If I didn’t already know before, I knew it the moment I saw them together.
They were meant to be.
I watched the lovebirds with warmth swimming in my chest as they picked out his ring and found the perfect band to match hers, too. It didn’t take nearly as long as we had at the dress shop, but still, I was exhausted by the time we left.
And still not done with the day’s tasks.
After a quick dinner, we were all gathered in the Wagner’s front yard, ready to hear the three bands auditioning for the reception.
“You better stop that,” Mrs. Wagner warned, leaning over her husband’s chair to whisper to me as I covered another yawn with my palm. “This is just day one.”
“I never knew trying on dresses could be so tiring.”
Mr. Wagner gave a grunt of a laugh at that. “You should have flown in early to condition with my wife and daughter. Lord knows they could shop all day.”
Mrs. Wagner pinched his face in her hands, kissing his cheek and giving me a wink before we turned our attention back to the band that had just finished setting up on the lawn.
“Alright,” Morgan said, holding her white clipboard that said Bride in a silver script. “This is The Alchemists. They’re based out of Portland and have been playing together for four years now. Let’s give them a hand.”
I chuckled under my breath at her introduction, since there were only six of us there. Still, we all clapped, which also seemed to amuse the band as Morgan took her seat next to Oliver. He slipped his hand over her knee and kissed her cheek like she was the most perfect, most adorable thing he’d ever seen, and then the band began to play.
Each band played three songs — two fast, one slow — putting on a mini concert on the Wagner’s front lawn for us. When the third band was auditioning, Robert held out his hand for Amanda’s, and they stood, smiling lovingly at each other as they slow danced in the grass to the band’s rendition of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley.
“Oh!” Morgan said, eyes wide. “Yes, I love that. It helps to see dancing. Brings it all together.” She snapped her fingers. “Jasmine, Ty, you guys dance, too. Maybe then I can picture it, you know?”
She said the words excitedly, fingers tapping her temples as she squinted through her oversized glasses at the makeshift dance floor. And under normal circumstances I would have laughed and teased her and obliged her because that’s what I always did with Morgan. One look from that girl and I’d do whatever she wanted.
Except that she’d just asked me to dance with her brother, and the last time he’d touched me, I’d been so burned I still hadn’t fully recovered.
I stared at Morgan for the longest time before my eyes found Tyler’s, and he was looking at me with the same sense of dread. We’d purposefully positioned ourselves on exact opposite sides of the line of chairs, but now, it didn’t seem to matter how much distance we’d tried to put between us.
“Come on,” she pleaded, clapping her hands together with a pouty lip aimed at me first, and then her brother. “It’s just for a few songs. Pleaseee.”
Tyler’s eyes rolled up to the sky as he stood, and he slipped his hands into the pockets of his khakis, waiting for me to join him.
I swallowed, glancing at Oliver like he might save me. Of course, he was completely oblivious, and completely caught up in his bride-to-be. He watched her with a curious smile, like he was still figuring her out and he loved every new discovery.
I tried to seem unaffected when I finally stood on slightly trembling legs, keeping my eyes on the grass as I made my way out to where Amanda and Robert were dancing. I stood there with my arms crossed until Tyler stood directly in front of me, his hands still in his pockets.
“Oh, come on, guys,” Morgan said exasperatedly. “You act like you didn’t dance a thousand times in high school.”
Tyler’s gaze was unreadable, and he pulled his hands from his pockets, holding one out for mine.
My heart tripped over its next beat, catching up with a double thunk in my chest as I slipped my hand into his. And the moment our skin made contact, a flood rushed through me.
It was searing hot. It was icy cold. It was all-encompassing and enough to send a wave of chills down every inch of my body as he pulled me closer, pulled me in, wrapped his other hand around my waist and settled his dark eyes on mine as we started to sway.
I swore I’d never see that boy again, and now he had me in his arms — just like he did that night so long ago.
The song seemed to go on forever, stretching in slow motion as our feet moved in time, a sort of two-step back and forth as we flowed around his parents. Tyler’s eyes never left mine, not even when I glanced around the yard, at his parents, at Morgan and Oliver, at the ground. Every time I lifted my eyes to his again, they were there — a steady, persistent gaze.
“So, how have you been the past seven years?”
It was like him speaking broke the trance, and I narrowed my gaze, instantly annoyed. “Peachy. You?”
That earned me a chuckle. “Just swell.”
We danced in silence again, but he had that stupid smirk on his stupid face.
“What?”
Tyler shook his head. “Nothing. Just looking at you.” He paused. “That okay? Can I look at you, Jasmine?”
My next swallow came with more difficulty than any I’d ever had in my life, and I had no clue why. I also had no answer for his question, and the silence stretched between us once more.
“You seem nervous,” he said under his breath as the song neared the end.
“I’m not.”
“You’re shaking.”
I ground my teeth, ignoring him and looking at Morgan like she would possibly signal for this torture to end. But then Tyler’s hand at my hip swept lower, over, until the length of his forearm covered the small of my back and our chests brushed.
I looked up at him with my next breath shallow in my chest, my lips parted, but I didn’t have time to ask him what the hell he was doing before I was dipped backward.
“Relax,” he commanded me as one foot left the ground. I balanced on the other, all of my weight teetering on his arm, pulled steady with his other hand as it found the back of my neck and he dipped me even more.
I was rigid, stiff, opposed to the gesture in every single way.
But when he whispered that word again with his dark eyes still on mine, something inside me clicked.
Relax.
And I melted.
My back arched, my head falling back with my hair slipping over his hand and down like a waterfall. I held onto him, and he held onto me, and for a moment in time, I was suspended in a space where I had to trust Tyler Wagner not to let me fall.
And he didn’t.
When the last note of the song rang through the yard, he pulled me back upright, my hair falling over my shoulders as our chests met in the middle. He looked down his nose at me, and I stared at his chest, our arms still wrapped around each other, nearly every inch of us connected in a field of heat.
Morgan clapped, and the spell was broken.
“That was amazing!” she squealed, jumping up from her chair and rushing over to us. Oliver was right behind her, and he put his arm around her shoulders as they addressed the band.
She didn’t even consider seeing us dance with the other bands. It was like the fact that this one had gotten her parents up out of their chairs to dance was a sign.