Page 104 of Once Upon a Fall

But, no. Bad idea. Very bad idea.

A very good bad idea.

I don’t know if Dean can read the great make-out debate happening on my face, but he turns and offers me his arm as if helping me settle it.

“Shall we?” he asks.

I slip my hand through the crook of his elbow. “Yes,” I say. “Let’s go.”

I grab a jacket from the rack by the door as we leave, even though right now I’m feeling warm enough that I don’t need it.

We walk arm in arm toward the barn, the music growing louder with every step.

“Do you like to go dancing?” I ask Dean as we walk.

“No.” He looks over at me and gives me a half smile.

I laugh. I don’t even know why I asked.

“Do you?” he asks.

“It’s not my favorite kind of entertainment. But I don’t mind it,” I tell him. “I’m not very good at it, though.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” he says.

The music from the band gets louder as we approach the entrance, joining the others who’ve also just arrived.

Inside, string lights are hanging from the rafters, a band plays an upbeat country song at one end of the barn, and tables and chairs line the other. In the middle, couples fill the concrete dance floor, laughing and moving to the music.

The Ednas are both out there with their husbands, smiling and looking sprier than I’d expect from either of them.

I get pulled into three conversations before I make it ten feet. Pam Vasser tells me I did a great job with the festival and then shows me pictures of her new grandson on her phone. Juliet and I congratulate each other on surviving the past week and vow to never run a festival again. Monica Batchelder apologizes for her watery pumpkin pies, and I reassure her they were perfect, while cursing the Ednas in my head.

Dean stands at the edge of the barn with a cup in his hand, and every time I look over, he’s talking to someone new, looking like a man at a work function he can’t leave.

The band starts playing a slower song, and the people who were previously doing a line dance start coupling up, arms wrapped around each other as they sway to the music.

I watch as Dominic taps Bennett on the shoulder and cuts in with Reese, while Emma dances with the new dentist in town, looking way more interested in him than I’ve ever seen her look at anyone. What’s that all about?

I’m so absorbed watching everyone else on the dance floor that I don’t notice Dean has come up beside me until he leans in and asks, “Dance with me?”

“Sure,” I say, though it comes out so breathy, I’m not sure he heard it.

But he must have read my lips, because he takes my hand and leads me to the dance floor.

He places a hand on my lower back and takes my other hand, and within seconds we’re moving together in a smooth, easy sway.

I let out a little gasp. “You liar,” I say, my mouth near his ear. I’ve pasted myself up against him so we’re practically dancing cheek to cheek.

This may be the only time I get to dance with Dean, and I’m going to make the most of it.

“Why are you calling me a liar?” he asks, his breath on my neck making goose bumps erupt on my arms.

“You said you didn’t dance,” I say.

“No, I said I didn’t like to dance,” he says.

“But you’re so good at it,” I say as he guides us around the floor.