Dancing With the Devil Read Online Free PDF Page A

Mackenzie noticed how Frankie’s mom and dad had taken a picture of each of their kids every year on the first day of school and hung them in chronological order on the wall along the stairs. As you climbed to the second floor, it was almost like watching the kids grow up. They had framed wedding photos on the big piano in the living room, along with other extended family photos.
    Her dad was at his desk, staring at something on the laptop in front of him. The only illumination in the room came from the glowing monitor, making his face look ghoulish.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œWhere were you?”
    You rock, Lily! You kept my secret! she thought. “Nowhere.”
    â€œYou mean you evaporated for the last two hours and were floating within the atmosphere?” he said, his tone even, which instantly put Mac on alert. She wondered if she was misreading the situation. Was that supposed to be one of his stupid jokes?
    â€œI was with a friend. I finished my paper, so what’s the big deal?” She knew enough not to mention Grady. Her father didn’t like her to go out with boys.
    â€œWhich friend? Dante?”
    â€œYeah,” she said, nailing the correct answer. “It was Dante.”
    Stan closed his computer, and Mac couldn’t see his face in the sudden darkness.
    â€œNext time make sure you ask first.”
    She didn’t want to get into a tug-of-war because she’d never win. Finish and be done as soon as possible had always been her best exit plan. “Sorry,” she said. Why was he letting her off the hook just like that? He was acting so totally weird.
    â€œHmmm?” He was back looking at his laptop.
    â€œI said sorry, Dad.”
    Then she remembered the packet for her bike trip. “Listen, I have to give you the forms. You need to fill them out.”
    â€œHmmm?” He was lost in the work he was doing.
    â€œDad! My bike trip this summer! The forms have to be filled out or I won’t be allowed to go.”
    â€œOf course you’re allowed to go. I said you could, didn’t I?” Stan looked up and smiled.
    Mackenzie walked around the desk and stood behind him. She looked over his shoulder to see what was so distracting. It was the site for their country club on the Cape. The page for the annual Father-Daughter Dance shimmered with animated fireworks. Geez, this was unbelievable. The thing wasn’t until after she left on her trip, but he was all “The dance! The dance!”
    Stan clicked on a link and up popped a photo from the archives. A little girl beamed up at her daddy as he twirled her around the dance floor in her beautiful polka-dotted party dress.
    Stan chuckled. “Look, honey. I never saw this shot before. You were so cute! And there’s the dress. Too bad you ruined it.” Stan paused, lost in a time when Mackenzie didn’t go out with boys and only had eyes for her daddy. “God, it brings back such memories. Maybe we did store it at the beach house?”
    She looked more closely at the photo on the laptop. She remembered the dress being red and white, but not the way it looked in the picture. She recalled her dad telling her she put too much ketchup on her hot dog, and then dropping the whole thing in her lap. She remembered crying about the dress being ruined, but when Barb had described it at dinner, there had been no mental image of anything close to a frilly polka-dotted dress. She felt like she was in an alternate universe, or that Twilight Zone show her dad watched, where her reality isn’t the same as the rest of the world’s. Like, she’s standing in the pouring rain, freezing her butt off, and everyone else is saying, ‘What’re you talking about? The sun is shining and it’s hot as hell out here.’
    Mackenzie shuddered.
    â€œYou cold, sweetie?” Stan rubbed Mackenzie’s arm, but she flinched and snapped awake, making her way back around the desk.
    â€œWhat’s