She definitely had a style I liked.
“So, I’m not going to teach you two ballet like the rest,” Sky was saying, all of it background noise as I checked out the girl on the other side of her. “Here’s what I’d like you to do.”
My sister bent down to my sports bag and unzipped it, digging a moment until she pulled up my phone. As she unlocked the screen and pulled up the YouTube app, explaining how she wanted us to try following the steps in the dance she was going to play, I frowned, finally realizing what she’d just done.
“Hey, how did you know the code to my phone?”
Sky just snorted and waved an unconcerned hand. “Please,” she said, before turning toward Nia and bringing the screen of the phone up so they could watch the couple in the video explain the sequence of a specific dance. “So just follow these guys, pause and rewind however much you need to so you can go at your pace. I’ll check in periodically to see how you’re doing and toss out suggestions.” Then she grinned at Nia, patted her arm and took off to return to her younger students, clapping her hands cheerfully to get their attention.
I frowned after her. “Seriously, how did she know my passcode?”
Nia was too busy squinting at the screen of my phone to answer. She shook her head slowly. “This doesn’t look so bad. I might actually be able to do this dance.”
I glanced over her shoulder just as the guy in the video placed his hand on the female dancer’s hip and then spun her away from him, where she twirled on her tiptoes before stopping in a swooping pose.
Nia’s eyes went wide. “Or maybe not.”
I motioned my finger at the phone. “We can just skip that part.”
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Nodding, my suck buddy glanced at me. “Agreed.”
Wow, she was short. Now that we were standing side by side, I could tell she dwarfed my six-two frame by a good eight to ten inches.
She seemed to realize the height difference too because she blinked a moment at my chest before drawing in a breath and shaking her head. “So, um…” Her dark brown eyes lifted to mine. “You want to get started?”
Yes. Because that meant I’d get to put my hands on her. For some reason, I totally forgot that I was actually supposed to dance, and that I sucked at dancing, and the most humiliating thing I could do was dance in front of someone else. I was too focused on the fact that I’d get to touch this cute, little thing.
Trying not to sound too eager about it, I answered, “Sure,” and then tossed in a loose shrug for effect. “That’s why we’re here, right?”
“Right.” Her cheeks darkened into the cutest blush, and she tucked that single beaded weave of hair behind one ear. “So, uh, I guess we need to start by facing each other.”
“Okay.” As she looked down at my phone and went back to the beginning of the video, I stepped in close. “Like this?”
Nia looked up. “Oh,” she breathed out in surprise. “I…” She quickly lowered her face and studied my phone before saying, “Yeah. Uh, this seems right.”
Then she held up the screen so we could both watch. After the first five steps into the dance, she pushed pause and glanced at me. “That’s probably enough to start with.”
I nodded and started to reach for her hip, only to pause, not sure if I was supposed to touch her yet. Total awkwardness ensued as I glanced at her, not sure if I needed to ask first, or if I was supposed to just start grabbing.
God, I felt like a dork.
“So, yeah.” She cleared her throat before she latched a hand around my wrists and drew both my hands to her waist. “It looked like your hands go here.”
“Okay.” Suppressing the need to shudder in delight, I watched my own fingers rest on the top-most swell of her lush hips. Damn, she had one sweet body.
“I’ll start the count,” she added, glancing up at me questionably. I nodded, letting her know that was fine. She nodded back. “Alright, so our first step will be on the beginning number one of the second set. Sound good to you?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
She smiled big and started to count. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One…”
We both stepped forward…right onto the other’s feet.
“Oh, God! Sorry,” she cried, hopping back, just as I jerked away, muttering, “Shit. My bad.”
“I think one of us was supposed to step backward while the other stepped forward.” She went back to the phone and started over.