Page 75 of Last Dance, Second Chance

Are you home? she messaged, and when he replied that he was, she headed back over to his house, leaving a very sad Monty behind.

* * *

“Hey, it’s good to see you again,” said Nathan, opening the door and kissing her. “Come in. How’s your foot feeling?”

“Pretty good,” said Jessica. “I thought I should use the crutches to come over here, but I managed a few ballet exercises on it earlier. Very gentle ones,” she added when she saw him start to frown.

Reassured, Nathan grinned. “I bet it felt amazing to dance again.”

“It did, but it also made me even more aware of how much strengthening it needs.”

“Sure,” Nathan said. “You’re doing all the right stuff, though.”

“I hope so.” Jessica forced a little smile.

“What do you feel like doing?” Nathan asked, running his hand down her arm.

Jessica took a deep breath. “I need to talk to you,” she said.

“This sounds ominous. Let’s go through to the kitchen,” he replied.

Jessica followed him, her stomach in knots.

“Coffee?” he asked.

“No, thanks.” She wanted to get this over and done with and not drag it out by making hot drinks.

Nathan sat down opposite her, seeming to know it wasn’t the time to sit beside her, legs touching, like they usually did.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

“I’m flying back to America tomorrow,” Jessica said.

“Oh.”

“I wanted to tell you before tonight because, well, I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for me. The time we’ve spent together has meant such a lot to me.”

“It can’t have meant that much to you if you’re disappearing as soon as you’ve got the cast off your foot,” said Nathan, quietly.

“I need to get back to work,” she explained.

“You can’t exercise here?” he asked, not meeting her eye.

“I could, but my company has better facilities than Diana has. They have a fully equipped gym and specialist dance physiotherapists. It’s the best place for me to be to get back into shape.”

Nathan was silent. “Hey,” Jessica said, reaching out to hold his hand. “We both knew this was just a short-term thing. It’s what we both agreed to.”

“What if it turned into a long-term thing?” Nathan muttered.

“Nathan, we’ll have an ocean between us, and I’m going to be working flat out to prove to my company that I can be as good as I was.”

“You don’t have time to have a relationship with me?”

“I wouldn’t put it like that. You have a full-time job too,” reasoned Jessica. She hated seeing the hurt on Nathan’s face and not being able to do anything to stop it. But there was no point in her agreeing to continue anything. It simply wouldn’t be logistically possible.

“I’m capable of stepping away from my job,” said Nathan.

“My job isn’t one that I can step away from,” Jessica responded hotly. “Not yet, anyway.”

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