Page 33 of Kissing the Debutant
Someone has to teach this girl how to relax.Jack started second-guessing his plans for today. Lillian needed to have some fun for a change.
“All right, now shake it out.” Jack tossed his head back, running his hands through his own wavy hair. “Just like that.”
The corners of Lillian’s mouth turned up ever so slightly.
“You think I’m ridiculous, don’t you?” He laughed.
“Very.” Lillian tossed her hair back, shaking out the long tresses.
“Come on, Lil, that was lame.” Jack put his hands on his hips. “Shake it like a nineties hair band.” He bobbed his head like a lunatic.
“You’re a strange boy.” Lillian laughed, but she shook her head, anyway.
“We need music.” Jack turned to the smartphone dock on the wall and flipped through his playlists until he found something fun they could dance to. He whirled around to the beat of the music, tapping his foot and acting as goofy as he possibly could. He was rewarded with a rare smile from Lillian, her hair cascading down her back in a golden halo.
“What now?” she asked.
“Shake it out.”
“My hair?”
“Your whole body. Just shake off all the rules. He bounced on the balls of his feet, flinging his arms and hands and rolling his shoulders.
“You look like a weirdo.” Lillian folded her arms across her chest.
“Come weird out with me then.” He reached for her hand, tugging her close. “I won’t even look if you promise to give it a try.” He closed his eyes, realizing she was more afraid of looking foolish than the activity itself.
He smiled when he heard the whisper of her slippers against the floor as she hopped along with him. “All right, Lillian!” He twirled around, raising his hands over his head with his eyes closed. “Dance it out!”
He cracked his eyes just for a moment to make sure she was getting the point of the exercise. One glance told him she was secretly enjoying it. She still looked like a prima ballerina, but she was as relaxed as he’d ever seen her.
“Good job.” He slowed to a stop. “Today, I just want us to have a little fun. We can try a few steps from the choreography I’ve been working on for you, but we have zero goals for today. No pressure.”
Lillian nodded. “Got it. Show me the sequence from the other day.”
This time Jack moved through the steps slowly, breaking down each piece of the sequence into smaller movements she could study.
She was quick to follow his example, twisting and turning with an elegance he completely lacked. She nailed the footwork this time, but stumbled on the intro to the first leap. Only a beat off with the music, she missed the landing and slammed into the padded mat covering the floor.
“That was great.” Jack beamed, impressed she nearly got it on the first real try.
“Ifell. I do not fall.” Lillian shook her head with a scowl. “I was off rhythm, and my footwork was crap.”
“It was great for a first try. Go again, but focus more on the music and let your body handle the rest.”
Lillian snorted at that, making it no secret what she thought about his teaching methods. “Start the music over.”
Jack leaned against the wall, watching as she returned to the uptight ballerina she was. So much for getting her to relax.
Lillian ignored him as she counted out the beats of the music, nodding her head as she turned on her toe, lifting her arms from fourth to fifth position over her head. She tapped out the more modern footwork, giving it a ballet twist he thought was brilliant. This time she didn’t stumble at all as she moved into the air, kicking her feet just so, in perfect sync with the music, but she missed the flat foot landing, over-corrected, and crashed into the floor again.
“Ugh.” Lillian slapped her palm against the mat.
“That was definitely better.” Jack moved to help her up, but she ignored him.
“Again.” She moved into a full body stretch before she took the starting position again.
“Why don’t we try something more fun? We can come back to this later.”
