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“I know you’ve got the whole macho thing of not wanting to look like an idiot.” She took a quick sip of her drink and barely swallowed before she went on. “But you saw Kevin! There’s nothing sexier than when my man gets on the floor.”
“I’m sure,” he said weakly.
“And this place where we’ll be working—I don’t know if they give lessons or not, but I’ll check. I’ll teach you, even. You’ve got to get up and move, Nick.”
“No.”
“Nick.” He looked up from his bottle to see her staring at him intently. “Too many people sit in chairs their whole life,” she said. “Because they’re scared, or they’re lazy, or they’re comfortable, or whatever.”
“Hayley …”
“And just think about the people who don’t have the chance!” She gestured toward their laps with a sweep of her hand. “At least wehaveour legs, you know? At least we can move.” She sighed. “God, I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t dance.”
“Stop.”
She looked at him in surprise. Nick’s voice was low, but the one word had a dangerous edge to it.
“I know you think you can help me,” he said. “But this happiness you have, it’s not …” He gave a smile that looked more like a grimace, like his clenched jaw was barely keeping something contained within him. “It’s one of many things that aren’t accessible to me. Your universe fits because of those eyes of yours. Because you have Kevin. Because you can move like gravity’s just an option for you. And trust me, you’d be better off getting the hell out of this booth and holding on to those things as hard as you can. Because your universe is only going to stay together until one of those pieces gets taken away from you.”
He had expected to shock her, but Hayley didn’t seem upset or even all that surprised. She leaned back in the booth, crossed her arms, and narrowed her eyes, peering at him as if she were about to take another crack at repairing a watch with broken gears.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. “You’re up next,” Alexa said.
Hayley seized the moment. “Tell Nick he should dance.”
Oh, God,he thought.She’s doubling down.
Alexa looked from Hayley to Nick. “If she’s asking,” she told Nick, “something tells me you’d find some moves in you.”
Hayley pointed at him. “See?”
He sighed. “Could you just …”
“Yep.” Alexa reached behind their booth and placed Nick’s walker squarely in front of him. As he climbed out of the booth and into the three-sided square, Nick chanced a glance at Hayley. The wide, expressive eyes that had so readily shown him joy and passion now held confusion, surprise, uncertainty bordering on panic.
Nick gave a tight smile and winked at her. “Sorry to disappoint,” he said.
2
“So,” Linda Brandazzio said. “Why do you belong at Vivez Dance?”
“Dancing is all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Hayley Burke replied.
Linda nodded from a red armchair, one leg crossed over the other, her foot absently tapping in the air as she glanced at a clipboard. Hayley sat in a matching chair across from her. She decided she liked the armchairs. The office wasn’t large, and Linda would easily have more space if she sat behind her desk and forced her guests into folding chairs or made them stand. The armchairs said Linda Brandazzio cared about the comfort of the people around her.
Linda looked up from her notes and gave Hayley an easy smile. “Tell me about dancing.”
Hayley thought back to her time at the Icarus Showcase. “Well,” she said, “at Icarus we were doing at least four shows a week …”
She trailed off when Linda shook her head. “Not the nuts and bolts. Tell me about your love affair with dancing.”
Hayley brightened. “I feel …connectedwhen I dance,” she said. “With the audience, with a partner, with myself. There’s always some sort of connection in the movement.”
Suddenly, that guy was in her head, the guy from the bar the night before. Nick. He’d connected with her when she hadn’t even known he was watching. Then again after, when their eyes had met, his a pale, electric blue, flashing with recognition, with sadness.“This happiness you have … it’s one of many things that aren’t accessible to me.”
She got the joke now. Accessible. So many things he couldn’t do, and she had … God, what had she even said to him?
Nice going, Hayley Michelle. Get a few drinks in you, and you think you can change the world.
