Page 6 of The Second Dance

I run my hand through my hair, irritated. “Josh? They’re doing good.”

“What’d they have?”

“A girl.”

Dad smiles fondly. “I always wanted a daughter. Maybe I’ll get a granddaughter. That’s assuming one of my boys can figure out how to get married.”

I’ve been feeling the growing pressure to find a woman. It seems like everyone around me is either getting married or having kids. I figured I’d start looking one of these days.

He’s not exactly painting a rosy picture for marriage at the moment.

Dad finishes his whiskey and sets the glass in the sink.

“That’s where I proposed to your mother.”

“The Warton eighty?”

He nods.

“She’s making a point, then.”

He turns, not quite hiding the pain in his gray eyes. “You got it.”

4.

Andy

I don’t really go to church anymore.

Just Christmas. Easter.

And funerals.

I stare at the front of the church, looking at the spot wherehercasket sat. The casket is gone, but the memory just won’t fade.

Tearing my gaze away, I scan the church, counting up the number of classmates that still live in Silver Bend.

There’s Josh Olson. Big as an ox sitting next to a redhead I don’t recognize.

Skyler Thomas sits in the same place his family has sat for the last twenty years. Probably longer than that.

I scan the pews to the right, knowing who I’ll see, hoping I won’t.

Bo Thomas. Skyler’s cousin.

They were both in my grade. We grew up together. I knew them when they wore Velcro shoes and they knew me when I had a tendency to get carsick on the school bus.

I know them better than that, but some of the memories I’d rather not revisit.

Bo suddenly stands, cupping a perfect little bundle to his chest.

That sweet little newborn baby girl looks perfect in his arms, snuggled up against his chest. He paces the aisle on the side, bouncing that baby with a natural ease that seems impossible for such a big guy. Nobody seems particularly interested in his movements. Must be a regular occurrence.

An irrational stab of jealousy cuts through me.

I don’t know who his wife is, but I already hate her.

She’s probably thin as a rail and beautiful.