“I do. I used to watch them with my grandparents, before they passed. My grandma adored Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.”
Tucker spun her out, then back again. “Looks like you’ve got a bit of Ginger to go with my Fred.”
Surprised pleasure flickered over her features. “I did it.”
He grinned. “You did indeed.”
“Then I concede. You’re very good. I suppose the cockiness is justified.”
“Helps that you’re a natural. You’ve got good rhythm and good awareness of your body.” He had a good awareness of her body, too. With a spin and a dip, he finished the dance and stepped away before she gained too good an awareness of certain parts of his. “I can absolutely work with that.”
Striding over to the fridge, he grabbed a couple of bottles of water, tossed her one.
“Thanks for being a patient teacher,” she said.
“Thanks for being a good student.” He took a long pull of water. “Can I ask you something?”
“Oh, are we still playing Q and A?”
“Why didn’t you fight back when Whitney got in your face?” Tucker regretted the question the moment it fell from his lips because the light that had sparked in her eyes went out.
Corinne shrugged. “Whitney’s not wrong.”
“You’re not that girl anymore.”
Her gaze tracked to his. “You’re the only one who believes that. Why?”
“I’ve got eyes. Give them time. They’ll see.”
“I appreciate your optimism,” she said dryly.
In the awkward silence, he cursed his big mouth.
Corinne stepped into the breach. “So do you have any ideas on music? I’ll bow to you on this.”
“Yeah, I’ve got some thoughts. I’ll let you know for sure tomorrow. I made a few calls, got us in to the fellowship hall at the Methodist Church. We’ll need more floor space to practice than we’ve got up here. What time works for you?”
“I need to work around my shifts at the diner and studying for the exam, not to mention spending time with Kurt. I’ve seen so little of him this past semester.”
Tucker could see how the guilt weighed on her. And he realized rehearsal time would likely cut into much needed work hours for her at the diner.
They settled on a practice time for the next day. “I promise I’ll have some choreography ready, and we can play the rest by ear.”
“That’s fine with me. Despite your ability to channel Gene Kelly, it’s probably only going to be for the next week anyway. I don’t quite have the same faith you do.”
He tapped his half empty water bottle against hers in a toast. “Then I guess I’ll have to have enough faith for the both of us.”
~*~
For one blessed hour between 9:30 and 10:30 on Monday morning, after the breakfast rush was past and before the early lunch crowd trickled in, Corinne finally got a chance to slide into the booth across from Malika and study for her licensure exam. She hadn’t looked at the material since Friday, splitting her weekend between Kurt and rehearsal with Tucker. This wasn’t going to cut it. That she’d been studying her ass off for a year didn’t matter. She needed to have this material down cold, which meant finding more study time. Somewhere. She could make do with four hours of sleep. She’d done it before.
Corinne squinted at the list of practice questions and read the next one off. “To facilitate drainage of oral secretions in a child who had cleft lip repair, the nurse should place the child in what position? Supine, Side-lying, Trendelenburg, or High-Fowler’s?”
“Side-lying,” Malika said.
“Correct.”
“When communicating with children, what most important factor should the nurse take into consideration?”