Winning Moves (Stepping Up 3)

The dancers scurried away, whispering with nerves and excitement about being in throne-like chairs carried by other dancers.

“Try not to fall out of those chairs,” Ellie yelled after them. “I’m too pregnant to catch you.” They laughed and disappeared.

Kat and Ellie stepped closer to one another. “You’re taking a risk with Marissa.” Ellie sounded concerned. “All eyes will be on Marcus’s performance. Are you sure she’s ready for this?”

“All eyes will be on Marcus,” Kat repeated, “not Marissa. And Marcus won’t let her look bad. He’s a nice guy. He’ll take care of her.”

“A nice guy, but not the right guy,” Ellie said, reading between the lines.

“Exactly,” Kat agreed, and in a rare moment of spilling her personal baggage, she added, “It’s killing me that Jason thinks there’s something going on with me and Marcus.”

“It sure seemed that way,” she pointed out grimly. “Marcus greeted you like his girlfriend. And let’s face it, Marcus is one of the few men that could make someone as confident and sexy as Jason feel insecure. It’s not a good combination.”

“Thank you for the words of encouragement,” Kat said, feeling as if a knife had just torn through her chest. Jason was confident, and jealousy had never been a problem for them, but this wasn’t exactly a normal situation.

Ellie squeezed Kat’s arm. “I’m just being honest. But honey, dancing with Marcus would have been the kiss of death with Jason if I’m reading him right. You’re doing what you have to and not only does it show you love him, you sure as heck have my respect for this. Not many people would pass up the spotlight for a relationship.”

She didn’t want the spotlight. She never had. She wanted Jason. “I just hope it matters to Jason.”

“It will,” Ellie said with a firm nod. “I’m sure it will. How can it not?” The door to the stage burst open and dancers filed in. A rush of activity took over the room. Ellie’s eyes lit up. “Here we go. The beginning of something grand, I hope.”

Fifteen minutes later, the dancers were gone, and only Kat, Marcus and Marissa were left on the stage. Forty-five minutes after that, Kat was feeling pretty darn good about Marissa’s performance and she knew Marcus well enough to know he approved as well.

“You learn fast,” Marcus complimented Marissa. “Consider yourself invited to join my next tour.” Marcus winked at Kat. “That is, if I can steal you away from your boss here.”

Marissa didn’t jump up and down, and didn’t scream with the excitement others would have. She paled instantly, as if she had just received bad news. “I hope you still feel that way after the show.”

Marcus arched a brow in Kat’s direction, seemingly surprised at the nervous gulp. She gave him a quick nod, her look meant to tell him that she thought a lot of Marissa. He returned the nod, and his gaze settled back on Marissa, his expression softening. Kat knew how Marcus struggled with the insincerity of the people around him, and how everyone wanted a piece of him. And she knew right then that he saw what she did in Marissa.

“I need to check on the rest of show,” Kat said, wondering if Marissa might be just the woman Marcus needed. “You two keep working.”

Kat exited the stage area and smiled at the romantic door she’d just opened, if not for the door Jason had shut on her tonight. She regretted not telling him about Marcus, but the truth was that it hadn’t seemed important. Marcus had been more a friend than a lover. They’d both been riding the bumpy path of heartache, trying to fill a hole in their lives. She’d simply been a little more ready to admit it than he had been that their relationship hadn’t filled the hole.

Jason’s words replayed in her mind. Not enough, he’d said about her loving him. She’d said those exact words to herself about him before she’d left Denver for Marcus’s tour. She knew what they meant, and she knew they came with great pain. Her stomach knotted with fear that he might have sealed the door shut forever.

Kat had just reached the cluster of empty dressing rooms when the door from the main hotel was shoved open. Tabitha hobbled inside with Joe, one of the production assistants, holding her up, one knee bent to keep her foot off the ground.

“What happened?” Kat asked, rushing toward them.

Tabitha sobbed, but there were no tears, which struck Kat as odd. “I fell off the podium.”

“There’s a doctor on the way,” Joe said as the three of them made their way into the closest dressing room.

Tabitha sat down in a chair and buried her face in her hands. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Ellie said she has to have her replaced and quickly,” Joe said. “The empty podium is obvious to the cameras.”