Page 122 of Lonesome Moon

I pulled my chair around to watch.

They sorted themselves out in the first few bars. Beck followed Jack, Knox glanced at Grant, and then they were all together.

Chloe started dancing. Josie hurried to stand beside her, watching until she understood what to do. When Chloe lifted her arms, Josie lifted hers. When Chloe spun, Josie made it halfway around before losing her balance.

Atticus caught her.

She looked offended.

“Me do it.”

He set her upright and retreated.

The Coleman twins joined them. One danced with the determined energy of someone trying to shake snow from his boots. His brother copied him.

Knox nearly missed his part because he was laughing.

Sophia wheeled her stroller to the edge of the makeshift dance floor. She watched the other children, then looked down at her doll.

I went over to her. “Would you like me to watch her?”

“She might wake up.”

“I’ll get you if she does.”

Sophia considered me for a moment, then handed over the responsibility.

“Her blanket falls off.”

“I’ll keep an eye on it. I promise.”

She joined Chloe.

Grant saw me standing beside the stroller. His gaze moved to Sophia, dancing with the other girls, then back to me.

I smiled at him.

He smiled back and kept playing.

After a while, Mama came to sit beside me. We watched a woman who’d served our breakfast that morning dance with her husband. She knew every word of the song, including a verse Jack needed help remembering.

“You’re hired,” he told her when they finished.

“I’ve already got a job.”

“I hear the customers are difficult.”

“You have no idea.”

Caspian laughed louder than anyone.

Ivy sang next. Jack watched her in a way that made Mama reach for her napkin.

“Oh, Mama.”

“I know.”

“They’ve only been married a day.”