Page 54 of We'll Meet Again

Barely hiding her smile, she headed for the bar, while he made his way to the dance floor. Billie ordered a beer, but while she waited for it, she heard a conversation between two women at the bar that made her freeze.

“Is that Ethan Knight?” the first woman wondered, tossing her balayage blonde hair over her shoulder.

“Where?” asked the redhead beside her, turning her head to look around.

“There.” The first pointed directly to where Ethan was getting in line to dance.

“Shit, I think thatishim!”

“God, he is so fucking fit. Wonder if he’s here with someone.”

“So what if he is? Football’s got a goalkeeper, doesn’t mean you can’t score.”

They burst into a fit of giggles. Billie’s stomach turned to acid, and she pinned the bartender with a look. “Actually, a shot of tequila, please. A double.”

She needed all the liquid courage she could get. She knew she was going to look foolish without knowing the dance, but if Ethan was her net, she was going to be goddamn Mary Earps. After downing the clear liquor and letting it warm her from her belly to the tips of her fingers, she marched out to the dance floor.

Ethan greeted her with a thrilled smile. The song was changing just as she arrived.

“Okay, this one’s pretty easy,” he said, wrapping his arm around her. “Three eight counts, are you ready?”

“I think so,” she said, nodding. She resisted the urge to look over her shoulder at the bar.

“It goes - two taps with your right heel, two with your left,” he began, and showed her how it was supposed to look. “Then in quick succession - right, left, right, and then a flick like this.” He demonstrated once again, and on the flick part, turned to the left on the ball of his foot. “Now from here, you have two grapevines - one to the right and one to the left,” he went on, accentuating each with a clap. “Then, we take two rocking steps forward and make a lasso,” he explained, and showed her circling his hand over his head. She tried not to get too distracted by the motion of his hips as he did. “And the last part is easy, just four hops back.” He did that as well for good measure.

“I think I can handle that,” she said.

They got in line as the song picked up, and Billie chanced a look at the girls. Hand in hand with Ethan, she saw their faces sour with envy. While he wasn’t looking, she flipped them off.

She followed Ethan’s instructions as best she could, and it worked out much better than when he tried to teach her to receive and kick the football around. She got messed up on the flick and the turn at the same time, but he got her in the right direction, somehow managing to shield her from anyone else’s sight when she blundered. And yet, she couldn’t help but feel like with him at her side, it wouldn’t have mattered if people saw. The song blared on.

“Yeah, heel, toe, dosey doe, c’mon baby let’s go boot scootin’

Cadillac, blackjack, baby meet me out back

We’re gonna boogie

Oh, get down, turn around, go to town

Boot scootin’ boogie!”

Her mouth fell open as she looked at him. “Itisa real song!”

“What’d I tell you?” he shot back, laughing.

The sight of him with his head thrown back in amusement, dancing so joyfully, made her stop in place, nearly knocking into him. Another vision, like the one of the meadow, came to her. Like a memory that she wasn’t quite sure belonged to her, and yet, there it was, as clear as the room before her. In fact, it was another dance hall, only instead of country music, a swinging jazz band played. Ethan was not in his t-shirt and jeans, he was in a button down and trousers with suspenders over his broad shoulders. His voice echoed in her mind, a faint, “Told you I was the best dancer in the whole Airborne!” And then he laughed again, and she laughed with him.

She shook her head, and Ethan - real, present-day Ethan, was in front of her, coming into focus, his face inches from hers, clouded with concern.

“You alright?” he asked.

“I…” She trailed off, the image lingering in her mind before it vanished, and she had to catch her breath. “I think so.”

His furrowed brow told her he wasn’t convinced. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

Something like that, she thought. But she didn’t know how to explain it without sounding like she was losing her mind. Because it was happy and pleasant, just like the meadow, but it was also making her chest ache.

“I’m fine,” she assured him with a shaky smile. “Honest. What’s the next one?”