“And my parents won’t keep treating me like I’m damaged,” she agreed as he pulled her through the crowd.

“Mother, Father,” Liam said, stopping before his grinning parents. “We have some news to share.”

“Okay….” Sylvia grinned as she squeezed her husband’s arm.

“Ow!” Charles said, shrugging away. “Liam, my boy! What is it?”

“Well....” Liam wrapped his arm around Roxanne’s shoulder and pulled her abruptly to his side. “Mother, Father, this is my fiancée, Roxanne Kincaid. Roxanne, these are my parents, Charles and Sylvia White.”

“Congratulations!” Liam’s mother threw her arms in the air and pulled Roxanne in for a huge hug. Roxanne looked at Liam awkwardly as he gave her an apologetic look. Sylvia pulled back abruptly, her eyes wide. “Do your parents know yet, dear?”

Roxanne gave her a nervous smile. “We just told them.”

Liam rolled his eyes. That was one can of worms that shouldn’t have been opened. But in her defense, Roxanne didn’t know.

His mother scoffed as she looked over at him. “Liam! You mean we weren’t the first to know!”

“You were the first to know we were together....” Liam placed his hand on Roxanne’s back. “But they were the first to know of our engagement. So, fair’s fair.” He started pulling her toward the dancefloor. “If you’ll excuse us, my lovely fiancée promised me a dance.”

“Yes… pooky.” She grinned. “And they’re playing our song!”

They hurried to the dancefloor, and The Chicken Dance started playing.

“Man! I didn’t know they even played this thing anymore!” Roxanne started flapping her arms like a chicken, laughing.

Liam laughed, too. “Now they’re going to think our song is The Chicken Dance.” Liam shook his head as he linked arms with her and skipped around in a circle. “It can only get better from here.”

Roxanne chuckled. “I wouldn’t bet on it.” She started flapping her arms like a chicken again. In an evening dress, it was comical. “What are we going to do?”

Liam shrugged, flapping his arms. “Go along with it!” He linked arms with her again and skipped around. “For now, let’s just have fun.”

Roxanne laughed, starting to loosen up. Liam couldn’t believe that he was in this mess, especially with Roxanne Kincaid. But at the moment, he was glad it was her. She was beautiful and a lot of fun when she let her hair down.

When the dance was over, they clapped, and she fell into his arms, laughing. “Would you like a drink?”

She nodded, smiling. “I think I’m going to need one after this!”

Liam took her hand and led her toward the bar.

“Two champagnes,” Liam said to the bartender.

“Yes, sir.” He set two fluted glasses on the bar and then filled them with the sparkling liquid. “There you go.”

“Thank you.” Liam handed one of the glasses to Roxanne and then kept one for himself.

She took a sip and swallowed. “I haven’t had this much fun in a while.” She turned to watch the elite society of Christmas Cove sway to the music. Suddenly, it went into a slow song. For a split second, Liam had regretted leading her off the dancefloor.

“Would you like to dance?” Liam asked, and then took a sip of his champagne.

Roxanne nodded. “In a minute.” A sly grin spread across her lips. “But we’ll have to wait for our song to play again.”

He burst out laughing. “Yeah, you should have seen the look on my mother’s face when I said that... and then The Chicken Dance came on!”

Roxanne giggled. “Yeah, let’s finish our drinks, and then we can dance again.”

Liam nodded, tilting his head to the side, taking her in. “You know, I never knew this side of you.”

She arched an eyebrow. “And which side is that?”

“Ha, ha,” he teased, raising a hand. “This side. I never knew you had a sense of humor.”

She laughed. “Thanks a lot!”

“No. You know what I mean.”

Roxanne nodded, suddenly serious. “And I never knew you could be so down to earth.”

Liam smiled. “Fair enough.” He looked across the room, and their parents were talking. He nodded in their direction. “Don’t look now, but I think they’re conspiring already.”

Roxanne smirked. “Wow! That didn’t take long.”

Liam raised an eyebrow. “Wanna get out of here?”

“How do you suppose we’ll get past them?” Roxanne nodded toward their parents, talking animatedly and laughing.

Liam smirked. "Leave it to me. I know a guy,” he said, using his best gangster accent. He took another swig of his drink and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.” He led her behind the stage, and in the back was a hidden elevator, used as a service entrance by the waitstaff.

Roxanne giggled as he pulled her in, and the door closed. “I feel like we’re kids sneaking out.”

Liam nodded, raising an eyebrow. “Did you ever sneak out when you were a kid?”

“Are you kidding me? Not hardly! As an only child, my parents knew where I was at all times. No exceptions.” She laughed. “What about you?”

Liam shrugged as a sly smile lit his lips. “Once or twice.”

“Whoa! Wildman!” Roxanne teased. “Who did you sneak out with? Girls?”

He burst out laughing. “No, not hardly! I snuck out with Caden a few times. But the only thing we ever did was play basketball.”

“Basketball?” Roxanne raised an eyebrow.

He nodded, smiling. “We used to play basketball all the time. And playing at night? Well, that was the frosting on the cake!”

Suddenly, the door opened in the basement. Roxanne was about to step out, but he stopped her. “Wait a minute. I don’t want you breaking your neck on the stairs in those heels.”

“Break my neck?” Roxanne laughed. “I’ll have you know that I’ve been walking in heels since I was twelve.”

Liam’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “Twelve?”

She shrugged as a broad smile spread across her lips. “I used to sneak into my mother’s closet and try on her shoes. They were way too big, but I felt like a princess in them.”

“Well, you look like a princess tonight,” he blurted out before he could stop himself. But it was true. The silver dress she wore shimmered in the light when she walked, accenting every magnificent curve of her body. And even though he had teased her about them, the shoes really made the outfit.

“Why, thank you, Mr. White,” Roxanne teased, hitting him playfully on the stomach with her clutch. “You look pretty dashing tonight yourself.”

Just then, the door opened. Liam took her hand and led her from the back of the building toward the front hallway that went right past the ballroom. He quickly pulled her behind a corner. “Okay. If we’re lucky, we can make it out the front before they see us.”

Roxanne burst out laughing. Hiding behind a corner dressed in a tux, he looked like some kind of secret agent or something. “Okay, James Bond. I have a better idea.”

He straightened up to look at her. “And what’s that?”

“First, we need to get our coats.”

He nodded. “Right. I’ll tell you what. Give me your coat check ticket.”

“What? Why?” But she dug around in her purse and then handed it to him a moment later.

“Wait here, and I’ll be right back.” He walked casually across the foyer to the coat check girl.

“Hello again, Mr. White.” The girl smiled, looking him up and down, clearly interested. He pretended not to notice. “Would you like your coat?”

“Yes, please,” he replied. “And can you also retrieve Ms. Kincaid’s coat for me, as well? Here’s her ticket.”

Her smile quickly faded. “Yes, of course.” She took the tickets and walked away. Liam looked casually through to the ballroom, and no one was paying attention. “Here you go!” she replied as she handed him the coats.

“Thank you.” He smiled as he handed her a hefty tip and then walked casually back to Roxanne.

She motioned her head down the hallway behind her. “Come on.” She started walking toward the back of the building, and he followed. “While you were getting our coats, I called Fred to come and get us.”

Liam raised an eyebrow as he walked beside her. “Fred?”

Roxanne gave him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. For a moment, he wondered why he had never noticed it before. But then again, Roxanne had always been so serious. Or at least, that’s what he had thought until tonight. “He’s my driver.”

“Ah!” he teased. “You have a driver! And here I didn’t think you were an elitist!”

She laughed. “I only use him on special occasions.”

Liam pulled her to a stop by the glass door leading outside. He slipped his coat on and then casually took hers and held it for her. “And tonight was special?” His hands lingered a bit too long on her shoulders.

Roxanne turned to look into his eyes, smiling. “It is now.”