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CHAPTER ONE
Teagan’s heartraced in her chest, while droplets of sweat slid between her shoulder blades. The music died, making room for her heavy breathing to fill the dance classroom as she gripped her bare side. She glanced over at her classmate, Tristan, via the floor to wall mirrors.
“Okay. Let’s go over this last part one more time,” Tristan said, while bringing a hand through his short black curls.
A few weeks into the Dance Academy and she already hated it here. The teachers had a stick up their bum, looking down their noses at Teagan who, by most standards, started dancing later in life. On top of that, the endless row of classic dance classes wasn’t her thing—at all. Teagan used to dance for herself. At the academy, she danced for others in routines she hated.
Teagan’s audible sigh gave away how she thought about going over the last part for the umpteenth time. Tristan grabbed his phone from the hardwood flooring but held her eyes in the mirror. “Don’t give me that look, T. I know you’re tired, but we really need to improve that last bit for the showcase.”
He was totally right. The showcase was next Friday, just a week away. And they still hadn’t found an organic flow as a dance couple. That they performed some weird, abstract routine didn’t exactly help bring out her enthusiasm. At least Tristan was nice. He seemed all for it when their teacher paired them up a few weeks ago.
It was all her fault their routine didn’t improve. Tristan had so much experience, while she still had trouble keeping up with her own routines, let alone watch what the heck he was doing on stage.
Her parents had warned her that enrolling into this dance program and dropping out of accounting was a bad idea. They’d called it yet another example of her getting carried away by her enthusiasm.
Maybe she held too high expectations of this contemporary dance program when they admitted her after only one audition. Or perhaps she just wasn’t cut out to become a professional dancer after all.
It had been eight weeks, and she already had lost that initial spark. She heard the voice of her father in the back of her head, saying how she would start six new endeavors at a time but would finish none of them.
“It’s not that bad, T. Your talent is unreal. I swear. It’s going to be fine.”
She nodded at Tristan, who must have seen the look of despair on her face.
“Thanks. I’m sorry you are stuck with me…” she said as she undid her hair tie. Her blonde bouncy curls fell down her racer back sports top before she quickly braided her hair.
“You actually think I’m bummed about dancing with the prettiest girl on campus?” He gave her one of his show stopping smiles that would probably make every other girl’s heart race.
But it did nothing for her. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
She didn’t know why, because he was one to talk about being pretty. Tristan was tall, lean, and muscular. His square jaw, clean-shaven face and thick long eyelashes made the guy nothing but gorgeous.
Again. Not a single belly flutter.
Not even when he asked her out during their second day at school, which she’d friendly declined. The older she got, the more convinced she became that something was wrong with her. Her past had done a real number on her.
“Okay, since I can tell that you’re done for today… let’s go out instead,” Tristan said.
She held her towel a moment longer against her forehead, shielding her face as she thought about ways to let him down easy—again.
“Just as friends,” he added.
She wiped the last bit of sweat from her forehead and searched his eyes. Although she was glad for the ‘just as friends’ add on, she wasn’t sure he’d meant it.
Luckily, Teagan’s buzzing phone interrupted whatever he would bring up next. She checked the incoming text and said, “I’m sorry, it’s my father. I have to go. He’s waiting for me.”
Tristan couldn’t hide the disappointment on his face quick enough, but said, “Oh. Okay. See you tomorrow at nine?”
She popped her head out of the neck of the gray sweatshirt she’d just put on over her sweaty sports top.
“We’re even practicing on Sundays?” Teagan asked as she pushed her damp towel inside her bag. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to working long hours, but they’d already danced seven hours today and somehow keeping up with all the steps had made her exhausted on a whole other level.
Tristan tried for a casual shrug. “We’ve only got a few more days, T.”
“I need to check with my parents. I’ll let you know.”
Living on her parents’ farm meant helping with the horses, pigs, and chickens, and occasionally with the vegetable gardens whenever her sister Emmy needed her help. And that’s outside of classes and her part-time jobs as a waitress at Lucky’s and a dance teacher at her friend Errin’s dance studio.
Her mom hosted some kind of family reunion at their farm today and Teagan could bet her favorite wild boar, Flint, on it, that there were enough chores left for her to do.
