He looked thoughtful a moment then turned his head toward me. “I’m trying to figure out how you’re not already out there on some guys arm.”
This time I smirked. “I don’t want to be.”
“Any reason why?”
“They’re all staying here. No one leaves. They all stay. I don’t want that.”
“And what do you want?” he asked.
I thought that was obvious. I wanted out of this place. But instead I said the following: “I want to know your name.”
He chuckled and extended his hand. “Hale Christopher Jude III,” he replied. “Will you do me the honor of a dance Sammy Jo Knox?”
He surprised me by knowing my full name. I didn’t have time to play his over in my head like I wanted to. It sounded wealthy. Like he was important.
I slipped my hand into his and his fingers wrapped around mine with gentle strength. I liked that. It made me feel as if I was his and I realized being Hale Christopher Jude III’s didn’t sound bad at all. It sounded more like a fairytale. You don’t see the night in the light. That’s a thing I will have to remember.
He led me to the dance floor where his hands found my waist and rested there as if he were staking his claim. I put mine on his shoulders and tilted my head, just enough to meet his eyes. He had beautiful eyes. Ones that absorbed and drew you inside them and once you were there all else seemed still and that was fine with me.
“When do you turn nineteen?” He asked as he began to move us with the music, our bodies swaying just so that they brushed the other, like eyelashes sweeping a cheek.
He knew my age. He knew my name. How? How did he know that? The man had barely come into town three times and only then to stop at the bakery. No one here seemed to know him. I did a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching us and realized that most everyone was. It wasn’t because they knew him. It was the exact opposite. He was a stranger. A rich stranger that currently had me in his arms, everyone knowing I wanted out of Moulton, the crowd waiting to see if I ran off tonight and never came back to this place. The silliness of such a thought. I wanted out, but I wasn’t escaping, with a man I didn’t even know.
“How do you know my name and age?”
His lips turned up at the edges. He gave me an innocent shrug. It didn’t seem to fit the worldly man dancing to my front. “After the first time I saw you in the bakery I made an inquiry. Does that bother you?”
No, not exactly. But I wanted to know who was asked. I thought about probing for more, but I didn’t for some odd reason.
“August tenth,” I told him.
He looked thoughtful. “Do you have plans for college?”
I wanted to laugh at that question. My mother worked at a bakery. How did he expect me to afford college? I didn’t even own a car.
“No, I’ll work at the bakery until…” and I didn’t finish the sentence.
“Until?” He wasn’t going to allow me to leave that hanging.
“Until I can escape here.”
The music changed and the song slowed. He slid a hand around to the small of my back and eased me closer to him. His body was tight against mine. I wanted to stay like this.
“How were you planning to escape?” His voice had dropped to a low husky whisper and I shivered at the sound, a creep up my back that was pleasant and lasting, well past the words he’d spoken.
“I don’t know,” I told him. Telling him the truth would sound bad. Letting him know that the only real plan I had at the moment was getting a man to take me from here sounded desperate. He may think I was going to sink my claws into him and use him for my escape route. The truth was, I would leave on my own if I could.
“I think you do,” he replied.
I looked over his shoulder to hide my expression. I wasn’t good at concealing my thoughts. My gaze landed on Jamie and Ben, now huddled closely together, talking away from the dance floor. Ben’s hand was on her left cheek, Jamie clinging to his every word. Things were going to be okay for them. Maybe this wasn’t how Jamie wanted to start her life, but she loved Ben and that was enough. For some it wasn’t enough. For me love wasn’t enough. But for those two it would be, because they shared the same dream, the same wants. The same expectations and fears.
“I’m not calling you a liar,” he said, gently bending close to my ear. “I can see the intelligence in your eyes. You’ve thought about this for years. Possibly since you were old enough to know you wanted more. So I know you have a plan.”
Something about him made me want to tell him everything. Even if it may send him running from me and Moulton. It wasn’t like I intended to trap him. I didn’t want to leave with just any man that came along. I glanced back at Ben and Jamie. I wanted that too. The intimacy of having someone near. Of knowing you were wanted and loved.
“It’s not a plan exactly. It’s a dream. A hope I want to reveal.” I then turned my eyes back to his. “I want to fall in love. Not with a boy here, but with someone who wants to travel the world. Someone with more ambition than to build a house with a white picket fence and have babies till their uterus falls out.”
That was the truth and he laughed, saying nothing in response to the statement. The song ended and a fast one began. He slipped his hand into mine and we walked off the floor. I was aware of the eyes on our faces. I felt self-conscious, but that shouldn’t be, we weren’t stealing away to go vanish.
We both had a glass of punch and my tension eased a smidge. He asked about my job at the bakery, my sisters, and my mom. The punch made me chatty. Or it was my nerves. I wasn’t sure which one. I should’ve probably downed another.