Showdown on the dance floor
What a night! You had to hand it to Kirkby’s residents: they certainly knew how to throw a party.
The mood had been great right off the bat, and Kendrick reckoned that almost the entire town had come together at the Old School to watch the Highland dancers, listen to the young bagpipers, whom the almost-free drinks made much easier on the ears, enjoy some Highland tapas and dance the night away.
At this point, he felt like he had danced with every single lass in attendance, from pre-teens to old ladies, if only briefly in a quadrille.
Only one particular woman had not been among them, and that was bloody annoying!
During the earlier dance performances, his heart had soared as he watched Shona on stage.
Her cheerfulness and zest for life had been so captivating that any flaws or missteps hardly registered.
You could tell that the four of them were having fun and giving it their all.
That had impressed him more than the flawless and admittedly spectacular performances by Kristy and Phyllis.
It had been a long time since he had seen a woman dance with such natural vigour and without any showmanship.
Shona had radiated the same sensuality that had driven him crazy in Inverness.
Unfortunately, he still hadn’t had a chance to get her alone.
Hailey had been around the whole time, and after his own impromptu dance performance, so had several other women.
By now he was a little annoyed with himself.
Had it really been necessary to show off like that?
He had done it to impress Shona, and only Shona.
What the effect was on other women didn’t matter to him at all.
But apparently, the undertaking had backfired and led to the exact opposite result: Shona had hurried off while several other women now stuck to him like glue.
“Young man, you may very well be one of the best dancers in this room, but you’re certainly also the most inattentive,” Betty Murray chided him as they danced a fast foxtrot together.
Kendrick estimated that the impressive white-haired woman was in her late sixties or early seventies.
He knew Betty was originally from Kirkby and had travelled the world as a journalist for the better part of a good few decades before returning to her hometown a few years ago.
She had since built a successful second career as a crime writer.
Together with the minister and the mayor, she also seemed to be most up to date on any local gossip.
Now he had given ‘Queen Betty’, as people often called her, reason to complain.
“My apologies,” he replied contritely. “I was lost in thought.”
“Clearly. Unfortunately those thoughts had nothing to do with me.” She gave him a piercing look from her knowing blue eyes as he led her into a sweeping turn.
“That’s unforgivable. How can I make it up to you?”
“By telling me why your thoughts were straying, and to whom.” Another penetrating gaze made him see why she had been so successful as an investigative journalist.
“If I were to say that I was thinking of a patient ...” he began, but she interrupted him immediately.
“Then you’d be lying to my face. I am no’ blind, laddie. And I’ve seen your gaze wander to Shona Fraser quite a bit.”
“Guilty as charged,” he muttered and began to lead her through a series of more complicated steps that would hopefully require Betty’s full attention.
But the older lady was blessed with both a sharp mind and exceptional stamina.
Where other women might have begged for mercy minutes ago, she continued to assertively follow his lead.
“To be guilty, you’d have to have committed a crime,” she admitted with a smile.
“As it is, the plot simply thickens, and I would suggest a change of partners at this point.” She applauded the band as the last chords of the song faded away and pointed her chin at Marlin Fraser, who was standing only a few feet away from them – with Shona.
As Betty determinedly walked over to them, Kendrick had little choice but to follow and ask Shona for the next dance. A slow waltz, of all things.
“Is there any dance you don’t know?” she enquired as he pulled her closer. “I watched you foxtrot with Betty. What you did there at the end was pretty spectacular.”
“Thanks. You’re holding your own on the dance floor too. As is your da, by the way. I would never have guessed from looking at him.”
“Still waters run deep,” she replied lightly. “A saying I assume resonates with you?”
Kendrick refused to take the bait. “Have you been avoiding me tonight?” he asked instead, pulling her a little closer than strictly necessary for a waltz.
“Are you surprised?”
“Well ...”
“Do I have to remind you of Inverness?”
No, she certainly didn’t. Kendrick would be happy and grateful if he could go a day, or at least an hour, without thinking about what had happened at the pub.
As he didn’t reply, she continued: “Perhaps I’m afraid of a repeat.”
“Not dancing a waltz,” he objected, but sounded a little breathless anyway.
That was, after all, a blatant lie. Shona could bring him to his knees with a polka, a conga line or probably even the chicken dance.
In fact, she didn’t have to dance at all to turn him on, she just had to be in the room and his transformation from level-headed professional into sex-crazed, testosterone fuelled Neanderthal was complete.
Not even the shameful memory of how it had all ended could sober him up from the thoughts of how it had felt to be inside of her.
Her touch, her scent, her smiles were simply too alluring.
“I don’t think all of you would agree with that,” she objected and provocatively pressed her hips against him as she turned.
“Ah yes, the sporran.” Another lie. Well, a fib really.
Because underneath the leather pouch and the heavy woollen fabric of the kilt, the tight boxer shorts he wasn’t even supposed to be wearing could hardly contain his growing excitement.
His penis was apparently a traditionalist, determined to be free.
“Of course it is,” she said with a throaty laugh. “So it hasn’t even crossed your mind to find a dark corner or empty room.”
“Has it yours?” Heavens, it really wasn’t a good idea to dance with Shona Fraser. After three minutes of waltzing, he was on the verge of making another pass at her.
“I have an idea,” she announced. But before he could respond, his eyes fell on the front door of the ballroom and his excitement faded even faster than it had appeared.
“Bloody hell!” he muttered aghast and stopped dancing.
“What’s going on?” Shona, taken by surprise, turned to look to the door as well. From there, two women were waving happily at Kendrick. “Who’s that?”
“That would be Glenna and Davina, my ex and my sister,” he croaked.
“Oh?”
The small sound contained a whole number of questions: What are they doing here?
Why are you so shocked by their visit? Don’t you want to introduce them to me?
Those were the interpretations the tiny part of Kendrick’s brain that was still capable of rational thought came up with.
All fair questions for sure, but he didn’t want to answer any of them.
His preferred option right now would be to vanish into thin air.
Instead, Shona steered him off the dance floor so they would no longer be in the way of the other dancers and attract even more attention.
“Do you need a drink?” she asked him as they reached the edge of the bar.
He absolutely did, but that wasn’t going to happen. He had to get out of here and think and ...
“Hello, Rick,” Glenna greeted him with a shy smile. She seemed ready to say more, but no sound escaped her lips. Instead, she stood there with her mouth open and looked to her partner for support.
“Hi, Kenny,” Davina jumped in. “We thought we’d pay you a visit so we could finally talk about this whole thing calmly and without the others getting in the middle of it.”
Calmly and without the others getting in the middle of it?
! Kendrick would have loved to give them a piece of his mind but gritted his teeth.
He would not make a scene in front of all his new neighbours.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Shona’s questioning look swerving back and forth between him and the women.
Immediate de-escalation is what this situation needed, or what he needed.
They had to get out of here, but his jaw was so tense he couldn’t say a word.
“Hi, I’m Shona,” Shona introduced herself to the two new arrivals. “Welcome to our harvest festival. Shall I get us all a drink?”
“I’d love that,” Glenna murmured, scrutinising her with undisguised interest.
“Great idea,” Davina agreed.
“No, absolutely not,” Kendrick cut in. Only over his dead body would they talk about ‘this whole thing’ here at the event. He took Glenna and Davina by the arm and led them away. He realised how strange this must look and that he was fuelling the village gossip, but he couldn’t care less.
“Should I wait?” Shona called after him, but he didn’t respond. What the heck could he tell her?!
“Are you out of your mind?” Davina hissed at him when they were outside the community centre. She wiggled to free her arm, but he held on with an iron grip. “Let go of me right now!”
“Rick, don’t be like that,” Glenna tried to placate him. “We just want to talk, like normal people, no expectations. Really,” she implored.