Page 45 of Love is a Dance Step
“Yeah, too much. She won’t let me do anything for myself. I have shin splints, Drew. I didn’t break anything. Doc says I could be ready to dance in the not too distant future, but I’m going to tell you something, and you aren’t allowed to try and change my mind.”
“Sounds ominous.”
She sighed. “I’m not coming back to the tour. I think I need to stay here with Amy. Plus, it wouldn’t be fair to whatever dancer you find if she just got into her groove and suddenly I’m back.”
Drew wasn’t sure what to say. It had been so long since he did this without her.
“Say something,” she whispered. “Please.”
He leaned back and lifted his eyes to the lake. “I love you, and you need rest, Baker. That’s an order.”
“As if you could order me to do anything,” she scoffed.
“True.”
“But I’m glad we’re okay.” Leah went silent for a moment before sucking in a breath. “So, Piper told me about the girl.”
“She shouldn’t have done that.”
“She’s worried about you, Drew. She thinks you’re willing to risk the rest of the tour for this girl. It’s her opinion that you either need to learn to work with just any old dancer, or you need to change the choreography so the lead dancer doesn’t have such a prominent role in the concerts.”
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. He’d considered that, but just the thought of standing out there alone, of not having that ally next to him, moving with him… well, it sounded lonely. “And what do you think?”
“You are the star of the show, Drew. You, not me or anyone else. But…”
“I knew there was a but coming.”
“You’re better when you have someone else’s energy to feed off of.”
He laughed. “Like a vampire?”
“Exactly. No, I’m serious. It’s like you need that connection. Don’t get me wrong, thinking of you finding a replacement for me kinda sucks.”
“There’s no replacement for you.” After this tour, he’d get her back. He just had to remember that.
“But there might be.” She sighed. “Tell me about this girl, Drew.”
Drew ran a hand over the top of his head. “I don’t know where to start.”
“How about her name?”
He smiled. “Lola.”
“Is she stubborn?”
He nodded before realizing she couldn’t see him. “So stubborn.”
“I like her already. Does she dance when no one is watching her?” This was Leah’s test. She hated the dancers who only performed for an audience. The true measure of love was what someone did when no one knew they did it.
He thought back on walking in on her at the studio, and his smile widened. “You should see her. She’s not totally comfortable in front of people, but on her own, she doesn’t just dance, Leah, she…” He didn’t have a word to explain it, but he knew Leah would understand.
“And you tried to kiss her.” There was chastisement in her tone.
“Piper already lectured me.” He rubbed his eyes.
He could practically hear her smile. “Good. Because if you’re going to convince her to dance with you, to be your partner in every dancing sense, you can’t do that again.”
“Never. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. Leah, this girl, she’s everything I first saw in you. Sometimes, I think she has a lot of work to do, and other times, I think she’s better than me. That’s what kills me. She deserves this chance. There is no world in which a girl like that should disappear behind a desk, unseen by the rest of the world.”
