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She nodded, watching our feet. “You’re not scared I’ll crush your toes?”

“Nah.” She hadn’t stepped on my feet yet, and she had swagger. She could move. Her hips were sultry little attention grabbers.

“How do you know how to do this?”

“My daddy taught me when I was a girl,” I said, smiling at the memory flashing in my head from when I was thirteen or fourteen, dancing with the man who had been my favorite person back then, in a place much like the fall festival.

Devo looked up. “Your mom did a good job with your hair. You’re like a red plaid angel tonight. Sometimes, I look at you, and it hurts”—she lifted her hand from my shoulder and placed it over her heart—“in here.”

I nodded and rested my hand over hers. “I know what you mean.”

We danced then, ignoring the rest of the world and looking only at each other. Devo’s eyes stayed on mine, and her lips held the most brilliant smile, her teeth gleaming in the glow from the thousands of tiny lights twinkling under the massive black tent.

I would have to remember to thank Aislinn for making this night unforgettable. She couldn’t see for herself the ambiance she’d helped to create all over downtown Wisper, but I’d do my best to describe it to her at book club.

“Who did all this work?” I asked, motioning with a bob of my head around the dance floor. “Aislinn told me she was in charge of the dance, and she and I planned out all the road closures, but she had to have help with all the decorations.”

“Vern,” Devo said simply.

“Huh. Who woulda thunk it?” I joked, remembering the delinquent the guy used to be.

Carey had made it a career goal to arrest Vern as many times as he could before he started working at Ace’s House and turned his life around. I still remembered when Vern had lived in our jail cell for a week ’cause his mama wouldn’t let him come back home after he’d gotten drunk with his friends and crashed her car in a ditch.

Devo rushed forward a step to kiss me unexpectedly and then moved back into our rhythm just as quickly, right before Carey tapped her on the shoulder.

His wife, Frannie, held his hat at the edge of the dance floor, and she waved. He rarely went without his hat, so he always had hat hair. He ran his hand through the rusty red tresses, trying to fluff them. “May I cut in?”

“Sure,” Devo said, transferring my hand into his, but she leaned closer to me, whispering, “I’ll get a better look at your ass in this dress from the sidelines anyway.”

I giggled. I couldn’t help myself as Carey stepped in, leading me backward, and I watched Devo go over his shoulder.

“You look like a million bucks tonight, my friend,” he said, grinning at me. “Frannie says that dress should be illegal.”

“Tell her I said thanks.”

We’d barely gone twenty steps when Frank cut in next. And then it was a long line of people cutting in every few minutes. Sam cut in, too, and then Phil, Carly, and Juneau each took a turn. Even Roxanne popped into the dance tent for a minute.

They all wanted to support me, just in case there was anyone watching who thought it wrong that I was with a woman. My friends were all there to make sure any naysayers would keep their cake holes shut.

Finally, Red stepped forward. He’d been talking and dancing with Liluye all night, but when she went to get a drink, he came straight for me, tapping Cal on her dainty, lace-covered shoulder. She looked positively lovely tonight, dressed in an ivory and lavender skirt and jacket set.

“May I cut in?” he asked her.

“Of course,” she said. She stopped our movement and looked at me. “Proud of you.”

“Proud of you too,” I said with a shy smile. Cal wasn’t one to broadcast her feelings or opinions, but her actions tonight spoke louder than words ever could have.

When she was safely surrounded by the group of book club ladies, they all crowded around Devo next to an old red Ford truck that had been backed up to the dance floor. The bed was decorated with hay and pumpkins. It was a cute spot to take photos.

As all my friends and my extremely beautiful date watched from afar, Red held out his hand. He spun me so he walked backward, and we fell into the “fast fast, slow slow” steps.

“Never thought I’d be dancin’ with you,” I told him, brushing a loose string off of his jacket’s lapel. “You clean up pretty good.”

“So do you,” he said earnestly.

“You havin’ fun?”

He nodded. “More fun than I’ve had in a very long time.”