Page 29 of Feel the Rhythm

“Erm . . .” I fidgeted with my bag. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“How could you forget? The tall, dark, gorgeous guy.” She would remember. She couldn’t stop staring at him.

I laughed like a hyena. “Oh, that’s hilarious. You must have me confused with someone else.” I dug through my bag and grabbed some loose change. “That definitely wasn’t me,” I said very carefully, punctuating each word with a coin dropping in the tip jar. I winked at the end for good measure.

She furrowed her brow. “I swear it was.”

I threw my hands up in the air. Hannah watched the exchange, thoroughly amused, while Amy stared like a statue. She was on to me.Think, Ivy, think.

“Oh, you know what? I was here last week. But I wasn’t on a date. The guy asked for my number, but I turned him down.” I glared at the barista and ran away before she could interrupt with more information, like the fact that Scott ordered my drink and I met him later.

I busied myself on my phone as Hannah and Amy ordered their drinks. Dance moms were relentless. I had countless emails and text messages asking about costumes, rehearsals, and whether or not I could move the spacing so their daughter could be in the front. Spoiler alert: the answer to that last question was always no.

Hannah and Amy joined me at the counter, and I prayed they wouldn’t say anything about the barista.

“That was kind of strange,” Hannah said.

Guess not.

“No kidding,” Amy added. She glanced back at the barista and then studied my face. I put on a bewildered expression and shrugged my shoulders. I was locked like a treasure chest. Just call me pirate’s booty. Or not. That’s a little weird.

We finally got our drinks and escaped from the world’s nosiest barista. Time to cross that place off the date-night list. We wandered to the beach and sat on a bench, enjoying our drinks.

“Feeling better?” I asked Hannah.

She nodded, a relieved smile on her face. “Much. I wish Evan was here to enjoy this.”

“Yeah, Lucas would love this, too,” Amy added.

I hated that I couldn’t chime in that Scott would have enjoyed this, but he preferred the mountains, like me. Instead, I sat quietly as my two best friends pined after their husbands, who they would get to see in about half an hour.

But it was better this way, right? Amy was still so fragile over everything that had happened with her family. Lucas helped her be strong, but if she knew about me and Scott, I worried it would break her down again. I couldn’t do that to her. Not yet. Scott would stay my little secret, at least for now.