Turn My World Around (Wishful 6)

“God’s truth. I love her to death, but woman can’t dance to save her soul. Admittedly, she did try to warn me.”

“Was that before or after she and Cam got together?”

He considered. “Mmm, well, before they told anybody they were together, anyway. Details are rather sketchy as to when they actually coupled up. Now Cam, he’s got some rhythm. He and Tyler will be our big competition.”

“I figure everybody will be big competition. And what’s with the easy jazz? Jive is more upbeat than this, isn’t it?”

“It is, but you’ve gotta crawl before you can walk. I need to get a sense of how you move. How well you can follow direction.”

She stumbled again and made a growling noise before breaking away to pace across his living room. “I suck.”

“Were you able to balance at the top of the pyramid your first day as cheerleader?”

“No.”

“Okay then. You learned that, and you’ll learn this. Come here.”

Sinatra rolled into Dean Martin.

Corinne sighed and took his hand again.

“It’s hard to trust a partner you don’t know. So why don’t we do a little Q and A?”

“Okay.” But she drew the word out, as if she wasn’t sure what he’d ask.

“What is your favorite food?”

She relaxed a fraction. Had she really thought he was going to go somewhere deeply personal right off the bat?

“Fried calamari.”

“Seriously? Squid?”

“Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it,” she shot back.

“Touché. I’m a bit more prosaic. Pizza. In every possible form. It is the world’s perfect food.”

“Kurt would be inclined to agree with you. My turn. You’ve always been into dance and theater. I remember from back in school. Why? What’s the draw?”

“Well, apart from the fact that it’s fun, and the fact that I knew how to dance meant I never had to worry about getting a date for stuff, I guess I love it because it makes makes me feel good. Dancing always made me smile.”

“Didn’t the jocks hassle you?”

“That’s two for you, little missy. But I’ll answer anyway. No, they mostly didn’t. And that was on Brody. Playing football, he straddled both worlds, so I guess that bought me a pass.” He ignored how she stiffened again at Brody’s name. Brody was a part of his world, and she’d just have to get used to it. “Okay, let’s see. What were your favorite movies as a kid? The ones you could quote all the way through?”

Her answer was instant. “Footloose.”

“Reaaaaally?” he drawled. An idea was forming in his head. “What did you love about it?”

“I appreciated that Ariel ultimately bucked her restrictive parents. Plus, it’s fun.”

Lot of identification there. But he didn’t want to bring it up because she’d finally stopped thinking about what her feet were doing and was actually following his lead.

“I’m more of a Singing In The Rain kinda guy.”

She eyed him. “I can see that. You’ve got a bit of Gene Kelly air about you.”

“Why, Miss Dawson, am I to understand you like old movies?”