AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wait for him to respond. Seconds pass, and not even the three bubbles showing he’s typing appear. Ace Sullivan is the epitome of squirrel brain, so I give up and shove my phone in my back pocket and continue to head toward the door. As I pass the auditorium, music catches my attention. Curiosity gets the better of me, and I find my feet following the direction of the tunes.
I carefully open the door leading to the auditorium to not let too much light in.
“Coach Graham?” a shadow asks softly from beside me. Now that my eyes have adjusted to the darkness of the audience, I recognize Beau sitting in one seat in the last row, with his arms perched on the seat in front of him.
I take a seat next to him. “Hey, Beau, what are you still doing here? Clinic let out almost an hour ago.”
He nods toward the stage. “That’s my girlfriend, Maddey. I’m just waiting for her to get done rehearsal with Miss Parker.”
I watch as Riley directs Maddey across the stage with clapping and silly comments like shouting, “Hit,” and “Bop bop bop.” A dancer’s language is honestly strange. They talk in tongues with noises, and their counting begins with a five instead of a one. Whenever Tanner and I teased Riley, she would just come back with “At least I don’t always feel the need to be slapping other guys’ butts.” She had me there—there is quite a lot of unnecessary spanking on the field.
“Okay, Maddey one more time, and then I think we’re good,” I hear Riley say before disappearing into the wing of the curtain.
Maddey walks in a small circle, shaking her limbs out, and I can’t help but smirk because I can remember many rehearsals where I watched Riley when we were younger and she did the same thing. Must be a dancer thing to psych themselves up.
“You ready?”
“Yep,” Maddey responds to the voice before taking her position in the center of the stage, lying down on her side.
She begins to dance as the music starts. I have to say she’s an extremely talented dancer. Each move flows with precision and grace. I can’t help but watch Beau with my peripheral vision, and he can’t take his eyes off Maddey, pride written all over his face.
Riley runs out from backstage and hugs Maddey after she takes her final pose. Her back is currently to us, so she hasn’t noticed that I’ve been sitting here with Beau. They have some sort of hushed conversation before Riley heads backstage and Maddey walks down the front stage steps and grabs her belongings from the front row.
Beau stands and slings his bag over his shoulder. I stand to let him out of the row. The petite blonde approaches us moments later. Beau wraps his arm around her shoulder and kisses her temple.
“Ew, babe, I’m all sweaty.” She tries to push him away, but he doesn’t even flinch.
He chuckles. “I don’t care. You’re still beautiful.”Smooth, kid, real smooth.
“Bye, Coop. See you at the next session.”
With a small wave back, I respond, “See ya later, Beau.” They disappear out the door, and I’m torn as to my next move. I’m not sure if Riley is going to be coming out this way. Should I slip out the door before she reappears? When a few moments pass by and she doesn’t appear, I wonder if she slipped out of a different exit. I head toward the door to leave as music plays.
A familiar piano solo, in fact. One that I only know because the marketing team for the Knights had a few of us players do some social media videos dancing to the chorus. It was apparently some trend, and they thought it would be hilarious to involve giant fans and hoses.
I settle back in my seat, thankful I’m far back enough to still be cloaked in darkness in case she could see me.
Does she have another student rehearing?
Almost a minute passes before she walks out onto the stage, pausing at the loud boom of the song.
I lean forward in a similar stance to how Beau watched his girlfriend with his arms on the seat in front of him, and I watch Riley move across the floor.
Doesn’t still dance, my ass.While there is something different about her movements, a slight caution and hesitation, there’s also a comforting familiarity.
If I wasn’t so entranced by her flowing movement, I’d call her out on her lie. The emotion comes off her in waves. God, she is beautiful. Every time she dances, her body tells a story her mouth refuses to speak.
So many questions swirl in my mind as I watch her lose herself onstage. The lyrics hit me in a direct line to my heart.
Did she choose this song on purpose?
Does she remember what it was like when we were together? How could she have forgotten? I know I haven’t.
Did she know I was watching her, and that’s why she picked this song?
Is this what my return has done to her?
But along with the questions come the lingering what-ifs. What if she hadn’t gotten hurt? Would she be dancing professionally? She wouldn’t have been confined to this small town—she would have seen the world.
