Save the Last Dance

by Shelley Shepard Gray

  Surprises? She was a professional. “I don’t need you checking up on me.”

  “Oh, don’t be sensitive, Kimmy. It’s my job to make sure my little star is still at the top of her game. That’s all I was doing.” He popped the piece in his mouth and started chomping. “Now, I think we ought to start talking about your next steps.”

  He was driving her crazy, and that was putting it nicely. “My next steps involve going back home.”

  “That’s great news.” His eyes brightened. “Was your loft still available?”

  “I’m going back to Ohio, Brett.”

  “For how long?”

  “For as long as I can. I’m done.”

  “Don’t be that way. Kimber, I promise, princess, you’ve got at least another year.”

  The way everyone she’d once been so close to kept reminding her about her age was starting to really grate on her. What was wrong with them all? They were making an inordinately big deal about her age—even for people in the industry. “I have a lot of years left,” she bit out. And yes, she probably sounded defensive.

  Some of the gloss left his tone. “To do what? No offense, but if you’re not going to model, what will you do?”

  “I don’t know.” She waved a hand. “Something. Everything.”

  “Well, that’s hopeful.” Stirring his drink with its little cocktail straw, Brett smirked. “You know, you’ve never told me what, exactly, you were leaving me for.”

  It was weird how he was making her decision so personal. “I’m not leaving you, Brett. Just this career. And I’ll figure something out. I’ve got time.” He, of all people, knew how much money she’d made over the years.

  His expression turned hard. “You’re making a huge mistake. You’re going to regret this. I know it.”

  “Life isn’t all about work, Brett. I’m connecting with my sisters. Making friends.” Staring down at her very fancy, very expensive plate of food that she’d only been able to pick at, she smiled slightly. “Eating . . .”

  “Eating what in the middle of Ohio? The blue plate special at the Bob Evans?”

  “Sarcasm doesn’t serve you well.”

  “Neither did living in the middle of the rust belt.” He drained his glass. “You forget that I grew up with those people. They’re going to grate on you sooner or later. Mark my words.”

  Those people were her sisters. And Gunnar. Boy, just imagining how her construction worker would react to Brett’s pretty boy disdain, she couldn’t help but smile. Gunnar would have chewed him up by now.

  “I see you smiling, girl. Don’t laugh at me.” Just as he drew in a breath of air, obviously in order to spew more advice, he smiled at the couple approaching.

  None other than Esme and some older man who she was clinging to.

  “Tommy! Esme!” After shaking the older man’s hand, Brett turned and kissed Esme on the lips. “Darling, you look gorgeous.”

  Tommy stiffened while Esme laughed.

  The whole thing felt icky. In no hurry to enter the conversation, Kimber stood up far more slowly. “Esme, hey.”

  Esme hugged her. “Kimber, I know I said I’d call as soon as you flew in, but I’ve just been swamped.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m going to be heading back soon anyway.”

  “Oh? Your job ended that fast?”

  “It was a quick one.” She shrugged. There was no way she was going to mention the job she was on. Esme was cutthroat competitive.

  “Kimber is here for the Women’s Weekly gig,” Brett said. “They’ve rolled out the red carpet for her too. It’s been fantastic.”

  Esme’s warm expression pinched. “Is that right?”

  Oh, this was about to go down in a bad way. Hoping to circumnavigate the storm that was about to erupt, Kimber held out her hand to the man who was patiently standing next to Esme. “Hi. I’m Kimber Klein.”

  He shook her hand politely. “Tommy August. So, you’re a model too?”

  “Kind of.”

  “She told everyone she was retiring, but I guess that was a lie,” Esme said.

  “It wasn’t. Brett talked me into something. Like I said, I’m heading back to Ohio real soon.”

  “Women’s Weekly wanted Kimber bad. They offered her quite a deal.”

  “Is that right? How big a deal was it?”

  There was no way she was going to go there. “Look, we better sit down. We were just finishing up our meal.”

  Tommy August’s expression warmed, showing that he was on the same page that she was. “Don’t let us keep you.” He wrapped an arm around Esme’s tiny waist. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Kimber.”

  “You too. See you, Esme.”

  Esme smiled brightly at her, though her eyes were cold. “I hope so, Kimmy.”

  And, there it was. Esme was not pleased with her. Not one bit.

  After they were escorted toward the back of the restaurant, Brett sat back down with a broad grin. “Looks like you’ve got a little bit of competition there. Esme was not pleased.”

  “You spun her up.”

  He shrugged. “Nothing wrong with competition. Esme needs to not take so much for granted.”

  He didn’t deny it. She realized then that there was also a very good chance that he had probably set it up. Having had more than enough, she placed her napkin to the left of her plate and stood up. “Thank you for the meal but I’m going to get out of here.”

  “Kimber, don’t you go anywhere. I’ll take you back to the hotel. We need to discuss a few things anyway.”

  “I’ll grab a taxi.”

  Brett looked torn between standing up with her and pulling her back down by his side. “What is going on?”

  “I have an early call in the morning. I need my sleep, since I’m so old and all.”

  “We’ll talk about this next week. Maybe Tuesday, after you’ve calmed down.”

  “We won’t. I’m catching a flight out tomorrow night. We’re done.”

  “You aren’t. I have some people who want to meet you. They’re planning on it.”

  “You’ll have to call them back, Brett.”

  He stood up. “Kimber, you’re making a big mistake.” His voice was as cold as she’d ever heard it.

  “I don’t think so.” She smiled brightly before walking to the front and asking for her coat. Luckily, the hostess brought her black cashmere coat right away. After slipping it on, along with her gloves and scarf, Kimber stepped out into the dark.

  Immediately, she was surrounded by the cacophony of horns and sirens that was New York. Bypassing the waiting taxi, she started walking. Breathed in the fresh air that was tinged with a thousand smells that Shannon would probably find abhorrent.

  When her phone rang, she glanced at it, just in case it was about tomorrow’s job.

  But it was Gunnar.

  She clicked on immediately. “Gunnar. Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself.”

  “It’s nice to hear from you. Is everything all right?”

  “Everything is fine. Listen, I know you don’t need me to fuss but I was worried about you. So will you humor me and let me know that you’re all good?”

  It didn’t make her feel very independent, but she didn’t care. “For your information, New York City is as safe as anywhere. It’s probably safer than a lot of other cities half its size.”

  “No, baby, I was worried about you and the job and your crazy agent. And you eating.”

  In spite of the frigid temps, she got warm all over. “You don’t need to worry so much. It’s been going all right.”

  “Sorry, but you don’t sound very convincing.”

  Sidestepping a couple standing in the middle of the sidewalk, she smiled. “That’s probably because I don’t feel very convincing. It’s been a long day.”

  �
��I hear a bunch of background noise. Where are you?”

  “Walking back to my hotel from the longest dinner ever.”

  “By yourself?”

  “Yes, but don’t worry. I’m okay. I’ll probably take a taxi soon.”

  “Probably? It’s dark, cold, and you’re a beautiful woman walking alone. Kimber, get a taxi.”

  “I just needed a moment. Now, how are you?”

  “Stressed.”

  “I hope I’m not the reason for it.”

  “Only a little bit of it.” He sighed. “Actually, I called for some advice, but now I realize I should’ve left you alone. The last thing you need is my problems on your shoulders.”

  “What’s going on? And no, I don’t want to be left alone. Actually, I think concentrating on you is going to make my life easier. I need to concentrate on something besides myself right now.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. Talk.”

  “Fine. Two days ago, we had a surprise home visit from the social worker.”

  “You and Jeremy?”

  “Yeah. Kimber, when she walked in, I was sitting at the table sipping a beer while Jeremy was cooking us both ramen noodles for supper. His schoolbooks were spread out on the counter too. That’s where he was studying.”

  “What’s wrong with that? I thought you told me that he made good grades.”

  “He does, but shouldn’t he be sitting at his own little desk or something?”

  “Maybe if he was seven.” This guy! His worries were so cute it was almost aggravating. “Gunnar, I’m sure it was fine.”

  “It ended up being fine, but I have to admit that I was freaked out there for a minute or two.”

  Waiting for the crosswalk, she smiled. “Only for a couple of minutes?”

  “Yeah, because after I made a fool of myself, she gave us some excellent news. Kimber, we have a court date for adoption.”

  “Well, don’t keep me in suspense. When is it?” she asked as she turned down a far quieter side street.

  “January seventeenth.”

  She was now grinning ear to ear. “That’s excellent. Wonderful!”

  “It really is.”

  She could practically see him grinning too. “So other than that, how’s Jeremy?”

  “He’s good. He asked a girl to the Christmas dance and she said yes. I don’t think anything would have bothered him after that. It’s all he wanted to talk about with Melanie.”

  Kimber smiled. That boy sounded so cute. “See? It’s all good.” She stopped, then started walking a little faster. It was probably her imagination, but she thought she’d heard footsteps behind her.

  “I think Bethany and him are all good. I just hope nothing happens to make Melanie change her mind or anything.”

  Reminding herself that Gunnar was overthinking because he loved the boy and didn’t want to jeopardize their future together, she said, “We’ll just have to stay positive.”

  “And hope nothing happens between now and January seventeenth.” He took a deep breath. “I know I keep worrying about the same stuff, but . . .”

  Gunnar started talking about some work issues, and some things at Jeremy’s school. Kimber tried to listen but she was now distracted.

  Half-certain she heard something crackle nearby, she quickly glanced behind her. But beyond a pair of men walking half a block back, she didn’t see anything. Still unable to shake the feeling that she was being followed, she picked up her pace.

  “So what do you think, Kimber? Should I be worried about that?”

  She had no idea to what he was referring to. Feeling even more uneasy, she said, “I think I better get off the phone.”

  “You okay? You sound a little out of breath.”

  “I’m okay, it’s just that I took a shortcut, but things don’t seem quite right.” Her voice drifted off. She not only didn’t want to worry him, but she was afraid to give voice to the fears that were threatening to overtake her.

  “What do you mean by that? Are you in trouble? Is someone bothering you?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, probably not.”

  “I’m not letting you get off the phone if you’re scared.” His tone turned even more serious. “When can you get back to a busier street?”

  “In about a half a block.”

  “Then you’ll hail a cab?”

  She didn’t appreciate his bossiness but she knew it stemmed from concern. “Yes.” Still practically running, she said, “Hold on, I’m almost there.” She rushed to the intersection, practically cheering when she saw all the people. “I’m okay now.”

  “I wish I was there with you.”

  Thinking about the dinner with Brett, she murmured, “I wish you were too. I had a heck of a dinner. It was awful.”

  “I’ll take you out to dinner when you get back.”

  She smiled. “You’re quite the sweetheart. First you volunteer to pick me up, now you’re promising to feed me too.”

  “Stick with me, sugar. I’ll spoil you rotten.”

  She laughed. She knew he was joking, but what he didn’t realize was that those things counted for her. She’d dated so many men who either only wanted to be seen with her or wanted to talk about themselves. Gunnar Law was reminding her that all men weren’t like that.

  After checking her surroundings again and finding nothing but a whole lot of uninterested New Yorkers, she said, “When you say things like that, I wonder how all the women in West Virginia let you slip through their fingers.”

  “I guess I was saving myself for a certain woman in Bridgeport,” he teased, warming her insides. “So where are you now? Are you about to grab a cab?”

  Noticing that every taxi that passed was occupied, she knew that wasn’t about to happen anytime soon. But there was no way Gunnar needed to know that. “Yeah, probably in a sec or two—” Her words cut off as she felt someone pull her arm. With a gasp, she turned, her phone clattering to the ground.

  But all she could see was the quickest glimpse of a meaty hand reaching out for her with a stream of profanities.

  Before she could get her bearings, she was thrown to the ground. Then kicked.

  And then she wasn’t aware of much at all.

  Except for the faint echo of Gunnar Law’s voice through the speaker of her phone. Over and over again he called her name.

  CHAPTER 26

  “Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,

  A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;

  Blinks but an hour or two; and then,

  A blood-red orange, sets again.”

  —Robert Louis Stevenson,

  “Winter Time”

  Never had he wanted to both throw his phone and hold it close at the same time. It was serving as his lifeline to Kimber, but it was currently giving him close to nothing.

  Nothing except a ton of background noise and a heart attack.

  “Kimber?” Gunnar yelled yet again. “Kimber? Kimber!” But all he heard was a clatter of feet, then a couple of exclamations. Hoping that someone had stopped to take care of her, he called out her name again. “Kimber? Kimber, can you answer me, honey?”

  After he heard another set of clattering, he heard a rustle of a jacket.

  “Ah, hello?”

  It was an unfamiliar voice with a New York accent. “Yeah. Hi. This is my girlfriend’s cell. Are you standing next to her?”

  “Yeah. I was about a block away and saw her go down. Some guy hit her good. I couldn’t believe it! I yelled at the guy but he took off.”

  Gunnar had never been so freaked out. “Wait. Is she okay?”

  “I don’t know. She was moving a second ago. Hey, what’s her name? Oh, hold on!”

  “Wait—”

  “Miss? Miss, someone called the police and an ambulance,” the man said in a gentle voice. �
��There’s someone on this phone for you. What do you want . . . ? Oh! Okay. Here you go.”

  “Gunnar?” Kimber’s voice was weak and she sounded out of it.

  He closed his eyes. Lord have mercy, but he was about to lose it. “Yeah, it’s me. I’m so glad you’re talking.”

  “I . . . I don’t feel good.”

  “Kimber, baby. Hang in there. They said the ambulance is on the way. Hang in there for a little longer, okay?”

  “’Kay.”

  Her voice was starting to slur. Gunnar was pretty sure she was about to pass out. Hating how hopeless he felt, he did the only thing he could think of—he tried to keep her talking. “Kimber, baby, where are you staying?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Honey, what hotel? Tell me quick, because I’m flying out there as soon as I can.”

  “Lexington. It’s the Lexington . . .” The last of her words were drowned out by the sound of sirens.

  He wasn’t sure if she could hear him, but he said, “I’ll be there soon. Tomorrow. You remember that. I’m going to be praying for you too.”

  When she disconnected, he rested his head against the back of the couch and tried to get his bearings. Then he realized that he needed to figure out what to do about Jeremy.

  Getting to his feet, he started pacing, thinking about work and Kimber and realized he needed to call Shannon and then Ace.

  First he tried the main phone number for Dance With Me but only got a recording. Next, he called the main number for the police department and asked for Traci Lucky. To his amazement, he was put right through.

  “This is Lucky.”

  “Hi, Traci? This is Gunnar Law. I’ve been dating your sister Kimber?”

  “She’s mentioned you,” she replied, her voice sounding much more guarded. “What’s going on?”

  Briefly he told her about his phone call with Kimber. “As soon as I find a place for Jeremy, I’m going to book a flight out there.”

  “To New York?”

  “It’s a quick flight, right?”

  “Yes, but . . . are you sure? I’m sure Shannon or I can go.”

  “You need to do what you need to do, but I can’t be here if Kimber’s hurt or in danger.”