Page 68 of Denial
I scrutinize his grin for half a second. “I take it that’s been enjoyable for you.”
“Juniper looks really good in a pair of denim cutoffs, and she knows it too.”
A smile tilts the corners of my lips. “Good for you, buddy.”
“You didn’t know?” Jack directs his question at me.
I pause with my beer halfway to my mouth. “How would I know what all your wives are up to?”
“Alice is your nanny, and you haven’t seen her line dance?” He keeps on.
“Should I have?” The bottle still hovers in midair.
“I’d think so, considering she’s the one who’s been teaching them.” Silas nudges my side with his elbow.
“Haveyouseen her line dance?”
Silas’s look is entirely perfected by years of being the meddling youngest child. “Of course.”
Finally, the beer bottle reaches my lips. Not so much to drink. Rather, it’s a way to hide my shock. Awareness slithers up my spine. Taunting me. Telling me if I’d just turn back around, I could see my nanny tearing up the dance floor like she owns the place. Moving her body in ways I have no business witnessing.
“Isla helped some. Said she missed dancing. She picked it up quick.” Aiden tosses a handful of popcorn into his mouth.
“Does she plan to go back?” Corjan asks.
“She’s happy being home with John right now, and after the whole ordeal, I don’t think she has any plans to return to her former boss. But she misses dancing, so who knows.”
Isla worked as an exotic dancer until a deranged client kidnapped her. If she were my woman, I’d want to tell her she could never return.
One thing about the Powell women is that nobody tells them what to do. Not even their husbands.
Thank god I’m single. And my last name isn’t Powell.
The conversation lapses, mainly because these guys are too busy watching their wives get down to Ed Sheeran’s “Shiver.”
“Want to watch me dance?” Silas waggles his eyebrows at me. “I even put on my cowboy boots.” He kicks a foot out, showcasing the brown leather beneath his blue jeans.
“I’m sure you have enough of an audience without me watching you shake your ass.”
Silas searches my face. “You’re the only single one here. Just thought I’d give you something to look at.”
“Who do you have?” I grunt bitterly.
He shrugs. “Nobody. Yet. I don’t think it’ll be too hard to catch someone’s attention.”
I incline my head toward the back of the room. “That easy, huh?”
“Well, I’m not as pretty as your nanny, but she seems to be doing a fine job getting some for herself. I thought I’d give it a try.”
My spine snaps straight, and my neck turns so quick I give myself whiplash.
I scan the crowd, passing over familiar faces. Cortney, Isla, Frankie, Bree, Whitney, Juniper. Where the hell is she?
There.
That’s why I didn’t see her before. She’s away from the group. From here, it looks like she’s leading. It’s not until a rodeo-looking fucker stops at her side and looks down at their feet that I realize she’s not leading.
She’s teaching.
