Page 36 of Dance with Me
“You’re going to be okay,” Lori said, patting Natasha’s hand. “You’re right. This stuff happens. And you still have a ton of time to recover before the next season starts.”
Natasha bit her lip. Shedidn’thave time to recover. She had classes to teach the very next day. Lori’s words brought up the fears she’d shoved back after the accident, and her mind spiraled into panic.
If she didn’t work, she wouldn’t get paid. If she didn’t get paid, she couldn’t move out of Dimitri’s house. If she didn’t move out, she’d lose her job onThe Dance Off.If she lost her job, she’d have to move back to the Bronx to live with hermother. . .
And underneath all of it,If she couldn’t dance, her career was over.
This would be it for her. She hadn’t yet established herself enough to book big jobs as a choreographer. She might be able to supplement with acting and modeling jobs, but those were few and far between, and again, she wasn’t famous enough yet to command the big bucks.
Her ankle throbbed under the ice, mocking her, making her stare down the possibility of a future in whichshe was not a dancer.
If only she’d been paying more attention while she was teaching.
If she hadn’t been so tired . . .
If she hadn’t been hungover . . .
If she hadn’t stayed up all night with Dimitri or opened that second bottle of wine . . .
If she’d stuck to her rule . . .
If she hadn’t depleted her savings . . .
If she made better choices with money . . .
If, if, if.No amount ofifs would change the fact that right here, right now, her ankle was fucked up. And she still didn’t know how bad it was. A fine trembling rocked her chest, tightened her throat, as worry and fear fought to overtake her.
Her friends were quiet. Before she could figure out what to say to them, the curtain behind Kevin was yanked back, and Dimitri’s larger frame crowded into the space around the tiny hospital bed.
“Tasha!” Dimitri nearly knocked Kevin over in his rush to kneel by the bed and press a hand to Natasha’s cheek. His skin was warm, his dark hair in disarray. She leaned into his hand for just a second, as if she could absorb some of this strength.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner.” He stroked her cheek. “Traffic is a nightmare.”
In his other hand, he held a familiar bronze case.
She pointed. “Is that . . . ?”
“Oh, yeah.” He held it up. “I brought your glasses. And the stuff for your contacts. I didn’t know how long you’d be here, so I stopped at home on the way here to pick them up. I thought you might need them.”
“I . . . thank you.” The sweetness of the gesture tore into her, giving the fear a sharper edge. She was really going to cry, right here in front of all of them. It was too much. Dimitri’s creased brow, Kevin’s glare, Lori gnawing at her fingernails . . . Theycaredabout her. They were here because they cared. But all of it was too much.
Piece by piece, she was falling apart inside. And despite how much they cared about her, she’d be damned if she let them see her destruction.
Dimitri came to her rescue, his gaze darting to her ankle. “What happened,Kroshka? The woman who called me, she didn’t say much.” He skimmed his hand down her leg, stopping short of the ice pack.
Natasha cleared her throat. “Dimitri, did you call Gina?”
He nodded, eyes still on her leg. His hand shook, like he wanted to examine her ankle further, but didn’t dare. “I was up in Malibu, otherwise I’d have been here sooner. I didn’t want you to be alone.”
She gritted her teeth against the tremble, hyper-aware of Lori and Kevin’s interested stares.
“What did the doctor say?” Dimitri asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen one yet.”
“What?” He practically roared the word, and she winced. They were in ahospital,for god’s sake.
“Keep it down,” she whispered, catching Kevin’s darkening glare. She didn’t know what his problem was, but there were too many other things to worry about right now.
