Dance with Me, page 24
“I can’t really blame you for messing up things with Marisa because it’s what you do. It’s totally to be expected. But I can blame me for messing up what I had with her. One simple lie of omission. Just one. I never told her you were texting me. It didn’t matter that I’d barely answered you.” Pen gives a little snort at that. “All that mattered was that I kept it from her. One lie of omission and that’s on me.” The truth of the words makes me sad. “And I miss her more than I can put into words. I wish I could fix it.” The words hang between us in the silence that follows.
“Well,” Pen finally says and pushes herself to her feet. She brushes herself off like she just got a little dirty but is recovering. Or maybe she’s wiping her hands of me. Could go either way at this point, but the beautiful part about it is: I don’t care. She stands there for a moment, and I almost feel bad because I think she’s feeling a little bit humiliated, which wasn’t my intention. But I also feel something else. Closure. Finally. It’s something I’ve needed from this situation since moving out.
“You take care of yourself, Penelope.”
She looks the slightest bit flustered but gives me a nod, then heads out of the yard the way she came. Through the gate. I sit there, shaking my head slowly and trying to reconcile all that just happened, but I hear muffled voices coming from the other side of the gate where Pen just went. It’s to my right and at an angle that I can’t see, but I figure she must’ve run into a neighbor or something and is being polite. I lean my head back against my chair and close my eyes, hoping to fend off the headache that’s been pounding softly and threatening to blossom into something bigger since Pen’s arrival. I’m trying to decide whether to call out to Grandma and ask her to bring me some Motrin.
“Hi.” A quiet voice intrudes upon my impending headache.
I open my eyes with a start. The sun is behind her, so she’s backlit, and I swear to everything holy, she looks like an angel. To my own horror, my eyes well up. “Marisa. Hi. What are you doing here?” I give myself a shake. “No. I mean, I’m so happy to see you, I’m just…confused.”
She smiles that gorgeous smile of hers, accentuating her cheekbones. Her hair is hanging loosely, swooping near one eye, and I have never seen a more beautiful sight in my entire life.
Marisa grabs a chair and slides it so it’s close to mine, then takes a seat. “Seems your grandmother and my aunt know each other?”
I blink at her in surprise, then vaguely remember Grandma possibly saying something about that when I first started taking dance lessons. I’d totally spaced on it, though. “Okay…” I draw the word out, still confused.
Marisa looks down at her hands. “Your grandma texted my aunt, who, as luck would have it, I was with at the time. My aunt then told me to, and I quote, get my sorry ass over to your place, along with the address, in case I couldn’t remember.”
The pieces click into place. Grandma on her phone the second Pen arrived. She set Marisa up to hear me talking to Pen. She knew I’d send her packing. She had that faith in me. I crane my neck around to see Grandma standing at the sliding glass door. She smiles and waves at me, then turns and walks away into the kitchen.
My eyes are still wet. Maybe wetter now.
“So,” Marisa says. “Here’s me and my sorry ass.”
I sniffle and lift one shoulder in a half shrug. “I mean, your ass isn’t sorry. At all. It’s actually a really, really excellent ass.”
She returns the grin. “Yeah?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good to know.”
We sit there quietly, but it’s not uncomfortable. I don’t think I’ve ever been uncomfortable in Marisa’s presence. She reaches out and gently touches her fingers to my cheek, featherlight.
“Your poor face,” she says, and her fingers linger. “I heard what you said to Pen.” She nibbles on her bottom lip and meets my eyes. “Is it true? Do you miss me?”
I swallow hard. “More than I can say. Yeah.”
“Oh, I miss you, too.” And now her eyes are wet.
“You do?” My shock must register on my face because she laughs.
“Of course I do, you weirdo. Do you think this means nothing to me?” She moves a finger between the two of us.
And right then, in that exact second, I understand that nothing but full and total honesty is acceptable here—nothing but full and total honesty is acceptable if we want anything moving forward. “You left pretty fast,” I say softly, doing my best not to sound accusatory.
“I know. I know, you’re right. And I’m sorry about that. I have no excuse other than I freaked the hell out.” She looks off into the distance and blows out a breath. “There’s so much, Scottie. Not even counting Pen. I’m dealing with so much. Jaden and grieving my brother and my parents aren’t getting any younger and I have two jobs…and then you come along. Like this ray of sunshine. But we’re going so fast. My God. It’s all so fast, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t care because I think…” She swallows and glances away for a moment, as if she needs to take a break for couple seconds. When she looks back at me, the wetness in her eyes has spilled over, tears tracking down her cheeks, and something inside me cries out at the sight. “I think we could really have something. I think we could be good. Great. Excellent.” She chuckles. “So, yeah, it all has me freaking a bit. Well, a lot. It all has me freaking a lot. But then you got in an accident, and I freaked out even more because…” She stops, closes her mouth, and I hear her swallow again. And then I remember that her brother died in a car crash, and I reach for her hand.
“I’m okay. Marisa.” I wait until she returns her gaze to mine. “I’m okay. I mean, my nose may never be the same, but…” I shrug and she laughs.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not as much as it did.”
“Airbag?”
“Yes. Brutal, those things. Nobody tells you.”
“They don’t.” She pauses. “As soon as I found out, I ran to the hospital, but when I got there, fucking Pen had beat me and I freaked some more. I kept thinking you took Pen from me, and now Pen’s going to take you from me. And I couldn’t get away from that. So I left.”
“You were at the hospital! I knew it!” I’m so relieved to have that cleared up that I want to laugh.
She looks at me, puzzled. “You were unconscious.”
“I heard you. I was sure of it, but nobody believed me.”
A small chuckle bubbles up from her throat. “Yeah, nobody saw me. I was in and out pretty quick.”
We’re quiet for a moment before I say, “I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you Pen was texting me.”
“But you hardly responded to her.” Marisa gives me a sly grin and nods toward the gate. “Eavesdropping, remember?”
“I hardly responded, it’s true!” I laugh because I suddenly know that we’re going to be okay. Just like that, and the relief that floods through me is like a drug. “But I promise you, if we can try this again, I will never, ever lie to you again. Ever.”
“Those are pretty big words.”
“I’ve got pretty big feelings for you.” I freeze, realizing what I’ve just said, but Marisa squeezes my hand and holds my gaze.
“I’ve got pretty big feelings for you, too,” she says very softly.
It’s way too soon for the L-word, and I think we both know it, but it’s there. Not far off in the distance, and we’re well on our way to it. I know it. I can feel it, just as sure as I can feel my own heart beating in my chest. It’s both scary and reassuring, and I have a hard time figuring out how that’s possible.
“Where’s Jaden?” I ask.
“Playdate.”
“So you have some time?”
“I do.”
“Wanna hang out with me?”
Again she reaches out and touches my face. I feel her touch radiate through me, filled with warmth and love. “I would love nothing more.” She slides her chair around so that we’re side by side, then takes my hand and entwines her fingers with mine. We sit there quietly, holding hands and watching the birds.
I turn to her. “I’m keeping you. I just want you to know that.”
Her dark, sparkling eyes meet mine. “Yeah? Well, that’s a relief, because I’m staying right here next to you.”
I squeeze her hand as the birds flit and chirp, and I can’t remember a more perfect moment in my entire life.
Epilogue
Two months later
I’m so fucking nervous. God, I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous in my entire life. Ever. Not when I graduated from high school and had to walk across the stage in front of people. Not when I took my final test for my hairdressing license. No, this tops both of those by a lot. My heart is pounding in my chest as I stand off to the side in the dark. I adjust my neckline, wiggle my toes in my shoes with the slight heel. I swallow the ball of nerves that’s lodged itself in my throat. Swallow again because it didn’t go all the way down. And then the spotlight comes up on the stage, and before the announcer begins to speak, I look across to the other side of the stage. I make eye contact with Marisa, and she smiles at me, makes a gesture with her hands, palms down like she’s pressing them toward the floor. It’s her sign language for relax, and suddenly, everything is right. Everything calms. I take a deep breath in, hold it for a count of seven, then let it out slowly.
“And now, representing Ms. Tina’s School of Dance, please welcome Marisa Reyes and Scottie Templeton!”
That’s our cue, and just like that, I have confidence. But it’s not coming from me. It’s coming from Marisa’s dark eyes, and she walks across the stage, and we meet in the middle as the applause and whistles fill the small theater where the dance competition is being held. She holds out her hand, and I put mine into it. She looks…incredible doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Her dress is black and red and sequined, and every time she moves, she sparkles. The bottom is soft and flowy, and the top? The top is a jacket and bow tie, very tuxedo-ish. She wanted it to be clear to the audience that she’s leading, in the traditional male role, and she looks so incredibly hot, I’m already entertaining fantasies of undressing her later.
Reel it in, Scottie, my brain tells me.
Marisa’s hand is warm and strong, as always, and she gives mine a gentle squeeze as I smile back at her. We set up, my back against her, her arm around my waist to our linked hands.
“Ready?” she whispers in my ear.
I give a tiny nod. Because I am ready, and it’s crazy to me how everything in my world calms right down when I have her arms around me. I don’t worry about how many of my friends and family are in the audience right now. All our fellow students came to watch, plus my grandma, Adley, Bash and Lydia, Demi and Ben, and—shock of all shocks—both of my parents and their families. I’m not sure how everybody found out—I’ll be having a chat with my grandmother about that later—but for now, I feel incredibly loved. I don’t worry about the steps because I know this dance backward and forward. I could do it with my eyes closed. We’ve been practicing nonstop for weeks now. My accident sidelined me for a bit while I healed, but once I could stand up and move around without my head swimming, we were right back at rehearsal, and it was different. There was a new level of comfort between Marisa and me, and it’s stuck. We see each other at least a couple times a week. I only stay over when Jaden isn’t home. We haven’t told him yet. But we will. Soon.
Because this is it for me. Marisa is it. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. There’s no longer a doubt in my mind. And the weird, wonderful thing about it? I feel chosen. It doesn’t matter that she has Jaden, that his needs come first. She still chooses me. For the first time in my adult life, I feel chosen. This woman, standing behind me with her arms around me and holding my hand? She’s my destiny.
Corny? Maybe. True? Absolutely.
The Latin beat starts up to the song I’ve heard a million times now. Maybe more. And we start to move.
We don’t dance so much as glide. Ms. Tina told me that once, and I didn’t quite understand what she meant until after my accident. Until Marisa and I had talked about our feelings and rose to a new level of trust with each other. Because that’s what dancing with a partner is about: trust. When you trust your partner, that’s when you make the move from dancing across the floor to gliding.
We move like we’ve been dancing together for years. I feel it, which means I know the audience can see it. Marisa spins me, sends me out away from her, but never drops my hand, and then she pulls me back in. I’ve never felt so safe with somebody and also so free to be myself. I never had that with Pen. She never made me feel protected, but Marisa does.
I spin back into her arms, and her smile is radiant. I don’t know how else to describe it. Her eyes are always on me. Always. And every time I meet her gaze, there’s a little twinkle that I know is there just for me. We’ve danced around the bigger words for a few weeks now, but it’s just silly because I know how I feel. I have fallen fast and hard for Marisa Reyes. And I’m never letting her go.
The music builds to a crescendo. Our big finish. Marisa spins me out, tugs me back in, and then she dips me over her knee, and we both stretch out one arm in our finishing pose. The music stops, and there’s barely a split second before the place erupts in applause. I’m breathing hard, still bent over her thigh, looking in her eyes. She smiles down at me, her face just beautiful, her happiness clear, and I can’t help myself.
“I love you,” I whisper to her. I doubt she heard me over the applause, but she saw me say it. Her eyes go soft. As I watch, they well up with tears.
“I love you back,” she says, and I don’t hear her, but I see the words. I feel them as they flow right into me, right into my heart.
She pulls me up to standing, and we take a bow together. Then another. The audience is giving us a standing ovation. Ms. Tina is in the front row looking ridiculously proud of us. We take another bow and then Marisa leads me off, stage left.
I want to say wow, to exclaim how great that felt, to apologize for the one misstep I took and thank her for covering it for me. But I’m unable to do any of those things because the second we’re off the stage, Marisa grabs my face in both hands and kisses me. Not hard, but not softly. Firmly. Like she’s telling me something.
And she is.
“That dance was amazing,” she says, her nose almost touching mine. “You are amazing. I love you so much, Scottie. Let’s tell Jaden this weekend. About us. Okay? I don’t ever want to be apart from you. I want us to be together, to be a family, to raise our kids and grow old in the same place. I don’t ever want to be apart from you. It’s you and me, from here on out.” She says it all in one breath, and when she stops talking, she inhales, then lets it out slowly. She’s still holding my face and still looking in my eyes. “Say yes.”
I don’t realize I’m crying until her thumb brushes across my cheek to wipe a tear. I’m honestly worried my heart is going to burst because I’ve never been this happy. “Yes,” I say softly. “Yes, yes, yes.” And I throw my arms around her neck and feel hers go around my waist, and we stand there like that, wrapped up in each other. It’s a moment I know I’ll never forget.
“I have one question for you,” she says, her lips close to my ear.
“What?”
“Where should we put our first-place trophy?”
And I laugh. Loudly. It bursts out of me. “A little overconfident are we, Ms. Reyes?”
“Nope. Just incredibly, appropriately confident in the gorgeous moves of my girlfriend. Trust me.” She kisses me again.
And you know what? She’s right. Not twenty minutes later, they announce the winner of the competition, and Marisa and I place first. Ms. Tina is ecstatic. Our friends and family scream their heads off for us as we link hands and hurry onstage to take a bow. The emcee hands us a trophy, and we bow again. As we’re standing there in the spotlight among the thunderous applause, I tug her to me and say, “How about in our bedroom?”
Her entire face goes radiant, as if she’s glowing from the inside. She nods.
“I think that’s perfect. I love you, Scottie.”
And now I know why I had to go through all the pain, confusion, and uncertainty in my life. To get me here. Now. Standing next to Marisa, the love of my life, with my hand in hers. “I love you, too.”
And then the music starts up again so that all the contestants can come out onstage, dance some more, take bows, wave to friends in the audience. Ms. Tina runs up onstage to greet us. She gives us hugs, thanks us for the great representation of her school. Marisa hands her the trophy.
“Can you hold this for a minute?” she asks her aunt.
“Absolutely.” Ms. Tina grabs it from her and runs off to show the others, I assume. I watch her go, laughing, and when I turn back to Marisa, she’s holding out her hand.
“Dance with me?” she asks.
“For the rest of my life,” I say and put my hand in hers.
And we dance.
About the Author
Georgia Beers lives in Upstate New York and has written more than thirty novels of sapphic romance. In her off-hours, she can usually be found searching for a scary movie, sipping a good Pinot, or trying to keep up with little big man Archie, her mix of many little dogs. Find out more at georgiabeers.com.
Books Available From Bold Strokes Books
Curse of the Gorgon by Tanai Walker. Cass will do anything to ensure Elle’s safety, but is she willing to embrace the curse of the Gorgon? (978-1-63679-395-5)
Dance with Me by Georgia Beers. Scottie Templeton mixes it up on and off the dance floor with sexy salsa instructor Marisa Reyes. But can Scottie get past Marisa’s connection to her ex? (978-1-63679-359-7)
Gin and Bear It by Joy Argento. Opposites really can attract, and as Kelly and Logan work together to create a loving home for rescue cat Bear, they just might find one for themselves as well. (978-1-63679-351-1)
“Well,” Pen finally says and pushes herself to her feet. She brushes herself off like she just got a little dirty but is recovering. Or maybe she’s wiping her hands of me. Could go either way at this point, but the beautiful part about it is: I don’t care. She stands there for a moment, and I almost feel bad because I think she’s feeling a little bit humiliated, which wasn’t my intention. But I also feel something else. Closure. Finally. It’s something I’ve needed from this situation since moving out.
“You take care of yourself, Penelope.”
She looks the slightest bit flustered but gives me a nod, then heads out of the yard the way she came. Through the gate. I sit there, shaking my head slowly and trying to reconcile all that just happened, but I hear muffled voices coming from the other side of the gate where Pen just went. It’s to my right and at an angle that I can’t see, but I figure she must’ve run into a neighbor or something and is being polite. I lean my head back against my chair and close my eyes, hoping to fend off the headache that’s been pounding softly and threatening to blossom into something bigger since Pen’s arrival. I’m trying to decide whether to call out to Grandma and ask her to bring me some Motrin.
“Hi.” A quiet voice intrudes upon my impending headache.
I open my eyes with a start. The sun is behind her, so she’s backlit, and I swear to everything holy, she looks like an angel. To my own horror, my eyes well up. “Marisa. Hi. What are you doing here?” I give myself a shake. “No. I mean, I’m so happy to see you, I’m just…confused.”
She smiles that gorgeous smile of hers, accentuating her cheekbones. Her hair is hanging loosely, swooping near one eye, and I have never seen a more beautiful sight in my entire life.
Marisa grabs a chair and slides it so it’s close to mine, then takes a seat. “Seems your grandmother and my aunt know each other?”
I blink at her in surprise, then vaguely remember Grandma possibly saying something about that when I first started taking dance lessons. I’d totally spaced on it, though. “Okay…” I draw the word out, still confused.
Marisa looks down at her hands. “Your grandma texted my aunt, who, as luck would have it, I was with at the time. My aunt then told me to, and I quote, get my sorry ass over to your place, along with the address, in case I couldn’t remember.”
The pieces click into place. Grandma on her phone the second Pen arrived. She set Marisa up to hear me talking to Pen. She knew I’d send her packing. She had that faith in me. I crane my neck around to see Grandma standing at the sliding glass door. She smiles and waves at me, then turns and walks away into the kitchen.
My eyes are still wet. Maybe wetter now.
“So,” Marisa says. “Here’s me and my sorry ass.”
I sniffle and lift one shoulder in a half shrug. “I mean, your ass isn’t sorry. At all. It’s actually a really, really excellent ass.”
She returns the grin. “Yeah?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good to know.”
We sit there quietly, but it’s not uncomfortable. I don’t think I’ve ever been uncomfortable in Marisa’s presence. She reaches out and gently touches her fingers to my cheek, featherlight.
“Your poor face,” she says, and her fingers linger. “I heard what you said to Pen.” She nibbles on her bottom lip and meets my eyes. “Is it true? Do you miss me?”
I swallow hard. “More than I can say. Yeah.”
“Oh, I miss you, too.” And now her eyes are wet.
“You do?” My shock must register on my face because she laughs.
“Of course I do, you weirdo. Do you think this means nothing to me?” She moves a finger between the two of us.
And right then, in that exact second, I understand that nothing but full and total honesty is acceptable here—nothing but full and total honesty is acceptable if we want anything moving forward. “You left pretty fast,” I say softly, doing my best not to sound accusatory.
“I know. I know, you’re right. And I’m sorry about that. I have no excuse other than I freaked the hell out.” She looks off into the distance and blows out a breath. “There’s so much, Scottie. Not even counting Pen. I’m dealing with so much. Jaden and grieving my brother and my parents aren’t getting any younger and I have two jobs…and then you come along. Like this ray of sunshine. But we’re going so fast. My God. It’s all so fast, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t care because I think…” She swallows and glances away for a moment, as if she needs to take a break for couple seconds. When she looks back at me, the wetness in her eyes has spilled over, tears tracking down her cheeks, and something inside me cries out at the sight. “I think we could really have something. I think we could be good. Great. Excellent.” She chuckles. “So, yeah, it all has me freaking a bit. Well, a lot. It all has me freaking a lot. But then you got in an accident, and I freaked out even more because…” She stops, closes her mouth, and I hear her swallow again. And then I remember that her brother died in a car crash, and I reach for her hand.
“I’m okay. Marisa.” I wait until she returns her gaze to mine. “I’m okay. I mean, my nose may never be the same, but…” I shrug and she laughs.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not as much as it did.”
“Airbag?”
“Yes. Brutal, those things. Nobody tells you.”
“They don’t.” She pauses. “As soon as I found out, I ran to the hospital, but when I got there, fucking Pen had beat me and I freaked some more. I kept thinking you took Pen from me, and now Pen’s going to take you from me. And I couldn’t get away from that. So I left.”
“You were at the hospital! I knew it!” I’m so relieved to have that cleared up that I want to laugh.
She looks at me, puzzled. “You were unconscious.”
“I heard you. I was sure of it, but nobody believed me.”
A small chuckle bubbles up from her throat. “Yeah, nobody saw me. I was in and out pretty quick.”
We’re quiet for a moment before I say, “I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you Pen was texting me.”
“But you hardly responded to her.” Marisa gives me a sly grin and nods toward the gate. “Eavesdropping, remember?”
“I hardly responded, it’s true!” I laugh because I suddenly know that we’re going to be okay. Just like that, and the relief that floods through me is like a drug. “But I promise you, if we can try this again, I will never, ever lie to you again. Ever.”
“Those are pretty big words.”
“I’ve got pretty big feelings for you.” I freeze, realizing what I’ve just said, but Marisa squeezes my hand and holds my gaze.
“I’ve got pretty big feelings for you, too,” she says very softly.
It’s way too soon for the L-word, and I think we both know it, but it’s there. Not far off in the distance, and we’re well on our way to it. I know it. I can feel it, just as sure as I can feel my own heart beating in my chest. It’s both scary and reassuring, and I have a hard time figuring out how that’s possible.
“Where’s Jaden?” I ask.
“Playdate.”
“So you have some time?”
“I do.”
“Wanna hang out with me?”
Again she reaches out and touches my face. I feel her touch radiate through me, filled with warmth and love. “I would love nothing more.” She slides her chair around so that we’re side by side, then takes my hand and entwines her fingers with mine. We sit there quietly, holding hands and watching the birds.
I turn to her. “I’m keeping you. I just want you to know that.”
Her dark, sparkling eyes meet mine. “Yeah? Well, that’s a relief, because I’m staying right here next to you.”
I squeeze her hand as the birds flit and chirp, and I can’t remember a more perfect moment in my entire life.
Epilogue
Two months later
I’m so fucking nervous. God, I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous in my entire life. Ever. Not when I graduated from high school and had to walk across the stage in front of people. Not when I took my final test for my hairdressing license. No, this tops both of those by a lot. My heart is pounding in my chest as I stand off to the side in the dark. I adjust my neckline, wiggle my toes in my shoes with the slight heel. I swallow the ball of nerves that’s lodged itself in my throat. Swallow again because it didn’t go all the way down. And then the spotlight comes up on the stage, and before the announcer begins to speak, I look across to the other side of the stage. I make eye contact with Marisa, and she smiles at me, makes a gesture with her hands, palms down like she’s pressing them toward the floor. It’s her sign language for relax, and suddenly, everything is right. Everything calms. I take a deep breath in, hold it for a count of seven, then let it out slowly.
“And now, representing Ms. Tina’s School of Dance, please welcome Marisa Reyes and Scottie Templeton!”
That’s our cue, and just like that, I have confidence. But it’s not coming from me. It’s coming from Marisa’s dark eyes, and she walks across the stage, and we meet in the middle as the applause and whistles fill the small theater where the dance competition is being held. She holds out her hand, and I put mine into it. She looks…incredible doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Her dress is black and red and sequined, and every time she moves, she sparkles. The bottom is soft and flowy, and the top? The top is a jacket and bow tie, very tuxedo-ish. She wanted it to be clear to the audience that she’s leading, in the traditional male role, and she looks so incredibly hot, I’m already entertaining fantasies of undressing her later.
Reel it in, Scottie, my brain tells me.
Marisa’s hand is warm and strong, as always, and she gives mine a gentle squeeze as I smile back at her. We set up, my back against her, her arm around my waist to our linked hands.
“Ready?” she whispers in my ear.
I give a tiny nod. Because I am ready, and it’s crazy to me how everything in my world calms right down when I have her arms around me. I don’t worry about how many of my friends and family are in the audience right now. All our fellow students came to watch, plus my grandma, Adley, Bash and Lydia, Demi and Ben, and—shock of all shocks—both of my parents and their families. I’m not sure how everybody found out—I’ll be having a chat with my grandmother about that later—but for now, I feel incredibly loved. I don’t worry about the steps because I know this dance backward and forward. I could do it with my eyes closed. We’ve been practicing nonstop for weeks now. My accident sidelined me for a bit while I healed, but once I could stand up and move around without my head swimming, we were right back at rehearsal, and it was different. There was a new level of comfort between Marisa and me, and it’s stuck. We see each other at least a couple times a week. I only stay over when Jaden isn’t home. We haven’t told him yet. But we will. Soon.
Because this is it for me. Marisa is it. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. There’s no longer a doubt in my mind. And the weird, wonderful thing about it? I feel chosen. It doesn’t matter that she has Jaden, that his needs come first. She still chooses me. For the first time in my adult life, I feel chosen. This woman, standing behind me with her arms around me and holding my hand? She’s my destiny.
Corny? Maybe. True? Absolutely.
The Latin beat starts up to the song I’ve heard a million times now. Maybe more. And we start to move.
We don’t dance so much as glide. Ms. Tina told me that once, and I didn’t quite understand what she meant until after my accident. Until Marisa and I had talked about our feelings and rose to a new level of trust with each other. Because that’s what dancing with a partner is about: trust. When you trust your partner, that’s when you make the move from dancing across the floor to gliding.
We move like we’ve been dancing together for years. I feel it, which means I know the audience can see it. Marisa spins me, sends me out away from her, but never drops my hand, and then she pulls me back in. I’ve never felt so safe with somebody and also so free to be myself. I never had that with Pen. She never made me feel protected, but Marisa does.
I spin back into her arms, and her smile is radiant. I don’t know how else to describe it. Her eyes are always on me. Always. And every time I meet her gaze, there’s a little twinkle that I know is there just for me. We’ve danced around the bigger words for a few weeks now, but it’s just silly because I know how I feel. I have fallen fast and hard for Marisa Reyes. And I’m never letting her go.
The music builds to a crescendo. Our big finish. Marisa spins me out, tugs me back in, and then she dips me over her knee, and we both stretch out one arm in our finishing pose. The music stops, and there’s barely a split second before the place erupts in applause. I’m breathing hard, still bent over her thigh, looking in her eyes. She smiles down at me, her face just beautiful, her happiness clear, and I can’t help myself.
“I love you,” I whisper to her. I doubt she heard me over the applause, but she saw me say it. Her eyes go soft. As I watch, they well up with tears.
“I love you back,” she says, and I don’t hear her, but I see the words. I feel them as they flow right into me, right into my heart.
She pulls me up to standing, and we take a bow together. Then another. The audience is giving us a standing ovation. Ms. Tina is in the front row looking ridiculously proud of us. We take another bow and then Marisa leads me off, stage left.
I want to say wow, to exclaim how great that felt, to apologize for the one misstep I took and thank her for covering it for me. But I’m unable to do any of those things because the second we’re off the stage, Marisa grabs my face in both hands and kisses me. Not hard, but not softly. Firmly. Like she’s telling me something.
And she is.
“That dance was amazing,” she says, her nose almost touching mine. “You are amazing. I love you so much, Scottie. Let’s tell Jaden this weekend. About us. Okay? I don’t ever want to be apart from you. I want us to be together, to be a family, to raise our kids and grow old in the same place. I don’t ever want to be apart from you. It’s you and me, from here on out.” She says it all in one breath, and when she stops talking, she inhales, then lets it out slowly. She’s still holding my face and still looking in my eyes. “Say yes.”
I don’t realize I’m crying until her thumb brushes across my cheek to wipe a tear. I’m honestly worried my heart is going to burst because I’ve never been this happy. “Yes,” I say softly. “Yes, yes, yes.” And I throw my arms around her neck and feel hers go around my waist, and we stand there like that, wrapped up in each other. It’s a moment I know I’ll never forget.
“I have one question for you,” she says, her lips close to my ear.
“What?”
“Where should we put our first-place trophy?”
And I laugh. Loudly. It bursts out of me. “A little overconfident are we, Ms. Reyes?”
“Nope. Just incredibly, appropriately confident in the gorgeous moves of my girlfriend. Trust me.” She kisses me again.
And you know what? She’s right. Not twenty minutes later, they announce the winner of the competition, and Marisa and I place first. Ms. Tina is ecstatic. Our friends and family scream their heads off for us as we link hands and hurry onstage to take a bow. The emcee hands us a trophy, and we bow again. As we’re standing there in the spotlight among the thunderous applause, I tug her to me and say, “How about in our bedroom?”
Her entire face goes radiant, as if she’s glowing from the inside. She nods.
“I think that’s perfect. I love you, Scottie.”
And now I know why I had to go through all the pain, confusion, and uncertainty in my life. To get me here. Now. Standing next to Marisa, the love of my life, with my hand in hers. “I love you, too.”
And then the music starts up again so that all the contestants can come out onstage, dance some more, take bows, wave to friends in the audience. Ms. Tina runs up onstage to greet us. She gives us hugs, thanks us for the great representation of her school. Marisa hands her the trophy.
“Can you hold this for a minute?” she asks her aunt.
“Absolutely.” Ms. Tina grabs it from her and runs off to show the others, I assume. I watch her go, laughing, and when I turn back to Marisa, she’s holding out her hand.
“Dance with me?” she asks.
“For the rest of my life,” I say and put my hand in hers.
And we dance.
About the Author
Georgia Beers lives in Upstate New York and has written more than thirty novels of sapphic romance. In her off-hours, she can usually be found searching for a scary movie, sipping a good Pinot, or trying to keep up with little big man Archie, her mix of many little dogs. Find out more at georgiabeers.com.
Books Available From Bold Strokes Books
Curse of the Gorgon by Tanai Walker. Cass will do anything to ensure Elle’s safety, but is she willing to embrace the curse of the Gorgon? (978-1-63679-395-5)
Dance with Me by Georgia Beers. Scottie Templeton mixes it up on and off the dance floor with sexy salsa instructor Marisa Reyes. But can Scottie get past Marisa’s connection to her ex? (978-1-63679-359-7)
Gin and Bear It by Joy Argento. Opposites really can attract, and as Kelly and Logan work together to create a loving home for rescue cat Bear, they just might find one for themselves as well. (978-1-63679-351-1)
