He grinned and my breath rushed out of me at the sight of this smile. It wasn’t a smirk or a lopsided grin, it was a smile. An honest-to-goodness smile.
For a second there I saw the kid I’d grown up with. The object of my hero worship. The sweet boy who’d answered every single one of my questions about slugs that summer when Trenton had convinced me that they would crawl into my ears at night if I left my window open.
He reached for my arm. “We should get going—”
“You bring that nice girl in here to meet us, Cooper,” one of the card table ladies called out.
He closed his eyes for a moment and I caught the look of resignation in his eyes as he turned to face this watchful crowd. “Everyone, this is Eve. Eve, this is...everyone.”
“You must be the dance partner we hear so much about.”
I raised my eyebrows as I looked over at Cooper. He didn’t acknowledge me but his cheeks and tip of his ears told me he’d heard what she said.
“What a lovely girl.” One of the couples had stopped dancing and the woman had made her way over to me where she grabbed my hand and patted it a few times.
“Come on over here, Eve. We have lots to talk about.” Another woman grabbed my free hand and started tugging me toward the table.
Everyone seemed to be talking at once, and it became very clear that we weren’t going to go anywhere anytime soon.
I heard Cooper’s resigned sigh as I passed him and I had to stifle a laugh. This was a side of Cooper I’d never ever seen.
A pushover in the face of a bunch of old ladies.
Also, my mind was hung up on that one comment. The dance partner we hear so much about.
What exactly had they heard? I glanced over my shoulder as I took his seat at the table. Cooper moved to lean against the far wall but still faced me. For a moment, I looked up and found him watching me.
Well, watching felt like way too mild a word. He wasn’t glaring, and there was no anger or irritation to be found. Instead, his gaze was heavy. Intense.
My belly did a backflip and I had to suck in a deep breath as I turned to face his card playing partners. One glance at the cards and I realized what they’d been playing.
Bridge! I made a mental note to mock him mercilessly for playing bridge.
That was the last thought I had before I was bombarded with questions. For the next fifteen minutes, I did my best to keep up. I was in desperate need of water and a pee break Cooper came over and placed a hand on my shoulder as if he’d sensed my desperation. Despite their evil eyes, he told the ladies we had to go, they all complained and called him a spoilsport, which had me laughing.
“But we didn’t even get to talk to her about her dancing yet,” one of the women said.
I wrinkled my nose. “There’s not much to talk about these days, I’m afraid. I can’t afford to attend the academy anymore so my dancing has been put on hold for a while.”
I tried to keep my tone light, my smile in place, but it still wasn’t easy to admit that the dream I’d been working so hard for was on hold. Unlike some dreams, ballet careers didn’t last forever. With every day that passed I was falling further behind, and with every year that went by I’d be closer to retirement age.
I shoved those sad thoughts to the side as the older women clucked their tongues and gave me assurances that it would all work out, but this talk of my sucky situation had my earlier laughter fading and that never far away disappointment taking its place.
“You’ll find a way to make it work,” one woman said.
I nodded. Uh huh. Sure. Everything would be hunky dory. I was dirt poor, had to take on a part-time job just to afford the two measly evening classes that fit into my new schedule, and the guy I’d been crushing on since time immemorial had outright declared himself my big brother the other week.
Everything would totally work out.
An old lady with big glasses and an even bigger perm leaned toward me and covered my hand with hers. “In the meantime, you can dance for fun, can’t you?”
I stared at her in incomprehension for a moment, those two words temporarily refusing to mesh. Dance and fun?
I blinked in confusion.
“Doesn’t your school have dances?” another woman asked. She shook her head in disappointment. “Schools had dances in my day.”
“We have dances,” I said. “There’s a dance next weekend.” I pinched my lips together. Why had I said that? Why was I bringing up the dance that I’d already resigned to myself that I wasn’t going to go. I didn’t have a date and I doubted after Cooper’s stunt any guy would brave asking me.
Everyone brightened at that. “Are you going?”
“Uh…” I shifted uncomfortably, painfully aware of Cooper’s eyes on me. “Probably not.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t have a date,” I admitted. Ugh, this was embarrassing. It wouldn’t have been if Cooper wasn’t watching me like this. Without even looking, I knew he was staring. I could feel it.
“Cooper will take you!”
I stared at the old lady who’d said it. She looked so happy and so pleased with herself.
I didn’t blame her but her comment was so completely oblivious to what was going on between Cooper and I that it made me wish the floor would open up and swallow me whole so I wouldn’t have to face him.
“Oh, that’s okay,” I started, my cheeks burning.
“Nonsense, he’ll take you. He doesn’t have a date either, do you, Coop?”
I refused to turn around and face him. Instead, I kept my gaze fixed on the table top in front of me.
“No, I don’t have a date,” he said simply.
“Then you’ll take her,” the woman with the massive perm said. Her tone brooked no arguments.
I bit back a groan of dismay but Cooper just said, “We really need to get going.”
I felt his hand on my arm and I had to mentally stop myself from jerking out of his grip. I had to steel myself against this rush of electricity at the best of times, but right now when I was humiliated and vulnerable? I had to fight the urge to run away.
He hadn’t said yes. I hadn’t expected him to, and yet the fact that he’d avoided having to go to a dance with me still felt like a knife in my gut.
We were on our way out and his silence was killing me. But apparently I wasn’t the only one who noticed that he’d avoided agreeing to take me to the dance because the first lady who’d called out to me, called out again when we hit the doorway. “Cooper, tell that sweet girl you’d be happy to escort her to the dance.”
He looked down at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look up. I had a horrible suspicion I’d see his reluctance, or worse...his pity.
His voice was as low and gruff as I’d ever heard it and he said the three words they were all waiting for and that I was dreading, “I’ll take her.”
That was it. I’ll take her. That was literally the last words Cooper said in my vicinity for the next twenty-four hours.
I’ll take her.
Like it was some duty he had to see through, just like he was obligated to look out for me at school.
I alternated between annoyance and embarrassment for a solid day and when he picked me up to take me to dance class that next night, our newfound ease was nowhere to be found.