the lecture, she was still not quite prepared to face him, so she decided that while there, she might as well take care of business. She had no sooner locked herself into the end stall than several giggling girls entered the room.
“God, he’s hot, isn’t he?” one of them said.
“Yeah, but lot of good it does us,” another commented.
“I don’t know what Joy Ferrelli has that we don’t,” the first one said, “but Aidan hasn’t even looked at another girl since he got to town!”
Sophie froze. She couldn’t identify any of the voices.
“I know. From the moment he met her that day at the pool. She’s putting out. She has to be.”
“Well, if she is, Marlowe’s gonna find out sooner or later, and then watch out.”
Putting out? Were they serious? Had the relationship between Joy and Dillon’s nephew gone that far? Surely it couldn’t have. Why, Sophie hadn’t even known about it until the other day. How could those kids possibly have become so involved without Sophie knowing? Crandall Lake was a small town. Sophie had thought she would immediately know if Joy was doing anything she shouldn’t be doing. She’d certainly never thought allowing Joy to lifeguard at the city pool would cause problems. Why hadn’t Joy mentioned meeting Aidan before now?
You know why. She knew how you’d react. If not for the fact that she wanted to come to the dance with him tonight, she probably still wouldn’t have mentioned him.
It seemed to take forever for the girls to finish their business in the ladies’ room and leave. When the door finally closed after them, Sophie escaped the confines of her stall, washed her hands and tried to calm herself before going out to face the others. It wasn’t bad enough she had to contend with Dillon tonight. Now she had more to worry about with Joy. Please, God. Those girls are just jealous. Don’t let it be true. She’s only sixteen!
As she walked back to the teachers’ table, she scanned the large ballroom, looking for her sister. It wasn’t easy to spot Joy, because the DJ had put on a thumping dance anthem, and hundreds of kids were on the dance floor. But Sophie finally spied her sister, in the corner farthest from the teachers’ table. And sure enough, she was with Aidan Burke. They weren’t doing anything, just standing side by side, but something about the way Joy leaned into him, and the way his head tilted down so he could look into her eyes, made Sophie’s heart sink.
She recognized the way they were together, because it was so similar to the way she, Sophie, had been with Dillon. Those girls were probably right. Joy and Aidan were intimate.
Oh God, Sophie thought. I need help dealing with this.
One thing she knew for sure. She should never have given in to Joy about tonight. She should have put her foot down and made her sister stay home. But would that have done any good? For all Sophie knew, Aidan Burke would have stayed away from the dance, too. In fact, he could have gone over to Sophie’s house and spent the entire evening there, alone with Joy, and Sophie wouldn’t have been the wiser.
No, it was better to have the two of them here, where Sophie could at least see them. And as she’d planned earlier, she would find out as much as she could from Dillon about his nephew.
Then tomorrow, she would corner Joy and they would have it out. What Sophie would do from that point on, she hadn’t a clue.
“We thought you fell in,” Nicole Blanchard said as Sophie returned to their table.
The fourth chaperone, Kevin Rafferty, who taught trig and calculus to juniors and seniors, grinned at Sophie.
Sophie smiled, determined not to let Nicole get under her skin tonight, even though the woman was hard to take, even on a good day. The trouble was, she was clueless. Her attempts at humor always fell short, and she never seemed to take a hint. Sophie noticed how now that Dillon was there and seated between Nicole and Sophie’s empty seat, Nicole had scooted her chair closer to him. She wasn’t even subtle.
“Did you miss me?” Sophie said mildly, taking her own seat. She noticed someone had put a drink in front of her. “What’s this?” She raised the plastic glass and sniffed.
“Lemonade,” Dillon said. “Other than canned drinks, that’s all there is.”
“Yeah,” Kevin said, sighing. “Sure could use a beer.”
Sophie was thinking she sure could use a margarita, but there was zero tolerance for any kind of drug, including alcohol, anywhere near a school function. Once, one of the teachers had smuggled a flask to a dance he was chaperoning and spiked his soft drink with it. Someone had seen him do it and reported him. The guy was nearly fired on the spot. Since then, there’d never been another incident.
“Thanks,” Sophie said, finally looking at Dillon. Her stupid heart skittered as their eyes met once again. What was it about this man that just a glance could reduce her to jelly? Okay, so he was gorgeous and sexy. He looked especially good tonight in a white, open-necked shirt, a dark sport coat and khaki pants. And he wore some kind of woodsy cologne that Sophie loved. But still...lots of guys were hot-looking and dressed well. Normally Sophie had no problem resisting their charms. Dillon, though, was another story. Always had been another story. But she was determined he would never know the effect he still had on her. Nor would anyone else in her world.
Turning to Nicole, Sophie said, “I love your dress, Nicole. You look great.”
“Thanks.” Nicole smiled archly, all but batting her eyelashes at Dillon. Any other woman would have reciprocated the compliment, but not Nicole.
To his credit, Dillon ignored her. Instead he gave Sophie a once-over and said, “Someone else at this table looks great, too.”
Sophie knew she was blushing, but thank goodness it was too dark in the ballroom for anyone else to see the telltale stain. “Thank you,” she managed. “I’d say we all clean up well.”
Just then, the DJ switched to a slow, romantic ballad. Not losing any time, Kevin turned toward Nicole to ask if she’d like to dance. Sophie looked at Nicole and could see by her expression that she was uncertain about whether to say yes or no, but vanity won out and she smiled, saying, “I’d love to.”
Once the two of them went to the dance floor, Dillon said, “I guess that’s our cue.” He scooted his chair back and reached for her hand.
“I don’t think—”
“You can’t say no. That would be rude.” That sexy smile of his hovered around his mouth. “Didn’t your mother teach you that?”
Sophie sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was dance with Dillon. It was hard enough pretending she wasn’t interested in him. Dancing to a slow song, feeling his body up against hers, would make it nearly impossible. Even now, just allowing him to help her up, she felt her heart beating too fast and too hard.
Sophie held herself as rigidly as she could manage, trying to put some distance between them as he drew her into his arms.
“Relax,” he murmured, pulling her closer.
