Somewhere in the Middle

by Linda Palmer

  “Of course.”

  Roone turned toward the door. “I’ll walk you out.”

  Could things have been more uncomfortable? I waved to Jon and his dad before following Roone down the hall and onto the porch. “I hope I didn’t get you in trouble with your dad.”

  “How could you possibly?”

  I tucked my fingers into the front pockets of my jeans. “Couldn’t, I guess.” Turning I started toward the steps. Roone beat me there, jumping over them as he’d done at school and then offering me his hand.

  “I’ve got this.”

  “Forgot.” He tucked his hands behind his back.

  I rolled my eyes. “If you don’t mind, let’s meet at my house tomorrow night. Dayna wants to help me dress, and our parents will want to take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.” I rolled my eyes so he’d know how I felt about that.

  “I don’t mind.”

  “Your dad can come if he wants to take some, too.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  Though that was the perfect segue into questions about the argument I’d just overheard, I didn’t ask any. If anyone understood the embarrassment of interfering fathers, I did.

  On Saturday I was a nervous wreck all day. I couldn’t eat a thing, which was very unlike me. My stomach felt as if the butterflies that lived there had been gobbled up by pterodactyls. Luckily Dayna came over early, which was a nice distraction, even if she did drive me nuts applying too much makeup and then messing with my hair forever.

  But when I finally looked into the mirror and saw her handiwork, I had to admit the wait had been worthwhile. I looked amazing with my hair pulled up in a complicated twist. Not that I was drop-dead gorgeous or even beautiful. I was just so different tonight that anyone who saw me would definitely do a double take once they realized who I was.

  Dayna tackled her own make-up and hair next. I sat and watched as she meticulously turned a pretty Hispanic girl into a Latino goddess. Gavin was going to flip. We waited until a half hour before pick-up time to put on the dresses to avoid wrinkling them. Hers, which was in the shade of red I’d originally wanted, made her look like a runway model. Mine completed the illusion of a confident female about to hit the town.

  If only I really were.

  My knees actually wobbled as we started to the den and not just because of my ridiculous shoes. I already wanted the night to be over.

  And then the doorbell rang. Yeah, fifteen minutes early.

  “I’ll get it,” yelled my dad, who hadn’t even seen my dress yet.

  Slowly making my way to the front of the house, I kept my eye on the door. Dad opened it wide. Roone stood there—a six-foot-whatever hunk of handsome in a black tux that accentuated his broad shoulders and long legs yet still camouflaged his bulk.

  Click!

  What a sight. Caught up in it, I snagged my heel on the Persian rug in the foyer and went sprawling.

  “Everly!” My horrified dad spun around to help, but Roone somehow got there first and scooped me up and into his arms. Totally humiliated, I hid my face in my hands and wouldn’t lower them even when he set me in the closest chair.

  He dropped to one knee next to me. “Are you okay?”

  “No.”

  “Did you break something?” asked Dad, squatting next to Roone.

  “No.”

  Dad peeled my fingers from my face. “Maybe you’d better stand up to be sure.”

  With my cheeks no doubt the color of the poinsettias on the side table, I pushed the guys back and stood. “See? It’s all good.”

  “Hm.” Dad’s gaze ricocheted from me to Roone. He offered him his right hand. “Ethan Sayers.”

  “Roone Thorsen.”

  By then Mom and Eli had joined us. “What’s going on?” Mom asked, easily picking up on the tension.

  “Just Everly showing off her amazing grace,” Dayna told her.

  “You fell?”

  “Mo-om!” Could I be more humiliated? That would be a no.

  Thank goodness the doorbell rang again and distracted everyone.

  “Gavin!” Dayna turned to run to the door. Did she trip on her stupid shoes or otherwise act the fool? Of course not. She never even wobbled.

  “Did you hurt yourself?” Mom tugged the bodice of my dress up and the skirt down before brushing me off.

  “I’m okay.” I squirmed away from her needless ministrations. I’d fallen on a clean carpet not in a mud hole and the dress had a strap. I really was fine.

  Mom, who had her back to Roone, looked me in the eye and mouthed, “He’s so hot!” She discreetly fanned her face, which made me laugh, of course. I suddenly felt better and a little less stupid. I turned to Dad. “So what do you think of the dress?”

  “What there is of it fits really well.”

  “Da-ad!”

  He hooted. “I like it. I like it. Looks nice on her, doesn’t it Roone?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  His tone made me blush even more furiously. “Can we please leave now?” I was so ready to go.

  “Not until my parents get here,” Dayna said.

  Oh yeah. The photos. I tried to hide my dismay.

  Roone touched my arm. “Maybe you should sit down.”

  “What I should do is practice walking in these shoes. Come with?”

  “Sure.”

  “Me too?” asked my little brother, who’d been oddly quiet from the moment I appeared in my Cinderella dress.

  “Of course.” I took his hand and led him out the back door onto our deck with Roone right behind us. The chilly December air did wonders to cool my flaming face.

  “I like your dress.” Count on Eli to say something sweet. “It shows a lot of your boobs, though.”

  “Oh my God. Where did you hear that word?”

  “You just said it to Dayna.”

  “Were you hiding in the hall again?” I wouldn’t even look at Roone. “Well, you’re not supposed to say it in public, okay?”

  Tears filled his eyes.

  Of course I bent to hug him. “It’s okay. You didn’t know.” With a sigh and a little shiver, I walked to the side rail, making sure my heels didn’t get caught in the cracks between the cedar boards beneath our feet. “Look at the sky tonight.”

  Roone and Eli joined me. Eli pointed at the stars. “There’s Hydra!”

  “Good job, buddy.” I tousled his hair, as pleased he’d been listening when I pointed out the winter constellations as I was surprised he’d remembered the word.

  “And there’s Gem-ny.”

  “Gemini. Go, you!” Now I gave him a kiss.

  “And that’s Leo Minor,” said Roone.

  I nodded. “Another right answer. You guys are amazing.”

  Roone tilted his head slightly. “Don’t I get a kiss, too?”

  Eli giggled like the little kid he was. “Kiss him, Everly. Just like you did me.”

  How would I survive this night? I gave Roone a quick kiss on the cheek, or tried to. Since he turned his head just as I got there, it landed on the corner of his mouth. That shocked the hell out of me. Didn’t he know that little brothers never forgot?

  Eli doubled over, laughing hysterically.

  “Was that the doorbell?” Please, God. Let that be the doorbell. I ran as best I could to the sliding storm door and went inside just as Dayna’s parents and brothers stepped into our foyer.

  “They kissed! They kissed!” Eli jumped all over the place in his glee.

  Mortified, I turned to apologize to Roone, but when I realized he was laughing his butt off I glared at him instead and then zoned in on my little brother. “Only because you begged me to.” I popped him lightly on the top of the head to make a joke of the whole thing. But the damage had been done. My dad had morphed into Sylvester with his mouth full of Tweety Bird. Yeah, I watched Looney Tunes classics, and at the moment could almost see yellow feathers sticking out of my father’s smirking mouth. “Can we please get on with this and get out of here?”

  �
��Of course.” Mom flashed a sympathetic smile as she ushered everyone into the den. There they took pictures and more pictures of us standing in front of the fireplace with its mantel all sparkly and decorated for the holidays. My handiwork, of course. Mom didn’t have time for stuff like that at the moment beyond baking Christmas cookies every time she had a spare second. That sometimes meant sugar sprinkles at midnight.

  “Are we done?” I’d just about had enough.

  Mom nodded. “I am.”

  “Me, too,” said Dayna’s dad.

  At last. “Excellent, let’s go.” I grabbed my stuffed hobo bag, which so didn’t match my dress. That didn’t matter. I was going to lock it in the trunk when we got to the dance, which was being held at the McAlister Country Club across town.

  “Where’s your coat?” asked Roone.

  “Not wearing one.”

  “Me, either,” said Dayna. “It’s not that cold and would definitely ruin the look.”

  After hugs all around, we finally escaped into the night. I offered Roone my key ring. “Please don’t wreck my car.”

  He backed up a couple steps in obvious horror. “I have to drive?”

  “You don’t want to?” That got me. What boy wouldn’t want to drive a classic Trans Am?

  “No, I do. I just…” He shook his head. “Never mind.”

  I slapped the keys into his hand. He opened my door so I could sit in the passenger seat, a move that probably gave him a peek at my undies since I did it rather awkwardly. That told me I should’ve practiced more than just walking before he got there.

  Roone folded himself into the driver’s seat, but only after letting it all the way back to accommodate his long legs. After buckling up, he took a moment to familiarize himself with everything. I used that time for a closer look at him. I saw that he’d worked on his hair, which lay slightly smoother than usual. And his tie was perfectly tied, not easy to do.

  “How’d you get this so neat?” I asked, tugging on it.

  “YouTube. I had no idea there were so many how-tos on that site. And other cool stuff, too. You could waste hours there.”

  He was just discovering YouTube? “Believe me, a lot of people do. I’m sorry about my family. They obviously don’t understand that embarrassing me also embarrasses you.”

  “I wasn’t embarrassed.”

  “Oh. Well, good. Do you know how to get to the dance?”

  “I Googled it while I was on the internet today.”

  Gavin, who’d parked on the street, honked his horn as he and Dayna took off. Roone started the engine and put my car in gear, backing us down the drive and then heading us toward the country club. Though I wasn’t that eager to get there, I still wished he’d drive a little faster. “You don’t have to poke along. This is a sports car.”

  “Right.” He sped up slightly.

  By the time we got to the club, which looked like a southern plantation from the outside, I had to admit that my amazing un-boyfriend drove like a granny. I could’ve sworn he looked both ways three times at every stop sign. And he never reached the speed limit, much less went over it. So it was with relief that I got out of my car once he finally parked it and opened my door. We locked my bag in the trunk. He pocketed my keys.

  When we got to the veranda, we found Gavin and Dayna waiting there. She was hugging her bare arms and jumping up and down to keep warm. “What took you guys so long?”

  I gave her a hard look. “Roone was getting used to the car.”

  Rolling her eyes, she shoved her boyfriend toward the front door. Roone automatically reached for my arm to assist me with the steps, catching himself before he actually did it.

  “Tonight you can help,” I told him, my gaze on my shoes.

  He offered his arm, bent at the elbow. I slipped my hand through it. In moments we were inside the toasty ballroom which could’ve been a fairyland of twinkling lights. Since I’d never been there before, I turned slowly to take in everything from the vaulted ceiling to the ornate fireplace. The ballroom, though enormous, was jam packed with students in formals and tuxes, most of them dancing to music so loud my ear drums throbbed.

  “They’ve got to be breaking at least four fire codes,” said Gavin, who was taking a little look-see of his own. “Dennis would flip if he could see this.” He as good as shouted the words to make himself heard above the din.

  I motioned for Roone to tip his head towards me so I could yell in his ear. “His stepdad’s a fireman.” Roone, his gaze glued to our gyrating classmates, nodded that he’d heard me.

  Only then did I notice that he didn’t seem nearly as at ease as he had earlier. In fact, he was definitely out of his element if the pulse pounding in his neck was any indication. Since I was out of mine, too, I once again slipped my arm through his and led him as far away from the DJ as I could without leaving the room.

  “We don’t have to dance if you don’t want to.” I didn’t have to yell this distance from the speakers.

  “Huh?”

  Or maybe I did. I repeated what I’d just said, only a little louder.

  “Just give me a minute. I’ll get the hang of it.” His gaze darted around the room for several long moments.

  During that time, every classmate who hadn’t put two and two together at school last week did so now. Susan Fincher even had the nerve to approach me and say, “You two are really a pair?”

  “Yes.” Was that a thrill of pride I felt at saying those words? If so, I was as shallow as she was and a whole lot less truthful.

  Or not.

  The thrill of pretending with Roone really had little relation to how amazing he looked tonight. I mean, I’d felt his magnetism Thursday and Friday, too, when we were simply being ourselves. In fact, if I were really being honest, getting to know him had been a wicked sweet experience from the start, and I was actually looking forward to the night and weeks ahead.

  Just then, JR walked up with his faithful sidekick Bryan right behind. His sullen gaze flicked from me to Roone and then back to me. “Thought you two weren’t hooking up.”

  “Things change.”

  He pouted a little. “Want to dance?”

  My chin dropped. “I’m with—”

  “Me,” said Roone. He took my hand in his. “Okay. Let’s dance.”

  “Oh!”

  Roone walked us straight onto the dance floor, a matter of taking two whole steps that nonetheless left JR and Bryan behind. More self-conscious than I’d been in my entire life, I began to move to the beat, as did he. Neither of us looked at each other, and all I could think about was my feet, which were already hurting. That made the whole thing nothing but weird. The next song was a slow song. Roone winced and started toward the wall.

  I grabbed his wrist to stop him. “No you don’t. This is the easy part.” Slipping my hands around his middle—he was too tall for anything else—I stepped up close. “Put your arms around me.” He did. “Now we do this.”

  He caught on very quickly, and I felt him relax as we slowly moved, our bodies pressed together and my cheek over his thudding heart. Somehow we wound up in the center of a room so crowded I could barely breathe. Thank goodness I wasn’t claustrophobic. I’d have had to escape.

  Roone suddenly tensed and looked up. Naturally my gaze followed his to a crystal chandelier as big as my kitchen table that was suspended from an arched beam high overhead.

  A weird sound made us exchange a baffled glance. Other dancers clearly tried to place the noise, but only those nearest to us. Bruno Mars’s soulful voice drowned it out for everyone else. I heard it again—a metallic ripping that gave me the shivers. Couples began parting and glancing around uneasily.

  Suddenly that massive chandelier high overhead dipped a little on one side. I heard gasps and muted screams. The cluster of dancers directly below tried to move out from under it, but couldn’t since the mass of dancers encircling us were still oblivious.

  The light dropped a little more.

  “Move it! Move it!” G
uys in the middle began to shoulder students aside to widen center floor space. But the tiny area they cleared wasn’t even in danger. As we watched, the chandelier abruptly gave way. I ducked, screaming, my arms over my head, but my eyes still focused above me. Peripherally, I caught Roone flicking his left hand slightly to the right. The chandelier instantly swung in that direction and then crash landed in the only spot where no one stood.

  God, what a sound. Metal slamming against wood. Glass shattering. My ears rang with it.

  In the chaos that followed I found myself separated from my date for a couple of minutes, but my gaze stayed glued to him. Through narrowed eyes, I studied his demeanor and expression. Was that a hint of a smirk? Instantly, more questions popped into my head. Had I seen what I thought I’d seen? And was I the only one who had?

  “Everly!” Roone pushed his way to me, his expression now appropriately solemn. “Damn. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Was that close or what?”

  “Close. Very freakin’ close.”

  For the longest time we stared into each other’s eyes with all hell breaking loose around us. Did he know I knew what he’d done?

  More important, had he really done it?

  The earsplitting squeal of the DJ’s mic jerked me back to the present. One of the chaperones, Ms. Bracken who taught art, now held it to her lips. “Please remain calm. There is no need to panic. Are there any injuries?”

  “No.”

  “We’re okay.”

  “It’s all good.”

  “That was so scary!”

  “Anyone who needs assistance should go to the chaperone’s corner now, please. As for everyone else, the dance is temporarily suspended while we sort things out, but there are refreshments across the hall and chimineas on the back terrace. We’ll let you know when it’s all right to come back into the ballroom.”

  It took a while for everyone to get out of there. Roone and I walked slowly with the crowd, our shoes crunching on shattered crystal pendalogues. Then we had to wait our turn to squeeze through the double doors and into the teeming hall. I took a deep breath of relief. “Whew. How’s the refreshment room looking?”