Winning Moves (Stepping Up 3)

KAT HAD STOOD on the podium, after striking her mannequin-like pose, while Marcus and Marissa performed brilliantly. She felt like a proud mama watching Marissa coming out of her shell, showing her talent to the world.

When the number ended, Jason stepped onto the stage with Marcus and Kat felt her hopes fall and land hard. She knew how awkward this moment was for Jason, and she feared what Marcus, even with good intentions, might say.

But the moment came and went quickly. Jason said goodnight to television land and shook Marcus’s hand. The crowd shouted and chanted for Marcus to sing another song and he agreed.

“Cut,” Jason said into the microphone feed. “We are off air. Dancers, hold your positions for Marcus’s final number. Kat, Marissa is headed up there to replace you.”

It wasn’t long before Kat was giving Marissa a quick hug and stepping to the top level of the club, only to find Jason standing there waiting for her. He took her hand and pulled her down a hallway, around a corner and against a wall. His hand rested by her head.

“Do you have any idea how I’m feeling right now?”

Kat wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him how sorry she was, but she knew Jason. She knew he needed words, he needed understanding. “He is a friend.”

“Don’t patronize me, Kat. I saw how he looked at you, and more so, I saw your face when you saw him.”

“You saw dread,” she said, her heart beating so fast it was making it hard to talk. “Not happiness.”

“And why exactly would you feel dread if a friend was here to help, Kat? You went from my bed to his.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Kat said. “I told you. I barely knew Marcus before I started the tour. And yes, I dated him. I was trying to get over you, Jason.”

“I wasn’t trying to get over you, Kat,” he said. “I was trying to reach you. I was trying to get you back in my life.”

“I dated him, Jason. It meant nothing. Come on. You dated that one Hollywood actress for months and there was talk of marriage. How do you think that made me feel?”

“I never once talked marriage with her,” he said. “I never even thought about it. I didn’t marry her. I married you.”

“And I didn’t marry Marcus,” she said, knowing the statement had been a mistake before it even left her lips.

“He asked you to marry him?”

She’d never lied to Jason, never wanted to, until this moment, but she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. “I didn’t marry him, Jason. I married you.”

“Did he ask you to marry him?”

“Yes, but—”

He cursed and shoved off the wall, giving her his back.

“Jason, he wasn’t you—”

He whirled around and leaned in close again, his hand back on the wall. “Let me guess. You convinced him to keep it all about sex.”

“No—”

“We’re done, Kat. I’m done. You’ve had a decade of my life in some way, shape or form. That’s enough.”

He left her standing there, gone before she could say a word, and it was all she could do to not chase him. Making a scene wouldn’t help anything. Worse though, she didn’t think anything would help. He’d never before said he was done with her.

Truthfully, they’d never had a fight like this. A spat, a disagreement, a little thing, yes. But nothing like this and that alone said everything.

He meant what he’d said. He was done.

15

MARCUS’S NEW SONG broke through the haze of Kat’s shock and she came back to the present. Jason’s words had devastated her. How long had she been paralyzed against the wall? She didn’t know. She just knew it hurt, she hurt. Her heart raced wildly and she drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing herself to calm down.

“Pull yourself together,” she whispered. She had to be professional, and deal with the cast and crew. She was supposed to relieve Ellie fully so she could rest. Ellie, who was pushing herself too hard. Ellie. Right. She marched back into the main bar, and wove through the crowd. She focused on her purpose, on taking care of Ellie.

“Ellie,” Kat said, tapping the button that would allow the crew to hear her through the microphone. “Can you meet me in the dressing rooms?”

“On my way,” Ellie said immediately.

A few minutes later Kat and Ellie were in a private dressing room, while Kat changed back into her clothes.

Ellie rubbed her increasingly large stomach. “So how are things with you and Jason?” she asked before grimacing. “Oh, wow. Not feeling so good. I need to sit.”

Kat pulled her T-shirt over her head and grabbed a chair for Ellie. “Are you okay?”

Ellie sunk into the seat the instant it was behind her. “I’ve been feeling sick all day. I think it was the pressure of the show. Tonight’s ratings will be looked at hard by the studio, and not just as a feeler for how the stage show will be received. They’ll see tonight as a preview of interest for the third season of Stepping Up. Jason should have gotten a call about the ratings by now. I really—” She stiffened and made a funny face.