Trae laughed. “Stick with me, kid. I’ll teach you to appreciate all the finer things in life.”
He took a bite of pizza and raised an eyebrow. “This is actually half-decent pizza.”
“For Tybee.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” he admitted.
* * *
Hattie tried to pace herself, but the champagne was cold and fizzy and delicious and the pizza—well, the pizza was hot and cheesy and greasy, and the combination somehow worked.
She sighed and leaned back on her elbows. “Thanks, Trae. That was great. I guess I can never go back to the cheap stuff after this.”
He leaned over and kissed her. “That’s the general idea.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” she said, standing up. “Time to get back to work.”
Trae groaned as he stood up and stretched. “I don’t know how you have the energy to keep going. We’ve been at this for hours.”
“We’re almost there,” she said, sounding peppier than she actually felt.
* * *
An hour and a half later, Hattie switched off the drum sander.
“We’re done?” Trae asked.
“Sort of. I’ve got to get in the corners and edges with the other sander, but that won’t take that long. I can knock it out first thing in the morning.”
Without a word, Trae walked out to the porch and brought back the champagne bottle and flutes. “Time for a nightcap.” He fiddled with the radio dial, which was still blasting raucous ’90s hard rock, switching stations until he found one that claimed to be “the soul of the eighties.”
“Much better.” He poured her a glass of champagne and then one for himself.
She sipped the champagne slowly, allowing the bubbles to filter up through her nose.
“Oh, oh,” Trae said, pointing to the radio, which was playing a song she vaguely recognized.
“What?”
“Only the best movie soundtrack song in the world,” he said. “‘The Time of My Life.’ Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. The climactic dance scene from Dirty Dancing?”
“Oh yeah,” Hattie said. “Now I remember. I think I might have watched that once, years ago, on late-night TV.”
“Only once?” he said, feigning outrage. “How can that be? I saw it in the theater, then bought the DVD, so I could watch it whenever I wanted.” He hesitated. “Want to hear an embarrassing-as-hell true confession?”
“Love to!”
He took a deep breath. “Okay. I bet I watched that finale, where Johnny and Baby are doing the dance they’ve rehearsed, with the lift, a hundred times. I even talked my high school girlfriend into doing it with me. The run, the leap, the lift and spin—we had it down to perfection. We were the hit of the prom.”
“And then what happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“So, did you and the girlfriend take the show on the road, get a job at a resort in the—where did the movie supposedly take place?”
“The Catskills. No, we, uh, I guess, we drifted apart.”
Hattie eyed him suspiciously. “You cheated on her, didn’t you?”
“No! Well, not cheated really. More like, moved on. I was seventeen.”
“Whatever.”
“I still can’t believe you’ve only seen Dirty Dancing one time.”
“That whole eighties thing, it’s not really my era,” Hattie said.
“We should do it,” Trae announced.
“Dude, that’s the least sexy proposition I’ve ever heard. And I’ve worked with horny subs for the past fifteen years.”
That got a chuckle from Trae. “I was referring to the dance. From Dirty Dancing.” He pulled his phone from his back pocket and scrolled. Suddenly, Bill Medley’s deep baritone voice filled the room. Now, I’ve had the time of my life …
“Oh yeah. That’s also the song from Crazy, Stupid, Love. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Now that one I’ve downloaded and watched a gazillion times.”
He reached for the light switch and dimmed the overhead lights. “C’mon, let’s dance.” He pulled her into his arms as the music swelled.
“I feel stupid,” she protested, but she reluctantly took his hand and allowed him to dip her backward, then slowly swing her around.
“Whoooo!” Hattie couldn’t tell if it was the blood rushing to her head or the champagne, but suddenly she was definitely dizzy and light-headed.
He quickly brought her back upright. “Now, break forward with your left foot, rock back with your right, then quick left and break back right,” he instructed. “Just a basic mambo.”