“I wouldn’t know where to start,” Rory admitted. “Where was I gonna learn to dance?”

“You sing.” Arthur raised his glass to his lips. “I’ve heard you. Your voice is wonderful.”

Oh. Rory shrugged, biting his lip to hide a smile from the compliment. “There’s music in church. Not much of that.” He tilted his head toward a nearby couple, where a man had dipped his girl so low her hair brushed the floor. She popped back up a moment later, laughing, skirt twirling as her partner spun her.

Arthur grinned. “I suppose we’ll leave it to Jade and Zhang, then,” and yeah, those two were right up by the band’s stage, doing the Magnolia proud.

The band wasn’t Stella’s but it was good, and Rory hadn’t seen so many live bands that he’d ever turn his nose up at one. Arthur had several dolls wander close, looking interested, but he only gave them friendly smiles, apparently genuinely content to prop up the wall with Rory. Arthur eventually left again to get drink refills, and Rory took a moment to watch, the dancers, the band, all of it. Jade was a particularly good dancer, drawing admiring looks from the fellas and some of the dolls. She wasn’t the only lady in trousers either, a reminder that this ship wasn’t American and neither were most of the people on it.

There was a gentle tap on his shoulder, then Arthur’s voice, deep and close to his ear. “You all right?”

Rory nodded. “Just kinda hitting me that I’m out of America. Three days late,” he added sheepishly.

“Sometimes change takes awhile to sink in, and that’s true even if you’re not vomiting.” Arthur leaned even closer, his breath ghosting over Rory’s ear probably a little closer than two fellas should get in public. “You can still hear the music outside. Maybe we can find something more private.”

Rory took his soda from Arthur’s hand and hastily got to his feet. He followed Arthur out to the wide deck, where couples had paired off in chairs and along the railing. One mom was tapping her toe while a baby slept on her shoulder, and a couple of kids in fancy clothes were dancing enthusiastically.

Arthur led the way to the port side of the social hall, where the wind was blocked but there was nothing to block the view of—well, all that nothing. The stars, though; they were even more beautiful from the ship than they’d been from upstate New York, endless specks of glittering white spread across the deep black of the night sky.

Rory leaned against the wall of the social hall, feeling the music vibrating within. “No land yet.”

“We’re smack in the middle of the Atlantic.”

“Didn’t actually need the reminder, thanks.”