Carousel Nights

by Amie Denman

“You’re my shining star,” Virginia said. “I want you to have whatever you want.”

  * * *

  TWILIGHT SOFTENED THE lines of the ballroom and sharpened the contrast of the lightbulbs outlining and illuminating the grand old entrance. Mel had enjoyed dinner at his parents’ house and supervised Ross’s bath and pajama ritual. His son would stay there tonight, freeing Mel to spend a precious evening with June Hamilton.

  He found her leaning against a pillar on the edge of the dance floor. Several couples were attempting some moves, awkwardly holding each other and counting steps aloud under the direction of some performers from live shows. June wore a deep green dress with no straps, her bare shoulders glimmering in the soft lights.

  Something about the way she bumped one trim hip against the ornate post made her seem like part of the architecture. He’d been in this room countless times for staff meetings, STRIPE lessons, but tonight, the ballroom was a ballroom. Pillars edged the parquet floor, refreshment tables and chairs waited in the wings, starlight would be visible through the tall Art Deco–styled windows.

  June was beautiful in the knee-length dress and strappy high heels.

  “Got time for a lesson?” he whispered, his lips brushing her ear from behind.

  Goose bumps rippled across her shoulder despite the warmth in the ballroom.

  She turned into him, placing them both behind the pillar and partially hiding them from sight.

  “Depends on what talents you bring to the table,” she said. “Some students catch on faster than others.”

  “I’m good with my hands,” he said, facing her and settling both hands around her waist.

  “I know, but you have to dance with your feet.”

  “Seems to me that hands are an important part of the deal.”

  She smiled. “If you do it right.”

  June took Mel’s right hand and moved it to her left shoulder. Goose bumps again, he noted when his fingers met her bare skin.

  She left his other hand at her waist and moved away from the pillar, giving them a shadowy, secluded dance floor behind it.

  June took a small step backward with her left leg. “Follow me. Pretend your thighs are glued to mine.”

  “I think I can remember those directions,” Mel said, swallowing hard.

  June stepped back with her right leg, forcing a small turn. “Like a square,” she said. “Basic math. But you’ll have to lead.”

  Heat collected under his shirt collar and he wanted to tear off his tie.

  “I think I’m going to need a drink.” He closed in on her, keeping his hands where she’d placed them. “Or a bucket of cold water.”

  “This is just a ballroom step. Wait until we get to the tango,” June said. “You might incinerate.”

  Trying to cool his thoughts, Mel looked over June’s shoulder and concentrated on the smooth and simple steps. He had danced before at weddings and thought he knew the basics.

  Having a good partner made a difference the size of the peninsula Starlight Point sat on. June was light and graceful, her love for the movement clear in every step and sway. Leading her as a dance partner was like being behind the wheel of a Ferrari. The only way he could go wrong was if he lost control.

  Like he hadn’t already. He paused, kissing June’s cheek and just holding her, loving the electricity of her touch, the small sparkles at her ears. He felt her straining to move, to keep dancing. He would be happy holding her in his arms all night without negotiating a single square foot of the dance floor.

  But she loved to keep going, keep the dance steps thrumming. More than standing still, more than...anything? This was it in a nutshell. He wanted to hold on tight, but June was a bird trying to decide how to use her wings. Spread them and protect the thing she loved, or use them to soar to some distant horizon.

  June placed one palm on his cheek. “You’re hot. Maybe we should get a drink before the crowd pours in and the real dance starts.”

  She took his hand and led him to one of the refreshment tables. They passed Jack, who was lugging a big box at the direction of his mother. Virginia caught Mel’s eye and gave him a nod that seemed like it was supposed to mean something. Evie was behind a table organizing cups into neat rows that would be decimated when the summer and year-round employees energetic enough to dance started streaming into the ballroom.

  “You look like you’re burning up,” Evie commented. “Too much sun today? I saw you on the track of the Silver Streak.”

  “Hot in here,” Mel commented. “Maybe you should squeeze your spreadsheet a little and air-condition this old place.”

  Evie grinned. “I don’t think it would help you.”

  June had been watching the practice dancers finish a round but turned back to her sister and Mel now that lessons were over. “What was wrong with the Silver Streak?” she asked.

  “Down almost all afternoon. Alarm kept tripping on the first set of brakes. Turned out to be a computer chip causing the problem, but it took us a while to figure it out. That whole system is due for an upgrade next time you feel like putting some money into an old ride.”

  “Worth it,” June said. “The Streak is part of the skyline here and it was probably the first coaster for half the people in the county.” She sipped the drink Evie handed her. “Sentimental value. Just like this old ballroom. Mom and Dad fell in love here.”

  “Since when did you become so sentimental?” Evie asked.

  “I’m allowed,” June said.

  “Sure, but you’re always making fun of me for being married to Starlight Point. I think you’re having a secret affair,” Evie said. She waggled her glass at Mel. “And a not-so-secret one.”

  June set her half-finished drink on the table. “You’ll have to write all about me in the company newsletter.” She attempted a casual tone, but even with his limited powers of interpreting nuance, Mel could see that Evie had touched a nerve.

  “I bet I could learn the tango,” Mel blurted out, desperate to say something guaranteed to distract June.

  “I bet I could teach you,” she said, rewarding him with a smile—although that smile did not quite reach the guarded look in her eyes.

  Party guests began arriving as the stars appeared over the point. With the front gates finally closed, employees were free to enjoy the Christmas in July event that had become a tradition. Mel, and the other year-round workers, saw the ballroom decorated for Christmas twice a year. The winter party was a much smaller group, and it was far more intimate because the year-round employees had known each other for years. The summer crowd at the July event was younger and livelier.

  Trees sparkled and lights flashed as Mel waltzed past with June in his arms. He credited her excellent teaching for his respectable performance. And the fact that she had enough talent for both of them.

  Around eleven o’clock, Virginia made a speech wishing a happy half Christmas to the Starlight Point family.

  “And now for a fun diversion,” Virginia continued, “our head of live shows has a Christmas song prepared.”

  Mel still had one arm around June at the foot of the stage. He glanced at her and she smiled. “I’m singing ‘White Christmas,’” she said. “I had it prepared for my audition anyway.”

  June stepped onto the low stage and took the microphone from her mother. Virginia draped a red coat with white fur trim over her daughter’s shoulders.

  Mel listened as June sang the classic “White Christmas” for the assembled crowd, unable to look away for an instant.

  * * *

  “YOU LOOK VERY SERIOUS,” Mel said as they danced together close to midnight. “I know my tangoing was hideous, but at least I gave up before anyone realized how hard I was actually trying. Now I know my limitations.”

  The DJ was playing a popular slow song. June didn’t want to
look at the young couples around them clutching and swaying with no skill whatsoever. She focused instead on the man who happened to be doing a decent job of leading her in a slow dance. She couldn’t even see his lips moving as he counted steps. Maybe she should give him more credit.

  “I was thinking about Evie.”

  Mel tightened his hold on her. “Don’t let her teasing get to you.”

  “And I was thinking about Jack.”

  “Now you’re killing my dance mojo.”

  “I just don’t want them to hand over their lives to this place like our father did.”

  Mel stopped dancing, took June’s arm and guided her onto the patio behind the ballroom. The raised outdoor deck had a view of the lake. Right now, the water was a stretch of blackness under a half-moon.

  He leaned against the rail and pulled June close. With her ear against his chest, she felt the rumble of his voice.

  “What happened to your father was terrible. And it should never have happened. He needed help running this place, and he needed to open up about the problems. If he’d shared the burden with someone else, maybe things would’ve turned out different.”

  June shook her head, a tiny movement against the wall of Mel’s chest.

  “I know how much you love your family. I know you’re afraid they’re going to work themselves to death. But it’s what they want to do, what they love. And things are different. They have each other. It’s lousy doing everything yourself.”

  Mel smelled like shaving cream, shower soap and laundry detergent. For a moment, June pictured him putting Ross to bed and then hauling the laundry basket downstairs to start his full-time father and homemaker job. Trying to do everything himself.

  “I could help,” she whispered.

  “You have. You made the theaters new again and set them up for a great season. Maybe you’ll be a distant partner for Jack and Evie, but you’re still a partner. That makes a big difference, and it’s a luxury your dad never took.”

  June had a vision of her father, shirtsleeves rolled up, holding her hand as she walked to work with him when she was a little girl. They always walked across the wide parking lot separating their home on the Old Road from the front gates. In the summer, she walked with him almost every morning, following him around as he made the preopening checks, met with the lease vendors, said hello to employees. She had done it for so many years, she knew each step he would take and exactly what he would say.

  Of course, he always had Jack by the other hand, but June never considered him competition. She didn’t know exactly how old she was when she’d started to realize that she had a choice in life and maybe nailing her feet to the midway at Starlight Point wasn’t in her best interest.

  Little by little, the lure of the stage and the magic of the audience had replaced the man with rolled shirtsleeves. Starlight Point had begun to seem like an anchor keeping her ship in a narrow harbor when she wanted to see the whole ocean.

  Now she wished she could have even five more minutes holding her father’s hand and walking through the front gates.

  “I know you’re leaving,” Mel said quietly. “And I understand. You have to pursue your dreams. You’ve got the gift. I felt it tonight when we were dancing.”

  Her head still on his chest, June heard Mel’s heartbeat. Despite his calm and deliberate words, his pulse raced, each ragged beat revealing how hard the words were for him to say.

  The night air smelled like cotton candy mixed with freshwater lake. It was a scent she could summon up even far away in her city apartment. The ballroom lights laid a pattern on the decking at their feet and a tall cottonwood, like so many of the trees that lined the beach, rustled nearby. Even if she left Starlight Point, it would never let her go.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “LAST NIGHT’S PARTY was a success,” Evie said. “But now I have Christmas hangover. I hate the letdown after the holidays.”

  June laughed. “I could cheer you up with news.”

  “Is this good news the reason you took me out to lunch on a Friday? If we skip out during the workday, people will think we own the place.”

  “You have to eat. And it’s good to get away from Starlight Point every once in a while,” June said. “I promise we’ll only be an hour and I’ll return you to the tower before the guards find out you escaped.”

  The two sisters sat at an outdoor table at the Bayside Grille. The long docks housed pleasure boats, and the city dock was the departure point for the Starlight Point ferry. For fun, June and Evie had taken the ferry across the bay. Evie turned it into research, counting the minutes the ferry took and the number of guests who rode it on a sunny Friday in late July.

  They’d already placed their lunch order at the window, picked up their drinks and sat down to wait for the grill cook to call their number.

  “Well?” Evie asked. “Are you going to toy with me or are you going to tell me you got the part in White Christmas?”

  “I didn’t get the part,” June said. She turned up one corner of her mouth, stalling for effect. “Yet,” she continued. “But I got a callback this morning which is the best news I could expect.”

  Evie jumped up and gave her sister a hug. She bumped the table and sloshed diet soda over the rim of the plastic cups.

  “Are you sure you’re happy for me?” June said. “If I get this part, I’ll leave September 1 and you’ll be stuck with Mom and Betty.”

  “Of course you’ll leave. This is your big break. Not that you were floundering before.”

  “I know,” June said. “But I thought you were getting used to having me around.”

  “Are you kidding? When you leave, I’ll get to take over the entire bathroom between our rooms. I’m thinking of investing in an arsenal of cosmetics to get me through the winter.”

  June laughed. “I can’t picture you dropping a fortune at the cosmetics counter at Macy’s. Not much return on investment if you’re planning to hibernate.”

  They sat down again and Evie meticulously soaked up the spilled soda with her napkin.

  “Can you take me to the airport Sunday afternoon? I want to have plenty of time to prepare for the audition, so I’m going the night before.”

  “Didn’t I just pick you up at the airport five days ago?”

  “Sorry.”

  “Just kidding,” Evie said. “I don’t mind. I’ll even borrow Mom’s car instead of Jack’s so we know we’ll make it.”

  “He should get a new one.”

  “I should probably get something, too, instead of borrowing all the time. Speaking of new cars, did you see Mel’s new truck?”

  Mel had a new truck?

  “No.”

  “He picked it up while you were in New York a few days ago.”

  “He didn’t mention it at the dance last night,” June said.

  “He had other things on his mind.”

  “So what does it look like?”

  “His truck?” Evie asked. She shrugged. “It’s blue. Looks pretty much like his old one to me, just shinier.”

  June smiled, picturing Mel and Ross test-driving pickup trucks and buying one just like the one they had before. “Mel’s a creature of habit. You know what you’re getting with a man like that.”

  Evie raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything.

  The teenager working the window yelled their number. “I’ll get it,” Evie said. She got up and headed for the counter.

  June glanced at the water sparkling in the bay. Her thoughts turned to her agent’s excited voice when he’d phoned with the news about the callback.

  Evie put a plastic tray laden with food in the center of the table.

  “For a person who has a shot at her dream role, you don’t look happy. Is it your knee? Are you worried about it?”

>   “No. This summer has been so good for it. I swear I feel five years younger.”

  Evie gave her a skeptical look.

  “Okay, maybe three years younger,” June said.

  Evie took a big bite of her grilled sandwich and chewed, giving June time to think about confiding in her sister. June picked at her salad.

  “It’s the date,” she said.

  Mouth full, Evie drew her eyebrows together in a questioning look.

  “July 29.”

  Evie tilted her head, clearly unaware of the problem.

  “Ross’s birthday. I was going to have a surprise party for him at the hotel on Monday.”

  She had already requested a cake from Augusta with a roller coaster outlined in blue icing.

  “Oh,” Evie said. “Maybe you could do something for him tomorrow or a different day.”

  June shook her head. “Birthdays are important to little kids. I feel like I’m letting him down.”

  “But it’s not your fault you only got a few days’ notice to get yourself to New York. And it’s a surprise party. He doesn’t even know about it.”

  June rearranged the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers on her plate.

  “It’s not him you’re worried about,” Evie said. “It’s Mel, isn’t it?”

  At least I didn’t tell Mel about the surprise party. It would be one fewer disappointment when she chose dancing instead of him.

  “Ross already has a mom who puts her own artistic career ahead of him,” June said. “Way ahead of him.”

  Evie leaned across the table and touched her sister’s arm. “Listen. You are not Ross’s mom. He doesn’t even know you planned a party. You have to go to New York or you’ll always wonder if that role could have been yours.”

  “You’re right,” June said.

  They finished their food and returned the plastic tray and baskets to the pickup window.

  “We just missed a ferry, so we have about twenty minutes to wait for the next one,” June said. She was in no hurry. There was plenty of time before the three o’clock parade lined up, and the performers could easily do it without her anyway. She’d hired quality people and trained them. If she left for good, would anyone at Starlight Point even miss her?