by Stacy Eaton
I played to the camera a little bit because I was pretty sure that if the decision was between the first or second, it would be the first guy. Not that I didn’t want someone playful. I did want to have fun, but where the second guy was sweet and cute, the first one was sexy and powerful. Right now, where I was in life, I think I was more interested in power and sex than someone who just wanted to have fun.
I got ready for the third dance, and this time, I asked for a little snack while I was getting touched up. They brought me some cut fruit, and it was enough to satisfy me for the moment.
Right before I went on for my third dance, Holly approached me. “How are you holding up? Are you having fun?”
I hugged her. “I’m having so much fun, and I’m tired, but the adrenaline is keeping me up and moving.”
“You are doing fantastic.” She glanced around and lowered her voice. “Between friends, which one did you like better, the first one or second one?”
I peered around quickly. “The first one.”
Holly’s grinned exploded over her face. “I knew it!”
“Wait? Is that the one you picked?”
“I can’t tell you that, and you still have one more to dance with.”
“Yes, I do. What did you think of the dances?”
“Let’s just say that you look like you are having so much fun, and so do they.”
“Do you know what they’ve said when they were done?”
“I can’t tell you that!” Holly said with a laugh. “But I will tell you that they both had a great time and were all smiles. Now, you go, do your last dance so we can talk.”
“Sounds good.”
A few minutes later, the music started, and we were off for the final time. He had large hands, and he was much taller than the last two men, with blond hair and bright-blue eyes.
The dance went smoothly, and every time we came eye to eye, my heart raced a little faster. If it kept up, my heart was going to wear itself out. He had no issues with lifting me over his head, and as I stared at him at the end, I found myself enjoying his smile and the way he was looking at me. We stayed together for an extra second or two, and then slowly split apart. I glanced back at him, but he was already turning the corner.
“Holy smokes!” I said as I reached the camera area. “That was—holy smokes!”
Tarin joined me. “That was a great dance! It looked like you two really connected out there.”
“I think we did. I was having so much fun just looking into his eyes, and he kind of made my heart beat a little faster.”
“Boy, do you have a tough decision to make.”
“You aren’t kidding!” I said. “I have no idea what I’m going to do.”
“Well, the good news is that you don’t have to decide tonight. You can think it over and make a decision tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? I’m not sure I’m going to have enough time to decide.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Tarin said, and the director yelled that’s a wrap for the day.
I glanced around as everyone started to move at once. For the last four hours, I’d been running at super speed; now it was done, and I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. The first thing was to find my cellphone and see if anything had been found out about the restaurant.
Holly grabbed my arm right before I went into the trailer I was using. “You did fantastic. You looked like you were really enjoying that last dance.”
“I was, he was great. I felt like I had a connection with him too.”
“So, are you going to pick one or three?”
“I’m not sure. I need to think about it for a while.” We stepped inside, and I went straight for my phone. After turning it back on, I shifted to face her. “I owe you an apology for the way I acted yesterday.”
“No, you don’t. I understand that you are dealing with a lot. You were right; this is a dance show, and it’s just a few dates, and the problem you are dealing with is making people sick, and all those employees. I get it. I was wrong to attack you like that yesterday.”
I hugged her. “Thank you for understanding, Holly, I appreciate it.”
“You got it, and to show you how much I understand it, how about we go grab some dinner?”
“Let me check my phone and see if anything has come up.” I checked messages, but there was nothing and no texts. “Looks like dinner would be perfect.”
“I have a few things that I need to do, but I’ll be ready in about twenty minutes.”
“I can wait for you.”
“Great, hey, do you mind if a friend of mine joins us?”
“No, not at all.”
“Fantastic. I’ll find her and let her know.”
Holly took off, and I changed into my own clothing, setting aside the three outfits that I’d worn today. All similar, but different, except the shoes. The shoes had been the same white sneakers in all three dances.
I was going to take the makeup off, but it still looked good, so I kept it on. I was wandering around, looking for Holly, when I saw two women talking to a man in the distance. From the back, it looked like the first man I had danced with, although he was wearing khaki pants and a black polo shirt. I slipped out of sight and watched them, trying to get more information on him.
Holly joined them, and they were all laughing and smiling for a moment before he kissed two of them on the cheek and then hugged Holly tightly. He turned and glanced back, but I was completely hidden in the shadows. He looked relaxed and handsome, and I was tempted to make myself visible to see what he would do. However, we weren’t supposed to talk to one another—at all.
He walked away, and the three women started coming my way. I stepped out from behind a bush, not wanting them to know I saw them. “Hey, Holly, are you ready?”
The two women with her looked me up and down and then turned to Holly.
“Yep, I sure am. We were just coming to get you. Ali, this is Alice, and this is Maggie.”
I wanted to ask them how they knew the first dancer, but I kept my mouth shut and smiled as Maggie spoke up. “I did an article on Holly and the show when she first started this.”
“Wait! You’re Maggie Valor! I recognize you now. You write the romance column.”
“I did,” Maggie said quickly with a chuckle. “I recently left and got a new job.”
“I loved your column; your replacement is horrible.”
The four of us headed toward the parking lot while we discussed her column and replacement. All thoughts of dancer one, two, and three were put on the shelf so I could unwind for a few minutes and enjoy myself with Holly and her friends.
Chapter Eleven
Harvey
I couldn’t stop thinking about it—or more importantly—her. I couldn’t believe that we had literally run into each other on the street a week ago. I wasn’t going to mention that, and no one said anything to me, so I assumed she hadn’t spoken about it either—or perhaps she didn’t remember me.
I’m pretty sure she did. I saw a moment of recognition before we moved along. I tried to think back on that night, and what she could have thought of me. The words we spoke were few, and I tried to recall the sound of her voice, but I’d been so distracted that I hadn’t taken the time to pop it into my memory banks. I’d merely collected her bags and walked away.
I guess it didn’t matter if she remembered me or not, or what she had said that night. The more important question right now was, would she want a second dance?
I was pretty sure she had enjoyed herself while we were dancing. Otherwise, once we’d finished, she wouldn’t have hesitated for so long. As if she didn’t want to leave me. I’d felt it. I’d been tempted to wrap her in my arms, maybe press my lips to hers. The thought to pick her up and swing her around again had crossed my mind. What if I had run away with her? How far would we have gotten before we came to our senses?
I was dying to know how her other two dances went, but no one would tell me anything, including my sister
, and it frustrated the hell out of me.
It was funny how patient I could be sitting behind a gun, but waiting to find out if the woman had been interested in me, well, that was going to drive me nuts.
I was pulling into my driveway when I got a call. I glanced at my phone and immediately picked it up. “Did you hear anything?”
There was a long pause. “Hear anything about what?” Greg asked.
Uh, why did I even think he would know? Maybe because I had expected Maggie to tell him about how it had gone and if I had made a fool out of myself. Had she said something to the effect, he would have started the conversation out that way. I shook my head. “Nothing, what’s up?”
“You busy tonight? Maggie went out to dinner with some friends. Thought maybe you might want to grab a bite.”
“That sounds like a great idea. I’m just getting home; let me shower and change. I need to make sure all the makeup is off.”
He chuckled. “That’s right. You had your dance date thingy today. How did that go?”
“I’ll tell you about it over a drink.”
“Sounds good. Meet me at the pub on Tenth.”
“You got it.”
It didn’t take me long to shower and get dressed, and I was at the pub forty-five minutes later. Greg was already at the bar, and I took the stool beside him as I slapped his back.
“How was work this week?”
“Damn, man, it’s good to be back. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice having Maggie all to myself for weeks on end, but I was starting to go nuts at the cabin.”
“Weren’t you working at all?”
“I was, I mean, I was doing some research and working on a few different ideas for some training, but I was ready to come home. That place was getting too small.”
I chuckled. “So are you back at your place now?” I asked after the bartender took my order.
Greg grinned at me. “No. I’m still at Maggie’s. It’s a bigger place; we aren’t on top of each other there.”
“How is it working together? That’s not too much time together, living and working together, is it?”
His brow lined for a second. “You know, I hadn’t even thought about that until you said something, but no. I don’t mind working with Maggie or living with her. Maggie does her own thing; she’s probably the most independent woman that I know—well, except Alice.” We both laughed. “In fact, I barely saw Mags all week at work. She spent more time with Mike and Jake than me.” He grinned at me before he took a sip of his beer.
“That’s good. Says a lot about her if she can put up with you being around all the time.”
He snickered. “Yeah, she is probably getting the raw end of the deal.”
“Oh, of that I have no doubt.”
“Where is she tonight?”
“She went out to dinner with a few friends.” He smirked as he picked up his phone, pushed a few things on the screen, then spun through some images. He handed me the phone, and my jaw dropped.
In the picture were Alice, Holly, and my dance partner. “She’s out with my sister.”
“Yep, and your date. She’s pretty hot, by the way. How did it go? Mags said you did a surprisingly good job. She hadn’t pictured you to be able to dance.”
“What else did she say?” I stared at the picture, but I was zeroed in on the woman. “What is her name?”
“I have no idea, and she didn’t say anything else. She specifically told me she wasn’t saying anything so that I couldn’t tell you when you asked.”
I checked the post, and it only said, Girls night with friends. “Seriously? She didn’t say anything else?”
“She said the chemistry between the two of you was snapping off the monitor, whatever the hell that means.”
I grinned. “That means that we were good together.”
He laughed. “You enjoyed yourself, didn’t you?”
“I did. I never expected to, but I did enjoy doing it.”
He asked me how I had gotten involved in it in the first place, and I told him the story. When I finished, he asked, “When do you see her again?”
I shrugged. “I have no clue if I will.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“It’s up to her if she wants a second date. If she does, then I find out tomorrow, and I learn another dance, and we do it again. Then she decides if she wants to meet me and speak to me face-to-face.”
He barked out a laugh. “You haven’t even spoken to this woman?”
“Nope.” I took a long draw off my beer. “When the music started, I put my hand out, she took it, we danced for about four minutes, then we turned and walked away from each other.”
“That’s nuts, man.”
“When you think about it, it is, but it’s kinda cool, too. I mean, I never would have signed up to do something like this on my own. If it hadn’t been for Holly needing someone to fill in, I wouldn’t be doing it this time.”
“Do you think she will pick you?”
“Maybe, although I don’t know how her other two dances went. Maybe she connected with one of them more than me.”
He smirked at me. “You want to get picked, don’t you?”
“It’s crazy, but I do. When Holly first talked me into this, it was the furthest thing from my mind, but then I started enjoying myself and thought this could be something pretty cool to tell my kids one day.”
He laughed. “Jesus, you’ve danced with her once, and you’re having kids? You’ve lost your fucking mind.”
I snickered and sipped from my bottle. “What about you and Maggie? You think you guys are going to get married, have a kid or two?”
“No kids. I’m pretty sure eventually we’ll tie the knot, but no kids for us.”
“You don’t want any?”
“No, I don’t, and,” he paused, tapped his thumb on the bar for a moment as if he were making a decision, and turned to me, “and Maggie can’t have kids. Don’t tell anyone about that, though.”
“Oh, man, I’m sorry to hear that. Did she want kids? You guys could always adopt.”
“She’s not interested in kids. She’d prefer to travel and work. She’s not a very maternal person, except when she’s taking care of her mom.”
“How is her mom doing?”
“Eh, she has her days. She recognized us when we first came back, but once in a while, she won’t know us. I gotta tell you, Maggie does better with it than I do.”
“She’s had more time to get used to it.”
“Do you ever get used to the fact that your parent doesn’t recognize you?”
“Okay, so maybe not. That sucks.”
“Yeah, it does, but Maggie rolls with it. Sometimes she gets a little sad, but she deals with it pretty well.”
“She’s a pretty awesome woman. I look forward to getting to know her better.”
“Yeah, well, if things work out for you with this dancing girl, maybe we can have you all over for dinner.”
“Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
After that, Greg and I turned the conversation over to work and moved to a table to eat. I didn’t think about the illustrious dancer again until I was crawling in bed.
As I closed my eyes, her bright-green eyes carried me toward my dreams, and the memory of the feel of her body made me wish she were here with me. Maybe I was turning into a sap in my old age.
The next morning, I dressed and headed down to the dance studio at my appointed time. It was time to find out if I had made the next round.
As soon as I entered, I was whisked away to one of the rooms to do makeup, and then they started recording right from the front door as if I had just come in.
Tarin hugged me on camera. “Did you enjoy yourself yesterday?”
“I did.”
“What was your favorite part?”
“Looking into her eyes and seeing her smile up at me.”
“Did you feel like you connected with her?”
“Surprisingly, I did. I
didn’t expect that, but the minute I looked down at her, I felt a spark.”
“Well, are you ready to find out if she felt the same way?”
“I am.”
“Alright, head up the stairs, and at the top, there will be three boxes. Your box is number one. I can’t wait to see if you have an invitation to come back.”
“Okay, let’s check it out,” I said, and as I started to climb the stairs, a camera crew in front of me, I tried not to let my nerves show. At the top was a long table with three white boxes, each one labeled with a number. I went straight to one and paused as I stared down at it. Oh, please let it be an invite to come back.
I lifted the box and found an envelope under it. I set the box down and picked up the envelope, turning it over to open the flap and remove the card inside. I grinned and read the card out loud. “May I have the next dance?”
I grinned so widely that my cheeks hurt as I turned toward the camera. “Looks like she felt it too!” I held the card up for the camera to see.
As I took the steps down, I practically skipped, and Tarin met me at the bottom of the stairs. “Good news?”
I held the card up. “Looks like I have a hot date next Friday!”
“That’s great! We will see you on Monday to start working on your other routine.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” The cameras cut off, and I found Holly standing off to the side, grinning. I sauntered off toward her. “What are you grinning at?”
“You. I haven’t seen you smile this much in a very long time.” She giggled.
“Whatever, did you all have fun last night?”
She cocked her head to the side. “What are you talking about?”
“I know you went out to dinner with Maggie, Alice, and my date. Did you all have fun?”
“How do you know that?”
“I was out with Greg; he showed me a picture of you all out having fun.” She narrowed her eyes, and I held my hand up. “Before you lose your shit, I don’t know anything else about her—not even her name. It was just a picture around a table. I didn’t even know what she was drinking, and I didn’t try to stalk her to learn more.” She looked unconvinced. “Trust me, Holly. I’m enjoying the mystery, although if you want to tell me anything about her, I’d be happy to listen.”