by Raine Thomas
Dance was the big equalizer. Backgrounds didn’t matter on the dance floor. Talent and perseverance were the only currencies that mattered.
Alima’s back spasms started in her late teens. By her early twenties, they were completely debilitating. She had to take time off from dancing, something that sent her into a serious depression.
Jasmine understood that all too well.
Wendy’s friendship pulled Alima back from that dark edge. When Wendy later injured her ankle and needed surgery, Alima returned the favor.
Such were the stories of strength and resilience among the entire group. Jasmine admired all of them and was honored they had welcomed her so openly. She’d never had connections like this. The level of competitiveness involved in dance prohibited it. With this group, though, there was only support and positivity.
“How’d the audition go yesterday?” Miriam asked, looking among Jasmine, Alima, and Chelsea.
Chelsea rolled her eyes. “Sucked large.”
“Rejection City,” Alima said around a bite of the bruschetta they had ordered for the table.
“Same here,” Jasmine echoed.
At least she’d gotten the news immediately so she hadn’t had to wait in limbo, she tried to convince herself.
Miriam made a face. “I’m sorry, ladies.”
“When’s the next one?” Diana asked.
“Friday,” Alima and Jasmine said together.
It seemed they nearly always ended up at the same auditions.
“I’m taking a break,” Chelsea announced. “I’ve learned that my ego can only handle so many rejections before it wants to shrivel and die. I think I’m going to enroll in a culinary class instead, see how that does.”
“What a good idea, Chels,” Miriam said, giving Chelsea a nudge. “I think you’ll love it.”
“I know I will. I just have to be careful I don’t eat everything I make or I’ll never dance again.”
They all snorted over that.
Once the evening came to an end, Jasmine invited Alima to come and have a cup of tea at May’s house, knowing her friend enjoyed the beverage and probably wasn’t ready to drive yet after her couple glasses of wine. Tobias and Danny generously made themselves scarce to give them some girl time, and they were soon sitting with their teacups in the family room.
“Why don’t you tell me what’s got you so down, my friend?” Alima asked. “Was it the audition?”
Dido deigned to grace them with her presence, so Jasmine glided a hand along her dark fur as the cat wound around her. “Kind of.”
“Explain.”
“Let’s just say the audition hit home the nail that Will stabbed me with the other night.”
Alima’s mouth moved into an O. She knew more about Jasmine’s relationship with Will than the other women in their group.
“What happened?”
Jasmine told her.
“Ouch,” Alima said with a wince. “Failed auditions and years of regret? Talk about harsh.”
It hadn’t only been harsh, it had brought all of Jasmine’s insecurities screaming to the surface. It had also impacted her audition, making the failure to get a call back or job offer a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.
“What led to him saying that?” Alima asked.
Jasmine’s grip tightened on her cup as she revisited the memory. “He was upset. When we were waiting for the concert to start, Lily asked if I was Katie’s mom—”
“Archer’s wife, Lily?”
“Focus please.”
Alima held up a hand. “Sorry. We can revisit that. She asked if you were Katie’s mom?”
“Yes. I thought her assumption would step on Will’s toes since he was standing right there. He’s been Katie’s only parent for so long now and he’s raised such an amazing little girl. I didn’t want to take any of that parental pride from him.
“Anyway, I told Lily I wasn’t Katie’s mom, but I could tell he wasn’t happy about the whole thing. When he brought it up after the concert, I didn’t want to get into it. Katie was in the car sleeping and I didn’t know what she might overhear. I’m not sure what kind of relationship she had with her mother, but I don’t think any conversations about mothers should be entered into with her lightly.”
“But Will brought it up in the car where Katie was sleeping?”
Jasmine nodded.
“You just finished telling me that Will is a terrific parent who is doing a great job of raising Katie. Would he have brought up a topic of conversation that would upset her if she overheard it?”
After a brief hesitation, Jasmine admitted, “No, he wouldn’t.”
“Okay. So he was upset you wouldn’t have a conversation about you being mistaken for Katie’s mother, and he lashed out at you?”
The way Alima phrased it sounded different than what happened, yet she wasn’t wrong. Had there been another reason Will brought up that particular interaction?
If so, what?
“Maybe you need to make a point to continue that conversation,” Alima suggested when Jasmine didn’t reply.
“Maybe,” she allowed. “But it doesn’t change what he said and how much it hurt.”
“From what you’ve told me, he wouldn’t have said something like that if he hadn’t been hurt first.”
The thought that she had hurt Will upset her almost as much as their conversation had. She finally acknowledged that her friend was right. She needed to talk to Will. Since he was leaving on a road trip, however, it would have to wait until he got back.
Hopefully it would give her heart enough time to heal.
“Thanks,” she said. “I appreciate you being my sounding board, as always.”
Alima smiled over her teacup. “You are always welcome.”
They paused to sip their tea. “Now it’s your turn,” Jasmine said. “Have you told your folks about this last audition yet?”
“Ugh. No.”
Much as Alima had listened to her and offered advice, Jasmine did her best to help her friend whose parents had grown less and less supportive of her dance aspirations. It was something with which Jasmine could empathize.
“It sucks, I know,” she told her friend. “Our parents were the ones who got us involved in dance in the first place.”
“Exactly,” Alima agreed. “It’s like they got us hooked and now they want us to quit.”
“I get it. What we have to remember is that we’re adults now.”
“Speak for yourself,” Alima said with a chuckle.
“Hey, you’re a year older than I am.”
“What is it they say? Age is just a number? That works both ways.”
Jasmine smiled and shook her head. “My point is that we’re in this for ourselves now, not for anyone else. We don’t have to earn our parents’ approval anymore.”
“You’re right,” Alima said after giving that some thought. “I just needed to hear it.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
“Same here. You know, I’m really glad you decided to join our group. Don’t you find it comforting to be around people who can relate to what you’re going through? Well, aside from your meetings with rock stars and celebrities, of course.”
Jasmine issued a snort of humor. “Ha, ha. Yes, it is comforting,” she said. “It’s also a little frightening.”
“Frightening? Really?”
Not wanting to bring Alima down, she hesitated to speak her mind. In the end, she knew her friend would prefer the truth.
“I find it frightening because most of the group has been pursuing the same goal as I am for even longer than I have without succeeding.”
“Ah.” Alima nodded. “I understand.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do. But I’ll turn your advice back on you. You said the only opinion about our choices that matters is our own. Doesn’t that mean we are also the only ones who can decide what it means to be successful?”
Blinking, Jasmine said, “I suppose so.”
Unexpected emotion stole Jasmine’s voice as she fully processed Alima’s point. She could only shake her head.
“Exactly.” Easing back into her seat, Alima concluded, “My advice to you, my friend, is to redefine your personal definition of success. I think you will be much happier if you do.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The flickering of the plane’s overhead lights returning to full brilliance woke Will from his doze. He looked around, disoriented, until he remembered where he was.
The team was returning home after a ten-day road trip on the west coast. They had done well, taking six of the nine games they’d played. Everyone on the team was relieved. Now that they had passed the All-Star break and were moving headlong into the second half of the season, they all needed to be at the top of their game.
The bullpen, in particular, was finally rising to the challenge. It seemed all of his efforts to help his teammates were paying off. He’d done everything from replacing toilets to ripping out carpet and laying tile, all just to get the relief pitchers to give a shit about their performance.
Perhaps the most surprising thing of all was learning that a couple of the guys were actually pretty handy themselves. They’d only needed a little instruction and the right tools to complete the projects they needed done. They’d even enjoyed it, asking Will if there was any possibility they could work with him on some projects during the off-season.
Turned out they were just as concerned about their lives after retiring from baseball as he was.
It was another point that united them. By supporting and encouraging them, he had helped turn the bullpen around. Their game earlier that afternoon had been a close one. The bullpen had been called into action early, but they held steady, setting Will up to make the save.
A glance at his watch told him it was still shy of five a.m. local time. Just seeing that exhausted him. He hated these overnight trips. They were always worse after being away from home for so long.
Making things worse this time was missing Katie’s actual birthday. It had been a few days ago. Neither his dad nor Gareth could get away long enough to travel out to San Diego with her, and her birthday fell on a double-header day. He wouldn’t have had any time to spend with her even if she’d made the trip. He’d had to settle for a FaceTime call with her before the start of the first game, after which he’d dealt with his teammates’ ragging over his reportedly terrible rendition of the birthday song.
From what his dad reported, Katie enjoyed her day nonetheless. His dad made her chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and had a tea party with her with the new set he’d bought her, and Gareth had gotten her a Happy Meal for lunch and brought her to his house to swim in his pool for a couple hours.
In the afternoon, she’d had a lesson from Jasmine, after which Jasmine presented her with a new dance outfit and a birthday cupcake decorated like a ballerina. Her initial gift idea of the signed Void guitar hadn’t panned out. The winning bid had ended up well beyond her budget.
Thinking of that now had Will once again revisiting the horrible shame he’d been carrying since their last conversation after the concert. Here he was, priding himself on succeeding with his teammates by being supportive and encouraging, but what had he done with the woman he loved?
He’d told her she was a failure.
There was simply no justifying it. His temper had always been one of his biggest weaknesses. He wondered how much it had cost him this time.
With little hope, he powered up his phone as the plane taxied to the gate to see if he happened to have any messages waiting from her. She hadn’t responded to either of his texts or the voicemail he’d left while he was gone. He couldn’t blame her.
That didn’t make her silence any easier to bear.
He had gotten used to her sending him photos and videos of Katie during their lessons while he was gone. She even occasionally sent him texts sharing interesting stories from her day. Her complete silence amplified his guilt and misery. He would give anything to have a few minutes of her attention just to apologize and grovel.
This was really a conversation they needed to have face-to-face anyway, he told himself. It wasn’t fair for him to hope she’d give him a chance to explain and forgive him.
God…would she ever forgive him?
The repeated ding of cell phone notifications made his heart stutter. A text from his dad caught his attention first.
Katie’s in bed. She wants you to stop by and tell her good morning when you get home. I’ll be meeting the inspector at the Giuseppe’s project by then. Ryan will be here. Be safe.
It had been sent hours ago and was his only new text. The rest of the notifications were voicemails from numbers he didn’t know. Seeing them and knowing none of them were from Jasmine added to his exhaustion.
He’d been getting at least ten calls a day since the video of Katie dancing with Archer hit YouTube. News sources ranging from local Atlanta stations to the most highly rated talk shows on television were begging him to allow her to make paid appearances. He had no earthly clue how they managed to get his private cell number, but one of the first items on his to-do list now that he was home was getting a new one.
Those news sources wouldn’t be hearing from him. Katie had come too far for him to put her under that kind of pressure and risk setting her back.
In the month since she first spoke at the Family Fun Day event, she had gradually begun phasing out more signs and using more words. Although she still preferred signing, it was remarkable progress to Will’s thinking.
Gareth was also pleased. He had adjusted his therapy approach to help coax her speech along now that the proverbial chip had been made in the self-protective vocal wall she had developed. The therapy seemed to be advancing her progress.
In fact, she’d been doing so well that Will decided he was going to look into local schools during this upcoming home stand. Gareth felt Katie was ready to enter first grade from an academic standpoint. Since her social skills and comfort level had improved so much since the beginning of the year, he urged Will to consider it.
The only concern at this point was the paparazzi.
While Atlanta wasn’t the star-laden cities of L.A. or New York, it had its share of paparazzi, made more rampant by the many popular shows and movies now being filmed in the city and surrounding suburbs. As a professional athlete, he was used to being in front of the cameras. The increased media presence during this road trip hadn’t been a big deal. The team had security and a P.R. rep who took control of dealing with that stuff.
The paparazzi camped outside his house was another matter…one his dad and Gareth had been handling as well as they could during his absence. They also had the help of private security hired by Archer until things died down.
Archer had reached out to Will personally about it two days after the video went live. Will had been listening to his many voicemails to clear them and almost deleted Archer’s by mistake.
“Hey, Will, it’s Archer. I got your number from Cole. I hope that’s okay. I wanted to see how you and Katie are doing. Please give me a call on this number when you can. It’s my personal cell.”
Will was so shocked by the message that he almost called out to Duane, his roommate at the hotel where the team was staying at the time. He barely managed to keep his mouth shut and save himself some embarrassment. Feeling like a crazed stalker-fan, he had immediately entered Archer’s details into his contact list. In that moment, it hadn’t mattered why the rock star had contacted him. He fe
lt like the coolest guy on the planet.
Archer had picked up on the second ring. “Hey, Will. Thanks for tagging me back.”
“Sure, man,” Will said, hoping he didn’t end up babbling like an idiot. “I appreciate you checking on us.”
“Of course. Look, I’m sorry about this video thing. I should’ve thought of it before I asked Katie to dance with me.”
“Don’t worry about it. That was the highlight of her night.”
“I’m glad she enjoyed it. Still, things are going to get crazy for you guys because of this. I think it would be a good idea to hire private security.”
“What? Really?”
“Yes, especially because there’s a child involved. The paparazzi are relentless.”
“But it’s just a viral video. New videos go viral every day. The paparazzi don’t chase those people down, do they?”
There had been a long pause before it finally clicked for Will. He felt heat building in the back of his neck as realization struck.
“Oh,” he said lamely. “It’s because you’re in it.”
“It’s hard not to sound like a conceited prick by saying that, but yes. And after how perfectly Katie nailed that routine, I’m afraid this won’t go away anytime soon. Again, I’m sorry. Please let me help see to your security. I can have someone at your house within twenty-four hours.”
Will’s excitement over talking to the rock star had eased into concern for Katie. “That’s nice of you to offer, but I can take care of it.”
“Please let me. It would make me feel a little better about all of this.”
“All right,” Will relented. “Thanks for offering.”
Archer followed through. A security specialist named Ryan Westbrook from a company called Ordinem showed up at Will’s house the next day. Gareth had used his spare key to meet him since his dad was working.
Since then, Ryan had become Katie’s shadow. As far as Katie knew, he was a friend of Will’s who needed a place to stay for a while. By all reports, she got along fine with him.
