Dancing in the Dark, page 15
part #1 of Aspen Gold Series
“What was it like growing up with her?”
“Like you can imagine. She was always mean. Always selfish. She certainly never held any affection for me. Junior high and high school were the worst. You probably remember her.”
Piper nodded. “She had a pretty bad rep.”
“And because my sister screwed everybody, then of course I must be that kind of girl too. The Cavanaughs befriending me helped though. They were respected, and Joe and Dusty were like protective big brothers. Liz even took me for haircuts and bought me some clothes.”
“They’re great.”
“Yeah.” Kendra picked at her fish. “But being around their family pointed out what I didn’t have. Sam was an amazing guy. He spent time with each of his kids, so they all felt special.”
“I remember seeing him with Liz. They seemed really happy.”
Kendra nodded. “They set a high bar for their children, for sure.”
“Is this girl talk or can a fella get a minute too?” Jonas stood beside the table, dressed in a flannel shirt, though it was still August. He wore an inquiring smile.
“Yes, of course. You’re one of our favorite fellas,” Piper told him. She scooted over, moving her food and drink.
“You’re our only favorite fella at the moment,” Kendra added.
“Uh oh. Man trouble.” He settled onto the padded bench. “I have plenty of tomatoes and peppers if you want to come over and get a basket or two,” he told her. “I still plant as many as I did when my Rebecca used to can them. I can’t seem to just start a few.”
“I’d love to come get some,” she replied. “And I’ll pick out some onions at the farmer’s market and make you a batch of salsa.”
“Sounds good. Rebecca always made corn relish too,” he told her.
Kendra leaned forward. “Did you catch these delicious fish?”
“A lot of ‘em. They were big ‘uns today.” He nodded and glanced aside before looking back at her. “I see you’re not wearing your ring yet.”
Kendra exchanged a look with Piper. “No. I won’t be wearing that ring.”
“Shame.”
She pursed her lips and took a drink.
“Shame you two can’t work it out while you still have so many years ahead of you.”
“Things happen,” she said.
“I’d give anything to have more time with Rebecca. Jeeter and Hamm said I’d find someone and marry again.” He shook his head. “I knew I wouldn’t. She was the one and only. That’s a rare thing.”
“My grandpa thinks that about my grandma, too,” Piper said. “He always says, life wasn’t perfect, but there was never anything better than being with her.”
Loydell approached their table. “Just found out there’s some big event going on in Olde Town, and the Wild Card is pretty empty tonight. Some of us are going to head over for some pool and dancing. Why don’t you girls join us? You want to come along Jonas? I’ll give you a lift.”
“No, thanks. Jeeter wants to play checkers.”
“Let’s go,” Piper said. “Friday night at the Wild Card without all the tourists who find their way in sounds great. They have a band.”
Kendra hesitated a little too long.
“You think you’ll see your mom.”
She nodded.
“If she’s working, she’ll be on the new side, not the side where the band is. Come on. You have a right to have some fun.”
After the week she’d had, a night out did sound like fun. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Half an hour later, she and Piper pulled into the parking lot behind the Wild Card Saloon that faced Brook Park. The music greeted them before they approached a courtyard strung with lights between two buildings. Tables and chairs filled the space between the two buildings.
“Have you been here before?”
Kendra shook her head. “First time.”
“The owner bought out the hardware store and added onto his business. That side’s the sports bar with games on all the screens. Your mom is on that side on weekends. The band is in the original building over here.” She led the way past tables with Coors umbrellas and people eating and drinking to enter the noisy saloon.
Peanut shells crunched underfoot as Piper led them to an immense glossy wood bar with intricate filigree curved along the front where the wood rolled under. Behind the bar was an obviously old mirror flanked by a framed daguerreotype of a couple unidentifiable people and vintage metal advertising signs.
“Okay to sit here?” Piper asked.
“Sure.” They perched on stools and it was only a few seconds before a mature man with long gray-streaked black hair tied back came to get their orders. He was obviously Native American, his dark skin weathered.
“Hello, young Piper,” he said.
“Hi, Ace. This is my friend, Kendra.”
“Welcome, Kendra. What can I get for you young ladies?”
“Seems I remember you’re pretty good at margaritas,” Piper answered with a smile. “That’s my choice.”
“I’ll have the same,” Kendra told him. She rubbed the surface of the bar. “This is amazing wood. It seems to glow.”
“My father bought this place from a Scotsman who brought the piece here after the turn of the century,” Ace replied. “There are several stories about the fellow and what went on here, but I don’t know how many of them are true. What I do know is that this wood takes a lot of upkeep. I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
The band was playing This is How We Roll. Country wasn’t Kendra’s first choice in music, but she liked a lot of it and was familiar with the fun, easy-to-dance-to genre.
Others from the VFW filtered in, including Loydell, who was on the dance floor in minutes. ‘When the world turns ugly, I just turn and look at you, baby. This is how we roll. This is how we roll, baby.’
Piper laughed and leaned into Kendra. “Mild-mannered postal worker by day. Wild and crazy party girl at night.”
“And probably not an Elvis tune in the set.”
They laughed.
Ace refilled their drinks, and after a couple more songs they were on the dance floor too.
News had spread that traffic had been light because of the event in Olde Town and others came in to enjoy the night with locals only. Kendra danced with Jackson Samuels and even with Crosby when he showed up with Brianna. She introduced Piper to Brianna, and the three of them sat out a dance and talked about light-hearted subjects. Matt Chandler showed up, along with Spencer’s tall, fair-haired family practitioner, Gabe Ewing.
“Anyone want to get something to eat with me?” Brianna asked. “I’m a lightweight.”
“Sure, I will,” Kendra told her.
Piper joined them and they ordered burgers and fries and sat in the courtyard. The mountain air had cooled down the evening temperature. Piper collapsed the umbrella so they could see the sky. “This air feels great.”
“These are the best fries ever,” Brianna added.
Kendra finished a bite of her burger. “This whole evening feels really good. I didn’t know there were so many nice people in Spencer.”
“The drinks don’t hurt,” Piper said.
“No really. I only had bad memories of Spencer. Grade school and junior high were nightmares.”
“Why?” Brianna asked. “If it’s okay that I ask.”
“You can ask. Because my mom was the town slut and my sister the junior town slut. Plus, a whole lot more I won’t go into.”
“I’m sorry. That sounds terrible.”
“It was. They haven’t changed. When my class at Holling ends in a couple weeks, I’m heading back to Denver.”
“What about Dusty? I thought you two were…I don’t know. A thing?”
“We were a thing. But it’s not going to work out.”
Brianna wiped her fingers on her napkin. “Does this have something to do with Ian?”
Kendra nodded. “My sister has inserted herself into the picture, and I’m not sticking around for it.”
Crosby joined them and set a basket of chips and salsa on the table, before pulling over a chair and setting down his beer. He glanced at their faces. “Am I good to sit here?”
“You’re good,” Kendra told him. “How are the nachos?”
He pushed the cardboard tray toward her, and she tried one. “I’ve never eaten as much in my life as I’ve eaten since I’ve been here this summer. Between your mother, the fish fries and local delights, I’m going to bust out of my leotards.”
“You forgot your passion for rhubarb everything,” he pointed out.
She jabbed a tortilla chip toward him, saying, “That too.”
They both laughed, and she covered her mouth.
Brianna and Piper were having a conversation and trying to remember the name of a local band they liked. Crosby leaned toward her. “I haven’t seen my brother as happy in years as he’s been since you’ve been here.”
She used her napkin and took a sip of her drink. “We’re not even talking right now.”
He turned his glass in a circle on the tabletop. “I get it. Nobody blames you. If you ask me, you’ve got bigger cojones than anyone I know. Spending summers here you confront your worst nightmares and stare them down.”
“No, I ran.”
“No, you lived your best life in spite of the bull. You made something of yourself and you showed everyone what you’re made of. Then you come back here every summer and enjoy life at the lake like a boss.”
Kendra absorbed his words, watched him eat a couple of cheese-laden chips. He was every bit as handsome as Dusty. His hair was darker, and he had hazel-brown eyes like Joe’s. “That’s really how you see me?”
He grinned at her. “That’s really who you are.”
“I’m leaving when my class is finished.”
“You have to do what’s right for you.”
“Are you doing what’s right for you?”
“My sisters think I should get out of Mom’s house. They say she doesn’t need me anymore. But my mom and I are getting along just fine. Mom and I have talked about it, and we’re good with the arrangement. I handle all the lawn care and home repairs. We share groceries. It’s not like we spend every minute together. She has her life. I have mine, work and school. We see each other at the house. I eat her cooking. It works.”
“I think it’s nice you have each other.” She glanced at Brianna, still talking to Piper. “I like her. Is that getting serious?”
He shook his head. “Nah. I like her too, but that’s all it is.”
Kendra grinned.
Piper threw their trash in a nearby receptacle and returned. “Sounds like the band is back from their break. Let’s go dance.”
Kendra joined them.
A few students were already waiting on chairs in the hallway for their scheduled appointments. Today Kendra was showing them their videos from the first class and comparing them to performances she’d recorded earlier this week. She always did this appraisal in private sessions, so as not to create a competitive or uncomfortable situation between the young dancers. Those who chose to move forward with careers in dance would discover the cutthroat rivalry soon enough, without experiencing it among their friends.
Each girl had improved, but none as dramatically as Chloe. Chloe had thrown herself into practice with a determination that outweighed all lack of experience.
“This was a good performance,” she told the girl about the first time she’d danced for Kendra. “But this.” She clicked on the file with the recent video recording, and it started playing. “This is the most improvement I’ve ever witnessed in a student.” She narrated her thoughts on the routine and then went back through points again. “Your movements are precise and yet emotional, which isn’t an easy thing to portray. The height you get in those jumps impresses me because you make them look effortless. It takes strength and concentration, but you make each one graceful. You are a high-energy dancer. You take instruction and you learn choreography quickly.”
She shut it off and looked at Chloe, who wiped away tears. “Honey, why are you crying?”
Chloe let out a little sob and swiped her face with her palms. “Because I want so badly to be good.”
Kendra had known Chloe since she was a little girl, so she didn’t consider it improper to wrap her arms around her. “You’re better than good. You’re great. You and I are going to talk to your dad about summer camp academy. I know him well enough to know he won’t let his little girl go to New York alone, so I’m willing to chaperone you next summer. Be your coach for those eight weeks.”
Chloe burst into full-fledged tears against Kendra’s shoulder.
“Are you happy?” she asked.
Chloe nodded.
Kendra laughed. “Okay, put on a smile then. I have more students to evaluate. I’ll call him and we’ll talk, okay?”
“Okay. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“I think I do. And that’s why I want to do it. Send in Becca, will you, please?”
She’d never had a student with as much potential as this one, and it was a rare privilege to be part of her training. She was every bit as excited about working with Chloe as Chloe was about developing her talent.
She finished her student sessions and afterward called Joe’s cell phone from her car in the parking lot.
“Hey, Kendra,” he answered.
“Hi, Joe. Are you at work?”
“I am, but I have a minute. What can I do for you?”
“I want to talk to you about Chloe?”
“Is she all right?”
“She’s better than all right.” She proceeded to tell him her assessment of his daughter’s skills and what she proposed for her the following summer. “She has a gift, Joe. And she works incredibly hard. I think she could go far.”
He was silent a long while, and finally he said, “This is hard for me. She’s all I have.”
“I don’t want to take her away from you. She doesn’t want to leave you. She just wants to dance. I understand her passion. Dance fulfils something inside of me. I think it does for her too. I know she still has high school to finish and you’d like her to go to college, but I was able to do both. She could too.”
“I trust you have her best interests at heart.”
“I do.”
“And I don’t want to stand in the way of her doing something she loves like this. If you can make the arrangements, I can swing the money.”
“She may be able to qualify for a scholarship. I’ll send the academy her video, and a letter of recommendation. We’ll see how that goes. If they call her for an interview, it’s pretty much a sure thing.”
“Okay. Thank you. You’ve been good for her. She has my mom, of course, and I’m thankful for that, but she’s missing a woman like you to take an interest in her.”
“I’m honored to be able to help her. I’ll call you when I have more information.”
She hung up and closed her eyes. She’d been excited from the moment she’d seen Chloe perform, recognized her drive and ability. All it had taken was some direction and work on technique to prove she’d been right to get her hopes up about the girl’s talent. At least she’d be able to end her summer on this high note. Everything else might have tanked, but her classes had been worth every minute.
She spent several days working off burgers, fries, margaritas and rhubarb scones. She’d taken a job doing choreography for an off-Broadway play in the fall, and she wanted to impress the producers and prove she was worth her salary. Doing so, meant performing her routines in the preliminaries.
She had motored across the lake and brought home tomatoes and peppers from Jonas’s abundant garden. Now her bright-colored jars of salsa were labeled, lined up and stacked on the counters. She stared at them, finally packing a box and loading it in the car. She took a couple to Joe and had him sign Chloe’s application. She had lunch at Pearl’s and left a jar with Piper. She figured it would be safe to leave a few at Liz’s during the day, so she rang the bell.
“Come on in!” Liz wiped her hands on a towel and opened the door for her.
“I brought you some of my salsa.”
“That’s so kind of you. I’m glad to see you.”
“I’ll be leaving soon, and I didn’t want to go without having a chance to thank you for everything this summer. You’ve always made me feel like part of your family, and I’m thankful.”
“You are part of our family. I just wish things could have worked out differently.”
Kendra shook her head. “I don’t know how.”
“I don’t know either.” She took the jars and carried them into her kitchen. “Can I get you a glass of lemonade?”
“That sounds good.” She sat on a stool at the island. “Did Dusty tell you what happened?”
“He did.”
“I don’t want to forgive Erica. Maybe I’m broken or hard-hearted or there’s something inherently wrong with me, but that’s how I feel. It makes me sick to think of Ian being anywhere near her—same goes for Lacey for that matter.”
“Your feelings are completely justifiable. You know I love that boy like he’s my own. I’ve helped take care of him since he was born.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want Erica around him either. Dusty has an appointment for legal counsel later in the week. We don’t know what can be done. He told Lacey she can’t see Ian again until he gets advice about keeping Erica away from him. No one wants to be the one who kept a child’s mother or grandmother from him. Just ask Joe. He’d give anything to have had his wife show an interest in Chloe. But Dusty has to protect Ian. This is so hard for Dusty.” Liz straightened her shoulders. “There’s going to come a point when we have to tell him the truth, but he’s so young.”
Liz had a lot of family things going on. “You have your hands full with your own kids,” Kendra told her. “You don’t need me adding to your list of concerns.”
She moved to get up, but Liz put a hand on her shoulder.
“Here’s your lemonade.” Liz sat down next to her. “Dusty didn’t even ask you to forgive him, did he?”
