The Valentine Two-Step & the Color of Courage by RaeAnne Thayne

Author:RaeAnne Thayne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-14T15:09:56+00:00

Chapter 17

He never would have believed it.

Matt stood in the gymnasium of the elementary school on Valentine’s Day, completely amazed at what creativity and a little elbow grease could achieve.

Instead of a dingy old room that smelled like a cross between canned peas and dirty socks, the gym had been completely transformed into a magical place.

Thousands of little twinkling white lights had been strung across the ceiling like stars in the night sky and wrapped around the branches of a couple dozen small trees temporarily commandeered from Jerry Clayton’s greenhouse in town. A city skyline painted by the elementary school art classes graced the stage, covered by even more tiny white lights so it looked as if the windows of the buildings really glowed.

With the lights dimmed and the high school’s jazz band playing old dance numbers, this was the crowning jewel of the library fund-raiser—which by all accounts looked to be a smashing success.

It had been Ellie’s idea to try to provide something for everyone at the fair. The little kids were still running from classroom to classroom using the tickets their parents had purchased for fishponds and beanbag tosses and cakewalks. Their older siblings were busy in the auditorium watching a PG-rated scary movie. And judging by the crowd already out on the dance floor, their parents and grandparents were obviously enjoying the romantic escape the committee had created.

He thought he would feel pretty weird about having his name listed on the program as one of the organizers, but as he watched couples dancing cheek-to-cheek under the starry lights, he had to admit to a fair amount of pride.

All evening, people had been telling him what a great job the committee had done. It seemed bitterly ironic that he’d been even a little instrumental in helping everyone else celebrate this holiday for romance, especially when things with Ellie had ended so badly.

She was here somewhere, but he hadn’t caught more than a fleeting glimpse of her all night as she ran from crisis to crisis.

Even those brief, painful glimpses were better than what he had endured the last three weeks. Before today, he hadn’t seen her since the terrible night he’d gone to her house, told her his feelings and had them thrown back in his face.

He wanted to be angry at her. He had been for a day or two, and the thunder and fury had been much easier to deal with than this constant, aching sadness that settled in his bones and weighed down his heart.

Why was she being so stubborn about this? He knew she loved him. She never would have given herself to him so sweetly, passionately, if she didn’t. He couldn’t make her admit it, though. Not when she so obviously wanted to deny her feelings, to him and to herself.

A couple of giggles sounded behind him, distracting him from the grimness of his thoughts, and he turned to find Lucy and Dylan being teased by Jess. The girls both wore dresses for a change and had put their hair up, and they looked entirely too grown up for his peace of mind.

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