Page 23 of Welcome Home to Ivy Falls (Ivy Falls #3)

The square was aglow with hundreds of twinkle lights.

Booths flanked the outer perimeter, the scent of kettle corn and burgers filling the air.

Children dressed in their Sunday best chased each other in a game of tag on the lawn in front of town hall.

The wondrous green tinge of fireflies danced around them.

On the stage set up near the fountain, a five-piece band unloaded their equipment and tuned their guitars.

Maisey locked arms with me and dragged me to a corner near the community bank where Torran stood with Manny.

Beck, Torran’s dad and Tessa stood a few feet away having a quiet conversation.

Tessa’s girls and Manny’s daughter sat on a picnic bench, licking frantically at melting ice cream cones all in an attempt to keep their frilly lavender dresses clean.

Their hair was plaited in elaborate braids courtesy of Manny and his obsession with online hair tutorials.

When we reached them, Torran let out a low whistle and gave a megawatt smile.

‘Nice work, Maise. I can’t remember the last time I saw Piper dressed up.’

Maisey gave an overdramatic bow and all I could do was shake my head. Flinch at the way they all stared at me in wonder. It wasn’t like I dressed in grubby clothes all the time. Sometimes I wore… nice jeans.

I glanced toward the sidewalk, considering what kind of excuse I could make to get out of this night. Beck, sensing my mood change, took my hand and dragged me over to the stand where they were making grilled corn. More than once his stare moved to the small bandage on my head.

‘Next time I see the doc, I need to thank him for taking care of you. Tell me again how the shower curtain fell?’

‘Beck,’ I groaned. ‘I. Am. Fine. See, all arms and legs intact.’ I held his gaze. ‘You’re doing it again.’

‘Doing what?’ he said as if he didn’t know where this conversation was headed.

‘Dr Catherine told you more than once during our family sessions that it’s not healthy to hover.’ I made a propeller motion with my finger. ‘But here you are doing just that.’

He scrubbed at his hair. ‘Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.’

‘Don’t say sorry because that makes me feel bad.’ I paused until he looked at me. ‘We have a deal. Open communication. If I need you, I swear I’ll call. Stop worrying that any time a problem comes up, I’ll risk my sobriety.’

‘Is that what you think I’m doing?’

‘Yes.’

‘Shit, Pipe. That is not what this is about. It’s only that I loved having you at the house. It was like we were making up for lost time.’

The band ran a couple of scales, tuned their instruments and then greeted the crowd. With a quick strum of his guitar, the lead singer started the first chords of Shania Twain’s ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman!’, and people made their way to the dance floor.

‘I’m literally four blocks from Huckleberry Lane. Calm down and go ask your fiancée to dance. Think about your own life and stop stressing about mine.’

He gave me an apologetic smile. ‘All right. I’ll leave you in peace.’

‘Promise?’ I teased.

He laughed and made his way back to Torran.

Once they were on the dance floor, Tessa and Manny quickly joined them along with Torran’s dad and his girlfriend, Isabel.

I leaned back against a nearby light pole, loving the scene. The way the air filled with the sound of people’s laughter. The pure joy that emanated from the growing crowd. How a cool breeze blew over the grass near the gazebo. A figure moved up its steps and I walked in that direction.

Dex sat on one of the built-in benches inside the gazebo.

With his foot, he tapped out the counts in a song.

‘Step in Time’, the song featuring the chimney sweeps in the show, rang out in that beautiful tenor voice of his.

I inched back down a step to give him privacy, but the old wood squeaked under my feet.

Dex jumped up and caught me trying to flee. ‘Miss Piper?’

‘I didn’t mean to interrupt.’

‘You weren’t,’ he said, toeing at a loose board. ‘I’m having problems singing and doing all the complicated choreography at the same time.’

‘Want some help?’

In the square, the band moved into Travis Tritt’s ‘T-R-O-U-B-L-E’. The mood kicked up a notch as couples shuffled and spun around the dance floor.

He toed at the ground again. ‘Don’t you want to be out there with all the adults?’

‘What I want to do is make you more comfortable with this scene. You’re talented, Dex. All you need to do is take a breath and relax.’

‘Maybe you should give Griff or Connor the role. They’re much better dancers than me.’

‘Miss Cheri picked you for the part because she knows you can do it, and I agree.’

‘I keep tripping when I do the choreography. Can’t figure out how to sing and move at the same time. I’m a mess.’ He trudged to one of the benches and sank down.

More than once I’d been exactly where he was.

Too afraid to mess up. Worried I’d let the adults down with my performance.

All I could think to say was what I’d been told by one of my own drama teachers.

‘Theater is about having fun,’ I said, taking the spot beside him.

‘You shouldn’t be performing for me, or your parents, or your friends.

You should be performing for you . If you’re not enjoying it, what’s the point? ’

He shrugged, flipping his skateboard over and over with his foot. ‘What if I make a fool out of myself? All my friends will laugh. I’ll never live it down.’

‘You could look at it that way. Or you could think of it as a way to push yourself. Let me ask you this.’ I pointed to his skateboard. ‘How long did you have to practice before you could do a few tricks?’

‘I spent months at the skate park.’

‘Did you practice while your friends were around?’

‘Yes.’

‘And did you fall on your butt more than once?’

He gave me a half-smile. ‘I fell a lot.’

‘Did they laugh? Point fingers?’

‘No, because they were biting it worse than me.’

‘That’s all performing is… practice. You do it enough and it becomes muscle memory. The song plays and your body knows what to do.’

‘That’s kind of like an ollie. I plant my back foot on the tail, my front foot in the center.

Toes lined up with the edge.’ He grabbed his board to show me.

‘Then you snap the tail and jump.’ He went into motion and I liked the confident way he held his body.

He needed that same attitude with this dance.

He skated back toward me and said, ‘At first the trick is hard, and you fall a lot. But now, I do it all without thinking about it.’

‘Exactly.’ I tipped my chin to the center of the gazebo. ‘Want to give the choreography another try?’

‘Only if you do it with me, because I know you’ve learned the steps too.’ He grinned.

Maybe I hadn’t been so subtle standing stage right and moving along with the kids.

‘Let’s go then.’

We stood a few feet apart and I counted off the song. Together we stepped left. Moved right. Did an intricate crossover all while trying to keep up with our singing. More than once we stumbled, tripped over our own feet, but we kept going.

Toward the end of the song, we moved to the center and we spun in a circle until the world started to tilt. He eventually let go of my hands and we both flung out to the far edges of the gazebo. Dex landed on a bench, while I careened directly into a well-built chest.

‘Why are people down there when the real show is up here?’ Ford said, gripping my waist, his fingers pressing into the thin fabric of my shirt.

‘I was… helping Dex with a little bit of choreography,’ I said, inching away from his warm touch.

He chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest. Dammit, I hated that my limbs tingled when I looked at him. That with his dark hair brushed back, those glasses sitting perfectly on the bridge of his nose, he was too gorgeous for words.

‘Miss Piper is really good at this. She knows all the steps.’

‘I bet she does.’ He stepped closer, the woody scent of his cologne washing over me. ‘Want to head to the dance floor and show me some moves? I could use a teacher too.’ The huskiness to his voice, and not-so-subtle innuendo, made my veins electric.

‘We still have a little more to go over here.’

Dex was already grabbing his skateboard. ‘It’s okay, Miss Piper. My mom’s expecting me for dinner and I’m already late.’

He grinned like he and Ford were co-conspirators and took off down the steps.

Ford held out his hand, his voice dropping so achingly low that I felt the timbre of it in every part of my body. The musicians transitioned from one quick song to the next, the sweet sound of the fiddle sweeping through the air.

‘What do you say, Bird? May I have this dance?’