You Made Me Love You

by Neesa Hart

  He sat down. Rose gave him a sour look, but kept her mouth shut. Anna looked carefully around the table, studying each board member in turn. Liza watched her, worried. She hadn’t been herself since Liza’s return from New York. Despite the fact that Anna’s support of Eli had finally been backed by the board—the crucial vote hadn’t occurred until after Jonathan Dally’s claims had been publicly refuted. It had taken a toll, Liza knew, on her friend.

  “I have one more thing to say,” Anna said carefully. “For the past few weeks, I’ve tried to listen to all of your opinions. I’ve made every effort to give equal time to anyone who demanded a voice. And I hope when we look back on this, you’ll all remember that I was fair and equitable in the way I handled it.”

  “Of course,” Bill insisted. “That was never an issue.”

  “We wanted,” Rose added, “what was best for Breeland. Your leadership of this board and of the school were never questioned.”

  Anna pursed her lips. “Be that as it may, I know we haven’t always agreed, but I like to believe that we disagreed agreeably. Which is why,” she drew a deep breath, “I have one final statement to make on the matter. When I came to this school, what drew me here was the fact that Breeland put the needs of its students and the growth of its faculty ahead of programs and numbers. We’ve had our share of detractors, and we’ve suffered our share of criticisms. Not everyone agreed on our approach to education. We’ve been accused of being too traditional, too radical, too serious, and too frivolous all at the same time. But through all of that, I have always believed that this board, this school shared one common purpose: to give the girls who attend our programs during the regular school year and in the summer an unparalleled educational experience that would help them be better women, not just better students.”

  Liza frowned. She suspected this was going somewhere, and she wasn’t going to like it. Bill sent her an anxious look. Anna leaned forward in her chair and folded her hands on the polished conference table. “That,” she continued, “has always been what mattered most to me. As a teacher, here, I found that I loved the chance to teach these girls how to fly. I believe that if we didn’t save lives, we at least saved spirits—and that made every frustration worthwhile.”

  Anna looked around the room again, her gaze noticeably saddened. “But all good things finally come to an end, and I’ve found in the last few weeks that I just don’t have the energy to do this job the way it should be done. What you need on this board is someone who can fight for the students, someone who won’t back down when the pressures mount, someone who can give you the passion and leadership that makes Breeland what it is. I can’t be that person anymore. So after today’s board meeting, I’ll be stepping down as head of the summer program and chairperson of this board.”

  A collective gasp sounded in the small room. Bill held out a hand. “Anna, please. That’s not necessary.”

  “No, Bill,” Anna said. “It’s time. And it’s not a sad thing. I don’t want any of us to walk away from here thinking this is anything other than a great opportunity for us to move forward. It’s my recommendation,” she told the rest of the board, “that you elect Bill Maxin as your new chairman.” She looked over her shoulder at Liza, “And that you appoint Liza Kincaid head of the summer program.”

  Liza’s eyes widened. She couldn’t imagine doing the job, even being a part of the summer program without Anna’s firm, yet compassionate leadership. “Anna—”

  “It’s the right thing, Liza,” she said quietly.

  Three hours later, Liza leaned back in the chair in her office and stared out the small window. Her insides were still quaking with the magnitude of Anna’s announcement at the board meeting, and the way things had changed. Everything, she thought grimly, had changed.

  Before she’d left New York, Eli had tried to pin her into telling him when she’d return. Like a coward, she’d managed to avoid him. She’d paid a visit to Joshua’s grave on her way out of town, and found that even there things felt different. In the past few weeks, everything she’d come to count on, everything she believed in, had shifted. She wasn’t sure she could face another major transition in her life. It made her feel panicky.

  The phone on her desk rang. She picked it up with a frown. “Liza Kincaid.”

  “Hi, it’s Rachel. I just got your message. My God, is it true?”

  “About Anna? Yes, it’s true.”

  “Lord, Liza, it’s just too weird to think of Breeland without her. What’s she going to do?”

  That question, at least, Liza had settled with Anna over lunch. “She’s stepping down as chairman of the board, and as head of the program, but she’ll still be a part of what goes on here. I’m not sure I could even contemplate the summer program without her influence.”

  “I’m glad.” Liza heard Rachel shift the phone against her ear. “So you said in your message that you had an idea for a send-off. What’s on your mind?”

  Liza leaned back in her chair. “Can you raise several thousand dollars for me in a week?”

  “Sure. You got a current alumni list?”

  “Yes.”

  “Email it to me. I can have the office make the phone calls. What are you planning?”

  Liza gazed out the window again. “Anna has spent most of her life making dreams come true for people like you and me, Rachel. I think it’s time we paid back the debt.”

  Eli turned into the parking space outside Breeland’s largest auditorium, and switched off the ignition. The first time he’d seen Liza Kincaid dance, it had been in this very building. Then, she’d bewitched him.

  “Are we going in, Daddy?”

  He looked at Grace. She wore her dance recital costume tonight. It made her look impossibly grown-up. It had been two weeks since he’d last seen her. After that tumultuous day at his apartment, they’d spent three days together talking to each other, talking to a child psychiatrist friend of Eli’s, and generally healing from the past few months.

  Finally, by mutual consent, he and Grace had agreed that she should return with Liza to Breeland to finish her classes while he stayed behind in New York to tie up his legal battles—and to make sure the Paschells knew he wouldn’t tolerate any more interference. He called every night, and to his increasing delight, Grace opened up to him more every day. Now that the truth was out in the open, and now that she no longer feared any backlash from her mother’s death, she was free to express her own grief in her own way. With Liza’s help, and the help of the counseling staff at Breeland, she seemed to be doing fine.

  He was the one who’d turned into a basket case.

  Liza, he knew, had been incredibly busy. The first of the three summer sessions was drawing to a close, and Liza had the dance recital, as well as the closing ceremonies to plan. Still, their few conversations had grown increasingly impersonal. She’d sent him a written invitation to the recital. Until he’d opened the envelope, he wasn’t even sure he’d be welcome. Rachel Ramsey had relayed a number of requests to him—including Liza’s instructions for the gift he’d brought Anna—but as far as he could tell, Liza wouldn’t care whether he showed or not. That thought, along with an instinct that told him she was steadily pulling away from him, had his gut tied in knots.

  “Daddy,” Grace prompted.

  He realized he still hadn’t answered her question. “Yes,” he said, simultaneously determined and trepidant. “We’re going in. Do you have Anna’s present?”

  Grace shook the silver-wrapped box. “Right here.”

  He gave her a lopsided grin. “Do you have Liza’s present?”

  “It’s in my pocket,” she assured him. Rachel Ramsey and Lindsay had brought Grace to the Atlanta airport to meet his plane. He and his daughter had had plenty of time to talk in the hour-long trip back to Terrance as they’d followed Rachel and Lindsay in a rental car. Grace, at least, seemed confident about the evening.

  Eli nodded. “Then let’s go.”

  The auditorium hummed with energy and
life. Appropriate, Eli thought, for an event Liza had planned. Across the crowded foyer, where a mob of parents and students milled about snapping pictures and chattering above the din, Eli spotted Martin. He led Grace toward him. “Hello, Martin. You made it, I see.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it.” Martin stooped to hug Grace. “You look fabulous, darling.”

  Grace laughed. “Daddy said you were on vacation in the Caribbean and might not make it tonight.”

  Martin gave Eli a sidelong glance. “I was personally invited to this event by you, Grace, and Liza. What made you think I wouldn’t be here?”

  “A personal invitation,” Eli said dryly. “Really?”

  Martin nodded. “Yes. Liza and I have become quite good friends.”

  “She likes you,” Grace told him. “She didn’t think she would at first, but she does.”

  “The feeling is mutual,” Martin assured her with a smile.

  Grace beamed at him, then handed him Anna’s wrapped gift. “I have to go get ready backstage. You and Daddy better get a seat or you won’t be able to see me dance.”

  Eli watched, feeling a bittersweet longing as she disappeared backstage. Martin prodded him in the ribs. “The lovely Miss Ramsey is saving us seats near the front.”

  Eli looked at him with raised eyebrows. “The lovely Ms. Ramsey? I wasn’t aware you two were so close.”

  Martin’s long-suffering look was almost laughable. “You would probably be surprised at how much you haven’t been aware of for the past several months.” He poked him again. “Let’s go. I don’t want to miss anything.”

  An hour and a half later, Eli leaned back in his chair and watched with a mixture of pride and delight as his daughter charmed the audience in a tap duet with Lindsay. Liza had been right once again—not only did Grace have a natural talent, but she loved dancing. She had the audience, him included, in the palm of her hand as she and Lindsay finished the duet. The number concluded the annual dance recital, and brought the loudest cheers. Which, he noted with paternal pride, it fully deserved. He made a mental note to talk to Liza about Grace’s continued lessons as soon as he could get her to have a personal discussion with him.

  As if he’d conjured her up, Liza walked on stage, ushered in by the wildly appreciative applause of her audience. She gave them a broad smile as she accepted a wireless microphone from a stagehand. “Thank you,” she said, waiting for some of the noise to die down. She was having trouble, Eli noted, gaining the audience’s full attention. Ironic, he thought, as she had managed to rivet him the moment he’d seen her.

  To catch his attention, Martin thrust Anna’s package into his stomach so hard, it forced Eli to suck in a startled breath.

  “Keep breathing,” Martin warned him. “You’ll pass out and embarrass me.”

  Scowling at him, Eli clutched the box and looked at Rachel. “Now?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Soon. Liza’s going to make the announcement, then she’ll ask for the gifts on stage. Yours is the last one.”

  “Great.” He was rapidly calculating the chances of rushing the stage, abducting Liza, and kissing her senseless until they were both breathless. If Liza looked at him with that same cool, impersonal stare he’d seen as she boarded the plane to leave New York, he was fairly certain he’d do something rash.

  His gaze shifted to Liza. She was talking about Anna’s contributions to Breeland. Maybe if he moved quickly enough, he could get to the stage before someone stopped him. Once he had her in his arms, he wouldn’t give her time to think. He’d make damned sure she was panting before he asked her what the hell was wrong with her. Then maybe, if he was lucky, she wouldn’t tell him that she’d decided he couldn’t be the man she needed.

  He’d failed Mara like that. And if he hadn’t, Grace never would have suffered through his ex-wife’s bitterness. When Liza had told him about Joshua, a story he knew she’d shared with few others, he’d been so absorbed in his own world, that he’d tuned out her grief. A part of him hadn’t wanted to share that hurt—and it almost killed him to admit that.

  But Liza was an extremely perceptive woman, and something told him that she knew. She knew he had refused to step up to the plate when he’d had the chance, and now, he’d lost her.

  That pain started spreading in his chest again. He silently begged her to make eye contact with him. Give him something, anything, that might let him believe there was still a chance for them.

  “And so,” Liza was saying, “this is a sad night in some ways, because it marks the end of an incredible era at Breeland. But in other ways, I believe it is a new beginning for the school, for Anna Forian, and for the people she’s loved.” Applause roared through the room. Eli’s ears were ringing.

  Liza sent a signal to the wings, and a curtain lifted to reveal an orchestra of women, ages seventeen to indeterminable. Liza’s dance students, still wearing their recital costumes, filed out from the wings and filled the front two rows of the auditorium. Bill Maxin ushered Anna on stage and seated her on a chair near the front of the orchestra. The audience responded with cheers and a standing ovation.

  When the crowd finally quieted again, Liza continued, “So it is with great pride that I introduce to you, by exclusive arrangement with the board of visitors”—she gave Bill a slight smile—“the combined Breeland alumnae orchestra. And tonight, they’ll be playing a piece that has great meaning to us all.”

  Rachel jabbed Eli in the ribs. “Now.”

  Martin shoved him into the center aisle. He walked quickly toward the stage, keeping a steady gaze on Liza. She still hadn’t looked at him. “We couldn’t have done this,” she said into the mic, “without the generous help of so many friends of the academy. Anna didn’t give us much time.” The crowd laughed. “But I think we’ve come up with something that will begin to repay the tremendous debt we all owe her.” Liza finally looked at Eli.

  He held her gaze for long seconds, then handed her the box. Liza’s fingers brushed his when she accepted it. He had to resist the urge to cling to her hand. She turned back to the audience. As many of you know, when Anna came to the United States, she was forced to leave her home in Austria, her husband, Rudolf, and her infant daughter. Despite the plans she’d made with her family, they were never reunited. For years, I know that she has struggled to find meaning in what had to be an immeasurably sad chapter in her life.”

  Liza paused, and Eli could almost feel the weight pressing in on her. He moved a step closer. She clutched the flat box to her chest. “She told me once that she found that meaning here, at Breeland, where she could share Rudolf’s love of music with her students.”

  Indicating the orchestra behind her, she said, “some of these students. But what many of you don’t know is that Rudolf not only played beautiful music, he wrote music.” She gave Eli a grateful smile, “and thanks to our friend Dr. Liontakis, who enjoys significant contacts across international boundaries, we are able to present tonight something I don’t think even Anna dreamed of.”

  Liza beckoned to Anna, whose eyes were gleaming with unshed tears. Bill led her forward to accept the box. To the accompaniment of a hushed audience, she peeled away the silver paper. Inside the flat box was a leather bound copy of the Dreamer’s Waltz by Rudolf Forian—obtained after hundreds of phone calls from a library in Vienna, and preserved and bound by a friend of Eli’s in Manhattan.

  Anna, tears streaming down her weathered cheeks, clutched the manuscript to her chest and looked at Liza. “Thank you. Oh, thank you.”

  Liza embraced her, then turned back to the audience. Her voice was husky with unshed tears. “Tonight, the orchestra will present Rudolf Forian’s Dreamer’s Waltz.” Liza met Eli’s gaze. “And in recognition of the dreams Anna Forian gave us all, the dance department will interpret it.”

  Eli stilled. Vaguely, he remembered Martin’s warning not to humiliate himself, but he couldn’t make his lungs work. Somehow, he made it to the wings as the dancers filed on stage. He watched Liza take her p
lace among them, and then felt himself fall completely under her spell as he watched the dance unfold.

  He knew then that he had not given Liza the support she deserved. Just like her mother. Like her ex-husband. Like almost everyone else in her life. Her courage in dancing before them all tonight, despite her reservations, moved him.

  He’d beg if he had to. If that’s what it took for a second chance, he’d do it. He watched the dance, felt every step she took, and knew she’d wrapped herself so tightly around his heart that he’d never be the same after tonight.

  When it ended, Anna was still crying. She wasn’t alone. The audience surged to its feet and applauded. Tears flowed freely. Eli saw Liza duck quickly behind a curtain, then make her way off stage. He stood for a minute, struggling with indecision.

  Something nudged his hand. He looked down to find Grace pressing a small box into his palm. “Go, Dad,” she said. “Tell her now, before it’s too late.”

  His fingers curled around the box. He paused to press a kiss to his daughter’s forehead, then raced after Liza.

  He found her in one of the dressing rooms, taking deep, calming breaths. He stopped at the doorway and allowed his eyes to feast on the sight of her. What a fool he’d been. How had he ever convinced himself that this woman wasn’t an inseparable part of him. “You were beautiful,” he said quietly.

  With a startled gasp, Liza snapped her head around. “Eli.” She stared at him for the span of three heartbeats. “You startled me.”

  “Sorry.” He walked into the room. “I had to see you.”

  “I thought you’d still be backstage with everyone else. I—I didn’t have time to thank you earlier for taking care of the manuscript. We couldn’t have done this without you.”

  He paused to reach behind him and shut the door. “My pleasure. I was glad to do it for her.”

  Liza pressed back against the mirrored wall and watched him through wary eyes. “What did you want?”