Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,63

swoop, feeling his shoulder shake with the effort—he looked up and met her steady, understanding gaze. Her lips were moving; and though he couldn’t make out the words, Nick knew that she was praying for him.

It surprised him just how much of a relief that was. Danni was praying—that meant that the hand of God was resting on him.

And that hand was there. He could feel God’s presence surrounding him, stronger arms than his holding Allie up when he was sure that he would fail. A gentle hand kept his in the air as he waited for her, stilled the trembling so that it wouldn’t be obvious even in the front row of the audience.

Danni saw it—he knew she did. She saw it, and prayed all the harder for him because of it—but she didn’t say a word. No one else, looking at her, would have realized that she was the least bit worried about anything.

Allie had to have felt his shaking. He was almost sure that she did—but she didn’t offer even as much as a reassuring squeeze of her fingers. She didn’t care enough about him to reassure him.

Nick barely noticed. Danni cared. Danni was praying.

At last, the first act was over. There was a flurry of movement backstage as the techs went to change the backgrounds, to make sure that the next set of props were in place for the next dance.

Danni was at his side the second he stepped into the wings, spiriting him away. Behind him, they both heard Allie say, “Nicholas—“

They ignored her, pretending that they didn’t hear above the rush of noise. “Come on,” Danni told him. “You can hide out in my dressing room for a little while.”

Nick took her up on the offer in spite of the fact that he knew full well that anyone who seriously wanted to find him would know exactly where to look. If he wasn’t in his own dressing room, he would have to be in Danni’s.

“Get some ice on that shoulder.” She bullied him into easing down on the floor, bracing his back and shoulder against the wall.

“I don’t exactly have an ice pack in here.” Nick knew full well that his face was dead white and didn’t care. At least it was just Danni back here—and Danni would understand. She wouldn’t dream of giving him a hard time about any of it. She was just here, giving him a few minutes’ peace before he had to take to the stage again.

“You—“ she began.

“If I go out there, I’m going to have to admit to Androv that I’m not holding up well.” He pointed this out grimly, as though he expected Danni to have missed it.

“You don’t have to go out there.” She unzipped her dance bag and pulled an ice pack out of the cooler she had sewn into it a long time before. “Here. Keep this on it, and don’t argue with me anymore.”

He laughed halfheartedly. “You weren’t kidding when you said that bag holds everything, huh?”

Danni shrugged, but he could tell that she was pleased with herself. “Just in case,” she said lightly. “I wasn’t sure you would need it, but if you had and it hadn’t been there….”

He just nodded, doing his best not to think too hard about how much it would have killed him to not be able to get to the ice.

There was nothing but silence between them for several minutes. Nick was doing his best to get his shoulder to relax; but all his efforts seemed to be doing was adding to the pain.

“I don’t think I can do it, Danni.” He leaned back against the wall, letting the bag of ice fall away. It wasn’t doing him any good anyway. Mostly, it was just making the pain that much worse—and that much harder to bear. “I’m not going to make our pas de deux.“

“Sure you are,” she said, so fiercely that he actually opened his eyes to look at her.

“I know it’s going to be hard for you.” He grimaced, clearly believing that she was angry with him, that her sharp words were in response to his admission of guilt. “Maybe Androv—“

“You’re not listening,” Danni said simply. “We’re partners. We’ll take care of each other out there.”

“There’s no way.” He wasn’t even moving his shoulder, she noticed sympathetically—wasn’t moving much at all unless he absolutely had to. “I might make a lift or two if the ice will just start working, but if I try to