Chapter 5
“Beautiful work today, girls.” Summer held out her hand to high-five her beginner ballet students. “Work those pliés at home.”
“How’s Prince Charming?” Nadia asked slyly as she reached Summer.
Summer tried not to let her surprise register on her face. She’d been so sure none of her students at the party the other day recognized her. She prided herself on keeping her real identity a mystery whenever she did princess parties. It added to the illusion that the fairy tale was real. Which was exactly why she’d had to take her costume off as soon as she’d gotten out of the Feldman’s house—she needed to break that illusion for herself after the way Benjamin had held her in his arms and kissed her hand.
“Prince Charming?” She pretended to be confused. “I don’t know any Prince Charmings.”
“It’s okay,” Nadia whispered, gesturing for Summer to bend closer as if to let her in on a secret. “I know you have to wear this disguise to teach ballet. Otherwise, people would flock here to see a princess, and you’d never get any teaching done.”
“That’s true,” Summer whispered back, fighting to keep a straight face. “Will you help me keep my secret?”
The girl nodded and mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key.
“Thank you. I’ll see you next week.”
Nadia kept her lips pressed tight but made a sound that Summer assumed was supposed to be “goodbye” and scurried off to her mom.
Summer allowed herself a chuckle as she moved around the room, collecting hula hoops off the floor from the game they’d played at the end of class.
But now that Nadia had turned her mind to Prince Charming, she couldn’t turn it away. Not that she’d really stopped thinking about him all week.
She’d tried. Valiantly.
But with little success. It had occurred to her that Nick was the one she should be dwelling on. But somehow that afternoon with Benjamin kept coming back to her.
It wasn’t only the dancing or the kiss either. It was the smiles and the laughs and the easy way he had about everything. And most of all, though she hated to admit it to herself, it was wondering if his “other plans” had been a date.
It shouldn’t matter to her. She’d told herself a hundred times that it didn’t matter. She’d already decided she was done with dating. She just had to find a way to get the memo to her heart.
She hung the hula hoops on their peg, then moved the portable barres to the side of the room. By the time she was done, the children and their parents had all left, and Summer gathered up her own things to head home. If she hurried, she should be able to say goodnight to Max before he went to bed.
“Oh good, you’re still here.” Danica, Summer’s boss—and the closest thing she had to a friend, though they never spent time together outside of work—glanced around the room as if looking for something. Although Danica was nearly three decades older than Summer, she usually moved with such a youthful energy that people guessed she was in her thirties. But today her movements seemed slow and weighted.
“Is everything all right?” Summer asked.
Danica sighed. “It is, and it isn’t.”
Summer waited as her boss adjusted her sleek blonde bun. She had learned over the years that Danica put as much care into her words as into her dance.
“You know my daughter in Colorado just had a baby?”
Summer nodded. It would have been hard not to know, given that Danica had decorated the studio with pink streamers for the occasion.
Danica smiled as if touched that Summer had remembered. “Well, her husband decided that now would be a good time to up and leave her.” Danica’s usually serene features transformed with indignation. “She didn’t see it coming at all, and she’s going through postpartum depression and now with this on top of it . . .”
Summer nodded sympathetically.
“I just feel like I need to be with her,” Danica concluded.
“Of course. It might take a little juggling, but I’m sure I can cover your classes. How long do you think—”
She cut off at Danica’s head shake. “I don’t mean a trip. I mean we’re going to move there.”
Summer stared at her. “Oh,” was the only word she could get out.
“We’ve been thinking about it for a while anyway. Bill has always wanted to live in the mountains, and with our grandchildren there . . .” Danica went on. “To be honest, the main reason I resisted for so long was that I didn’t want to pull the rug out from under you. But I can’t bear to see my daughter go through this alone.”
Summer nodded numbly, trying to picture her own mama dropping everything to help her. But the image was too absurd to even conjure.
“When— Um— When do you plan to go?”
Danica bit her lip. “Bill is going to stay here and pack up, but I’m going to head out this weekend.”
“And the studio?” Summer almost couldn’t bring herself to ask it.
“I have to let it go,” Danica said softly. “I’m going to tell the families tomorrow. I thought, maybe, if you want to cover one more week of lessons, we could do that. But then Bill is going to sell off our few assets. He’s already talked to the building owners, and he has another business that wants to move into the space, so he’ll let us out of the lease.”
“Another dance studio?” Summer asked hopefully.
Danica shook her head. “I’m sorry. I never planned for things to happen so quickly. But sometimes God’s plans are different from ours.”
Summer nodded numbly, trying to trust that God actually had a plan. But right now, if he did, it seemed to be to let her life fall apart, one piece at a time.
“You’ll be all right, won’t you?” Danica looked worried. “I’ll give you a wonderful reference, of course. And anything else I can do.”
Summer swallowed and made herself say, “I’ll be all right.”
Danica studied her for a moment, then nodded, as if convinced.
Good.
Now all Summer had to do was convince herself.