Page 177 of Dirty Like Zane
I kept staring rightback.
“What?” he asked,softly.
“Is it weird,” I asked him, “that this is the first time I’ve truly felt like we were a marriedcouple?”
He smoothed his thumb slowly over my ring finger, back and forth. “I know what you mean. I feel it,too.”
“I think something happened out on that balcony under the stars,Zane.”
“Yeah, Maggie,” he said, gazing into my eyes. “We gotmarried.”
Epilogue
Ash
We wereall set up in front of Summer’s DJ platform at the far end of the dance floor, ready to go. Jesse, Seth andme.
The crew was pretty slick getting us all hooked up, like a bunch of rock ’n’ roll ninjas. Jesse and Seth had guitars and I had a mic stand, and the three of us were all seated in a row like gentlemen; not my usual way toperform.
The last time I’d performed a song sitting down was at Jesse’swedding.
Summer was playing The Miracles’ “Shop Around,” not a remix, just the regular old Motown classic, and she had all the old people dancing. Brody was dancing with grandma Dolly—carefully; that woman was getting old. Elle’s parents were dancing. Matt was dancing with Dylan’s mom, Katie was dancing with Seth’s foster father, and Piper, of all people, was dancing with Katie’s mom while Katie’s dad danced withJessa.
It was kinda nice seeing everyone cut loose… and all the people Dylan cared about so much under oneroof.
Jesse poked me and pointed out Amber, who was dancing with Shady—or at least, trying to dance with Shady. The man couldn’t dance for shit, but she was doing her best to keep him shuffling his feet around while not breaking hertoes.
She looked pretty in her pale yellow dress with a flower in her hair, her pointy little eyeteeth flashing as shelaughed.
I smiled alittle.
Was good to see her happy. It didn’t make me unhappy like I thought it might. And I wasn’t all that nervous about seeing heranymore.
I wasn’t nervous about the song, either. It was a pretty vocally-intense and emotional song, sure. But for some fucked-up reason, I was actually a little nervous about singing in front ofDylan.
I just had to breathe and maybe forget he was in theroom.
As soon as “Shop Around” was done, Summer would introduce us—but it felt like the longest song in history right now. She might as well have put on “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and called it a night. I was sweating a little, and it had nothing to do with the heat in theroom.
It wasn’thot.
The doors along the balcony were wide open, and I could feel the freshair.
Just had tobreathe…
And remind myself that this thing was gonna bebeautiful.
Was definitely gonna get Zane laidtonight.
Luckily, Maggie hadn’t noticed us sitting here. The full dance floor helped. Plus, Zane was doing a good job keeping her distracted at the other end of the ballroom. As soon as “Shop Around” started playing, that was his cue to redirecther.
I’d seen them circling the dessert table; pretty sure he had her dipping into the chocolate fountain right aboutnow.
Then “Shop Around” finally came to an end. I didn’t even have to look at Jesse or Seth. They sat on either side of me, and I could feel them shifting in their seats, gettingready.
We’d rehearsed to perfection. I didn’t need a cheat sheet for the lyrics or anything. The lyrics were pretty simple. Zane had chosen the song; it wasn’t a new song, but it was new to me, and I’d made sure to commit it to heart thisweek.
“Zane? Oh, Zaaaaane,” Summer purred over her mic. “Where’s that beautiful wife of yours? Bring her on out to the dance floor, wouldya?”
