Chapter Thirteen #3
In desperation, Mack hauled Kayla off the ground and spun with her, feet flailing, almost in time to the music.
Every time Kayla tried to get her balance and put her feet down, they were swept up into another group of dancing couples, and Mack had to carry her to safety again.
It was all so absurd, they were both cracking up with laughter the whole time, which certainly didn’t help either of them get the form down.
After what felt like an hour in the churning crowd, the music finally stopped.
Mack set her down hard and doubled over to catch her breath.
Kayla leaned over her, her whole body shaking with mirth.
“Well, that was…something,” The male instructor said. “Some of you will have an interesting wedding night, that’s for sure.”
The way he grinned when he cut a look their way clearly said he wasn’t just talking about their first dance.
Heat rose in her cheeks and, when she got the courage to look over at Mack, she could see her supposed fiancée’s face was beet red.
Kayla buried her face in Mack’s shoulder and was relieved, if not surprised, to feel Mack’s arm tighten around her.
Of course, Mack wouldn’t toss her into the pool to get rid of her, but Kayla sure had done a great job of embarrassing the hell out of them both.
As the instructor turned back to the class at large to offer pointers, Mack bent down to whisper in her ear. “He wasn’t talking about our first dance, was he?”
Kayla groaned. “No, he definitely wasn’t.”
Mack’s laughter cut some of the tension. “He doesn’t know the half of it.”
Kayla couldn’t catch her giggle. It really was ridiculous what they were doing. How had she ever thought this would work? Why hadn’t they practiced pretending to be a couple when they were home and safe? At least Skye wasn’t around to see this embarrassing performance.
The couples around them were getting back into their stances, ready for another try. Mack’s arm tensed around her, and she said in a rush, “You know what was more fun than dance class?”
“Drinking at the swim-up bar?”
“Heck yeah. Want to cut class with me again for old time’s sake?”
Kayla laughed, remembering a half dozen times they skipped class in high school for one juvenile romp or another. Those were the days. Everything was so much easier. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Mack took her hand and made a bee line for the back of the pool deck, dodging dancing couples and laughing the whole way. “You should have told me how bad a dancer you are.”
“I didn’t know until we started.”
“You did miss every Prom and Homecoming back in the day,” Mack said.
“And you had a different date for all of them.”
Mack’s wicked smile was back. “Damn right I did.”
“I’m so sorry, Mack. You were so excited, and my crappy dancing ruined it for you.”
“Are you kidding? I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.”
Kayla swatted at her shoulder and missed, much like she had missed every dance step imaginable. “Hey. Kick a girl when she’s down, why don’t you?”
“The only thing you didn’t do was fall, but you sure tried your best.”
Kayla swatted at her again but couldn’t help laughing. “I looked ridiculous, didn’t I?”
Mack gave her a wink. “It was cute.”
Kayla didn’t believe that for a moment, but Mack had always been sweeter to her than she deserved.
They burst from the crowd, giggling and skipping back to their chairs to get rid of their clothes and get back into the pool.
It wasn’t until Mack cannon-balled into the water and Kayla was stripping off her skirt that she noticed the flash of green at the back of the dancing couples.
Her heart did its usual skip of desire at seeing Skye, but then it skittered to a terrified halt.
Had Skye seen their embarrassing performance?
Based on the strange, confused look on Skye’s face as she watched Kayla, she could guess the answer.
Her first instinct was to freak out that the Plan of Seduction was falling apart, but then Skye turned back to Amy and leveled a smile on her that made Kayla’s heart ache all over again.
Skye used to look at her like that, and the power of it was breathtaking.
There was nothing like being the center of Skye’s attention.
Being the person that took all of her focus was a powerful drug.
Clearly, Amy knew the effects because she looked up at Skye like a woman under a spell.
A pang of regret surged through Kayla’s body, making her limbs momentarily numb.
If her plan succeeded, if she won Skye back like she had to do, Skye and Amy would never have their first dance as a married couple.
Amy would never get to look at Skye that way as she said, “I do.” Kayla swallowed hard and tried to push the thought away, but it wouldn’t go.
Was she a terrible person? Was she the worst of the worst for what she was doing?
How could she hurt Amy like this? For a terrible, burning moment, she remembered what it was like to have Skye walk away from her, leaving her alone and heartbroken on a cold tile floor.
Would Amy feel like that if Kayla succeeded in her plan?
How could she live with herself doing that to someone else?
Mack emerged from the water and called out. “Hey, LaLa. You coming?”
“Yeah. Be right there.”
Kayla shook herself to get rid of the thoughts. She couldn’t afford distractions like that. She could worry about whether she was a bad person after she and Skye were married. Right now, she would drown her self-doubt in another of Marcus’s excellent margaritas.