Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,37

his face. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly.

His head jerked around to look at her, surprise the most prevalent emotion. “Does it matter?” he asked bleakly.

She shrugged. “Matters to you,” she pointed out.

Nicholas gave her a bitter half-smile that admitted that much. “Not to anyone else. Every girl in the Academy is determined to believe Katarina’s side of things—and most of them don’t even like her.”

“It’s easier to blame you than it is to admit that someone like Katarina could be hurt that badly because of something she had done,” Danni told him gently.

Nicholas’s laugh was bitter. “That’s all too true, unfortunately,” he admitted. “And the truth is….” He closed his eyes, pain creasing his face. “The truth is, part of it was my fault.” He forced his eyes open, made himself meet her gaze. “You should know that before you decide that you’re willing to dance with me. Part of it…was my fault.”

She waited patiently. He would explain on his own…or not at all. It was his choice.

He sighed. “I’m nursing a shoulder injury,” he informed her flatly. “You’d need to know that anyway, if you’re going to dance with me. I’m doing better; but I’m still a couple of weeks away from being able to practice lifts for more than a little while. Once or twice through the routine, fine; but if I try for a third, my shoulder starts shaking on me. A fourth run-through, and it won’t support the girl no matter what I do.” He smiled faintly. “Though I think you weigh about ten pounds less than Katarina. Might make it easier.”

Danni blinked at him, surprised. “She claims a hundred and five,” she said slowly.

“One twenty, easy,” Nicholas retorted before he thought. He winced. “Though if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny ever speaking to you.”

“I won’t.” Impulsively, Danni reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “I’m not going to say anything to anyone. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“I think you really mean that.” He offered her a smile—the most real expression she had seen from him all day.

“So, you’re still nursing a shoulder injury,” Danni prompted.

Nicholas nodded, and Danni almost regretted resuming the conversation as the smile dropped away again. “I’ve been doing better,” he said quietly. “But I still wasn’t up to much. Katarina….” He sighed. “She cornered me into an extra practice session. I agreed to it, but warned her that I could manage one, and then I was done. We could dance all-out through the rest just as many times as she wanted, but one time through the lifts was all I felt up to.”

“She didn’t like that,” Danni guessed.

“Well, that’s the thing.” Nicholas’s smile now was self-deprecating. “You can’t practice lifts without your partner. It’s impossible. Every new person you dance with is just a little bit different—and yeah, you can adjust, but for something like this, you really want your partner.”

Danni’s eyebrows lifted.

He grimaced. “That, and no one else in the Academy would willingly dance with Katarina,” he admitted. “Not just to help her get in some extra practice.”

That sounded a little bit closer to the truth.

“Anyway, we did our one run, and….” He sighed. “I…pushed too hard.” It was as close as he would come to admitting that he had been hurting, Danni thought, especially with a stranger. “Katarina wasn’t done yet.”

She winced sympathetically.

“She said….” Nicholas shook his head. “The things she said aren’t worth repeating. Just let it suffice to say that she goaded me into doing one more round even though I knew I couldn’t.” He stared at the ground. “I got her up there. Shoulder was shaking like you wouldn’t believe, but I got her up.”

Danni wondered if he would appreciate it if she offered him a hug. He looked like he could use it.

“Then she threw her weight off…just the tiniest bit. I wasn’t expecting it, couldn’t compensate fast enough.” Nicholas grimaced. “I got her down again, but it was a near thing.”

She was going to hug him. She could already see it coming. She just hoped it didn’t offend him too much.

“Then…the next part of the series…that grand jeté into an arabesque that you were doing earlier.” He sighed. “It looks better if the girl can land en pointe. You did it. Kat put too much height in her jumps to pull it off.”

Danni nodded. She’d seen a lot of girls back home do that, and the force of impact was too great for them to land en pointe.