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My sister, who’d also heard the deep inhalation, giggled before using only her abs to sit up.
I followed suit when the time was right, and together we finished the routine.
While Zip and I were doing our things on the aerial silk, Hades walked between us on the tightwire, suspended fifty feet in the air. One misstep on her part or one brush of the wire on ours, and she’d tumble down.
In our acts, we didn’t wear safety harnesses.
In the beginning, when we were learning, that was something we did. However, people that come to the circus want danger and intrigue, suspense and exhilaration. What they do not want is people that are fastened to safety equipment, messing up the lines of their tight clothing.
For another ten minutes, we all moved, our other sisters doing their own things from the ground to grasp attention and hold it.
Tony was on the stage, Coco and Melon performing acts underneath us. Valhalla was doing her fire act with her batons and Keene was waiting steadily for the right second, with Crimson suspended upside down, stiff-armed, her palm to his.
Meanwhile, Keene stood there as if he didn’t have a hundred-and-thirty-pound woman hanging from his hand.
At just the right second, he bent his knees, squatted, and thrust her into the air.
Crimson caught the bar swing above her head, then jumped from swing to swing, higher and higher, until she was at the very top.
Another plummet on my end, I caught myself even closer to the floor, my lips brushing the spot that I’d cleaned off and pressed tape to so I didn’t have to be rubbing my most sensitive body parts on unclean things.
Then, breathless, I dropped to the ground.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
Each of my sisters hit. Val. Me. Hades. Crimson. Tony. Zip.
Finally, Keene stepped forward, his ringmaster jacket now on, and announced the closing of Singh Circus.
The lights went out, and all of us ran to the hidey-hole beneath the stage. Even Coco and Melon.
Seconds later, we were out of sight and the lights were back on, leaving only Keene standing there without us.
Breathless and giggling, I led the way back into the back part of the locker room.
“Owww,” Zip whined, having disliked the act but having no choice but to do it today since it was her turn. She and Val switched off from time to time, both of them not really finding the aerial silk act intriguing and fun to do like I did.
But, sadly, people got more out of the dangerous and death-defying acts in the air, where there was a possibility of death and dismemberment, than they did the floor routines.
“You should start toughening up those hands, sweets,” I jeered, batting my eyelashes at her.
Zip threw her shoe at me, and I laughed.
We made it around to the entrance of the locker room, and instead of staying inside with my sisters like I would normally do, I went out to the private section where I’d hoped that Coffey had enjoyed himself.
I found him exactly where I had left him, his eyes on the stage as the circus construction crew started dismantling before the entire crowd was even out the door—or tent flaps, if you wanted to be more accurate.
“Hey!” I called over the loudness of impact drills working.
Coffey’s head whipped around and he grinned, his eyes sweeping over me as if he was looking for any sign of injury.
“I’m fine,” I smiled. “Did you enjoy it?”
He stood up, his eyes serious as he said, “I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed anything more in my life. I’ve, of course, heard of Singh Circus like everyone else has. But I’d never been. Never even wanted to go. But now that I know, I’ll watch this particular act every single time y’all are within the vicinity of me from now on.”
His words made warmth and exhalation bubble through my veins.
I opened my mouth to reply when I heard my brother yell out, “Get your ass in here, Kissimmee. We have an ass ton of stuff to get done before you can have the night to yourself.”
I sighed.
“Guess this is goodbye.” His words hit me hard with an unexpected wave of agony.
“It’s…”
An agonized groan from the construction crew had my head whipping around to the stage where a man had hurt himself in some way.
Torn, I looked from him to Coffey and back.
“Go,” he urged.
With the utmost reluctance, I left.
When I turned back around after seeing to the worker, Coffey was gone.
And I felt undoubtedly empty.
“You need to be careful, Simi,” Val said. “Folsom told me some pretty intense stuff about him. He’s not just a chef.”
Keene looked up when he heard Val say that.
Tony and Zip were also shaking their heads as if they knew his background as well as Val.
“What are you talking about, Val?” Keene asked, looking stern and annoyed that Val had checked out the man that I’d been hanging out with the last few days.
