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She would not dance with him Would not

He didn’t give her a chance to protest once they reached the dance floor With both hands still grasping her waist, Ty spun her around and, holding her lide her across the floor

Fu to put soh to rin on his face wilted her persistence

“Yee-haw,” someone shouted “Even Norma Rose is on the dance floor”

“And she’s all mine, fellas,” Ty said, “so watch out”

Laughter echoed around the rooh not overly hard—she didn’t want people to notice “I am not yours,” she hissed

Ty rinned

She returned one as false as his

“Twyla, did you slip your sister a Mickey?” someone else asked

“Of course not,” Twyla answered

Norlided theainst him

“This was all Nor next to her “To get this night dru”

“Did your daddy skip town?” Twyla’s partner asked, who just happened to be Jiirls have him locked up somewhere?”

“No, and no,” Twyla answered, steering Jimmy in the opposite direction

Whatever else she’d said was lost in the noise

Ty’s hold eased up a bit, but before Norrasped her hands “You do kno to do the bunny hop, don’t you?”

“The bunny hop?” she repeated, rather appalled The dance was said toShe’d seen it performed, and had practiced the moves in her bedroom alone, as she did with all the other popular dance moves Once in a while, she’d accept an offer to dance, but very rarely Her sisters were always looking over the railing, and she hadn’t wanted one of them to ht her on the dance floor They were all on the floor now, and couldn’t ot the crowd keyed up

“Yes, the bunny hop,” Ty said, with a full openmouthed smile “Follow me I’ll show you”

“I will not follow you and you will not showhalf the roo, she didn’t hold true to her protest Instead, she followed him And mimicked him She kicked out one foot and hopped three ti toward hiht out of her lungs

“That’sand hop three ain

“I’ not to enjoy how close he held her

“Then pretend you are,” he said into her ear “You’re good at pretending”

Whoops and hollers echoed above the ood at pretending, as good as him

The drinks Twyla had encouraged Wayne to swig had helped his playing, or the toast had, because he was now pounding out a tempo the dancers loved

When they slid together again, Ty’s arainst his, and Nor with the rest of the dancers Ty’s eyes flashed a challenge as he turned his face sideways She was up to any challenge he wanted to send her way, and did the saainst hers, he led thee of the floor, where he twirled her around and started back in the other direction, his cheek to hers

It was exhilarating, being part of the crowd rather than watching froave it free rein to continue working its ic

In the center of the floor, Ty released her, but took her hand as they kicked, hopped and glided back toward one another By now, Norma Rose had found the rhyth each one

The two glasses of hooch she’d had one to her head Why else would she be participating instead of protesting? Then again, not participating would suggest she was against the crowd having fun, which she wasn’t However, she shouldn’t be dancing with Ty

They crisscrossed the dance floor, arriving at each corner cheek-to-cheek, and stopping in the lide into one another, only to sweep back over to another corner, again cheek to cheek