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My shoulders stiffened. “God knows how much vodka Ana put in her drink if she’s still feeling rough.”
I turned back to the onions for the salad that I was making, thinking that if I concentrated on that, I wouldn’t lose my temper.
As I chopped, Maya must have sensed that I was feeling uptight because she leaned forward and turned up the speaker which was playing some random music on Spotify.
“I love this song,” she said, reaching for the knife in my hand and gently prising it from my fingers. “Dance with me.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “I only dance when I’ve had few beers.”
“Well, you’ve had a few swigs of that beer,” she said with a flirty smile and a shrug. “So?”
“Okay,” I told her, because I would do anything forher. “Let’s go.”
The music was slow and smoky, and the guy singing had a raspy voice that sounded like it came from too much booze and cigarettes. As he sang about Tennessee Whiskey, Maya led me by the hand into the middle of the kitchen. When she stood opposite me, so close I could smell her body lotion, I took control and pulled her against my chest. With one of my hands on her hip, I took hers and linked our fingers together, bringing it to my chest.
“Who’s singing?” I asked, rocking us slowly from side to side.
“Chris Stapleton,” Maya replied, laying her head on my chest. “It’s one of my favourite songs.”
“Country & Western girl, are you?”
“Hmm maybe. What about you?”
“Never listened to it that much, but this,” I pulled her closer as the guy sang about his woman being sweeter than strawberry wine, “I like.”
Our bodies swayed in time to the music, just looking into each other’s eyes, not smiling yet, somehow, I knew it would be obvious to anyone watching that we were happy. That we were falling into something incredible.
I’d never felt that way about someone before. Like I was lost in her. How beautiful she was, how funny she was, how smart she was. How she was just her. Everything about Maya could quite easily become an obsession to me. Time apart was too long, time together too short and it had all happened so quickly.
The only other time I’d had similar feelings, they had hit me in my chest like a punch. That had been the moment I set eyes on my Maddy. While my love for my daughter was instant and unconditional, I knew that my feelings for Maya were growing into something just as huge. She’d brought so many different emotions and feelings out in me, and I relished every single one of them.
When her lips parted on a small sigh, her eyes shimmered and it was then that I knew exactly what had happened. Every feeling I had about her were ingredients. From the moment we’d met, I’d been adding a different one until I had the final, complete recipe.
“Maya,” I whispered, hoping she could hear me over the thud, thud, thud of my heart.
She didn’t say anything but nodded. A silent agreement that we were both in the same place. That maybe we were too scared to say the words just yet, but we both knew what they were.
“Good to know.” And then I kissed her. A kiss that made it clear what the possibilities were. Where we were heading and that we would be doing it together. Despite my childhood, I’d had a good life with good things happening in it, but now I was moving on tobetterthings, all because of her.
As the song on the speaker changed to Michael Gray’s The Weekend, we tried to continue our dance but soon gave up tryingto sway to the quicker beat. Determined not to be beaten Maya shrugged and started to bounce around. She grabbed both my hands, encouraging me to join in, but I shook my head and tried to pull away.
“Ah, come on, Will, I’ve seen your moves at Charlie’s wedding. I know you’ve got this.”
There was no point me denying it, and besides, her joy was infectious, so how could I not. Soon we were both jumping around like we were at the best party ever, not making a salad in my kitchen. As each song ended we carried on dancing, changing our style to the beat of the music and loving every single moment.
When we finally ran out of breath, we clung to each other laughing and I wondered whether, if I looked inside myself, I’d see my heart was actually glowing.
Chapter Fifty
Maddy
Walking along the corridor towards our study session, my stomach was doing nervous back flips. It was going to be the first time I’d seen Ana since the party, and I was hopeful that I’d persuaded Zak to let me deal with her.
“Stop complaining,” I told him over my shoulder.
“I haven’t said anything,” Zak complained.
“I know but I can hear you thinking it.”
