Page 11 of Easy Rumba

Her chest is rising and falling rapidly, and I can see she’s as affected by our unexpected meeting as I am.

“All part of being a dancer. I need to be able to swing my partners around.”

“I bet you’re good at that.” Her face flushes crimson. “I mean…”

“Don’t worry. I know what you mean.”

I wink at her, and she smiles back. It’s one of those smiles that warms your heart and stirs your loins even more.

“Next,” Leah, the producer, shouts, and I’m ushered away from Elise before we have a chance to say anything further. Turning around, I see her watching me as I leave. Alexis approaches her, but it’s only at the last minute she takes her eyes off me. The show just got interesting…fascinating, in fact.

It seems to take forever to speak to all the celebrities in the room. There are rock stars, soap stars, politicians, some person who was famous for writing a letter to the president, and then there’s Elise. She’s by far the classiest of the contestants and the most famous. She’s Hollywood royalty. Why would she agree to appear on this show? You’d think it would be beneath her, but then I did read last year she’d taken a break from acting. Maybe this was the only way for her to make a comeback.

Reluctantly I follow the other professional dancers into the canteen for lunch. It’s the usual affair of pasta and vegetables. I’m sure the show’s nutritionists think that’s all we eat. When you’re a man of six foot two, dancing fourteen hours a day, you need a lot of calories in your intake because you burn thousands. I take two helpings of pasta and three of the vegetables before looking around for somewhere to sit. Elise is already sitting alone at a table, pushing a few vegetables around her plate. I make my way over to her, despite her aura telling everyone she needs some time to herself—I’ve never been one to listen to that kind of crap.

“This seat taken? No, good. I’ll sit here then.” I pull the canteen style chair out and park my toned buttocks on it before she even has a chance to say no. Her mouth opens as if to tell me she’d rather be alone but shuts again shortly afterward without having said a word. “I still can’t believe you’re one of the celebrities. Do you think there is any way we can rig it so we can dance together?”

I shovel a spoonful of pasta and vegetables into my mouth after I speak.

“You’d be better off with someone else. I’ll probably have two left feet.”

“I seem to remember you were an excellent dancer in high school. Do you remember the prom? We did that dance together and wowed the entire school.”

Elise smiles—it reaches the dimples on the sides of her cheeks.

“And you’ve been wowing your audiences ever since, if I’ve heard right.”

“You’ve followed my career?” I’m shocked to hear she knows what I’ve been doing.

“I’m sorry to say, no. My life took a different turn after you and I lost touch. They gave us information sheets on your backgrounds, following the meet and greet.” She points to her bag on the floor, which has paperwork hanging out of it. “To be honest, I know very little about the show or the professional dancers.”

“Nice to know you’ve done some research.”

“I only signed up a few days ago. Everything has been a bit of a whirlwind since then. I’m sorry.”

“Have you at least watched the show before?” I tease playfully, but it falls flat and backfires when Elise pushes her plate away, having barely eaten anything.

“Not really.”

“Why choose to be on it then? You’re a Hollywood star, and a household name.”

During the majority of our conversation, she’s been looking directly at me, but now she lowers her head and gazes at the table.

“I’m not the name I once was. I made a decision that changed that, and I need the show to give me my confidence back. I need to know I did the right thing.”

“Right thing?”

Placing my spoon down, I reach out to take her hand, but she pulls it away from me.

“Elise, talk to me.”

I watch as she takes in a deep breath and then looks up at me smiling. It’s not a natural expression—it’s false, and I don’t like it one bit.

“How’s your mamá?” she asks, abruptly changing the subject of the conversation.

“She’s fine. Living in Spain”

“You’re father?”

“He’s fine. Living in San Francisco. Elise, what’s going on?”

“My mama’s still in New Orleans. It’s why I chose to move back here. She needs a bit of help these days. As you know, she didn’t cope too well after my daddy died. I tried to get her to move to Los Angeles, but she didn’t want to come.”

My heart sinks at the mention of her father. I was there with her when she was told of his death in a car accident. I’ll never forget her screams of grief and denial.

“Time,” Leah calls out, and I turn my head to look at the producer as she gives her orders. “If everyone can get back to the studio, please, we’ll do some initial dance steps and see how it goes. After that, we’ll look at how we’ll partner you for the live shows. You’ll have two weeks to rehearse before the first one.”

When I turn back to Elise, she isn’t there anymore. I look around the room and see Alexis escorting her back into the dance studio. My nostrils flair with anger. There’s no way she’s going to be partnered with him. Something isn’t right. She’s not the happy-go-lucky woman I knew. There’s something dark inside her, eating away at her. She says she needs to get her confidence back. What was the decision she made? Was it to leave Hollywood to look after her mama? Did something happen to her there? No, all is not right with Elise Landry. I allowed her to walk out of my life once before. I won’t make that mistake again—not when I can tell she’s hurting.

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