Page 117 of What You Wish For

“Huh,” he said, nodding, like it was taking a minute to sink in.

“She just has one more task for you. A grand finale.”

“I knew there’d be a catch.”

“Babette is nothing if not surprising.”

“What is it?”

And then I shrugged—because I truly didn’t know. I reached into my purse and pulled out an envelope she’d given me for Duncan. A sealed envelope. She’d even put a gold sticker on the back, like at the Oscars.

I handed it over.

“What’s it going to say?” Duncan asked, shaking his head.

“Let’s find out.”

Duncan opened the envelope and looked at the card inside for a minute. Then he blinked and looked up. “She wants you to dance with me.”

I felt a familiar tightness in my chest. “When? Now?”

“Right now,” Duncan said. “Right here.”

“I can’t do that,” I said.

“Neither can I.”

“So don’t even think about—” I started, but then I stopped. “Hold on. You can’t do that?”

He shook his head.

That wasn’t right. At Andrews, he had danced all the time. He danced in the lunch line, and at car pool, and while teaching. You almost couldn’t stop him. “But you’re a dance instructor,” I said. He had dances on YouTube.

Duncan shook his head. “Not anymore.”

A whole montage of Duncan doing endless goofy dances flashed through my head. Me refusing to dance? That was fine. That was reasonable. But Duncan refusing to dance? It was an outrage.

“Duncan,” I said, “you can’t not dance.”

“Sure I can.”

“No.” I shook my head. “You have to do this.” And as I spoke the words, something shifted in me. I became more interested in making Duncan dance than in avoiding it myself.

A world where Duncan Carpenter refused to dance just didn’t make sense to me.

Babette wanted Duncan to dance? I would find a way to make that happen.

“We’re doing this,” I said. I held my hand out

But Duncan shook his head. “I can’t,” he said.

“You can,” I said. Then I added, “Babette’s orders.”

I was still holding my hand out, but he wasn’t taking it.

He shook his head. “I really can’t.”

All the teachers were staring at me now—at us.

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