Page 44 of Life

I push a hand through my hair, letting the knots loosen and release as my fingers comb through. “My upbringing wasn’t average. I grew up in the system, bounced from place to place. No family to speak of. By the time Antonio came around and we became a couple, I didn’t have anyone else in my life to fall back on. Leaving him would have been leaving everything, including dance, because he was the lead dancer in the show. In all honesty, dance was the only thing I loved more than life itself. For a long time I felt stuck, confined in a straitjacket to the decisions I’d made.” I glance down and twist my fingers. “Then, well, you know what happened. After a while, things got worse and I could no longer control anything. By then, the decision was made for me. I was lucky to survive that night. Your brother came in the nick of time. You know that, right?”

Eli’s jaw hardens. I can hear him grinding his teeth. “Yes. I read the report.”

Wanting to change the heavy mood in the car, I flick on the radio. “What do you normally listen to?”

“Soft rock mostly. You?” His words are still harsh, but I can tell he is trying to go with the flow.

“I love all music. Maybe being a dancer has instilled the love of all types of music, but it’s true. There isn’t a genre I don’t like.”

“What about country?” One eyebrow rises.

“Even country.” I smile.

“Pop?”

“Of course.”

“Jazz?”

“Absolutely. Great to dance to.”

“Okay.” He rubs a hand against that ever-present scruff again.

A zing of arousal rips through my chest to settle heavily between my thighs. Why does the man have to be so damned sexy? I mean, of all men I could desire, why does it have to be this one? Tommy’s twin brother.

“Tell me this, Spicy. What do you plan to do when you can’t dance anymore? Teach?”

I tug at a lock of hair and spin it around my finger. “Maybe. It’s something I’ve been thinking about more and more recently. I’m pretty old for a dancer.”

“Old? How did you come up with that cockamamie rationale? What are you, twenty-five?”

I smile full, teeth and all. “Gracias.No, I’m twenty-eight. Not only that, I’ve been nursing broken legs for years. They’re doing well in general, but won’t last. I’ve got maybe another year if I take it on the road. A couple, tops, if I dance locally and less often.”

Eli cringes. “You tellin’ me your legs hurt all the time, and you still dance on them for hours on end?”

I nod. “Si, but it’s a pain I’m used to. Nothing I can help.”

“Sure you could. You could stop dancing. Do something else. Like you were doing the other day with those students. You danced some to show them the moves, and then you walked around perfecting them. Couldn’t you do that?”

I take a breath and sit sideways in my seat so I can look at him more fully. “I could.”

“And a few of those sessions you did were your dance routines, right?”

“What are you getting at?”

“Could you do it for a whole show or at the very least for a single song? Like a chor—”

“Choreographer?” The word spills out of my mouth. The same one I’ve been thinking the last couple days.

“Yeah, that. You’re good, great even. I was surprised at what you know how to do. Plus, you knew all the names of the moves, the positions of the body parts. Seems like a no-brainer to me.” He glances my way and smiles.

I love Eli’s smile. When he graces you with one, it ismagnifico.

“It’s definitely something I’ve been thinking about.” I admit the truth, one I haven’t told a soul—not even the girls.

He shrugs. “What’s to think about? What you’re doing is hurting you. You love dancing. You don’t want to leave it completely, right?”

I shake my head. “Dios mio, no. I’d be lost without dance. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. Dance is all I’ve ever known. It’s the only thing I’m good at.”

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