Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,49

ever achieve the effortless grace that Katarina had displayed in all of her dances. Katarina had been given weeks more to work on it—no, more than that, Danni thought. She’d been preparing for it all along, simply assuming that she was going to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. She, on the other hand, had been absolutely astounded to have the role land in her lap; and now that she had it, she wasn’t entirely certain that she had any idea what to do with it.

Dance. Dance her heart out, again and again, pouring herself into the dance as though she had never done it before. That was the only way to do it.

And Nick was with her every step of the way. That was one thing that Danni was desperately grateful for: no matter how long the day might have been, Nick was right there beside her, encouraging her, insisting that she was doing better than anyone could legitimately expect of her. She didn’t believe his flattering words; but she appreciated them nonetheless. It was clear that he meant them.

And you mean them, too, don’t you, Lord? She prayed, in one of her rare free moments. You’ve asked me to go out there and do my best, and I’ve done exactly that every step of the way. You wouldn’t ask anything more of me.

Once she finally allowed herself to take a breath—once she finally accepted that she was truly doing her best, and that while she might be disappointed in herself at times, everyone else was more than pleased with her—Danni began to notice other things, too.

The fact that Nick was in more pain than he was letting on, for example.

“If you couldn’t do another round, why didn’t you say so?” she demanded heatedly, her hands on her hips as she glared at him.

“I did it, didn’t I?” he shot back. The effect was ruined somewhat by the fact that his left hand was pressed hard against his right shoulder, and even to discount her theory that he needed to take a break, he couldn’t pull it away.

“Yeah, and how much are you hurting right now?” She fell completely out of position, letting her posture slump. “If you were having trouble, you should have said something to me! We could have called it an early day.”

“As hard as you’ve been pushing?” He snorted. “You wouldn’t have had any patience at all for me needing to take a break!”

“A break? You need to take a day!” Danni dragged her hands through her hair, ignoring the fact that the gesture sent pins flying everywhere.

“What do you want me to do?” he demanded. “You need to practice with me. Allie needs to practice with me. And heaven forbid I shouldn’t be on hand for any of the other dances I’m supposed to be involved in. Your practice schedule alone would run me into the ground, but I’ve got news for you, Danni: you’re not the only one who wants a piece of my time!”

“Well, go on, then!” she snapped. Her voice was still quiet, but somehow, there was more menace in it than if she had shouted. “Get out of here. Go work with all the other people who need your time and attention. I’m doing fine, in case you hadn’t noticed.” She pivoted on one foot and strode over to her bag, ignoring the sudden surge of tears behind her eyes. She was not going to let him see her cry—not for him.

A long silence passed; suddenly, Nick’s hands closed on her shoulders, and he turned her to face him.

Danni didn’t even think about disobeying. She had been following his every cue for days, learning to listen for his soft voice, to feel his gentle commands. This was just one more—though she regretted it the moment she turned to face him. She had been determined not to let him see the fact that he had upset her, and here she was, letting it all show.

She ducked her head; he tipped it back up with gentle fingers. “I’m sorry,” Nicholas said simply.

Danni darted a look at him, actually meeting his eyes for the first time. “What?”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated patiently. “None of this is your fault. And I keep forgetting….” He sighed, knowing that his next words were as likely to set off a fresh explosion as they were to calm anything. “I keep forgetting you aren’t Katarina.”

Danni’s eyes snapped fire at him, but she didn’t say anything. Surely he’d had a point,