Part 12 (1/2)

What else did I say?

We dozed off for the third time that night. I was sound asleep when Dawson woke me by kissing my sleeping lips. I always slept the best in the morning. My nights seemed to be full of demons that kept me awake until the exhaustion took over early in the morning.

”Good morning, beautiful,” he said, and I had to smile. Him calling me beautiful had an entirely different meaning behind it than when I heard it from Drew. When Drew gave me compliments it was always in the bedroom, usually when he was close to shooting his load.

”You mean I didn't scare you away last night?” I asked as he kissed my lips again.

”Not a chance,” he smiled.

Things were going extremely well. I couldn't

believe that my new life was working out. I may have just pulled off the biggest disappearing act in history. Dawson continued to come around, and we spent a lot of time together. He spent the night on several occasions, but neither of us tried to go that next step. He did a lot of comforting during my long nights when he was there, and tried to get me to talk to him. I didn't, and didn't plan on ever revealing my dark skeletons to him or anyone else.

Summer Fest was extremely busy at the shop. I was happy that we were closing at four rather than six, and were planning to join in the festivities. Lauren was singing on stage, and she and Levi were D-Jing for the street fair later that evening.

Dawson stopped by in uniform around three. I thought that he seemed preoccupied but a.s.sumed that he had probably had a pretty busy day himself with all of the commotion going on in town. He told me that he was going to go home and change, and he would meet me back there.

I told him I was going home to get a shower and change as well, and I would just find him in the streets somewhere.

I wore a long skirt and tank-top with psychedelic sandals that I had ordered from one of our suppliers. I wore my hair down for once and was excited to spend the evening with Dawson, Lauren, Star, Joel, and even Levi.

Dawson was already there and wearing khaki shorts with a nice red s.h.i.+rt and brown leather flip-flops.

He stood from the picnic table and kissed my cheek.

”You look very pretty,” he offered, causing me to smile. He always made me smile.

I was in such a happy mood and laughed at Starlight being the center of attention, dancing in the street all by herself. She had tried to get any and every one to go with her, and when n.o.body would, she went alone. It was only a matter of time before more and more people had joined her, all waiting for someone to do it first. Lauren and Levi were hilarious on stage and argued back and forth about funny issues. I was laughing at them talking about how Lauren steals his food at work when I looked across the table to Dawson. He was staring intently at me with a serious expression.

”Are you okay? You have been kind of out of it all day,” I asked.

”Yeah, I'm fine. Do you want to dance?” he asked.

I smiled and gave him a peculiar look.

”I am not sure I can dance to this music,” I admitted. I could dance. I loved my dance cla.s.ses in Las Vegas. I just didn't think that Ballroom Dancing would correspond with the country music.

”You need to dance the waltz or something?” he teased.

”Something like that,” I laughed.

I wondered what he was doing when he walked up to Levi and whispered in his ear. Levi smiled and nodded his head. Dawson came back with a smile and took my hand.

”What are you doing, sheriff?” I asked, taking his hand.

He didn't reply, and Levi came across the speakers, saying he had a request for some ballroom dancing. Some song called the Tennessee Waltz started playing, and I laughed.

”That was as close as he had,” Dawson smiled down at me.

It was close enough to a slow song that would allow me to be in his arms as we danced across the blacktop dance floor.

”You seem to be a little distracted today,” I said, looking up to him.

”I guess, I kind of am, but we'll talk about it later,”

he smiled down at me and kissed the end of my nose.

”Talk about what?” I asked curious as to what could be on his mind.

”We'll talk about it later,” he smiled a rea.s.suring smile.

We sat at the table and watched the people dancing. I too was distracted, wondering what Dawson could want to talk about. I stared blankly toward the dancers as my mind wandered back to Drew and my own dancing coach.

Drew had wanted me to learn to dance so that whenever he thought that I was ready to be in public and wouldn't embarra.s.s him I would be able to dance as gracefully as he could. I had been working with Jaymas Wellington, a retired Broadway star. I was on my third week with him, and we were in the open end of the gym. I didn't know that Drew had returned. He had been gone for nearly three weeks.

Jaymas and I were doing a spin and were laughing and really doing more goofing off than anything. I liked him a lot, probably more than I should have. It was nice to have someone to talk to. We didn't talk about anything personal. I knew everything I said could be heard by Drew anytime he wanted. I had just slid down Jaymas's body after the spin, and we were both laughing when I lost my balance and fell to the floor. We stopped dead in our tracks when Drew entered with a look of pure anger.

”Leave!” he demanded through gritted teeth to Jaymas.

Jaymas left, telling me that he would see me later.

He didn't see me later, and I never saw him again. Drew walked up to me and took me in his arms and started dancing me around the floor.

”You like flirting with other men?”

”I wasn't flirting with anyone,” I demanded.

”That's not how I was seeing it. It looked to me like you were enjoying being in another man's arms.”

”We were dancing. You're the one that made me take lessons,” I reminded him.

”Do you like him rubbing his d.i.c.k all over you?”

”You're impossible,” I demanded and took the blow to the same cheek that he seemed to always go for.

He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the gym. I looked at Rebecca as I was being forced into his office.

She gave me a warm encouraging smile, but it wasn't too rea.s.suring to me. I had only been in Drew's office once, in the five months that I had been there, and that was on our wedding day. I wasn't allowed in that room, and it was kept locked unless he was in it.

”Get out!” Drew said to the two guys with folders and some sort of brochures in their hands.

”Drew, you have to make a decision on this ad,”

Derik argued.