Falling for Her by Patricia McLinn

Author:Patricia McLinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781939215048
Publisher: Craig Place Books
Published: 2021-03-06T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Would you dance with me, Ms. Irish?” Barry asked.

“Barry,” Josh started, sounding faintly amused. “Ms. Irish doesn’t dance—”

“Yes, thank you, Barry. I would like to dance with you.”

She flicked a glance at Josh, and saw a man accustomed to hiding his reactions in public letting thunderstruck show around the edges.

She’d had no intention of dancing.

She’d repeated that fact when Josh asked her earlier, adding that he, however, should feel free to dance all he liked. That would have provided a welcome respite from him standing beside her, making idle conversation.

But he’d replied that he didn’t dance at these functions because the only possible partners were usually students or faculty.

So they’d stood there, not talking about exactly what she didn’t want to talk about — really, truly didn’t want to talk about — as if it had never happened at all.

Until Barry offered her this escape.

Beaming, Barry backed up a few feet and curved his arms into the formal dancing pose.

Panic wiped out Vanessa’s relief.

What if Barry was the one kid in this gymnasium who knew how to dance?

All the others were shuffling around the floor. That, she could manage.

As long as the boy didn’t expect them to drape over each other the way a few couples did back in the dimmest corner.

Though even that she could deal with better than if he expected her to truly dance.

She placed one hand on Barry’s shoulder and the other in his faintly damp palm, and they headed off in a mid-speed shamble, to her infinite relief.

After a half dozen shuffling steps they both relaxed. Barry looked up from his feet and smiled.

She smiled back. “Do you come to all the dances, Barry?”

“Unh-unh.” Apparently, talking while dancing was asking too much.

That left her attention to wander.

It wandered right to Josh, standing where they’d left him, watching her. Over Barry’s shoulder, her gaze met his.

His face was drawn tighter than usual. His mouth almost grim. He stood with his feet slightly apart, poised for movement. An athlete’s pose.

He’s probably a marvelous dancer.

And then, in a slice of wanting too fast to turn aside, she wished she were dancing with Josh.

His hand on her back would be warm and sure, spread wide as he guided her through steps that would tilt and whirl. Their bodies would be close, but with the difference in their heights, Josh’s breath might stir her hair, and the line of his mouth and jaw would be at perfect eye level.

The music drifted to a slower, contemplative patch.

Vanessa must not have been paying attention, because somehow she and Barry had come to be only inches apart. His hand, once at her shoulder blade, had dropped below her waist.

She reached back to reposition his hand, but just as she touched his wrist, his hand flew off as if she’d become too hot to touch.

“Cutting in, Barry,” Josh’s voice was unmistakably commanding.

“Mr. Kincannon—?”

Josh had already displaced Barry, one arm around her back, his other picking up her fallen hand. It took her a couple steps to get her left hand to his shoulder where it belonged.

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