“Do you want to dance?”
Jake felt a tap on his shoulder as he looked up to see Darla, who Jake lovingly referred to as the leader of the B.B.B. (Bleach-Blond Bimbo) clique.
“Not tonight, sweetheart.” Jake winked at her and smiled. He wasn’t trying to be a dick. It was just that one, the double run, no sleep, and physical basketball game was catching up with him, and two, he knew the only dance she was really interested in was the horizontal mambo and she needed to find a different dance partner for that one.
“Please,” she purred, “it’s my birthday.”
Shit.
“Come on, Jake.” Eric elbowed him with a challenging gleam in his eye. “It’s her birthday.”
Damn. When had his brother become such an asshole?
“All right, birthday girl. One dance.” Jake stood and wrapped one arm around Darla’s waist, leading her to the dance floor as he flipped his brother off behind his back.
Jake could hear Eric chuckling. All the years Jake had been a smartass to his brother, he’d thought it was really funny, but now that Eric was stepping up his smartass game and Jake was on the receiving end of it, it wasn’t quite as amusing.
Just as he, Darla, and her fake double D’s reached the center of the dance floor, the music slowed and the opening chords of Peter Cetera’s ‘Glory of Love’ began playing through the speakers.
What the…? Is this some kind of a joke?
Jake looked around, but everyone was minding their own business. Of course they were. Why wouldn’t they be? No one else knew that this had been Jake and Tessa’s song.
It had started out as a joke because the first time they’d hung out they’d watched The Karate Kid. It was one of the few VHS tapes Adeline had owned. Then, since Jake had done morning announcements at school senior year, he had taken the opportunity of dedicating and playing ‘Glory of Love’ to Tessa the next morning.
Since that day, it had been “their” song.
Darla wrapped her arms around his neck and began seductively swaying against him. Jake moved his hands to her lower back and held them there loosely. He tried to step away and put some distance between them, but the birthday girl was having none of it as she molded her body to his.
Jake couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard this song. It had to have been years. When it would come on the radio, he’d turn it off. If it started playing in a store he was at, he’d leave.
What were the chances he would hear it and be forced to listen to it the day after Tessa showed back up in town? A hundred to one? A thousand to one? A million to one?
Whatever it was, the chances were slim. Now, as he listened to the lyrics, he realized how much he’d wholeheartedly believed in them as a naïve seventeen-year-old. How much he had needed her and would have done anything for her.
You keep me standing tall
You help me through it all
I’m always strong when you’re beside me
I have always needed you
I could never make it alone
I am the man who will fight for your honor
I’ll be the hero
You’ve been dreaming of
We’ll live forever
Knowing together that we did it all
For the glory of love
But it really didn’t matter how he’d felt then or still felt now because she’d walked away. Left him. So now, here he was dancing with Darla. On her birthday. In a bar.
Life hadn’t quite turned out how he’d planned.
*
“No, it’s fine Amy. I don’t mind. Really,” Tessa assured Amy.
This was why Tessa always drove her own car and never drank. Because of situations like this. Now she was stuck going to JT’s when all she really wanted to do was go home and go to bed. Well, maybe she’d take one more shower first because, seriously, that shower was incredible.
“Okay, good. I can’t wait for you to meet Matt,” Amy grinned and a blush rose up her cheeks.
Tessa was so happy that Amy had found someone who could make her blush at the mere mention of his name. She’d always been so sweet and quiet. Eric had been in college the year that she’d spent a lot of time at the Maguires’s house, so it had just been Jake, Amy, and Nikki there. And Tessa remembered thinking at the time that Amy seemed to be overlooked a lot or just not seen because her siblings were so loud and outgoing.
If the glow Amy had was any indication, Amy had definitely found someone who saw her. Tessa was looking forward to meeting him and the rest of her friends’ significant others. But there was a small voice in the back of her head—which happened to be screaming!—that Jake would probably be there.
No one had said as much and she hadn’t asked. But if he wasn’t at work, which he’d told her earlier during their grand tour that he didn’t go back to work until Sunday night, then chances were he’d be with his friends and brother.