Dancing Away With My Heart (Wishful 12)

She definitely wasn’t smiling now. In fact, she looked vaguely like she wanted to vomit, which kind of put a damper on this Cinderella at the ball moment. Okay maybe that was a bad analogy. Cinderella ran from her prince. Zach felt a clutch in his chest as he remembered Lexi had done plenty of that already.

As she so often did, she skirted the crowd, speaking to no one as she headed toward one of the tables around the perimeter to set up her camera gear. Fresh nerves beat a tattoo in his chest as he forced his feet into motion and crossed the room to greet her. It was maybe the most important thing he’d ever done in his life. He had to get it right this time.

“You look beautiful.”

Lexi whirled, her hands lifting in a defensive stance. Not an excellent beginning.

“What are you doing here? Eli said you bailed.”

“I didn’t, but I didn’t think you’d come if I asked you, and I thought you might if he did.”

After a beat of hesitation, she started dismantling the camera she’d pulled out.

Panic shot through him.

“Lexi, wait. Don’t leave. Please. I brought you this.” He thrust out the plastic box with the corsage he’d bought her, wondering if she could see it shaking.

Her gaze moved from it to him and back to it. “What is this, Zach?”

“An apology. An olive branch.” A poor one judging by how her lips compressed into a thin line. Shit, he’d thought it was sweet.

She was shutting down, closing off. With a shake of her head, she turned back to her bag. “I didn’t want to come here. I don’t want or need a pity date.”

Damn it. “That’s not what this is. I didn’t mean—” Hell, he was messing this up. Again. Would he never manage to say the right thing to her?

“I don’t think we have anything left to say to each other about this.”

Okay, so he was going to have to play hardball. Just spit it out, however it came out, and risk botching it rather than not saying it at all. He set the box on the table and stepped closer, not touching, but making it hard for her to get past him. “Maybe you don’t. But I do. You’re angry and hurt, and you have every right to be. I should have realized how you felt. I should have seen that you were serious when you asked me.”

Even in the poor light, he could see the flush in her cheeks and sense that she was about to run again. So he took the chance and boxed her in. “I’m sorry I was a dumbass in high school. I’m sorry for not realizing how you felt. And I’m sorry for not realizing how I felt until you came back into my life.”

Her eyes snapped up to his, her mouth pulled into a wary frown. “What are you talking about?”

He risked moving another inch closer. “I get why you were casual about how you asked me. You were scared to death to do anything to damage our friendship. You wanted to test the waters without rocking the boat. I get all that now because it’s exactly how I’ve felt since you came back.”

The flare of guarded hope in her eyes gave him the courage to push. “You were my best friend, Lex. The person who gets me best in the world, and I’ve missed the hell out of you. But it’s more than that. From the moment I saw you again, standing in The Grind, you just knocked me flat. I don’t know what changed or why, but I haven’t been able to fit you back in that best friend box I’ve been walking around with for years. And obviously with everything that’s happened, that ship has sailed. We’re never going to be what we were before. But I think we can be something else. I want us to be something else.”

For long, weighted moments, she stared up at him, and Zach hardly dared to breathe. But he hoped. He hoped more than he’d ever hoped for anything before.

Lexi sucked in a shaky breath and swallowed. “And what is that?”

Lifting his hands to cup her face, he felt her tremble. “More.” And at long last, he lowered his lips to hers.

Zach was kissing her. Really kissing her, his lips a soft, insistent brush against hers, like she’d wanted all those years ago. And Lexi was too shocked to kiss him back. Too shocked to do anything but stand there as he cradled her face in his hands and changed everything. Was this really happening? Was she actually awake?

Lexi felt him tense and pull back. His eyes searched her face, and for a moment she could only stare up at him in dazed shock. In the end, it was the raw vulnerability she saw in his face, the same one she’d felt so often around him, that galvanized her. Curling her hands in his lapels, she pulled him back, fastening her mouth to his.

And she let go. Releasing all the longing, all the want, all the need that she’d repressed and ignored for years. She kissed Zach the way she’d always wanted to kiss him. No barriers, no worries, no tentative testing of the waters. She kissed him as if she’d never get another chance.

His arms slid around her, hauling her close as he angled his head and took the kiss deeper. Her heart thundered against her chest and every inch of her crackled with nerves and joy and relief. Because she wasn’t in this alone. It had taken ten years, but she’d finally, finally gotten her wish. He’d finally seen her as she saw him. Lexi didn’t know what to do with that other than hang on to the moment, hang on to him.

It was the cheering that pulled her back. Confused, embarrassed, she realized they weren’t alone, but standing in the high school gym, surrounded by most of their classmates. A few dozen feet away, she spotted Jace and Tara, Reed and Cecily, and the Hamilton twins. Eli was grinning from ear to ear and Leo offered up a wolf whistle and a fist pump.

“Oh Dios.” Lexi ducked her head, cuddling into Zach.

Tucking her close, he rested his brow against hers. “Ignore them.”

“They’re making it very hard to do that.”