Forever Again, Short Story, Chapter 4

Chapter 4

          Lily heard the "Oh, Wows" from her nieces. She knew there was screaming around her but the noise was muffled. Bret executed a salute after Revelry finished and marched forward to a Navel cadence she had heard before. Lily expected him to stop at the end of the stage and start dancing, but the man pivoted left, walked down the three steps and made two more tight pivots to the right stopping in front of her table. He added another salute keeping his eyes looking straight forward. She wanted him to look at her. His eyes finally dropped and their gazes locked. She watched as Bret walked purposely around the table never losing eye contact. He offered her his arm. A hand appeared by her side telling her someone was behind her. Lily looked at her nieces and received encouraging nods. She took the offered hand and stood. Automatically she thanked the waiter for his consideration as her hand was put into the crook of Bret's offered arm. He enclosed it with his warm free hand, pressing lightly on hers. She wished she could stop her hand from shaking. His smile was devastating as he led her to the stage. Silently she threw more than one prayer to the universe she wouldn't stumble on a step or her own two feet.
         Lily looked at the man out of the corner of her eye. He stood a foot taller than her five foot two inch height. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest with excitment. The last time she had felt this way was when Michael had taken her hand at the end of the church isle the day they were married. A song had started to play as they arrived at the middle of the stage but she was having a hard time concentrating enough to put a name to it.
         A rolling padded office chair had been placed in the center of the stage. Bret settled her into it and whispered for her to put her heels on the small front rung. He added a request for her to breath and then said he was going to introduce her to his world. She smiled because she was ready. There was a spot light on her and a separate one on Bret.
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         Bret snapped the salute and smartly stepped forward. He kept his eyes forward not daring to look down. If he looked into her eyes he would jump off the end of the stage and stalk straight to her. He had to stay with the routine. He marched forward to the rhythm of the navel cadence the disc jockey was playing. Near the end of the stage he pivoted a sharp left turn, walked down the three steps, pivoted a neat right turn, took two steps and pivoted another sharp right turn. He took a couple more steps and stopped in front of the table where Lily sat.  The spotlight found her and stopped. Still keeping his eyes forward he executed another salute and finally looked down.
         Her eyes were wide with wonder. They twinkled. His heart was lost and he was praying she wouldn't think bad about their age difference. The thirty years didn't bother him. He would just have to figure out how to convince her it was not a problem.
         Slowly he walked around the table and offered her his arm. Jamie held the back of her chair with one hand and held the other out to help support her if she needed it when she rose. He would not let go of her hand until Bret had a firm hold of her hand on his arm. When he was sure she was steady on her feet Bret signaled the disk jockey to start the music. Bret had chosen the closing song from a movie called Dirty Dancing, "(I've had) The Time of My Life", one of his mothers favorites. The male dancer was named Patrick Swayze and Bret planned on borrowing some of the guys expert moves.
         Slowly he walked her back to the stage and settled her into the rolling swivel office chair. Quietly he whispered, "Put your heels on the front rung beautiful woman and let me show you my world."