Chapter 14
The Legion is decked out for a party.
Streamers are strung up across the top of the bar in black and silver waves, and air-blown balloons with Happy New Year printed on them are gathered into bunches and taped up into every corner.
There is even a disco ball on the ceiling, secured with a patch of color scheme–approved silver duct tape, sending hundreds of tiny shreds of light onto the walls and floor.
Donny’s even dimmed the lights—so if you squint your eyes and let the whole scene blur a little bit, it almost feels magical.
Donny’s brother Bill, who runs a wedding DJ business on the side, has set up his equipment on a folding card table in the corner of the room. His Justin Bieber mash-up pumps through the speaker system as we make our third attempt to fit Zoe’s giant cake through the front door.
Dale, Zoe’s husband, sets his side of the cake down to step back and assess our progress. “We should have spent more time on logistics instead of all those hair tutorials, eh, Zo?”
Zoe fluffs her Marilyn Monroe–style curls, which suit her jet-black hair. “I regret nothing.”
“What if I lift from the bottom, and we tip it?” Reeve offers, already bending at the knees.
Dale and I join him. The angle works, and with a few grunts and groans, we’re able to slide the cake inside.
Zoe cups Reeve’s chin with the palm of her hand. “You are more than just a chiseled jaw there, Reeve Baldwin.” She taps the side of his face lightly. “Keep doing what you’re doing with my girl Jules and I may even start to like you. But remember, if you screw with her again…”
She pulls his face toward her, which, because of their height difference, has Reeve bending almost fully at the waist. She whispers something in his ear that, knowing Zoe the way I know Zoe, is almost definitely a graphic death threat.
When he straightens, he meets my eyes with a funny look I have no time to decipher because Zoe is grabbing me by the wrist and tugging me toward the kitchen with a “Be back in a bit, boys. Prepare to be dazzled.”
I help her into the cake without smudging her lipstick. When Bill’s voice booms through the speaker system, “It’s time to light up this party,” I light up Zoe’s sparklers and wheel her into the center of the room, praying that the Legion is nowhere near up to fire code.
Zoe emerges and dazzles.
Singing in her husky Marilyn Monroe voice a “Happy New Year to you.”
Her routine, for the most part, goes off without a hitch. About halfway through, Dale has to dump a few sparklers into a half-empty beer glass when they sparkle too close to a paper tablecloth. Still, by the time Zoe takes her final bow, the entire bar has full glasses and is ready to party.
Bob cranks the Biebs. One of the women from the Ladies League hides the darts behind the bar while the rest of her crew moves a bunch of tables to create a dance floor.
By 11:50, there is a pile of high heels in the corner, including mine. There are some sleeping children on makeshift beds made of coats under tables, and Bill has abandoned his DJ booth to Donny’s Celine Dion CD, which is playing on repeat.
I have barely seen Reeve since we got here. Every time we seem to find each other, one of us is whisked away into another conversation.
My eyes skim the room, looking for his now familiar frame as I attempt to pay attention to the two Ladies League members discussing the proposed changes to the Summer Beach parking regulations.
“Excuse me?” Reeve’s deep voice plucks that sensitive spot inside my chest as he slides up next to me, his fingers pressingever so slightly to the small of my back. “Would you mind if I stole Jules away?” he asks them. “They’re playing our song.”
The women nod, that open-mouthed, stunned expression I’ve seen happen more than once around Reeve.
His hand skims along my back, then down my arm, before cupping my hand in his.
I let him lead me to the dance floor, where I reach my arms up around his neck as his hands come around my waist, only realizing once there that it’s been two years since we’ve been this close and yet it feels so natural.
“?‘All Coming Back to Me’ is our song?” I ask, registering the lyrics.
Reeve laughs, a single soundless ha. “I needed an excuse to steal you away, but now that I’ve said it, it feels fitting.”
His thumbs stroke the back of my rib cage. “When I touch you like this.”
His hands tighten, pulling me closer. “And when I hold you like that.”
Our swaying slows to more of an off-beat rock. I lift my head until my eyes meet his, very aware of the mere inches between our mouths.
“You really know all the words.”
He laughs, flattening his palms to the small of my back. “That’s all I got.”
I tuck my head under his chin and close my eyes. As Celine sings about it all coming back, I can’t help but think how easily it does.
I’m in that dizzy haze again. It’s exactly like two years ago, where all I want is him. I don’t care what happens tomorrow or the day after that. Consequences be damned.
The song finally ends, but instead of a new one starting, the countdown begins. A chorus of voices shouting together. Ten…nine…eight…
Reeve bends down, his lips brushing the side of my ear.
“I was thinking about kissing you at midnight.” He asks it like a question, pausing to wait until I answer.
“I think I would like that.”
His hands travel up my arms to my neck, then gently brush away a sweaty strand of hair.
Seven…six…five…
Oh, how badly I want to fall right now, hard and fast. Give myself over to that rush that comes when there’s no fear of hitting bottom.
“I need you to promise me something.” I claw my way out of the haze. Just enough to see that there is a bottom, and as badly as I want to ignore it, to forget it, I can’t.
“Okay,” he says as the chanting grows louder.
“This is just a kiss,” I tell him. “For now, I think…that’s just what I…need it to be.”
He pauses for a moment, and I worry I’ve ruined everything.
Four…three…two…
He leans close, his breath hot in my ear as singing erupts around us.
“Then I’d better make it a good one.”