Page 47 of Every Time We Touch

“I’m so in love with you,” she says.

“Me too.” I hold her tight. It’s as simple as that, although, in our case, there are major complications, but that’s the heart of the matter. We fell in love. It’s plain as day. Sure, it’s also lust and a touch of madness and the exhilaration of meeting someone special, but it’s more than that. Otherwise, we wouldn’t still be here.

“What are we going to do?” Jen asks.

“Maybe we just take it one day at a time.” What else can we do? Maybe, if we have to choose each other again day after day, over the possible fallout of being together, it will speed up some processes. We will find out sooner rather than later whether we are that match made in heaven. That once-in-a-lifetime connection you can only have with one person.

“Do you have any idea how beautiful you are when you dance?”

“Tell me.” I want to know what Jen sees when she watches me, when I dance only for her. No one else has ever seen this piece.

Jen loosens her arms and leans back. “It’s almost unreal. The control you have over your body…” She chuckles. “It definitely took me to a breathless place.” She gives a slight shake of the head that makes her look extra adorable. “Sorry, that was a little lame.” She looks me in the eye. “Seriously, though. You’re out of this world.”

“Thank you.” It’s not just my ego that’s being boosted. To dance for Jen was out of this world for me as well. “I think you should resume your lessons with me, by the way.”

“Really?” She quirks up her eyebrows.

“I want to dance with you,” I say.

“You expect me to keep my hands off you while you teach me how to tango?”

“Fuck the tango,” I say. “I want you to dance the rumba with me. To this song. You and me.”

“I’d love that.”

“The rumba looks a lot easier than it actually is, though.” A grin tugs at my lips.

“You think I can’t do it?”

“I’m sure you can. With the right kind of… motivation.”

“More punishment, I hope.”

“So much more.” Punishment is not usually part of my teaching style, but for Jen, I have to make an exception.

“When do we start?” she asks.

Chapter 27

Jen

On Sunday, I have to drag myself out of Clancy’s bed in order to make it to brunch at my mom’s at noon. On Friday, I didn’t even go back home. I lingered at Clancy’s while she taught her classes, wandered through her neighborhood, stopped by the studio with lunch, and pretended to work from home. Saturday is Clancy’s busiest day of the week, so I did make the drive back and forth, playing “A Breathless Place” by Isabel Adler on repeat in my car.

I spoke to my sister only briefly to cancel our regular Friday evening twin date. I had no choice but to lie and invent an emergency at work. Over the phone, it was just doable, but I know Heather will subject me to a sisterly cross-examination as soon as she gets the chance—she used to be a lawyer, after all.

It was easy enough to ‘take things day by day’, as Clancy suggested and I, in a haze of lustful hormones—because, my god, that dance—agreed to. But it’s only been two days, which is usually the longest I go without talking to a member of my family. Today, I’m facing all of them. And I can hardly ask Clancy to come with me.

“Call me after,” Clancy says, her strong arms around me as I say goodbye. “I’m here. Okay?”

My family is such an inextricable part of my life, of who I am, that seeing them under these circumstances, and not being able to be honest with them, makes my stomach coil into a knot. No pancake eating contests with my nephews today.

“Okay.” I kiss her one last time, then head out. It’s just brunch. I’ve had thousands of meals with my family. I don’t listen to Isabel Adler on the way to my mom’s house because the memory of that dance is too much for the occasion.

The first person I see when I arrive is my dad. What the fuck?

“Hey, sweetie.” He kisses me on the cheek. “I hear you’ve been MIA.”

“Dad?” I’m so flustered, the words just come out of my mouth. “What are you doing here?”