Page 21 of Love is a Dance Step
“Joey is right.” Ben smiled. “Dax and I have already angered the label by being here, so we might as well do it some more. We’ll stay to help you find a dancer.”
Dax nodded in agreement.
Melanie groaned. “This won’t end well.” An unwitting smile came to her lips. “But I never thought when I started this support group you’d all end up caring about each other more than your careers.”
“Don’t get sappy on us, Mel.” Drew laughed because Melanie was the most no-nonsense woman he’d ever met. There was no sap in her at all.
They spent the rest of the meeting planning how they’d conduct auditions and get the word out through both Gulf City and Tampa. Noah volunteered to run through the streets naked to make all the girls follow him to the studio, but Drew turned down that particular marketing campaign.
The nerves that had wound through him since he first saw Leah fall started to calm as he realized he wasn’t in this alone.
* * *
The house Drew grew up in was much smaller than the one he called home across town. The one-story, yellow concrete structure sat on a small yard at the edge of a lake. The lanai where they had an in-ground pool overlooked the water. He’d never considered the life they’d lived small. Sure, it seemed so in comparison to his life now, but he tried not to compare it.
There was a certain comfort in his childhood memories, a comfort he no longer had. He pulled his car onto the driveway behind the van he’d bought his mom. The front door burst open, and Lizzy sprinted across the yard.
He was barely out of the car before she slammed into him.
“I was watching for you out the window.” She laughed as he hauled her up onto his shoulder.
“You were? Was it so I could do this?” He swung her around his body like he’d done a million times before.
She squealed with laughter until he put her down. Nora walked toward them, a grin on her face. He hugged her to his side. “Where’s Pen?”
“In her room.”
Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Probably dancing again. It’s all she does.”
Nora laughed. “Liz has been kinda annoyed since they share a room.”
Drew ruffled Lizzy’s hair. “Once Ash leaves, you’ll get your own room. So, this dancing… I didn’t know Penny was so into it.”
“It’s this class she’s in. Dad brought her home yesterday, and I heard him telling Mom he’d never seen Penny try so hard at anything.”
He smiled as they walked into the house. Penny’s room was near the front, and music filtered out. Drew couldn’t help himself as he pushed the door open and watched his sister move like he’d never seen her. She was young and made mistakes, but the foundation was there. And her choreography? “When did she learn to dance like that?” he whispered to Nora.
It was Lizzy who answered. “Lauren’s GC studio,” she yelled over the music. Penny stopped dancing, her breaths coming rapidly as she saw them watching her.
Lauren’s? Drew had only known one studio in Gulf City, Canton’s. Lauren Canton had been a teacher there, but her parents owned it. He hadn’t thought even Lauren could dance quite like Penny a few moments ago.
“Hey, Drew.” Penny wiped sweat from her brow.
Their mom appeared in the hall. “Drew! You’re here. Perfect. I need you to start the grill. I don’t trust your father to do it, and I’m waiting for water to boil in the kitchen. Nora, you’re on chopping duty. Penny, get cleaned up and come help Lizzy set the table.” She turned on her heel and left the siblings staring at each other.
Drew met Nora’s gaze, and they burst out laughing. Their mom loved the fact that she basically had an army to help her cook. He was twenty-nine years old, and when she said jump, he still asked how high.
He headed out to the lanai where his dad bent over the pool filter, tinkering with it like he always did. The pool was his obsession despite the fact that pools in Florida required very little care. He looked up with a grin. “It’s good to see you in this house, Drew.”
It was good to be here. “You good there?” His dad had an arm sunk down into the basket.
“Peachy. Your mother send you out here to light the grill?”
He nodded. “She doesn’t trust you.”
“I have no idea why.”
Drew laughed. “Might have to do with the fact that you burn every piece of meat you try to cook.”
