Page 56 of Rookie Season
Noah smiles, then he puts a hand on my back, and we exit the dance floor together, leaving Penn and Fisher in our wake to party it up.
CHAPTER 23
NOAH
As Allyand I walk up the long flight of stairs that leads to the roof of the building, I eye her heels nervously. My hand comes up to the small of her back, just in case she stumbles. But I forgot her dress dips low in the back and my skin comes in contact with hers.
Her smooth back is warm from dancing and tight with lean muscle, the same lean muscle I noticed when we were dancing during game night. A hot sense of awareness pulses through me from the contact, but she keeps walking, clearly not affected by the touch in the same way I am.
When we make it onto the rooftop, I breathe a sigh of relief and remove my hand from her skin. The cool bay breeze dries the sweat on my brow from dancing. There are a few couples scattered about, but it’s quiet up here, and there’s no music playing. Strands of outdoor lights are hung from tall poles, and the brick comes up high enough to create a sort of border around the edges. Ally spots a bench that overlooks the bay and strides over, sitting down and bending to rub her foot.
She sighs. “I love dancing, but it feels so good to sit down.”
I take a seat beside her, the breeze blowing through her curled hair and bringing her scent into my space. I close my eyes and breathe her in, wishing I could get even closer to her, see how the sweat from dancing tastes on her skin.
Tugging at my tie that suddenly feels too tight, I clear my throat. “I can’t even remember the last time I danced,” I admit.
She looks up at me through her thick lashes. “You’re actually a fantastic dancer, Downsby.”
“Not as good as you,” I say before I can stop myself.
Watching her move on the dance floor downstairs feels like something I should pay for, like a ticket should be required for seeing the performance. Because damn, even on a dance floor full of bodies at a party, her movements stand out from everyone else. She’s all smooth, graceful motions, one evolving effortlessly into another. Unbelievably sexy, yet strong and elegant at the same time. It’s a killer combination.
Ally blushes, growing suddenly shy and glancing down at her lap. “My friend Cora, from the dance studio, recently told me about an open audition for a dance show opening here soon.”
“Yeah?” I perk up, honored that she’s sharing this with me even though there’s something about the topic that clearly makes her hesitant. “Is that what you were doing when I picked you up from the studio that night? An audition piece?”
She tilts her head back and forth, like she’s weighing my question. “Yes and no, I guess. I’m not going to actually audition, but it inspired me.” Ally straightens. “I enjoy teaching, but I’ve also realized that I miss the actual dancing. So I started working on a routine, but just for fun.” Hereyebrows draw together. “I just want to dance for myself right now. Try to fall in love with it again. Feel myself in it again.” She groans. “Does that sound stupid?”
I shake my head. “Of course not. Loving what you do is important. Getting to do what you’re passionate about every day…there’s nothing like it.”
She rolls her lips. “Yeah, exactly. At USG I think I lost sight of why I’m a dancer. I was so focused on being the best, earning my scholarship, worrying what the people around me thought of me…”
I nod, wondering for the first time how temporary her stay in California might be.
“Do you think you’ll go back to USG and finish your degree?” I close my eyes briefly, nervous about what her answer might be. I really don’t like the thought of her leaving, being thousands of miles away. Driving all those miles leaves a million opportunities for something bad to happen…
“No,” she says in a serious tone like she’s dead set she’ll never return. There’s something haunted about the look on her face. I don’t like it, not one bit.
“Why not?” I ask gently. I know I might be pushing her too far, asking too much, but I can’t help but want to know more. Knowher.
She takes a deep breath, worrying her bottom lip in a way that makes me wonder if she’s contemplating how much to share with me. And I find myself hoping she shares everything with me. I want to know everything about her, I want to share her burdens, maybe help her carry them so they’re not so heavy.
“My first two years of college, I hit it off with a group of girls from my floor. We became fast friends; we did everything together.” She sighs. “But then something happenedwhen I went back to school this fall…someone was spreading rumors about me. It was awful.”
The pain on her face as she speaks has me wanting to pull this woman close to my chest and hold her.
“Instead of believing that it was all lies, they cut me off. We were planning to move into an off-campus house together this year, but at the end of the summer, they suddenly said I needed to find a new place because they’d rented my room out…” she pauses. “They rented it out to one of the people who was spreading lies about me. And then none of them ever spoke to me again.”
Rage bubbles up inside of me; my face feels hot with it. “Ally, that’s awful.” I have to grind my teeth to keep myself from demanding to know their names so I can ruin their lives.
“It was,” she agrees, her voice soft, yet steady. Like she’s simply acknowledging a fact.
I work on breathing evenly to calm myself down. “Their loss. Now you have the best damn roommates in the universe,” I say, hoping she doesn’t hear the anger beneath the teasing comment.
A sweet smile touches her mouth. “I really do.”
Ally opens her mouth to say more, but then she shivers, and her hands come up to rest on her arms. The breeze picks up slightly and she rubs her biceps like she’s trying to warm them.
