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He shook his head, trying to erase his brain like a mental Etch A Sketch. He turned his attention to Ivy who was giving them the rundown of how the ball would be filmed. He was so proud of both his nieces. They had had a ton of success in the social media world, and they could have easily ridden the influencer wave. They could be posting athletic wear and green drinks and making a ton of money. But they wanted more than that and they weren’t afraid of starting at the bottom. Being a PA was definitely grunt work. It was taking orders and making sure all the ‘talent’ were taken care of. And Iris and Ivy were both doing an incredible job.
“Okay, so this is basically going to be like speed date dancing. You will dance with each woman, doing the simple box step that you all learned after lunch, for two minutes. When the bell is rung, the women will place their hand in yours and curtsey. You can kiss the back of their hands or nod your head and bow. When the music changes, so will your dance partner. You will stop dancing, bow, and move on to your next partner. Rinse and repeat. Once the dance is over Lance Sparrow, our host, will announce the matches as voted on by the viewers. And remember, don’t look down at your feet. Maintain eye contact.”
After lunch this afternoon, they had all taken a dance lesson. The waltz box step had been fairly simple for him to learn, but some of the guys had had a harder time. Harlan was a natural, who picked it up immediately. Luca was clearly not a novice on the dance floor. Within the first five minutes, he was adding his own flare to the moves complete with spins and dips of his partner. On the opposite side of the dancing spectrum, Vic had been so bad, Keaton was sure that he had four left feet, not two. And Elijah had as much rhythm as a rock.
Thankfully, the Savage men had always been decent dancers. From granddad, who bragged on more than one occasion that he’d won their grandma’s heart on the dance floor, to his dad and uncle who had both been notorious for being the first people out on the dancefloor at any wedding, birthday party, or holiday gathering.
“You good?” Ivy asked under her breath. He could see that she was nervous for him. He wasn’t sure if it was because she thought he was going to do badly on the show after this morning at the mixer, or if she thought he was going to do well and have to stay on longer than he wanted since she knew the only reason he’d agreed was because Iris had roped him into it. Either way, he appreciated her support.
He gave her a quick nod and a wink. “All good.”
The doors opened and all the men filed in. The women were all out on the dance floor wearing cocktail dresses. They looked incredible. Music was playing over the speakers and the room was filled with flowers and candles. It reminded him of prom.
Vic beelined directly to Piper. Since Sienna was the person closest to him, Keaton walked up to her and took her hand. As they started to dance, he couldn’t help but notice beside him, Vic seemed to be mesmerized by his partner. He could be just following orders and maintaining eye contact, or he was really feeling her. Keaton had a sneaking suspicion it was the latter.
The dance with Sienna was nice, but Keaton didn’t feel any chemistry or romantic sparks. Not that he was expecting to feel any. At least not like he felt with Avery.
He wondered what she was doing right now. Was she back at the carriage house? Jacob had told him they were staying there. Had she had dinner? If she had, what had she eaten?
Each partner made small talk, but to Keaton, it seemed like they were just reciting dating profiles. But maybe that’s what dating was, he really wouldn’t know because he rarely did it. His dating life had been as dry as the Sahara since moving to Whisper Lake.
Part of that was because he’d still been hung up on Camilla and then Avery. And part was because he refused to date anyone in town. Owning a business in a small town and dating was a recipe for disaster. If things didn’t work out, which nine times out of ten, they didn’t, then he’d have to deal with the fallout which could include losing clients.
And another part was his policy not to date single moms. At his age, most women had kids. Not because he didn’t like kids, but because he did. He would never want to come into a kid’s life only to leave it after attachments were formed.
But Avery had Jacob. He’d never been tempted to break his rule before, but with her rules didn’t exist. Like Justin Long said inHe’s Just Not That Into Youto Ginnifer Goodwin’s character, Averywasthe exception to his rule.
During the dances, he was trying to be present and engaged, but his mind was miles away. Well, not miles. It was however as far away as the carriage house, if that’s where Avery was.
The thing that was driving him crazy was that their conversations had been so brief, and they kept getting interrupted. They clearly had unfinished business and they needed to talk. Really talk. He wasn’t sure how that was going to happen while he was filming.
He just hoped she didn’t leave before he was off the show.
He was so lost in his thoughts, he barely noticed the switch in dance partners. After Sienna, he’d danced with Ariel, whose name he’d written on his dance card. Then Freya, Piper, and finally Zara.
The interactions were all basically extensions of the morning mixer. They felt more like job interviews than actual conversations until he got to Zara.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” Zara asked as she glided across the dance floor with him.
“You do look familiar,” Keaton admitted.
“I was a ring girl in your last fight.”
Oh shit. Now he remembered her. He’d been so removed from that world, it hadn’t clicked with him before. That night was sort of a blur, but from what he remembered she’d offered to come back to his room. He’d told her he was tired, but she’d been pretty insistent until he finally had to shut her down rather harshly. Camilla had broken up with him just two days before the match and he was pretty upset about it.
He wondered if she remembered that had happened. It wasn’t exactly something he was going to bring up.Hey, do you remember when I turned you down?
The music stopped and the women and men were separated while they reset the cameras and lighting. They didn’t want anyone to have a conversation that wasn’t caught on tape. It was only day one, and he was already irritated by the stop and start, the hurry up and wait.
“I feel like we’re at a middle school dance, boys on one side, girls on the other,” Elijah commented.
“Psh, maybeyourmiddle school,” Vic let out a forced laugh. “At mine we had personal space monitors that walked around with rulers and made sure everyone was at least two inches apart so nobody got pregnant.”
“Only two inches, huh?” Elijah pondered. “Hmm.”
From the look Keaton and Luca shared, it was clear they knew that Elijah was insinuating that Vic’s penis was less than two inches, which was why that distance apart would ensure no one got pregnant. But the comment seemed to go over Vic’s head completely.
After several delays due to a bulb blowing out and audio issues, the cast was finally asked to return to the dance floor and positioned on black X’s made out of gaffer tape.
