Chapter 6 – Kirby
six
Kirby
I watch her eyes and see the guard she always has up slip away.
In its place is a lightness I don’t think she knows is even there anymore.
A lightness that was probably there a while ago but has been dimmed because of the piece of shit she’s married to.
The type of man who needs to dim her light in order to shine.
“I don’t know about that.” I look around us to make sure no one else is listening and it could get back to her husband, hoping my next words aren’t going to push her back into the timid person she is around other people, but instead let her have fun. “I dare you to prove me wrong.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh please, I dare you.” She shakes her head. “You sound like my brother or better yet one of my cousins.”
“Lexi,” David says her name. “I want you to come here and be my muse,” he adds, and she immediately shakes her head.
“Absolutely not,” she retorts, “you have professional dancers right there.” She points to the group of women off to the side who are standing around waiting for his instruction.
“Come, come, come.” He motions with his hand to her.
“Let’s see what you got, Petrov.” I use her maiden name and wait for her to correct me, but she just puts her shoulders back and takes a step toward David.
“David,” she says his name, looking around, and the guard is back in her eyes, “this is…” She looks at the guys, then looks back at David. “I have two left feet.”
“You do not,” he scoffs at her words. “Who told you that?”
I can answer right away who told her that, but instead, I stand here watching her be scared of doing something that should be fun. “Now,” David says, flicking his wrist and holding it up straight, “we waltz.”
“Waltz?” Darryl questions. “That sounds complicated.”
The guys laugh. “It’s simple,” David assures us as we watch him with Lexi.
“Basic steps,” he lists, looking at the guys, “box step, closed step, and a natural turn.” He acts as if we understand.
“We start with box step.” He grabs Lexi.
“Man starts with the right foot forward.” He does the move and Lexi moves her right foot back.
“Left foot slide to the side, right foot follows.”
“Okay, that doesn’t look too bad,” one of the guys states.
“It’s easy, now you do it backward,” David instructs, “left foot back, right foot slide, left foot close.” Lexi follows him elegantly.
“We do it again. Ladies, grab a partner.” I look around, seeing we are one woman short, so I stand to the side, not telling anyone I already know how to dance the waltz.
“One, two, three,” he counts, doing the first set.
“One, two, three.” He does the other set, then looks at me.
“Come here,” he urges me, calling me over and stepping out of Lexi’s arms. “You can take my place. I will put my hands on your hips and guide you.”
“Here we go,” I mumble as I step in front of Lexi and she rolls her lips.
“You put one hand here.” He takes my hand and places it right under her shoulder. “You put your hand here.” He places her hand on my shoulder. “Then hold hands,” he instructs us. “Perfect.” He leaves us to go and make sure the other couples are all paired properly.
“Do you know how to do the waltz?” I ask her and she nods her head. She looks around and waits for David to come back to us. “So why did you say you don’t know how?”
“Because I always end up messing up the steps,” she replies softly, “and then I’ll step on your foot because I have two left feet.”
“I bet you don’t,” I assure her and she looks up at me, the heat of her hand searing through my T-shirt.
“Okay and start,” David says.
“Ready?” I ask her and she shakes her head, making me laugh. “And go,” I urge, moving my foot and she moves hers. “See? Told you, you’re fine,” I joke with her as we do the series of steps four times. I see a couple of the guys calling David’s attention to them.
“Do you know this dance?” she asks me and I nod.
“I do,” I admit to her. “My stepfather used to attend these fundraisers for the bank he worked with. He used to take us with him and I got forced into it.” She smiles as we continue dancing. “How long have you lived in Phoenix?”
“It’ll be about ten years, I think.” She thinks about it. “I moved here with Trent when he was twenty-five and got his residency here. We thought it would be for four years, but he excelled here. He climbed the ladder quickly and became the best in his field.”
“I bet he’s the best,” I mumble and she just tilts her head to the side.
“What about you? Why Phoenix for your off months?” she asks me as we waltz, and I even lead us in a turn.
“Born and raised here,” I reply, surprising her.
“Really?” she says, shocked. “But there isn’t even ice here.”
I laugh at her. “My father moved here from New York,” I tell her. “Started me skating when I was three. When he passed away, I made it a point to always skate.”
“I’m sorry,” she says softly.
“Thank you. He passed away and six months later my mother married my stepfather.” I look into her eyes. “He tried to pull me out of hockey.” My body tightens and she must feel it, her eyes search mine. “Said I could only play hockey if I took up golf. Golf, after all, is the all-American sport.”
“I think that’s baseball,” she tries to joke with me, “or maybe it’s a toss-up between football and baseball.”
“But deals are made on the golf courses,” I repeat some of the words my stepfather drilled into my head, “not on the ice.”
“He doesn’t sound like a nice guy,” she states softly. “I’m sorry, that was rude and I shouldn’t have said anything.” Her eyes search mine. “It was out of line.”
“You’re right, he wasn’t a very nice guy,” I admit to her.
“We didn’t see it though until many years later.
” I share a look with her, hoping she understands the meaning.
“It was always about him and never about us. He was a hedge fund manager. Made deals with some of the important people. Lots of mergers made because of him and many of those were made on the golf course. Of course, he thought I would be following in his steps.” I smile.
“He passed away the day I signed my hockey contract.” I chuckle, my hand slipping from her shoulder to the middle of her back, and I pull her even closer to me.
“Even in his death, he had to take away one more thing from me.”
“Well, you showed him,” she says softly. “You are on the ice making the deals happen.” She smirks at me. “Pretty sure there have to be some deals being made on the ice.”
I smile at her. “I tried to make deals with half my team to make sure we beat your cousins, Michael and Dylan, a couple months ago. Asked them to make sure they did not kick our asses. I even made a deal with your best friend, Ariella, that if she had another baby and it was a boy, she would name it after me.”
She shakes her head. “She really isn’t one of my cousins,” she shares and I stop dancing, making her step on my foot. “Oomph.”
“What did you just say?” I ask her, confused.
“She isn’t really my blood cousin,” she repeats the words and I look at her because everyone knows the Stone family. “She’s cousins with my cousins.”
“I can bet if you say that in front of your uncle Matthew, he might have something to say to that.” I glance at her and she just looks down, avoiding looking at me. “I’ve only met him a couple of times, but each time it was like—make no eye contact.”
She laughs and looks up. “He’s the best. He pretends to be this big bad wolf, but he’s a softie.”
“I dare you to tell him that to his face,” I tease and she just throws her head back and full-on belly laughs. “I want to be there when you do.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever be in the same room at the same time,” she replies softly and I can hear something in her voice. It’s a sort of longing. “But if we ever are…”
“I don’t know when Jaxon and Ariella are getting married. I’m pretty sure we are all going to be there,” I respond and she just smiles tightly. I have to wonder if she’d miss the wedding if Trent didn’t want her to go. “You can do it then.”
“We shall see.” She turns to look over at David to see him talking to two of the guys.
“What do you think?” I ask her and she turns back to me. “Think we can incorporate a turn in this dance?”
“Oh, that’s a little bit…” She looks unsure of herself. “It all depends.”
“On?” I ask her, getting bored just going back and forth.
“Are you going to go right or left?” she asks me, becoming stiff in my arms.
“I’ll go whatever way you want me to go,” I say softly. “Which way do you want to go?” I ask her to make her choose. Something I don’t think she gets to do at all.
“Um.” She hesitates. “I don’t know, should we go right?”
I laugh. “It’s not that big of a deal, and there is no wrong answer. You either go right or left.”
“Okay, let’s go right.”
“Lead the way,” I urge her and I can see her guard slip, and her eyes light up. “I’ll follow your lead.”
I follow her the whole way, and when she turns, she does it flawlessly. The smile on her face reaches her eyes for the very first time I’ve seen. It takes my breath away.
We turn around in a circle twice and David claps his hands. “Look at those two.” He points. “Try that.”
It’s two hours later when we finally get dismissed. “I will be here if you guys need more lessons,” David announces. “Otherwise, have fun.”
“Okay.” Lexi looks at all of the guys getting ready to head out.
“If I can have your attention for just five more minutes,” she says as we circle around her, “or less.” She holds both of her hands in front of her.
“Now, I don’t know if Cheryl told you, but we’ve decided we are going to film a short video of each of you.
” She looks at us, doing a sweep from left to right.
“It’ll play before the auction, sort of a ‘get to know you.’”
Some of the guys groan. “It’ll be quick, I swear, fifteen minutes tops,” she promises. “It’s for a good cause.”
“You’re lucky that I like you,” Darryl declares, “and I promised Bernetta I would be on my best behavior.”
“You are the best, Darryl, and I’ll be singing your praises the next time I see her.” She smiles at him. “And who knows, you might actually get a real date with this auction, and then dare I say the B word.”
“If you say bride,” Darryl teases her.
“I was going to say a birdie,” she jokes back to him, “but a bride might be good also. Next Tuesday, I’ll be texting you all the time sheet.
” They say their goodbyes and turn to walk out of the room and I look over at her.
“That didn’t go as bad as I thought it would,” she says with a chuckle, “and I didn’t step on your feet. ”
“I call that a win for today,” I reply. “Have a nice night, Lexi.” I walk out of the dance studio, reminding myself that not only is she a married woman, but married to someone dimming her light little by little until she snuffs out.