Player(17)

I could dance with her some more.

Spinning her around the dance floor was simpler than it should have been. Even the girls who knew how to swing always seemed to have an opinion on where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do, and unless you’d been dancing with someone for a long while, it was impossible to read each other’s cues. The easiest thing when dancing with a new partner was to let the guy lead, which was exactly what Val had done. She gave over her trust, let me spin and trick her all over the place, let me pull her and turn her and hold her close. She’d done as she’d been told and stayed on her toes, trusted my direction, and the result had been absolute harmony.

She just sort of…fit. And if she kept taking my lead, tutoring her was going to be a piece of cake.

“What are you grinning about?” Ian said from my elbow as he took a seat. “Hey, Rico—pour me a scotch, would ya?”

Rico nodded, flipping his towel onto his shoulder before turning to the wall of bottles.

“Just feeling smug about sealing the deal with Val,” I said with meaning he’d never guess, shooting him a smirk to drive it home.

He shook his head. “I don’t know why I ever get my hopes up that you’ll fail. Never once have I seen it.”

“Not true. Kandi Koffman, junior year.” I shook my head at the memory of her. “She shot me down like a clay pigeon.”

With a laugh, he picked up the drink Rico had just set in front of him. “Damn, that’s right. Cheers to the only chick who ever realized she was too good for you.”

I clinked my glass to his, and we took a drink.

“You know,” he started once he swallowed, “I can honestly say I’ve never had a girl pretend to be a lesbian to get out of a free drink.”

I laughed, picturing the little one’s face—Amelia. “First time for everything.”

“When are you seeing her again out of work?”

“She’ll be back in the club for our next gig.”

“So we’ll be seeing a lot of her. Good. I can keep an eye on you, make sure you’re not shirking your responsibilities.”

My spine straightened an inch, but he kept talking before I could respond.

“She looked good. That dress, man. She looked like a cherry with a smile. Too bad I can’t have her for myself. Yet.”

“Ever,” I corrected and took a drink.

He chuckled. “We’ll see about that, loverboy.”

And with a hard smile, I said, “We sure will.”



Val

“This is a horrible idea,” Katherine said, kicking off her shoes by the door.

I huffed. “It’s not a horrible idea. It’s brilliant.”

Amelia sat on the bench in the entry and untied her canvas sneakers. “I’m somewhere in the middle. If a guy like Sam proposed hanging out with me for a month, I’d have said yes. I mean, assuming I could have spoken to him at all.” She wiggled her toes when they were free. “But I’m not gonna lie, Val—you’re playing with fire.”

I was glad Rin and Court had gone to his place because there was no way he wouldn’t have some serious opinions about my situation with Sam, and I wasn’t ready to hear them.

“Look,” I said with some finality, “the big goal for tonight was to find out what I meant to Sam, and now, that’s clear. Am I disappointed? Fuck yes, I am wildly disappointed. But now I know. And he’s offered to help me. There were a hundred cute guys at the club tonight, and I wouldn’t have had the guts to talk to any of them. But maybe, with a little help, I could figure out how to pick up a guy. And the club is the perfect place. I could test-drive them with a dance, see if we jive well. Like, actually jive. Or jitterbug. Or maybe a little Watusi.”

Amelia laughed, but Katherine didn’t look amused.

She hung a hand on her hip and gave me a look. “Do you honestly think you can spend all that time with him and not want him to be the one you’re dating? Six hours ago, you were borderline obsessed with him.”

My heart lurched. “Well, trust me when I say that his offer to tutor me instead of to take me home was a bucket of ice water on my hope. Sam’s offering to be my friend, which is exactly what I should expect. Plus, he’s going to keep teaching me how to dance. I had so much fun tonight—I’d hate for that to end.”

Amelia sighed, her cheeks pinking with a flush. “It really was more fun than I’ve had in ages. I was worried boys would try to talk to us, but Katherine took care of that.” She gave Katherine a look.

Katherine shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Amelia looked at the ceiling and shook her head.

“So will you guys come back to the club with me?” I asked hopefully.

“I will if Katherine will. Since she’s my girlfriend and all.”

Katherine wore an impressive frown. “I don’t know, Val. I’m not going to pretend like I approve of you getting tutored in dating by the guy you have a crush on.”

“Don’t you believe me?” I asked, hurt. “I can do this without getting hurt. I know where we stand now. Sam wants to be my friend, nothing more. It makes perfect sense. The idea that he might actually like me as more than that is just too ridiculous for words. I can’t believe I was deluded enough to ever consider it in the first place.” I took a breath and smiled. “I’m excited to learn. In fact, I think we could all benefit from his tutelage.”