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My feet instinctively dug in at first, sandals slipping over the shiny ground. “I’ve attended hundreds of these events, and I’ve never once danced at them,” I said almost desperately as he led me out onto the floor, pulse fluttering.Faceless, become faceless, I willed the crowd, but I couldn’t quite seem to dodge the eyes. “It—I won’t be any good.”
“Well, I’ve attended two of these Alderton-Du Ponte events now, and I, too, have never danced at them.” Sumner’s teasing demeanor was designed to calm me, I knew, just from the way he peered into my eyes. His blue irises were an almost ooey-gooey sort of color, pupils large. “Just focus on me.”
I grumbled, but still allowed him to pick up my left hand and lay it on his shoulder, and allowed him to pick my right hand up. His other hand slid around my body and rested at a respectable spot on my lower back.
Though Sumner didn’t know how to hold a serving tray, he knew the dancing form for an event like this.
His hand pressed me a bit closer, and from there, he took a step, leading me into it. “Not too bad,” he murmured with a smug smile, gazing down at me. “Not terrible.”
I choked on a laugh, because even though the nerves were still there, being in Sumner’s arms felt like a safe haven, a light that chased away the darkness. We’d formed our own little bubble, and I focused on the way he looked at me. I couldn’t have cared less about the people around us, about where my mother ran off to. Nothing but the way we seemed to move together like magnets.
I’d rather do things I don’t want to than find out what that other life looks like,I’d said to Sumner the night my father had come into my room.
What if it’s better?Sumner had asked.That other life.
What if this was what that other life looked like? Sumner Pennington, in all his golden-haired, puppy dog-eyed glory, on the other side. His hand in mine as if it’d always belonged there, as if it were the other half of my own.
Or what if… what if he belonged inthislife? What if the universe, just this once, let me have both worlds? I would’ve given anything for my conspiracy theory to be right, that the man I looked up to now was, by some miracle, Aaron Astor. In that moment, I would’ve given anything for Sumner Pennington. Given up anything.
I looked up at him, and for one final, foolish moment as our eyes locked, I hoped. I hoped that the wish turned out to be true, that maybe, just maybe, the universe would tip its hat in my favor just this once. I’d done everything requested of me, and this was going to be my ultimate reward.
I lingered in the arms of the golden-haired man, relishing in that foolish hope for one last time.
Sumner’s hand around the small of my back pressed me just a fraction of an inch closer, and a delirious sort of heat swamped my skin.Wouldn’t it be just champagne?
A new voice broke my thoughts apart, chasing away the dream with reality. “Mind if I cut in?”
I didn’t recognize the male voice, and when I looked over, I didn’t recognize his face, either. The man seemed in his mid-to-late twenties, dark hair was cut short off the back of his neck, styled and kept out of his eyes. He wasn’t ugly, but he wasn’t devastatingly handsome either. Just… average, with a wide nose and a curved jaw.
His megawatt smile was full of pearly white teeth, as if waiting for me to jump into his arms. “I do mind, actually,” I replied, tightening my grip on Sumner’s hand and shoulder. It was then that I realized he’d gone stiff.
Sumner’s voice was low. “Margot?—”
“I don’t make a habit of dancing with strangers.”Or dancing period. I was relieved, though, that some of my old attitude surfaced at the audacity of some random man. It left me feeling a bit more grounded in Sumner’s arms, at least until they fell away from me. I looked at him, finding his face pale.
“Sorry, sorry, I guess I am being rude,” the man said a little awkwardly, and when he brushed his hands down the front of his suit jacket, I saw they were shaking. “Rude of me to just waltz up to you and assume you’d know who I was. Silly of me.”
Unease seeped further into me, a sinking feeling weighing me down. “Should I know you?” I asked, still holding onto Sumner’s shoulder despite his own hands now hanging at his sides.
I did not want to hear the answer. My gut knew before I did.
The stranger outstretched his hand to mine, and as I looked at it, the first thing I noticed was how small it was compared to Sumner’s. It looked even smaller than mine. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Margot,” he said with that same megawatt smile, leaning in. “I’m Aaron Astor. Your fiancé.”
And just like that, reality shattered that hope around me like glass.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ithought I heard him wrong. That there was no way the man before me said any of the words that came from his mouth.I’m Aaron Astor. Your fiancé.
“Or, well, not fiancé yet,” the man—Aaron Astor—fumbled in his recovery, cheeks flushing as he dropped his untouched hand. “That—that was a slip of the tongue, forgive me.”
I blinked at him as if he spoke another language, the words registering, but distantly. Instead, reality took more importance. I could’ve laughed, because this obviously wasn’t a random impromptu event, like my mother had made it sound. No wonder there weren’t many people in attendance—she’d no doubt culled the guest list, keeping it to the professional ones in her friend group. It was planned, all for Aaron Astor’s arrival.
Our meeting wasn’t supposed to happen yet. It wasn’t supposed to be until next week, the day before the wedding. I hadn’t prepared for it yet. But that was why my mother laid out a dress for me. Awhitedress. She’d laid the trap, such a painfully obvious one, and I all but waltzed into it. Her gushing over my appearance hadn’tbeen because her friends would see me, but because Aaron Astor would.
My mother made that even clearer when she joined our bubble. “Oh, good, you’ve found Margot!” she said with an exuberant voice I hadn’t heard her use in a while. “Doesn’t she look absolutely stunning, Aaron?”
“Indeed,” he returned, beaming that pearly smile now at my mother. “I was told she had an affinity for suits.”