A multitude of emotions flitted across her mother’s face. Irritation, defiance and, finally, resignation. To Angi’s surprise, her mother nodded. “Fine,” Bianca agreed. “But I’m not going to like it.”

“We’ll see,” Josie said, and then turned on the music.

“I agree with your mom,” Gabe said a few minutes later as he turned the wrong way again and bumped into Angi. “Can’t we just stick to the chicken dance?”

Angi chuckled and executed a perfect turn. “This is more my tempo. I love a good line dance.”

Josie led them through several more dances, including the cha-cha and the foxtrot. Angi found herself paired with Gabe as well as several male residents of the facility. For men who shuffled back and forth to their rooms most days, they moved with surprising grace in the dances.

“I remember USO dances,” one of the men told her as he led her in a swing dance. “It was always the best part of the holidays on base. We might be homesick, but for a few hours dancing to the music we could forget how far away we were from the ones we loved.”

Angi’s heart melted at the nostalgic sentiment. She glanced over to see Gabe dancing with her mother, and her heart softened even more at how relaxed he appeared. Her mom had seemed to recover from her claim of light-headedness at Josie’s goading. Not for the first time, Angi wondered at the coincidence of her mom claiming to feel bad whenever the inn or Angi’s work outside the restaurant was mentioned.

But now everyone in the group was laughing and having fun, and the residents watching, including Iris, seemed to be enjoying the music and dancing just as much as the class participants.

So much so that when the class had finished, Angi pulled Gabe and Josie aside. “I think we should do a holiday dance as our big fundraiser event for the festival. It would be something unique and fun. We can rent a big tent to put up in the square and find a DJ who can play a variety of music. People can buy a special ticket to attend a class taught by Josie at the start.” She glanced at the other woman. “If you’d be willing to donate your time?”

“Of course.” Josie grinned. “We haven’t had a community dance in town for decades.”

“Because people don’t want to come to something like that.” Gabe shook his head. “Dances are for high school kids—homecoming and prom or whatever.”

“Not true,” Angi argued, wondering why he would fight her on this. “As Josie said, everyone loves dancing at weddings. This would be an easy way to raise money for...”

Gabe scowled at her. Josie looked expectant.

“A veterans’ program.” The idea came to Angi on a flash. “Meredith and Ryan were in the restaurant the other day, and they were working on plans for an emotional support pet program for former soldiers. We’re almost at our goal for funds to donate to the school. What if the money we raise at the dance goes toward that?”