Chapter Fifteen - Dancing Danablu

"THIS IS GREAT!" Cheddy shouts spinning in a circle with the Folklorico dancers.

We wandered down the streets with no destination in mind until Cam picked up a sound. After trailing it for blocks like a bloodhound, the little sound became exuberant trumpets, violins, and happy singing. We discovered a street fair, or maybe a block party in full swing. All I know is that the long flailing skirts on the women dancing up a storm remind me of blooming cactus flowers, the food cart sells horchata, and I don't have to think about a cheese shop for a few hours.

Two of the women with massive grins break off to take Cheddy by the arms. They try to show him the steps but he's too busy doing his own thing to realize what's happening. "I'm getting dizzy!" he shouts over the trumpets. "And I love it!"

"He's having fun," I cry out to Cam who stands behind me. I sat on a bench to watch Cheddy, letting the plate of quesabirria tacos on my lap grow cold.

"There is nowhere on this lord's green earth where Chedward cannot find fun. We've certainly looked a place or two." He sits down beside me and drinks through a curly green straw with the suave air of a roguish bandit puffing on a cigarette. "Mm, this tankard is garish, but the gut rot is wonderful."

"Olé!" Cheddy shouts ten seconds after the song has ended. He jumps up and down clapping, asking for another.

"I can't wrap my mind around him being a knight."

"No?" Cam asks.

"He's just so happy all the time. Doesn't seem to have a care in the world."

"I dare say it requires a man with a mind of fluff to willingly dress in a tin can on a blisteringly hot day."

That makes some sense, I guess. "But aren't knights supposed to brood over their lady's fair token and swear undying fealty to her? If I gave Cheddy a handkerchief he'd blow his nose in it."

Cam laughs. "Quite. I spent most of my life avoiding the whiff of a lawman, but any knight I had the misfortune to encounter was more of the stab first, not bother with questions nature."

"Is that how you and Cheddy wound up together?" I ask.

A great bubble bursts from inside Cam's cup, sloshing the margarita over the side. He coughs hard and shakes his head. "That's a rather personal question."

"It's just, he's so different from you, and Brie, and… Oh." I just heard what I said to him. "No. I meant like as a group. Together. As friends! You don't have to tell me what you— If you even do anything. I'm gonna shut up."

"Why? It's delightful watching you stutter in embarrassment, like a baby fawn slipping on the ice."

I shove my shoulder into him and Cam laughs. We sit together watching Cheddy attempt jigging. He keeps kicking up his feet and slapping the bottoms of his shoes.

"You're wondering how the mousy one, the boisterous one, the sullen one, and the dastardly charming and incredibly handsome one could find themselves together in a cheese shop in the New World?" Cam tips back his glass, hunting for ice. "In truth, we had no choice in the matter."

He goes quiet as ice cubes slink down his throat, so I ask, "What do you mean?"

"What binds us, this curse, also draws us together. Even as we hide to protect ourselves from gawkers or diners, often traversing thousands of miles to do it, we keep finding ourselves flung together." He grows quiet, his voice almost as soft as Brie's. "No matter what we do to sever the bond."

Cheddy finishes his big spinning round and slams both of his palms on the table beside me. "Did you see me? Whew. I worked up quite the appetite." He picks up three tacos with one hand and shoves them in without a second thought.

"You sure can eat," I say.

"That's nothing," Cheddy damn near shouts. "Give me a mess of ox bones and I can clear all the marrow out with just my tongue." Needing to demonstrate, he sticks his tongue out a good seven inches and starts to twirl it.

Wow. That's just… Wow.

Cam leans over me to tug on Cheddy's sleeve. "Now, now. Don't give away all of your secrets. A lady likes a little mystery."

"Right. Don't want her to know about my huge do—"

"Okay!" I cry out, my entire body shaking with both terrified embarrassment and a typhoon of arousal. Leaping to my feet to get some air, I gulp and breathe in the city. Not just the sky-high buildings, cement oceans, and never-ending voices, but the people embracing life without a care in the world. If my mom learned I was here she would pop a blood vessel.

A shiver dances up my spine with an air of rebellion I haven't felt since my college days. "Cheddy? Dance with me?"

"Really? Yay!" He takes my hands. I half expect them to be sticky, but his palms are surprisingly rough with calluses across the pads.

He slips a hand behind my back, his elbow bent. I try to hold his waist, but he laughs and guides my palm to rest on his shoulder. Then he extends our conjoined hands outward and starts to lead.

Whoa!

I expected him to, at best, sway back and forth, or do a little hop, but he steps in a rhythm that I scramble to match. "You're…you're really good at this."

"Thanks! Dancing was the only way to have fun at court. They frowned on us shooting at the suckling pig." Cheddy spins me around and around in time with the music.

I catch Cam's eye watching us, then he stands and walks over to the band. After whispering in an ear, one of the men hands him a guitar. Cam rests it high on his waist, then his fingers blur as a manic solo bursts free.

"You play guitar?" I shout despite the obvious evidence shivering down my spine. Even Cheddy can't match the wild notes flying from Cam's fingers, thankfully. We keep dancing, but both of us watch Cam absolutely shred that acoustic guitar.

"A little," Cam cries out. "Though I prefer the vihuela de mano."

"The what?" I ask, struggling to bob and weave with Cheddy who's far lighter on his feet. He may be built like a Mac truck but he handles like a motorcycle.

"It's of no mind. Now, let's see what I can really do," Cam says before launching into a wild solo that gets everyone up and clapping. Louder and louder cheers ring out.

With a twirl, Cheddy spins me out, then in. I fall back against him into his arms. He roves his palms down the sides of my chest while I sway my ass against him. Cheddy leans closer, his breath tickling down my ear. "Hang on," he says.

To what?

Hands clamp down around my stomach. Next thing I know, I'm launched into the air. Squealing in shock, I do my best to not panic when Cheddy lets go.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

My rise is as quick as my descent. I cry out, pawing at the air, the cement rushing up to pulverize me. With a giddy smile, Cheddy twists a full three-sixty below me, then he spreads out his arms. I hit them with the grace of a goose on fire, bowing the both of us toward the ground.

His goofy grin not dipping for a second, Cheddy fights off gravity itself and pulls me into his arms. I leap up in a panic and wrap my whole body around his head.

"You dif goo," he mumbles, his voice smothered by my boobs.

I'm not dead, nothing's broken, and I'm smothering a man in my tits. Sorry. I open my arms to slip lower, and he takes in a deep breath. "What did you say?" I ask.

"You did good."

I'm shaking, my life flashed before my eyes, and I'm still splayed across his steady forearms. "Based upon what?"

"Well, you didn't crack your skull. So that's good."

"That can happen?"

He gives a jolly shrug and I slither back to my safe, grounded feet.

"Please don't harm our benefactor," Cam calls over the music.

"I won't!" Cheddy shouts, then I swear he whispers to himself, "Much."

Despite my near-face plant, the other girls are ecstatic about Cheddy's dancing prowess. They're all waving and asking for their turn in his arms. Not that I can blame them. They are impressive.

He turns back to them and gives a little head bob. Those girls are gorgeous beyond belief like they came from some hot girlfriend factory. I don't want to get in the way of his fun. Slipping away, I scratch my arm and try to shrink. "Go ahead," I say.

"What?" he shouts over the ramping music.

"You should dance with them. They're way better than me."

"Toss me, you mountain man," one of the girls shouts and ruffles her skirts with a cry.

My feet move me away while my eyes refuse to leave him. How many dumb dances was I forced to attend where I'd stand by the wall praying for it to be over? Even if someone had asked me to dance, I knew they were forced to do it or it was a stupid prank. Biting my tongue, I turn my back on Cheddy and the other talented women to focus on the band.

A huge palm clasps across my entire shoulder. "Sorry se?oritas, I'm afraid my dances belong to Vi. But another noche." Cheddy glides me back around and I wrap my arms behind his neck. He settles his hands at my waist, and I gaze up at him.

"You didn't have to do that," I say, my mind confused while my heart leaps up and down like a rabbit on Red Bull. "I know I'm not very—"

Cheddy bends down and kisses me. My eyes shoot open wide in shock not at the kiss, but how gentle his touch is. I half expected him to head-butt me in his exuberance. Instead, he chastely cups my lips with his like he's holding the hand of a lady to guide her around a garden.

I braid my fingers together at the nape of his neck, and yank him closer, needing more. Cheddy's mouth parts and he dives in tongue first. His scent fills my throat and nose—of iron and muscles sweating by a smith's fire. There's more, something sweet hiding deep at the core—like apple blossoms or…

Cheddy pulls back and I breathe in only the scent of fresh tacos.

"Special," falls from my lips. He beams brighter than any headlight and starts to stand up.

I leap a foot off of the ground. Okay, fine, it was a few inches at best. But when I lock my whole arm around the back of his neck and kiss him, it feels like I reached the moon.

A siren bleats.

The music stops and voices cry out in Spanish. Hands grab anything they can, feet fly, and skirts flap. I break away from Cheddy to shout, "What's happening?"

Cam places a hand on my back. "The guards have found us."

"What?" Did he mean the cops? Red and blue lights cut up the sky. My gremlin grabs a knife and starts stabbing into my brain. It's my fault. I did this. "Why are the cops here?"

"It seems this gathering is not legitimate in the eyes of the local lord." Cam backs up while slinging another guitar over his shoulder. "Vamanos!" he shouts to the others packing up the truck in a hurry. "I'd suggest you flee."

Cheddy nods and scoops me into his arms.

Waving with his second guitar, Cam calls out, "I will find you once we've lost them." Then he vanishes into the mess of bodies scurrying to escape.

"Cam?" I shout and fight to climb up Cheddy. Instead of following his friend, Cheddy spins around and takes off down one of the alleyways. Two men hold open a cut piece of chainlink and keep rushing people through it.

Cheddy drops me down in order to grab one side of the fence and wrench it all the way back until it forms a three-foot wide gap. "Go," he whispers, placing a protective hand over my head as I duck down.

"This is the police. Hands up. Now!"

My heart leaps into my throat, and I start to look back. "What about Cam?"

"He'll be fine," Cheddy assures me. Without warning, he shoves me. I skid right on through to the other side. Others run past me while I cling to the fence trying to catch a hint of Cam. After the last person has fled, Cheddy hunches over and climbs through. The barbed ends of the fence tear his shirt and pants, but he doesn't flinch. Cheddy reaches through to bend the cut end back, closing off the hole.

"Cam's dodged more guards, knights, and soldiers than a hundred bandits combined," Cheddy assures me. "Ah, man, not my shirt." He moans at the tears, then takes my hand.

"This is an illegal operation. Drop to your stomach and put your hands behind your head!"

Cinching his fingers over my wrist, Cheddy pulls me away from the fence. I try to catch one last look but all I can see are the red and blue lights cutting through the dark night. My feet take off, pulling me away from the impromptu party and, hopefully, a long-gone Cam.

I stare up at the starless sky and gulp. What if he doesn't make it back before the sun?