Page 93 of Take the Lead
“Stone?”
He paused. “Yeah?”
“Does your family know about us?”
Her eyebrows were drawn together, and she looked like she’d be pissed if the answer was yes.
“No. I haven’t told any of them.”
“Oh, good.” The relief that infused her features made his chest hurt. The secrets were piling up. Don’t tell Gina andThe Dance OffthatLiving Wildwas a fraud. Don’t tell the other dancers or his family that he and Gina were an item. Don’t let the media find outanything,even when people were constantly sticking microphonesin his face and asking questions purposely designed to throw him off-guard. It was all getting mixed up in his head and being here, back in the place that could blow it all, was making him jumpy.
Then Gina smiled, and the tension eased. Sometimes he thought her smile was the only real thing in his life.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go meet them.”
Stone’s anxiety deepened as they approached Nielson HQ. Gina wore hiking boots this time, and they took the clearer path, but he still stayed close.
“It would suck if you busted an ankle,” he pointed out.
She gave him a half-smile. “Jordy said the same thing the first time I came here.”
Jordy stopped them before they entered the clearing to give them their instructions.
“Gina, we’re going to introduce you to the Nielsons in groups. There are too many of them for the cameras to catch everything. Make sure the cameras can get your reactions. Stone, you’ll handle introductions. Act like we aren’t here, and you don’t know your parents are waiting.”
The cameras panned out, and Jordy gave them the go-ahead.
Stone’s stomach clenched as it finally hit that he was bringing the woman he loved to meet his parents. Oncamera.God, could his life get any weirder? He forced a smile onto his face and put an arm around Gina, leading her forward.
A chill raced down his spine as he spotted Jimmy and Pepper standing in front of the big house they’d built in season two. Shit. All this time he’d only thought about hiding the truth about the Nielsons from Gina andThe Dance Off’s producers. Keeping his relationship with Gina hidden from their castmates was hard, but hiding it from his mom? The woman read him like an open book. She’d know, and she’d have questions, and then Gina was going to kill him.
Each step amplified his terror. His parents waited, beaming bigsmiles. Gina returned their smiles with a wide, toothy grin of her own.
Stone’s teeth were bared, but he was positive the footage would show more of a grimace than a grin. He caught Jordy’s hand signal. Crap, he was supposed to say his lines. He hated this shit.
“Mom, Pop, I’d like you to meet my dance partner, Gina. Gina, my mom, Pepper, and my father, Jimmy.”
His mother spoke first. “Gina, we’re so happy to meet you.”
“Likewise, Mrs. Nielson.” Gina took Pepper’s hands and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “You’ve raised quite the dancer.”
Pepper giggled. “Please, call me Pepper. We’ve gone into town every Monday to watch you two dance, and it’s been such a treat.”
Jimmy reached out to shake Gina’s hand, but she gave him a kiss on the cheek, too. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Nielson.”
“Oh, Gina, I know we’re just meeting for the first time, but I hope you’ll call me Jimmy. As you can see, we don’t stand on ceremony around here. Besides, we feel like we know you, thanks to the show and the few times Stone has called home.”
Stone ducked his head. It was true. He hadn’t called as much as he’d planned. With his family’s filming schedule and his own rehearsal schedule, it was hard to find times to connect.
His mother squeezed his hands, and his father gave him a slap on the back.
“Real proud of you, son,” Jimmy said in a gruff voice. “Never knew you had those moves in you.”
“Thanks, Pop.” Setting aside the fact that his father would only ever think to compliment him on camera, Stone made a show of looking around. “Where are the others?”
“Oh, they went off in the boat.”
Off in the boatmeant they were hiding off-camera somewhere until they could be brought in for filming.
