Page 17 of Last Call Lindy Hop
“Exactly.” I took a sip of my soda.
“That still doesn’t explain why you’ve been thinking of him.”
“Maybe you’d understand if he’d have danced with you. I just…” I blew out a long breath. “I just want to see him smile; know that he’ll be ok.”
“Sounds like you care a lot about a man you’ve only met once,” she teased. “I still think it’s a crush.”
“Or maybe I’m not an asshole and care about other people.”
She shrugged. “Or that.” She took the last bite of her food, then leaned back. “So what now? Is he coming again tonight?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I told him I’d look for him this week. But he was noncommittal at best.”
“What will you do if he is there?”
I blinked. I hadn’t thought about what I would do if I saw him, just that I wanted him there. “I don’t know. Ask him to dance, I guess.”
“You’ve been thinking about him for a week, but don’t have a better plan than ‘ask him to dance’?”
“Not really.”
“Tell me again how it’s not a crush?”
“Because it’s not. I’m just worried about him.”
“Whatever you say,” she replied, though it was clear she didn’t believe me.
I looked at my watch. “Shall we? The dance will start soon.”
“Sure. Um… whose turn is it?”
“Mine, I think.”
“Cool,” she replied, putting her purse aside as I pulled out my wallet. “I’ll get food later if we decide to eat after the dance.”
“Whatever. It all slushes out in the end.”
She laughed. “That it does.”
I paid for dinner, then we headed out to my car.
We parked at the banquet hall a few minutes later, and, after greeting Jackson, Mitch, and the other regulars, we changed our shoes and hit the dance floor. However, even dancing with my best friend wasn’t enough to keep me from glancing at the door every time we faced that direction.
“You’ve got a crush,” Amber sing-song teased under her breath.
“Not this again,” I replied, rolling my eyes and guiding her through a turn.
“Stop looking for him, and I will.”
“How do you know I’m not just counting the people coming in?”
“Because you’ve got that same far-off expression you’ve been wearing for days.”
I was about to argue, but instead two things happened at the same time: the song ended, and Kenzie walked through the door—followed by Lance.
My heart jumped into my throat. He looked… better. Still down, but the way he carried himself was already an improvement over the previous week.
Amber shot me a mischievous grin, then skipped over. “Kenzie! Eli and I are sitting over there.” She pointed to our stuff.
