It takes two to tango #2
“So it’s only teenagers who help you castrate goats who can give you a nickname?” As soon as the words were out her mouth, Shona was questioning why she would ever say that out loud, and Hailey chortled so hard she almost choked on her water. Kendrick, however, looked like he’d bitten into a lemon.
“What about Ken? Or Rick?” Hailey suggested when she had stopped coughing.
“What about Kendrick?” he replied.
“All right, Kendrick.” Hailey deliberately overenunciated his name. “So you liked what you saw?”
“Very much. You are very skilled.” He gave Shona a look that seemed to indicate he had a fairly precise idea of the extent of her skill set.
“If only you knew ...” Hailey batted her eyelashes. She clearly enjoyed the banter. “But as much as we love compliments, are you even qualified to assess our skills?”
“I danced for many years myself,” he said simply, as if this was nothing out of the ordinary.
“You do Highland dancing?” Shona stared at him, eyes wide in amazement. “Are you serious?”
“I sure am. What’s so surprising about that?”
Indeed, what was? She knew he moved well and was a fantastic dancer.
But the cèilidh dances and salsa were a whole different ballgame to Highland dancing.
She knew very few men who had ever committed to learning the traditional Scottish art, and most of them were …
how should she put it … a little peculiar.
Though strictly speaking, the same could be said of Kendrick, who was so buttoned up he couldn’t even countenance a nickname.
Although he wasn’t always so uptight, he had certainly let her unbutton ...
She really shouldn’t be thinking about that!
Why was he staring at her so expectantly now?
“Aye, well … erm, yes. No, of course I’m not surprised that you do Highland dancing.
Well, a little maybe, but thinking about it, it fits.
” Wow, that was a new level of incoherent for sure!
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Hailey cheerfully shaking her head, while Kendrick just raised an eyebrow.
“I was in a dance group with my sisters back in school, and I continued for a while at university. I even won a few competitions. Regionals, mind you, nothing major.”
“That’s cool,” Shona replied lamely. She still wasn’t sure if he was teasing her or not, though he really didn’t seem the type for that kind of humour – if he had any sense of humour at all, which still remained to be seen.
And why should he lie about something like that?
There was no good reason whatsoever that came to mind.
Especially as it was easy enough to check.
But before she could reply, another round of applause filled the room.
The couple’s performance was over, and she hadn’t paid attention for even a second.
“You’ll have to give us a taste of your skills,” Hailey shouted over the noise.
“Anytime,” he said with a smile and applauded the two dancers, who bowed a few more times and gracefully conceded to the many voices from the audience calling for an encore. As the music started up and the two on stage resumed their performance, Kendrick began a bit of a show of his own.
Shona’s mouth fell open and Hailey looked no less surprised as they watched him dance.
He was really good! His skills were lightyears above their own and more in a league with the two professionals on stage.
And he made it all look so effortless! More and more people around them turned their attention from the stage to him.
When the last of the music faded away, most of the applause was clearly directed at Kendrick.
“If we had known that our vet could put on such a show, we would have asked him to dance on stage too,” Collum, back on stage with the microphone, commented after thanking the couple for their performance.
“Next time,” Kendrick shouted back, and Shona found it adorable that he was blushing. Either he felt uncomfortable about all the attention, or the dancing had made him feel hot.
“Okay, you are qualified to assess our skills,” Hailey, who had recovered from her surprise, picked up where they had left off earlier.
“Do you realise that you don’t have to castrate goats and treat colicky horses all day long to make money?
Instead, you could have a glamorous career as a professional Highland dancer – with dozens of groupies wherever you go. ”
He burst into laughter. “And what would I do with dozens of groupies?”
“If you need me to explain that to you, I definitely recommend castrating fewer bucks!”
“Ha! But seriously, I love dancing and would like to do it more often, but as a job? It’s exhausting, the business is tough and most of the dancers are underpaid. We’re not talking about professional footballers here. Unfortunately.”
“Exhausting, tough and underpaid. How is that different from being a vet?” Hailey retorted cheekily. “But one is surrounded by groupies and the other by smelly goats. Doesn’t seem a hard decision to me.”
Where was Hailey going with this? All this talk about groupies rubbed Shona seriously the wrong way.
She didn’t want to imagine Kendrick with a swooning crowd of female fans.
If she was completely honest, she didn’t want to share him at all.
But it was already too late. Several women, likely as impressed with his dancing as she was, approached, eager to win his attention.
“Looks like you can have both after all,” she pointed out, her tone harsher than she had intended.
Shona quickly turned around and headed for the bar.
On stage, three little boys with bagpipes were struggling through their rendition of Paul McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre.
But even their racket was barely enough to drown out the roaring in her ears.
What was she doing?! Why was she behaving like an insecure twat?
And being jealous of Hailey, who was just flirting a little, and even of the farmer’s daughter, still a child, who had helped Kendrick castrate goats?
Not to mention all the women shooting him admiring glances right now!
“You alright, sis?” a voice cut through her turmoil.
Shona wheeled around and found herself face to face with a grinning Isla, who had closed her restaurant today just so she could attend the harvest festival too. “Aye, sure. What’s up?”
“How would I know? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Or are you on the run from someone?” Isla gave her a concerned look.
“Don’t be silly,” Shona waved her off. She had no intention of discussing anything with her sister that she didn’t yet understand herself. “It’s just those bagpipes! The noise is killing me.”
“Sure.” Isla didn’t believe her, that much was clear. But fortunately her sister didn’t probe further and changed the subject: “You and Hailey have still got it. You were pretty good up there! Did you really just rehearse that yesterday afternoon?”
“You mean the choreography? Aye, that went surprisingly well. But Phyllis is an amazing teacher.”
“Clearly.” Isla cracked a smile. Shona knew that her siblings had never quite understood her interest in Highland dancing, and she had long since given up on explaining herself. She enjoyed it, and that was enough.
“If you’d ever tried it, you would understand. It’s a shame because you are such a good dancer. I bet you’d love it if you just gave it a go.”
“No thanks, I’m a lost cause for Highland dancing. I’ll stick to the regular sort.” Isla glanced lovingly at Jon, who was standing behind the bar and tapping beer and cider at full speed.