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“There you are.” The teacher, in all her raven-haired, full-lipped glory strolled through the door. “I’d hoped you hadn’t escaped.”
“Not for lack of wanting,” he managed to say with a wry smile.
“Tsk, tsk. What kind of attitude is that for our second lesson?”
Why did you run from our first lesson crying? he longed to ask. Instead, he shrugged.
“Well?” She clapped her hands, rubbing them together as if she was looking forward to the coming hour. “Should we jump right in, or would you like to spend a few minutes reviewing what you’ve already learned?”
“Let’s dive,” he said, trying not to feel hurt about her apparently having no wish to tell him what had been wrong the previous night.
“Excellent.” Thrilled to be done with the small talk that had her heart racing, Rose escaped to the stereo. She was careful to play a more lively tune than the one that’d reduced her to tears. True, all tangos followed the same basic beat, but the moods changed.
When “La ultima cita” began, she said, “All right, Mr. Montgomery, now I’m going to really challenge you.”
He sighed.
“This isn’t the time to cop an attitude. All I’m asking you to do is dance backward.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” She stopped in front of him, adopting the classic pose with her hand on his upper arm. “Imagine we’re in a vast ballroom filled with dancers. There will be young men impressing the girls with their fancy footwork, still-in-love grandparents following rhythms it’s taken them a lifetime to absorb. And then, there’s us…” She took a deep breath, offered what she hoped was an encouraging grin. “Feel like giving it a try?”
He grudgingly gave in and half an hour and a lot of laughter later, Rose and Dalton were moving about the floor like pros. Well, not quite, but at least they hadn’t tripped over each other in the past few minutes.
Rose closed her eyes and let the music and feel of his arms transport her not to her familiar grief, but to a smoky club in the heart of old-town Buenos Aires. What fun she would have showing this uptight banker how to loosen up.
Their chemistry was intoxicating. But as badly as she longed to be held in a man’s arms, she was afraid of opening her heart again only to potentially lose it.
Despite the warning, the part of her that longed to laugh and play and dance, not because it was her job, but for the sheer joy of it, urged her to spend more time with Dalton.
When they were both out of breath, Rose pulled away with a gleeful clap. “That was so much better!”
“It was?”
“Absolutely.” Even as she laughed and playfully swatted him, Rose wished her breathing would return to normal. Though Dalton had still made plenty of mistakes, something about his style was intrinsically rhythmic. Like her, though he might not know it, he’d been born with an artist’s soul. Once he’d lost his fierce scowl of determination and allowed his mind and heart to go where the music took him, he’d easily fallen into the spirit of the dance. “Ready to go again?”
“I think so.”
“You think?” She shook her head. “No, no. You should say, of course,” she said with a grin.
For the first time in she couldn’t remember when, she was having fun and didn’t want the night to end.
She ignored her earlier misgivings, choosing to enjoy herself. Soon enough, she’d be back upstairs with Anna, fighting to sleep through the night. Maybe if she exerted herself rest would come more easily.
That in mind, she inserted a new CD, putting herself and her student through rigorous moves.
“Whew.” Twenty minutes later, again out of breath, Rose pulled away, reaching for a towel she’d hung from the ballet bar. “I’d say you’ve gone as far as you can with la caminita.”
“And that would be?”
“All that means, is the walk, which is the most basic of all tango steps. Now that you’re walking, we can start to run.”
“Great,” he said with a chuckle. “And I suppose we’re going to start that running right now, Miss Energizer Bunny?”
“Ha-ha.” With her towel, she swatted him. “Actually, you and I are done for today. I have a date.”
“A date, huh? Is he the cause of last night’s tears?”
For a second after Dalton asked the question, Rose felt like a deer in the headlights. What was she supposed to say? Was now the time to tell him about her husband?
“Hey,” he murmured, tone soft, as if he sensed her distress. “Why you were crying is really none of my business.” He glanced down, then looked back up into her eyes. “Trouble is, I kind of took the whole our dancing will go easier if we’re friends speech seriously, and seeing how friends don’t let friends cry alone, I—”
“My date is with my daughter. She wants to bake sugar cookies with pink sprinkles.”
“You have a little girl? I mean, I assume she’s little, judging by your age.”
“My advanced age?” With a wink and grin, she swatted him with her towel again.
For a moment he stilled, as if he wanted to say something, but propriety kept him quiet. “That’s not at all what I meant, and you know it.”
“Yes, I do,” she said with a nod, matching his easy smile. “And in answer to your question…”
“I didn’t ask a question.”
“Your eyes did.” She turned her back on him while wrapping herself in a hug. The kindness in Dalton’s eyes told her it was safe to share her pain with him. “My girl is indeed little. She’s six. And in answer to your unspoken question, her father…died.”
“Sorry,” he said quietly. She imagined him cupping his warm, strong hands over her shoulders, infusing her with much needed courage to go on. Instead, he hovered, not taking the liberty of actually touching her, but letting her know he was there. “Is he the reason for those tears?”
She nodded. “The last time I seriously tangoed—you know, beyond teaching vacation-bound senior citizens or Girl Scout troops—was in his arms. So you can see where…”
“Dancing again—with a man—would be rough?” He did touch her shoulder then, and lightly turned her to face him. The warmth of his eyes and tender set of his mouth, his solid yet gentle grip, told her what words never could. That he cared. That she wasn’t alone. Sure, she had friends, but no one with whom she’d ever considered sharing the depth of her pain.
“Want to talk about him?” he invited.
“Yes. Someday. But not now.”
“Sure.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you about him, just that it hurts to dredge up the past.”
“I get it. Only, the way you were crying, I’m thinking your husband’s death isn’t yet in the past—at least not where your heart’s concerned.”
“ANNA, HONEY, be careful or you’ll drop Barbie’s purse behind the display.”
“I’m being careful, Mommy. Look! She’s dancing!”
Dalton froze at the entry to Bell’s. He had been dreading the mission to get fitted for the gaudy red shoes he was required to wear with his equally hideous tux. But from his first sight of Rose and her cute, brown-eyed daughter, trying on black-patent Mary Janes, his outlook on the mission had miraculously brightened.
“Ladies’ day out?” he asked the pair, pausing in front of the battered, red-carpeted platform serving as seating for what Mona Bell had dubbed her kid zone.
“Hi,” Rose said, her wide grin making his pulse race. “My baby’s feet seem to get bigger every day.”
“I know the feeling,” he teased, wagging one of his size thirteens.
Her daughter giggled. “You’ve got the biggest feet I’ve ever seen.”
“Anna!” the girl’s mother scolded.
“It’s okay,” Dalton said with a chuckle. “Especially since it happens to be true.”
“There are bigger feet in this town,” Mona said, a hint of her Cajun heritage flavoring her words. In her arms were three shoe boxes. “Dalton, nice to see you finally showed up. If we don’t get your shoe order in pronto, you’ll be dancing barefoot.”
“Sounds like an improvement over the getup you all want me to wear.”
Snorting, Mona said, “Remind me to tell your momma what a misfit she raised.”
“She hears it all the time.”
Ignoring him, Mona turned to Rose’s daughter. “Stick out your feet, there, toots, and let me slip these on.”
“She’s a cutie,” Dalton said to Rose, seeing how Mona had pretty much taken over the operation.
“Thanks.”
“Anna’s a nice name. I’ve always liked it.”
“We named her after my grandmother, Anna Lucia Margarita Rodriguez. In her day, she was the darling of Buenos Aires.” Whispering behind her hand, she added, “She reportedly juggled up to ten suitors with ease.”
Mona grunted. “Shoot, what gal in her right mind would want that many men?”
“Barbie!” Anna squealed, pirouetting the doll in a dazzling move that sent tiny pink plastic shoes and a matching purse flying. They landed behind the seating platform. “Oops.”
“Oh, honey,” Rose said, hands on her hips. “I told you that was going to happen.”
Tears flooded the child’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Mommy.”
“It’s okay.” Already on his knees, Dalton finagled himself into torturous contortion that with gritted teeth and a grunt netted one shoe. Then he used a nearby display rack’s metal prong to fish out the spiked pink heel’s mate and the purse. “Voila,” he said, winded from the ordeal.
“You got ’em!” Anna squealed happily, leaping from the platform to wrap her arms around him. The simple gesture warmed him to the core. He’d always loved kids, had planned on having a half dozen of his own by now, but time had a way of vanishing.
“Thank you,” Anna said, her brown eyes serious.
“You’re welcome,” he said, giving her a brief return hug.
Mona butted into his shining moment with, “You’ve got fuzz balls on top of your head.”
“They’re cute.” Rose tenderly picked them free, holding them in the palm that only last night she’d pressed against his. “Thanks again. You don’t know trauma till you’ve lost your favorite Barbie purse.”
“In that case, I’m glad tragedy could be averted.”
“How about these?” Mona asked, gesturing to Anna’s latest pair of shoes. “They seem like the best fit.”
“What do you think, sweetie? Can you walk around?”
Instead of walking, the girl ran, skipped and pranced.
“Wish I had half that energy…” Grinning, Mona crossed her arms.
“Amen,” Dalton and Rose said in unison, then laughed.
“Want those?” Mona asked.
“Yes, please.”
“Good choice. Cash, check or plastic?”
While Rose paid and Anna continued to dance around the store in her new shoes, Dalton tried, unsuccessfully, to focus on his own footwear crisis. Rose consumed him. Her laugh. Her smile. The way, when she’d stood close, fingering his hair, she’d smelled of an intriguing blend of crayons and faint, musky perfume.
“Want to join us?” she asked, suddenly by his side. “Anna’s on a temporary school reprieve for the dentist, but I thought since we were right here, I’d also grab her shoes before getting her back.”
“Join you for what?” he asked, mesmerized by the way her hair reflected the midday sun streaming through the windows.
What the hell was wrong with him? Here he was supposed to be heading back to work, yet all he really wanted to do was finger those inky strands. Could they be anywhere near as soft as they looked?
“There you go again,” she teased, “looking as if you’d rather be anywhere but here.”
“No,” he said. “You’ve got me all wrong. I’ve always adored shoe shopping.”
“Liar,” she said with a soft elbow to his ribs. “Join us for a quick sandwich at the deli?”
Yes. “Sounds great, but I’m due back at the office. The only reason I’m here is that according to my fellow pageant-committee members, my shoe fitting had to be done ASAP.”
“I get that, but can’t your office spare you for lunch?”
“Ordinarily they could, but seeing how it’s a lunch meeting I’m supposed to be at, they might frown on me switching to your team.”
“We’ll be more fun,” she said, hugging her daughter close.
“I don’t doubt that. Rain check?”
“Absolutely.”
“Come on, Mommy,” Anna said, tugging Rose’s hand. “Me and Barbie are hungry.”
“Sounds like you’d better get going,” Dalton said with a faint smile.
“She’s not the only one,” Mona said, butting in to his last few moments of fun. “Now, quit flirting and get on over here to try on some shoes.”
