Page 22 of Dancing on Air

“Right.” He frowned. “Cora Jenkins.”

“You worked with her last year for the Nutcracker,” she reminded him.

Honestly, he barely remembered the brunette since his parents had decided they’d wanted him to work only with the children on that production. His parents had worked one-on-one with the adult dancers.

Still, the children were a huge part of the play, so he’d called himself lucky. Besides, he liked seeing how much fun the kids had instead of stressing with the adults.

“Why weren’t you in that one?” he asked her.

“Emma had just given birth to my niece and nephew,” she answered with a smile. “So, since I didn’t get the lead…” She sighed. “Actually, I wasn’t chosen at all.”

“What?” He frowned. “For any part?” he asked, and she shook her head. Surely that wasn’t right. His parents, Julie, and a few other teachers and members of the board had been the ones to interview dancers and pick the players. Why the hell hadn’t anyone chosen Cora? She was by far the best dancer at the BAC. “Why the hell not?”

She shrugged and chuckled. “It was my first year. Besides, as I mentioned, it allowed me to go home when I was needed.”

“Right.” He frowned into his empty coffee mug, making a mental note to talk to his parents about how stupid they’d been to leave her out.

Chapter Six

By the end of the week, Cora was completely exhausted and totally fed up with Max.

It seemed that whenever they made progress on his project, he’d change everything up and they’d have to start at the beginning.

There had been a few moments in the past few years that she’d believed he was not only decent, but someone she wouldn’t mind flirting with or even going out with.

But after the past week, things had changed. He seemed to believe he knew everything about choreography, but he actually didn’t. In truth, she doubted he knew the first thing about what would make his ballet not only successful and beautiful, but most importantly, easy for the dancers to perform.

Every single part of her body ached. Even her mind somehow.

During the hours that she worked with Reese and the rest of the crew on Romeo and Juliet, or R and J as the crew dubbed it, Max was a different person than after, when he would work with just her and Luc.

With all the other dancers around the stage, he was kind but stern when he relayed his directions. After everyone left, he changed.

Oh, he was still kind and stern, but there was something else driving him. Something she had yet to figure out.

As far as she knew, he had no reason to hide what they were doing. After all, his parents owned Sharper Image.

Didn’t that mean he could work on whatever he wanted?

“Stop!” he yelled when she missed her cue. “Cora?”

“Sorry.” She winced and rushed forward.

Max was frowning at her. “Let’s take fifteen,” he said to the large group currently filling the stage.

Several people groaned while others quickly exited the stage.

“Cora, a minute,” Max said when she turned to go.

Holding in a groan herself, she turned and pasted on a smile.

“Problems?” Max asked when she stopped directly in front of him.

“Nope, no,” she corrected. “None.”

Max frowned at her. “You look tired.”

“I’m fine.” She lifted her chin slightly.