Last Dance
I jumped ahead to the last chapter, titled “The Last Dance.”
    Every Saturday night she would iron her best skirt and go to the pavilion. Then she would fly on saddle shoes for hours, floating across wooden slats, flirting and teasing, but never giving her heart.
    Then one rainy day in October, a handsome stranger known only as James drifted into town. He was different from the country beaus who clamored after Chloe. He was a sophisticated sweet talker with an air of mystery. When their eyes met, it was magical. After that, every dance belonged to James. They twirled and laughed and fell in love.
    Chloe’s family and friends warned her not to trust the stranger, to settle down with a young man from her many suitors, but she ignored them, following her heart. And when James asked her to go away with him, she agreed to meet him at the pavilion.
    It stormed that night, and Chloe ignored warnings to stay inside. Rain fell heavily around the pavilion as Chloe waited. Time passed, hopes were dashed. No one knows for sure what happened, but her friends believe that when James didn’t show up, her grief forced her into a wild dance, swaying and spinning to music only she could hear as her world stormed.
    Perhaps she stumbled or simply lost her way. But when the sun broke through clouds the next morning, her lifeless body was found not far from the pavilion, at the bottom of a cliff. Some say the fall killed her, but others know it was a broken heart.
    And the mysterious stranger was never seen again.
    So where did James go? I wondered as I stared through the window at the rain pounding the tree branches. Had he gotten cold feet and run away like a coward? Or had something terrible happened to him? If he’d truly loved her, how could anything keep him away? And how did my dream fit in? James had been with Chloe on the cliff. But according to the book, he’d never shown up.
    Poor Chloe , I thought with a sigh. She risked everything for love. I can’t imagine loving anyone so fiercely. It’s not a real love anyway, more like obsession. I’d rather be with someone I admire and respect … like Josh.
    Yet it wasn’t Josh’s face that flashed in my mind. Instead I saw ice-blue eyes and sandy brown hair. Hands rough enough to pound nails, yet soft as silk when caressing an animal. And a smile that could be as sad as tears.
    Get a grip! I told myself. What are you thinking?
    Jumping up, I slammed the book on Chloe.
    Then I went to play dominos.

All that was missing was the music.
    If this were a movie, haunting music would play eerily in the background as Thorn and I made our way down a dimly-lit street that bordered a graveyard. No stars or a moon, only inky darkness and a drizzling rain that kept falling as if the sky was in mourning. A perfect night to meet a ghost.
    “This is totally insane,” Thorn must have said a dozen times. But I noticed an excited gleam in her eyes. “I don’t know why I let you talk me into this.”
    “You could have waited in the car.”
    “And miss all the fun?” She laughed, holding tight to a blue umbrella. “Still I felt awful lying to my aunt about visiting a friend. She’d freak if she knew what we were really doing.”
    “Technically you didn’t lie.” A gust of wind caught my umbrella, but I held on firmly. “We are going to visit a friend.”
    “Only you would consider someone dead for fifty years a friend.”
    “I consider you a friend, too.”
    “Oh, thanks,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
    We grew silent as we walked down the narrow country road leading to the park, where the pavilion rose tall and white against black night. We passed wild prickly rose bushes that grew in the ditch beside the graveyard. Through iron fences, pale headstones rose in eerie tribute to those loved and lost.
    Beside me, Thorn tensed and I could tell she was nervous. Nona had told me never to fear a graveyard, that they’re only haunted by memories of the people left behind. But I wasn’t

Similar Books

First Salvo

Charles D. Taylor

Road Kill

Zoe Sharp

The Wildest Heart

Terri Farley

The Circle of Sappho

David Lassman

Plague of Spells

Bruce R. Cordell

The Devil in Disguise

Martin Edwards

Sleeping Beauties

Susanna Moore

Vixen Hunted

Christopher Kincaid