Dancing Away With My Heart (Wishful 12)

Disbelief was quickly chased by worry. Zach should have been at the reunion. “What the hell? Why?”

“I don’t know why. But I’m up shit creek here, Lexi.” Eli rolled on, talking about plans for the shoot, but Lexi didn’t really hear him.

This didn’t sound like Zach. At all. He didn’t bail on friends. She interrupted Eli’s detailed recitation of what they’d set up. “Did you actually talk to him? This is not some situation where he just didn’t show and might be dead in a ditch somewhere?” A myriad of scenarios ran through her mind, each one more gruesome than the last.

“I just got off the phone with him. He’s fine. Well, I mean, there’s been something wrong all week, and damned if I know what it is, but he’s not pinned under his truck or anything. All I know is he says he’s not coming, and he’s on my shit list for life, and I need your help.”

Letting go of the anxiety that had gripped her system at the idea that Zach was hurt or in trouble, Lexi let out a slow breath. “I don’t—”

“I know. I know you don’t want to come, but I’m desperate. I’m in the damned bathroom to make this call. I’m begging you, please come. Please do the shoot so we have better than crappy cell phone pictures to remember this by for the rest of our lives.”

She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose, as if that would somehow stop the headache that spiked behind her eyes at the idea of doing this. If possible, she wanted to go to the reunion even less now than she did before. But Eli and Jessie were her friends. And this was probably her fault.

Lexi took a bracing breath. “Okay. I’ll do it. What, exactly, is the plan?”

She was already moving to gather gear as he talked, describing positioning and the pre-arranged signal he’d set up with Zach. By the time he’d finished, she had her camera bag packed.

“Okay, I’m on my way.”

“Thanks, Lexi. We owe you.” The relief in Eli’s voice was palpable.

“Be there as soon as I can.” Tossing the cordless phone on her bed, she shouldered her bag.

Leandra appeared in the doorway. “Where are you going?”

“To the reunion, apparently.”

Her mother’s eyes brightened and she clapped her hands together. “Aren’t you glad you didn’t get rid of the dress?”

“I’m not wearing the dress.” As soon as she said it, Leandra’s face fell, and Lexi felt like a jerk. Wanting to soften the blow, she added, “This is work, not play. I’m not staying.”

Her mother’s expression turned mulish. “You’ll stick out like a sore thumb if you don’t. Everyone else will be dressed up.”

She’d prefer to be all in black to blend into dark corners and avoid notice, but her mother made a good point. If she did catch anyone’s attention, she’d have less to explain if she wore the proper attire. And at least she’d get to wear the dress once, even if it was while working. It would make her mom happy.

Dropping the bag, she headed for the closet. “How fast can you do my hair?”

Zach was going to sweat through his tux. He tugged at his bowtie, wishing he could breathe. Nerves skittered down his spine as he kept watch on the door to the high school gym. No Lexi. Just as there’d been no Lexi for the past half hour. Despite Eli’s assurances that she’d promised to come, Zach wasn’t at all sure she’d show. And if she did, would she be wearing the dress? Half his plan hinged on Mama Morales refusing to let her out of the house without it. God love the woman for being on his side. He’d taken a risk calling her up and asking for her help. But Lexi’s mom was, at heart, a romantic and had spent years expecting something more to happen between him and Lexi. Evidently, he was the last one to get on board. He just hoped he wasn’t too late.

Staying away and giving her space this week had damn near killed him. He’d wanted to talk to her, to apologize again, to hash all this shit out until everything was right again. But rushing in and opening his mouth had gotten him into this mess, and Leo had insisted this plan was solid. If it wasn’t he might just have to lie down in the driveway behind Lexi’s car to keep her from leaving town and pray she didn’t decide to run him over.

He fidgeted in his dress shoes, thinking Lexi had a point about formalwear. Comfortable it was not.

All around him, people talked and laughed and danced. The gym was decked out in all the cheesetastic glory of their Fairy Tale themed prom from a decade ago. Crepe paper streamers and twinkle lights criss-crossed the room. In one corner, a Cinderella’s coach picture station had been set up. The biggest difference from then and now was that the punch tonight was spiked on purpose.

He tried to remember what that night with Isabelle had been like and couldn’t. It had just been another night. Not bad, not good, not memorable. She was here somewhere with her husband. They hadn’t shared more than a smile and a few words of conversation.

What would it have been like if he’d brought Lexi? He should have brought her back then. He’d have remembered everything, down to the way she’d done her hair and the jokes she’d have told over dinner. He always remembered things with Lexi.

He wanted to remember tonight as the night they finally got on the same page. The night he finally kissed her. But that wasn’t going to happen if she didn’t show up.

Frustrated, impatient, Zach scrubbed a hand over his face.

This was a terrible idea. Why the hell had he listened to Leo? How could he put the fate of his chances with the woman he loved in the hands of someone else? He was, as he’d repeatedly been reminded, a dumbass. The whole thing was going to blow up, and Lexi was going to walk out of his life forever.

As a vise tightened around his chest, he looked back at the door. And there she was, as if conjured by his desperation.

She hesitated at the entrance to the gym, a vision in crimson. His brain snapped that mental picture and filed it away, titled Lady In Red. The rich, dark waves of her hair were swept up in some kind of complicated updo that left her long, lovely neck bare. Something sparkly circled her throat, dipping toward the cleavage on perfect display in the bodice of the dress. He’d seen her in it the other night and been sucker punched, but this—with the shoes and the hair and the whole package— she was so damned beautiful she stole his breath. Then he smiled as he noticed the camera bag slung over one shoulder. No pitiful clutch for his girl. It was so Lexi, and he ached with longing to touch her, to hold her, to see her smile again.