could only half-listen as she announced his new role to the group.

It wasn’t the round of spontaneous applause that made his face heat.

It was the way Tatum easily wrapped her hand around his.

Instead of the odd and uncomfortable feelings when Blair had manipulated his arms, he felt a warmth surging through his body and before he could think better of it, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

CHAPTER 4

That night at dinner things were going well with Blair. The incident at work had been taken care of and they were able to enjoy each other’s company and conversation.

Until the music started.

He was in mid-sentence with Josiah Harrison, a man whose tech company had produced the software that Wen Spring International used for not only their ebooks, but also their paper and hardback formatting. Martina had matched Josiah with Harmony Tottori, a young woman with a mind for programming like Amadeus had an ear for music.

The four of them had entered into a conversation around mutual interests when the band began to play their first song.

One moment he was standing there listening to Josiah talk about an app that Harmony was working on and in the next moment, he was on the dance floor with Blair moving his arms into a waltz hold.

"I hope you’ve been practicing."

Her smile was the same toothy, brilliant grin, but instead of bringing out the same in him, he found himself having to make his lips return the gesture.

"I can’t tell you how odd it felt in that class this morning. Why, we hadn’t done more than step side to side for almost five minutes."

"Well, it is a basic class."

"Basically boring. You really should have just let me show you how, Alex."

"I think it was probably better to have us learn together in the class. That way we’re on even footing."

There was a moment of silence that lasted just long enough for him to start worrying if he’d said something stupid… and then she laughed.

Not just a giggle, not even a snort.

No.

Blair Sexton laughed, hands to her middle, gasping-breaths and watery eyes.

And that left him to stand there and wonder. Not exactly what he’d expected, but he was learning that Blair wasn’t at all what he’d expected, even though they had known each other for years.

"Oh my goodness!" She lightly touched her finger under one eye and then switched hands for the other. "I hope my make-up isn’t running."

"I’m sure it’s fine."

"No, seriously, that was funny! Ironic really, seeing how I’ve always thought you had a stick up your butt."

That pulled a cough from his throat. "What did you-"

"Come on," she leaned in closer and thankfully dropped her voice to a softer volume, "you’re always so serious. That’s why I laughed. If you went through the trouble of making a joke, I wanted to show you that I appreciated it."

At that point he couldn’t even remember if he’d made a joke.

"So, you laughed, to make me feel good?"

"Good. Confident. At ease. Anything along those lines would be great. Right?"

He was trying to wrap his mind around the message that she didn’t think he was confident.

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