She swallowed. “I’ll do it.”
Liam sighed again. “You sure about this?”
“Absolutely.” She nodded.
She had three weeks left in Alaska. Three weeks for her foot to heal. Three weeks to somehow come up with ballet shoes, costumes, music, a venue and choreography, all without spending a nickel. Three weeks to teach the girls how to dance without holding on to the backs of metal folding chairs for balance.
Lord, please give me strength.
Seven pairs of ballet shoes would also be helpful.
Chapter Twelve
“So what do you think, Dr. Cooper?” Posy stretched out on the examination table in the cramped room the following morning and stared at her foot.
If ankle sprains and fractures of the fifth metatarsal could heal simply from the force of a stare, she would have been good to go. Every pair of eyes in the tiny exam room was glued to her foot, and there were a lot of eyes.
This time her mom had insisted on making the trip to Anchorage with her and Zoey. Posy couldn’t very well say no. If her mother wanted to come, that was fine. If anything, maybe it would prove to her mom that she truly didn’t have anything to hide.
But it did make for a rather crowded doctor’s office.
“Well, let’s take a look, shall we?” Dr. Cooper smiled and rested his hands on her cast.
Zoey shot Posy a look of encouragement over the top of the doctor’s head. Her mother stood beside her, looking as though she might faint. Posy felt slightly sick herself all of a sudden.
This was it. The first big step toward getting her promotion. If the cast didn’t come off today, there was no way she’d be ready to dance in three weeks. Even if she did manage to rid herself of it, she still wasn’t certain she’d be ready in time.
“Your range of motion has definitely improved.” Dr. Cooper turned her foot one direction and then the other, back and forth.
Posy winced. Her range of motion may have improved, but the ligament was still tender. That was to be expected, though, right?
She hoped so. She really hoped so.
Dr. Cooper’s expression remained neutral as he continued the examination. Her inability to discern his thought process was maddening. Posy resumed staring at her foot in order to stop herself from trying to read his mind.
Over three weeks had passed since she’d taken her fall during Cinderella. Twenty-three days, to be precise. And still she hadn’t grown accustomed to seeing her foot frozen in a flexed position within the confines of the plaster cast.
She typically never went twenty-three minutes without pointing her toes, never mind twenty-three days. She’d surely lost some of the flexibility in her foot during its incubation period. If the cast did indeed come off, she’d need to spend long sessions every day exercising with the elastic bands that she always kept in the side pocket of her dance bag. Even then, she wasn’t sure her foot would have the same suppleness or the deep arch that it had before.
She took a deep breath and reminded herself not to skip too far ahead. First things first.
“Well? How does it look?” she asked.
Dr. Cooper smiled. “It looks to me like you’ve done exactly as I asked.”
“I have. I promise.”
“Do you also promise to keep up the treatment if I remove this cast for you? The temptation at first will be to jump right back into your usual activities, but you can’t. If you do, you’re going to end up right back in plaster. I don’t want that. I presume you don’t, either.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
“Okay, then. I think it’s safe to spring you from this cumbersome thing.” He rapped on her cast with his knuckles as if he were knocking on a door.
“That’s wonderful news. Just wonderful.” Her mother beamed.
Zoey’s smile was a mile wide.
Posy wanted to join in the celebration. She really did. But she still had a very important question. The most important one of all. “Can I dance?”
Dr. Cooper crossed his arms and regarded her carefully. “You understand the importance of periods of rest?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.” She nodded.
“And you’ll be extra careful? No snowball fights, ice-skating, skiing, snowshoeing or jumping off buildings.”
“Jumping off buildings?” Posy’s brow furrowed.
Dr. Cooper shrugged. “It was the most dangerous thing I could think of off the top of my head. You get the point, right?”
“Right.” She had no desire to do any of those things. Liam and the boys were scheduled to play in their first snowball match later that afternoon, and this time she had zero intention of charging onto the field.
She just wanted to dance. That was all.
Oh, and choreograph and plan a recital for a group of novice teenage ballerinas in three weeks’ time. Even if she possessed a burning desire to jump off a building, she wouldn’t be able to squeeze it into her busy schedule.
“Then yes. You can dance.”
Those were the words she’d waited weeks to hear. The words she’d prayed for. Posy felt almost sick with relief. Thank You, Lord.
“But I can’t place enough stress on the importance of starting back slowly. Very slowly. Ten minutes at a time, twice a day. If that works, you can increase the time every day by small intervals. No more than five minutes more each time. Got it?”
Ten minutes, twice a day. That was nothing. But tallying up the math in her head, she figured by the time the audition rolled around, she should be able to get through it. Barely. “Got it.”
“And your prescriptions? How are you doing on those? Do you need a refill of either the anti-inflammatory or the pain meds?” He whipped the dreaded prescription pad from his pocket.
Posy glanced at her mother, who’d gone suddenly white as a sheet. No doubt her mind was filled with imagined shoe boxes full of pills shoved beneath Posy’s bed.
“Actually—” Posy aimed her gaze back at Dr. Cooper “—I never filled them.”
“You didn’t?”
“She didn’t.” Zoey shook her head. “She gave the prescription to me.”
Dr. Cooper’s gaze swiveled back and forth between the two of them. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t want to take them. That’s all. I had a, um, problem with pills once. I don’t want to do that again.” The admission, so difficult to get out, scratched against her throat. She had sounded hoarse when she’d given voice to it, but she’d said it. That was the important thing. She’d admitted it out loud.
In front of her mother.
Dr. Cooper gave her knee a reassuring squeeze; however, it was the peace Posy saw shining in her mom’s eyes that was the biggest comfort of all.
“I suppose we won’t be needing this, then, will we?” Dr. Cooper shoved his prescription pad back in his pocket. “On to more important things. Are you ready to get back into your dancing shoes?”
Posy didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely.”
* * *
Posy wrinkled her nose. Anya’s SUV smelled like dog. Like Liam’s dog, to be specific. Like a big, furry, Alaskan-sized dog.
Maybe that was because there was a tiny puppy head poking out of the top of the backpack situated next to her in the backseat. The pup was copper-colored, with a tiny white dot on the top of its head. And despite the obvious fact that it was an infant in dog years, it was infinitely better behaved than Liam’s monster. Case in point—the backpack was still in one piece.
“Has the entire town gone dog-crazy since I’ve been gone?” she asked. The puppy cocked its head at the sound of her voice.
Zoey swiveled backward in the passenger seat and grinned at the dog. “That’s no ordinary puppy. He’s going to grow to be an avalanche rescue dog. Anya and her husband trai
n them.”
“Really? Wow.” No wonder he was so well behaved. “Liam’s dog could use your help.”
Anya met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “Liam has a dog? Since when?”
“I’ve no idea. And it’s really more of a bear than a dog.” A naughty, garbage-eating bear.
“I heard it ate his mattress.” Zoey nodded. “And the front seat of his Jeep.”
Posy found this news more amusing than she probably should have. “Where on earth did you hear that?”
Zoey shrugged. “The coffee bar at the Northern Lights, which is pretty much where I get all my news.”
“Well, if it’s true, I can probably give him a few tips about how to make that dog behave.” Anya laughed. “Or at the very least, get him to stop eating furniture and vehicles.”
“Good luck with that.” Posy snorted in a most unballetic fashion. Then the SUV pulled to a stop, and she realized where they’d been headed. “The skating pond? You’ve got to be kidding.”
Anya shifted the car into Park. “We wanted to surprise you.”
“Are you surprised?” Zoey unclicked her seat belt.
“Very.” Posy looked out the window at the pond that, like so many things in Aurora, felt both familiar and new at once.
It was the same oblong pond, surrounded by the same cluster of evergreens, the same frozen skeleton trees. The tiny building that housed the sound system and the modest snack bar was standing, but had been painted cherry red. And someone had made the lovely addition of row upon row of tiny glimmering fairy lights strung across the pond in loopy swags. Those lights changed the look and feel of everything. She imagined skating beneath them would make the snow flurries feel as though they were falling from the stars.
Of course, she’d never know, because it wasn’t as if she could actually go ice-skating. She’d been out of her cast for a matter of hours. Not to mention the fact that she hadn’t slipped her feet into a pair of skates in over half a decade. She wasn’t even allowed to wear her pointe shoes yet.
No unnecessary risks. Wasn’t that what Dr. Cooper had advised? No snowball fights. No skiing. No snowshoeing. No skating.
It sort of looked like fun, though.
Don’t even think about it.
Missing out on these things had never bothered her before, and it shouldn’t now. She had a career to think about. A career that most ballet dancers would kill for.
“Um, you guys, are you sure this is such a great idea? I can’t even skate. Surely there’s something else we can do for girls’ night.” Like sit around with her foot elevated or work on her Thera-Band exercises.
Although she’d already been doing that for the better part of the day. The only stretch of time that she’d been on her feet had been at ballet class this afternoon, which had been by far the best two hours of her day.
The girls were positively ecstatic about the recital. And since they had only three weeks to put something together, she’d moved them away from barre exercises and started them on center floor work for the second half of class. She’d started simple, with a basic port de bras to get them accustomed to balancing themselves without the support of their chairs. But she couldn’t very well choreograph a recital consisting solely of arm movements. So then she’d started them on jetés. One by one they’d flown across the length of the fellowship hall. By the end of the hour, their smiles had grown as big as their leaps.
She still had no clue how to turn their modest skills into recital choreography, but it had been a beginning. And they had to start somewhere.
“Surely you want to see the pond before you leave to go back to California,” Zoey said.
“Besides, this is Aurora, remember? Our girls’-night options are pretty limited.” Anya climbed out of the SUV and shut the door.
So this is happening.
Posy reached for her purse and caught a glimpse of her cell phone in its side pocket. A missed-call reminder flashed on the tiny screen. Gabriel had called again while she’d been teaching, and in the wake of the girls’ excitement about the recital, she’d completely forgotten to call him back.
She rattled off a quick text message, following up on the one she’d finally sent yesterday after Dr. Cooper removed her cast.
Sorry I missed your call again. My foot is getting stronger every day.
Her fingertips paused over the tiny keyboard before she added a quick
I’m counting down the days until I return!
She pressed Send and tossed the phone back in her bag.
“Anya’s right, Posy. It was either the skating pond or the coffee bar at the Northern Lights, and we’ve already been there twice since you’ve been back,” Zoey said.
“Yes, but isn’t the third time supposed to be the charm?” Posy slid out of the backseat and tried not to think about what Dr. Cooper would say if he could see her right now.
She would not skate under any circumstances. She’d sit on the bleachers and watch. Maybe she could even elevate her foot at the same time.
“Come on. It’ll be fun. Besides, we need to celebrate the freedom of your foot from that awful cast.” Zoey stopped at one of the benches that lined the pond and sat to put on her skates. Anya followed suit.
Zoey was right. The removal of Posy’s cast was definitely an occasion for celebration. Although she felt a tad guilty celebrating after what had happened to Liam and his snowball team at the match earlier.
They’d lost in a landslide of Alaska-sized proportions. The other team had been made up entirely of older teens. Older teens who’d obviously done that sort of thing before. It had been an epic, snowy disaster.
And now Posy stood watching her friends lacing up their skates and felt a pang of envy. Don’t be silly. You haven’t even thought about skating in years.
“Why don’t you go grab some hot chocolate from the snack bar?” Zoey said. She had an oddly wide-eyed look on her face. Faux innocence.
“What’s going on?” Posy asked.
Zoey and Anya exchanged glances.
“Nothing.” Anya stared a little too hard at her skates as she laced them up. “Hot chocolate sounds good, though. Will you bring me a cup?”
“Sure.” Posy stood there for a minute, waiting for them to make eye contact with her once again. Neither one of them did.
Since when did putting on skates require such intense concentration? She could have sewn the ribbons on three pairs of pointe shoes in the time it took them to get their skates laced up. “All right. I’ll be back in a few.”
She walked in the direction of the snack bar and glanced at the ice. Skaters glided in an organized circle, laughing, their breath dancing in wispy puffs in the cold Alaskan air. Posy recognized several teens from youth group. Ava, Hannah, Emily, plus a few of the boys whose names she hadn’t yet learned. The boy that seemed to alternate between hovering adoringly around Melody and tormenting her was there, wearing an earnest expression and skating around the perimeter on black skates, helping small children who had fallen and admonishing the reckless ones to slow down. He wore a black-and-white-striped hat like the one Liam had worn back in high school when he was the rink referee. Something about seeing him in action made her wistful.
Lord, is there no escaping the memories in this place?
“Posy.”
She tore her gaze from the movement on the pond and aimed it toward the person manning the snack bar. “Liam?”
Touché, Lord.
* * *
For the life of him, Liam couldn’t figure out what Posy was doing at the pond. It wasn’t as though she could skate. Since she’d been back, he’d come to think of his skating rink as the one place he was sure never to run into her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, frowning. Apparently, she hadn’t anticipated running into him, either. “You
told me you didn’t work here anymore.”
He shook his head. “I never said that.”
“Yes, you did. On my very first day back, right after you, um...”
“Saved you from the imaginary bear?” He lifted a brow.
Her cheeks went pink. “Saved me from your marauding dog.”
The dog. Where was the dog? Liam searched the crowd and spotted him sprawled on his massive belly, pond-side, decimating another one of the red plastic buckets that Ronnie used for hauling water to repair ruts in the ice. Super.
“I never said I didn’t work here. I simply asked if you thought I did. There’s a difference.” Liam passed two cups of hot chocolate over her shoulder to the couple waiting behind her. A line was beginning to form. “Besides, I don’t technically work here.”
“Oh, I see. So I’m imagining things? Like the bear?”
Cute. It was good to see she was getting her sense of humor back, even if the barbs were oftentimes directed at him. “I don’t work here. I own the place.”
She blinked wordlessly.
Liam passed more hot chocolate over her shoulder. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Sorry. I’m surprised, that’s all. You own the skating rink now? And you’re the youth pastor. That’s impressive, Liam. Really.” She looked at him, and for the first time since she’d come home, he felt like someone other than the boy she’d known in high school.
“Thank you.”
They stood there for a moment, neither one of them saying anything until Liam remembered that, yes, even though he owned the place, he was still manning the snack bar at the moment. “Did you, uh, want anything?”
“Oh. Oh, yes, of course. Two hot chocolates, please. Anya and Zoey sent me over here, and now I’m beginning to suspect I know why.”
Zoey again.
I saw the kiss, Liam.
Not only did he have to go and kiss Posy, but he’d somehow chosen to do it in front of her best friend from high school. Although in reality, it hadn’t been a choice so much as a reaction to the situation. A reflex.
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