Climb (Club Kitten Dancers 3)

I joke that I spend more of my time cleaning and less of it teaching, but right now, it’s okay because it gives me a chance to think. It gives me a chance to clear my head. Is it really so bad to have a few minutes of silence? I don’t think so.

The truth is that I’m not sure how I’m going to handle the next few hours. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage to deal with daydreaming about Elliott and his return.

When he told me he was coming back, when he told me it was time, I didn’t expect it. I didn’t think it could be real. I didn’t think it could be this soon.

It’s stupid because he’s been gone half a year. What kind of dork thinks that his return is “soon”? It’s not soon. It’s been forever. It’s been an eternity.

Now that he’s finally back, though, I feel like time has flown and we’ve never even been apart. Now that he’s back, I feel like it was only yesterday that I saw him, only yesterday we were having coffee and lunch and walking around downtown on a spring morning. Only yesterday, we were hugging and promising to write every day. Only yesterday, I was realizing that I’m completely, totally in love with my best friend.

Only yesterday.

Only, I don’t get any more time to think because there’s a commotion at the front of the studio. I hear Paige yelling and I hurry to the front of the shop. Bailey is there, too, and they’re both raising their voices and hollering at a tall man in a trench coat.

“Sir,” I say, stepping out into the lobby. “Can I help you with something?”

“I’m here for the dancers,” he says. He waves a wad of cash in my hand. “What’s the cover fee?”

“Sir, this is not a strip club,” I tell him. “This is a dance studio. We do not have strippers here.”

He looks me up and down, eyeing me, and the man sneers.

“You sure look like a stripper to me.”

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Now, why the hell would I do a thing like that?” He asks. He looks around the room and then turns back to me. “No bouncers, I see. That’s a dumb move on your part.”

My heart sinks as I realize I left my cell phone in the other room and there’s no way Paige is going to be able to make a call from the main phone without attracting the man’s attention. He’s bigger than all of us, and probably stronger, and he seems to

have it in his mind that this is some sort of strip club.

Fuck.

If that doesn’t just ruin my entire damn day.

Chapter 2

Elliott

I shouldn’t be as nervous as I am to go see Sassy. It’s been only a few months since I held her in my arms, but it feels like an eternity, and damn, if I didn’t miss that little spitfire. She’s sweetness and beauty wrapped in a tiny little package, and I intend to waste no more time.

No more time.

I’ve wasted more than enough of our friendship pretending I was okay with just being buddies. I’ve wasted more than enough time pretending that somehow, just being pals with Sassy was enough.

It’s not.

I need more.

Want more.

Demand more.

I’m going to go to Sassy and I’m going to confess everything. I’m going to tell her I’ve loved her for years. I’m going to tell her she’s the sweetest thing in the world. I’m going to tell her that I can’t live without her, that I won’t.

I’m going to tell her I won’t live without her.

I’m going to win her damn heart because she’s already stolen mine.