Page 5 of Beyond The Barre

“Aren’t you busy enough?”

Linc shook his head. Actually, he was extremely busy with only three weeks until opening, and Christmas and Boxing Day holidays taking up precious time. But the thought of being able to see Scarlett again made it all worth it. If he helped out, he was bound to bump into her.

“Never too busy to give my friends a hand.”

“Thanks. We could use all the help we can get.”

Linc had been working on the stage for a solid hour, with no sign of a certain ballerina. Sweat dripped from his face as he nailed pieces of timber together to form the frame of the mobile stage. Usually the end-of-year concert was performed inside the community centre, in the air-con, but this year the centre was closed for refurbishment and the dance school had been asked to perform as part of the annual Christmas festival. The entire Main Street would be closed to traffic, and stalls would be erected selling food and locally made products. Sideshow alley would help to keep children entertained with various stands such as laughing clowns and lucky ducks to tempt willing participants.

“Excuse me, Lincoln?” The sweet strains of a woman’s voice pulled him from his thoughts, and he looked over his shoulder to see Scarlett dressed in black bike shorts and a purple singlet. Bare ivory skin shimmered under the bright shine of the sun.

Linc swallowed hard and pulled his gaze from her long bare legs up to her face, which was partially hidden by the visor of her sun cap.

He thought back to the videos he had found online of her dancing. He'd trawled through photos of her performing en pointe and even found a video of one of her Australian Ballet performances and watched it, enraptured. It's not stalking if you're looking up someone famous, he’d convinced himself.

Dropping the hammer and nails, he straightened up. “Hi, Scarlett.”

“Hello,” she said, tucking a wisp of hair behind her ear and surveying the frame before her. “This is coming together well. Did you do it all yourself?”

Unintentionally, Linc’s chest puffed out just a bit. “Yeah. Still a way to go yet though.”

“I wondered if you could help me for a bit? Audrey bought an enormous tree—a real one—and I need to decorate it.” She looked away shyly. “It’s just I’m a little scared of heights.”

A smile split his face. What other interesting facts might he learn about this mysterious woman? “No problem. Let's go.”

He followed her through a gate at the back of the dance studio to a courtyard. There stood a huge green pine tree secured in a pot filled with soil. He looked at the top of the tree, which had to be close to three metres high. No wonder Scarlett didn’t want to climb up there. If he wasn’t trying to impress her, he wasn’t sure he would either.

“The ladder is here.” She gestured to the fence where the ladder stood next to several plastic boxes labelled decorations.

Nodding, Linc prepared the ladder, and they discussed how to drape the lights and tinsel around the giant.

For the next hour, he went up and down the ladder. When Scarlett’s fingers brushed his as she passed him a small silver star, her cheeks coloured before she bent to collect another ornament. He concentrated on hanging the star and not on the sudden need to link his fingers with hers to prolong the contact.

Standing so close to her, feeling the care in her touch, only stripped away another layer of his self-control. The need to take her in his arms and kiss her was so intense, it took all of his willpower to appear casual and unmoved. He’d never been more relieved than he was when her hand had lowered and she’d moved away.

“What are your plans for Christmas?” he asked as he paused at the bottom of the tree.

“I guess I’ll visit my mum in Brisbane.” She shrugged. “I’m not really that into Christmas. I was always so busy dancing in the annual performance of The Nutcracker that by the time Christmas Day came, I slept most of it.”

“What was it like?”

“Dancing?”

He nodded, intrigued by her past and all the reasons she had turned into this woman. She appeared small and fine-boned. Then her head lifted, and she looked straight at him. Any impression of fragility evaporated.

“Long hours; hard work. We trained like athletes and got plenty of injuries to prove it.”

His heart clenched as he thought of her injured and in pain.

Then she smiled in that wistful, dreamy way, like she was remembering a particularly pleasant dream. “From the moment I put on my first ballet shoes, it was the only thing I ever wanted to do.”

When Scarlett smiled like that, her eyes shone a brilliant grey. It wasn’t just their clarity that stalled his thoughts but the expression within them. Sweet. Serene. Real. He could free fall in such eyes.

Once the tree was adorned in all its silver and red glory, they stepped back to admire their work. But as eye-catching as the tree was, Linc was only aware of the woman who stood beside him. Of her subtle floral scent. Of the full curve of her bottom lip.

“It’s beautiful,” she said as she gazed upon it.

“Yes, it is.” His eyes were unable to leave Scarlett’s face.

---