Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,46
of the steps, come the night of the first performance.
Danni felt as though she was floating on air. They went through the routine once, twice, three times. By the third time, she felt as though the steps had finally clicked. By the fifth, she had perfected the tricky lift that had been giving her trouble—and she had realized a way to shift it so that it wouldn’t give Nick so much trouble, either, though she didn’t plan to mention it with Androv in the room.
Actually…surely it wasn’t by accident that Androv’s hands had shifted at exactly that moment, calling her attention to them and making her realize that he had shifted her weight to his left side rather than his right. He knew precisely what he was doing.
Danni smiled, and accorded him a small nod of gratitude as the music came to a stop. He could have just come out and said it; but this way, he was saving Nick’s pride.
Androv also expected her to take care of Nick—and that was interesting in and of itself. It was the mentality partners should have, of course; but she knew Katarina hadn’t had it. Did he know her well enough to realize that she did?
There was no way to know.
“Much better,” Androv congratulated her warmly. “Did you feel the difference the last time?”
“Yes!” Danni beamed. “It was….” She frowned, unable to describe it. The movements had been just the slightest bit different, her body finally relaxing into them the way it was supposed to; but she had no idea how to describe it.
“Just so.” Androv smiled. “For all our great command of the English language—and let us not forget French, the language of dance on top of that—sometimes words still escape us, do they not?”
She nodded.
“Now. I would like to do it one more time—cement it in your memory, if you will. Nicholas, do you mind if I borrow your partner for just one more repetition?”
Nick waved him on without lifting his right hand. Once he had sat down, he had finally realized how exhausted he was; he wasn’t getting up until he had to.
Androv did not offer to let him run through the last repetition of the dance with her, Danni noticed. Did he sense Nick’s exhaustion and pain? Or did he simply believe that her partner had been sitting there long enough to get cold, and believe it wasn’t worth the wasted time for him to warm back up? Not to mention the fact that Nick had just replaced the ice pack on his shoulder….
Then she was swept into the dance again; and as always, she saw nothing, thought of nothing, but the steps and the man dancing alongside her. Androv wasn’t one of the men she was so comfortable with; but he was a joy to dance with nonetheless, and his style was enough like Nick’s that it was easy to make the faint adjustments in order to bring herself perfectly in tune with him.
“Beautiful,” Androv declared. “Perfect. Now, first thing in the morning, you two—but run it only once. I will come by…around eight?”
They nodded. They had been planning to start practice around seven anyway, and the first time, they always walked through the steps as a warm-up.
“Good. Now, if you still have it, Danni, you won’t need me; but if you don’t, then we will dance it again, and again, until you have found the steps again—and then you may dance your last round with your partner.” He smiled. “Now—away with you both. I believe dinner is long past.”
With a glance at her watch and a near-tangible shock, Danni realized that he was right: it was nearly eight o’clock. There wasn’t even a chance that she would be able to find something already hot in the kitchen—but at least Mrs. Baxter would have noticed her absence and made sure that there was a plate for her in the fridge. Nick’s house mother would not be half so kind.
“I’ll share, if you want to come back with me,” she offered as they gathered their dance bags.
“I appreciate the offer.” His golden eyes were warm; but she could still see the exhaustion beneath that warmth. “But honestly, Danni, I’m going to grab a power bar and some Advil and fall into bed. I need the sleep if you want me to be any use to you tomorrow.”
“Okay.” She touched his cheek gently. “Take it easy tonight, okay? I’ll see you here in the morning.”