Page 34 of Begin Again
“You didn’t have to.” Charlie rolls her eyes and her dad kisses her on the forehead, waving goodbye to Katy and Jackson when they reappear. When he’s gone, Charlie beams up at me. “We have a date to finish.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
JACKSON STRUGGLES TO KEEP up with Katy when she drags him to the dance floor. The four of us have spent the last hour wandering through the festival, or what’s left. Most everyone left after the rodeo, and while there are still a good number of people here, it’s significantly less than earlier. It makes it easier to enjoy the festivities without fighting to get around like a school of fish swimming upstream. Charlie’s hand brushes against mine before she intertwines our fingers. The movement draws my attention to our hands and then back up to meet her eyes. “Do you want to join them?”
“I don’t…dance.”
“Oh, c’mon. You don’t know unless you try!” She tries to pull me toward the dance floor, but I maintain my stance.
“Charlie—”
“Just one, that’s all I ask,” she pleads, looking up at me from underneath her lashes. “And if you hate it, we never have to do it again.”
The idea still sounds terrible, but slowly, she pries my feet from their place as she lures me onto the makeshift dance floor in front of the stage. A new song starts, and we find our place in the crowd near Katy and Jackson. Charlie steps up to me, draping her arms around my neck and interlocking her fingers to rest them there. Her nails ghost across my skin, sending ashiver down my spine. Instinctively, my hands land on her waist, and her brow raises, curious.
We sway left to right, as most people do in the crowd, keeping it simple and easy. Being this close to her makes every one of my nerves stand at attention. I can’t decide if it’s a good kind of attention or one that makes me want to go home and put at least a few walls between us.
“See? Not so bad,” she says as my gaze sweeps over the crowd.
I offer her a tight smile when I look back down at her. The longer we’re in this position, the more the feel of her body against mine doesn’t feel…right. Is that the word? No. Foreign? She feels foreign to me like we’re two pieces of a puzzle being forced together because we don’t match.
“Thanks, by the way.”
“For what?” I ask.
“Helping me start riding again.” Charlie shrugs, chewing on her bottom lip. “I was so nervous after what happened with my accident, I was sure I’d never do it again. And then here you come and—”
“You’re welcome.”
“No, really, Zay. Thank you. Your help was a big part of why I could go out there tonight. If it hadn’t been for you—”
“Well, it wasn’t me out there. That was all you.”
Charlie scoffs. “I didn’t even make my personal best.”
“You still won. You’ll get there. Don’t be so hard on yourself, Charlie.”
“What did Danny want earlier, by the way? I wanted to ask, but you seemed pretty shaken up.” Charlie looks up at me with big eyes, probably hoping I’ll share some of my secrets with her.
“It was nothing.” I lift my shoulders in a small shrug.
“Didn’t seem like nothing,” she says, but I don’t answer. It’s none of her business what Sloan and I talked about earlier.Charlie almost stops moving, but I don’t let her. “You’re really not going to tell me?”
“There’s nothing to tell.” It’s not a complete lie. There is nothing to tell. We are no closer to finding the truth than before.
“Well look who it is,” a voice says from behind us. There’s a hint of danger woven delicately through the words, and my blood runs cold. The world around us stops. I should’ve known this would happen, I’m a little surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
Charlie’s entire being goes rigid before she turns around to face him. “What are you doing here, Coop?”
“I should’ve known you’d be with this city boy.” Cooper scoffs. He licks his lips, looking me up and down—a predator stalking its prey—probably salivating at the thought of finally getting his hands on me. “I don’t get it, Char. What’s your deal with him?” Cooper takes Charlie by the hand, trying to pull her forward.
“Stop it, Coop!” Charlie promptly removes her hand from his and takes two large steps back. “You need to leave. Nobody wants you here.”
Cooper rolls his eyes, adjusting his backward baseball cap. “It’s a party for the whole town! Am I not allowed to join?”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
Katy and Jackson break through the crowd and join the showdown, but Jackson keeps his arm in front of Katy so she can’t step forward. His block doesn’t stop her from throwing out an insult to Charlie’s ex-boyfriend. “Why don’t you go back to the hole you crawled out of, Coop?”
