Dance with Me

by Mary Manners

  “Yeah. That was Kaci’s idea. She helped me choose the color, and I think she was dead-on.” Ryne’s gaze swept the creamy yellow-beige…Sunrise Glow, the paint card had read. And the tone did echo the first hues of a sunrise. He should know—he’d taken enough pre-dawn runs along the greenway that bordered the Angelina Forest. “She’s got a knack for that kind of thing.”

  “Oh?” Gabe’s eyebrows hitched together beneath short-cropped black hair. His deep brown eyes, full of gentle concern, were offset by olive skin. “And what else does Kaci have a knack for?”

  “Plenty.” Ryne shrugged. “You name it.”

  “Does that plenty include you?”

  “We’re friends…becoming better friends.” Ryne sighed and reached for the picture-hanging kit he’d brought along. Hooks and nails clattered as he shook a handful from the small plastic box and sorted them on the desktop. Now that the walls had dried, he planned to fill the bare space with some eye-catching posters tagged with motivational messages meant to inspire the students who came through his door. “I just wish it could be…more.”

  “Then do something about it, my friend. I’ve never known you to hold back about anything.”

  “This is different…Kaci’s different.” Ryne surveyed his surroundings, drawing a mental picture of where he wanted to place each item in the room. File cabinet here…computer table there…a little electronic aquarium on the side table. He knelt to sort through a pile of framed posters and began to set each one along the base of the walls where he meant to hang them. “She’s fine as long as we keep it easy and light, but anything more than that and she closes right up like a vault with no combination.”

  Gabe laughed. “Every vault has a combination. You just need to figure it out.”

  “Well, I’m at a loss, Gabe. I feel like the star quarterback who can’t find a winning play.” Ryne shook his head. “Forget that…I can’t even complete a pass.”

  “Sounds pretty serious.” Gabe frowned as he thought a moment and then snapped his fingers. “I have an idea. Now, just hear me out. Have you ever read that advice column, “Love’s Lessons,” in the Angel Falls Trumpet?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Ryne paused to gape at him. “Don’t tell me you buy into that junk.”

  “Why not? It can’t hurt.” Gabe followed behind Ryne, nailing hardware into place for each poster Ryne positioned. “Whoever answers those letters must know something about relationships. The column is top rated, with a huge following.”

  “Well, count me out.”

  “Not biting?” Gabe’s eyes took on the steely glow that had become all too familiar to Ryne. He knew a challenge was coming, and he cringed when Gabe lowered his voice. “OK, I dare you, then.”

  Ryne lifted a poster and set it on one of the hooks Gabe had nailed into the wall, glad to see the room beginning to take shape. “You dare me to what?”

  “I dare you to write a letter.” Gabe sank a nail with one clean blow then turned to face Ryne. “Today—to ‘Love’s Lessons.’ Then mail it in and see what happens.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Dead serious.” Gabe lifted another poster and held it up to the wall. The photograph showed a lone cyclist scaling a mountain trail. The quote read, “Hard work…two four-letter words that can take you to the top.”

  “Why not give it a shot? What do you have to lose?”

  ****

  What do you have to lose?

  Gabe’s words echoed through Ryne’s head as he settled into his computer hutch. Late afternoon sunlight beckoned from the kitchen window, and he considered forgetting about writing a letter and just going for a walk instead. But that would be the easy way out—avoiding the issue. And Ryne wasn’t a quitter—or one to let a challenge go unchecked, especially one intended to help him.

  He smoothed a piece of copy paper and gathered a pen. The whole idea was crazy. What was he supposed to write? He scratched a shadow of stubble across his chin and sighed, sipping a glass of sweet tea from the pitcher Kaci had brought over that morning.

  “I know how much you like it, and I saw you running the greenway again.” She’d smiled when he’d opened his door to find her waiting on the porch. Her hair was tucked beneath a peach-colored knit cap, and she’d lifted the collar of her jacket to ward off the early-morning chill. “I figured you’d be thirsty, so I made an extra pitcher for you.”

  “Want to come in?” he’d asked, and his heart sank when she shook her head.

  “Can’t. I’ve got to run into town and pick up some groceries.”

  “Oh…OK.”

  She turned and started down the walk then paused to glance back. “You need anything, Ryne…from the store, I mean?”

  Oh, I need. But nothing the grocery store has in stock…He let the thought die on his tongue and shook his head. “No, thanks.”

  The breeze made the hem of her skirt dance, and her pretty brown eyes glowed like bright copper pennies in the sunlight. “OK, then. I guess I’ll be seeing you.”

  Ryne shook off the memory and turned his attention back to the blank sheet of paper on his desk. He lifted the pen and began to scrawl.

  Dear Love’s Lessons (I guess that’s what you call yourself),

  I’m writing on the suggestion of a friend. My question is simple…how do you move from friendship to something more—I mean, romance?

  OK, that sounds corny. Scratch that!

  Ryne groaned and crumpled the paper. He tossed it into the trash can before reaching for another sheet from the printer tray near his computer. He felt like strangling Gabe. Some friend, issuing a dare like this. Ryne grimaced and stared at the blank paper a moment. Visions of Kaci played through his head like a slow-motion movie, echoing the soft lilt of her voice. Gabe was right. It was worth a try—for Kaci. He smoothed a hand across the paper and began to write once more.

  Love’s Lessons,

  I should wring my friend’s neck for daring me to write this, but here goes…

  I met this amazing woman when she moved into my neighborhood several months ago, and we’ve become pretty good friends. I’d like more, but every time I make a move, she shies away like she’s been scorched. Something bad must have happened to her, but I don’t know what it is. I care about her—a lot. How do I get the ball rolling in the right direction without destroying the friendship we share?

  OK, that’s it. Write back in your column, if you don’t mind. I’d rather not give you my address. I’ll be watching the newspaper for your advice—if you dare to print any.

  Signed,

  Looking for Answers

  Ryne folded the paper and stuffed it into an envelope, licking the flap to seal it and slapping on a stamp before he lost his nerve. He considered writing a fake return address, but after a bit of deliberation decided just to leave that part blank. He pushed back from the computer desk and yanked open the front door. Outside, the sun was setting against the Angelina Forest, casting a warm glow over an army of trees that line-danced in a gentle breeze. He drew a breath as he strode down the cobblestone walkway, to the cluster of mailboxes near the entrance to the complex, gripping the letter in his hand.

  Heels clicked along the stones, and he turned to glance behind him.

  “Hi, Ryne.” Kaci’s flash of a smile made his gut somersault. He caught himself as he stumbled on a cobblestone. “Fancy meeting you here. Whatcha doing?”

  “Oh, um…” His heart tumbled and his pulse kicked into overdrive as he watched the wind catch her hair and rake it along her sun-kissed cheeks. He pressed the letter to his side, concealing the address with his palm. “Just mailing a letter…nothing important.”

  “Oh?” Her gaze slipped to his hand. “Just a bill?”

  “Um…” He opened the flap of his mailbox, slid the letter in, and slammed the flap back into place, wishing he’d gotten there earlier, before the day’s pick-up. He felt uncomfortable leaving the letter in the box overnight—until the mail ran tomorrow morning. What if someone got hold o
f it? Talk about suicide to a reputation—he’d never hear the end of it. “What are you doing here?”

  She eased to her own mailbox, slipped several envelopes in and raised the flag. “I have a few letters, too.”

  “Bills?”

  “No.” She shrugged. “Just…notes.”

  “Oh.” He turned away from the row of boxes and glanced at the forest. The trees seemed to beckon. “Want to take a walk along the greenway?”

  “Sure.” She zipped her jacket and fell in step beside him. “The sunset’s especially pretty tonight.”

  “I noticed that, too.” Her perfume, a blend of something citrusy, lingered on the breeze, and Ryne longed to gather her hand in his as they started down the walk, away from the complex and toward the forest. She wore jeans tonight, and the denim outlined her gentle curves and the length of her slender legs. Sunlight brought out the auburn hue of her curls and highlighted the light dusting of freckles along her cheekbones. “Are you ready for school tomorrow?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She nodded, and her curls bounced like the mesmerizing flames in his fireplace, warming him to the core with the embers left behind. “I got all those essays graded and recorded. My lesson plans are done for the next few weeks, as well. Should be a smooth start to the week. And you…it’s a big change for you, trading your regular beat for an office—and a platoon of rowdy teenagers—at Angel Falls High. Are you ready, Ryne?”

  “Yes, I am.” He’d never felt surer of anything in his life—except for his feelings for Kaci. “Gabe helped me get my office set up. He really liked the shade of paint you chose. Me, too.”

  “I’m glad.” She tilted her head to glance at him. “I’m in the classroom just across the hall, you know…if you should need anything at school—an ear to bend—staples—a lifeline. Just send up a flare.”

  “Thanks. I noticed that.” Ryne’s gut pitched when she smiled. He struggled to keep his voice steady. “I’ll keep that in mind…and the flares handy.”

  “I keep chocolate candy, too…for those especially difficult days.” She sighed. “That’s top secret information, though. I have to hide it from the students—in the second drawer of my file cabinet—or they’d devour every piece. You can always find a bag there…sometimes two.”

  “I’d be glad to contribute.” Ryne jammed his hands in his pockets as the desire to draw her close overwhelmed. He cleared a knot of nerves from his throat. “Just let me know what you like.”

  “Oh, that’s easy…dark chocolate Kisses.”

  Kisses…Ryne paused while his heart fought for a steady cadence. The breeze whispered around them, rustling trees so their leaves serenaded the growing darkness. It was that in-between time…the haunting minutes between daylight and moonlight, when everything was cast in subtle, gray shadows.

  Kaci eased in beside him and tilted her face into the breeze, sighing. When she turned back to him, her voice was hesitant. “Ryne, does your decision to transfer to the high school have anything to do with this?” She lifted a hand to graze the scar over his eye with her index finger.

  Her touch took his breath away.

  “Or this?” She slipped a finger along his forearm, tracing the jagged ridge of tissue.

  Ryne sucked in air as his pulse plowed into adrenaline mode. “Yes…sort of.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Her brows knit together, and she caught her plump lower lip between her teeth, and then let it go. “I mean…do you want to talk about it with me?”

  3

  Ryne’s gut twisted as memories flashed through his mind. A line of perspiration gathered along the nape of his neck, despite the nip of a night-chill. The collar of his T-shirt clung to his skin. “It’s hard to talk about. Sometimes…I still have nightmares.”

  Kaci reached for his hand, and the shock of pleasure brought by her touch took an edge off his guilt. Her chocolate eyes, wide with concern, locked with his.

  “It must have been pretty awful. I’m sorry I asked, Ryne. I don’t want to dredge up bad memories, especially on such a beautiful night.”

  “No, I want to share it with you. It’s OK, Kace.” Ryne jammed his free hand into his pocket and realized he’d started walking again. He was almost running now, making his way down the black-topped path. He sucked a breath and slowed his pace to something Kaci could manage. “It happened a year ago this month, in town. I was patrolling in a cruiser, working the nightshift, and it was raining something awful that night. The streets were quiet…at least I thought they were quiet. Nobody wanted to be out in the storm. Well…almost nobody.”

  “Who was it, Ryne? What happened?”

  “I was driving the cruiser, making my rounds. I can still recall the way the windshield fogged and the wipers slapped against the endless onslaught of rain. The wind had kicked up, and the sky was so thick with clouds the streetlights barely made a dent in the dark. I came around the corner of Long Branch Road, and I thought I saw a flash of light in one of the shop windows. There’d been reports of trouble down that street, with several of the businesses suffering vandalism and theft during the past few weeks. So I pulled over for a closer look, got out of the cruiser and slogged around back through the rain. I saw a shadow—some kind of movement inside the antique shop, but the storm made everything so dark it was hard to tell what it was. I scooted toward the building and shined my light through the glass, and that’s when I saw him—Rafael Jenkins. He’d taken a baseball bat to the cash register to crack it open, and it lay in pieces across the counter. When the flashlight swept across his face, he froze like a deer in headlights. Time seemed to stop for what felt like an eternity. Then he looked up, saw me, and spun on his heels toward the back wall. I called out as he broke into a sprint.”

  Halt. Stop! The memory rushed over Ryne like a tidal wave. “He climbed onto a stack of crates and shimmied through an open window in the rear of the shop. Then he took off down the street while I rounded the building and chased after him, shouting over the roar of the rain.”

  One hand on my gun. Ryne gasped, remembering the feel of cold, hard steel against his palm. The rain had chilled him, though sweat trailed down his back from the chase. “He just ran faster, toward the creek, and I wondered if he could even hear me calling him. I kept pace, radioing for backup. I could tell he was tiring, because he started to stumble over tree branches swept across the ground by the storm and gravel that had washed across the road. I kept my footing and closed the gap. Just before I tackled him, he spun back. That’s when I saw the glint of a knife in his hand. My fingers curled around the butt of my gun, and I could have shot him, Kaci. For a single flash of a moment I almost did. But a voice came out of nowhere—a warning in my head. I’d never really thought about it—what it feels like to shoot someone—to take a life. I couldn’t do it—he was just a kid. So I lunged at him, wrestling for the knife. He slashed at my face, but my left arm took the brunt of the blow. I shoved him back before he had a chance to strike again, and he slipped on the muddy creek bed. The knife flew out of his hands and landed in the water. Then tree branches snapped, and he let out a shriek as he tumbled into the ravine.”

  The sound resonated through Ryne’s mind, like a never-ending echo in a stone tunnel. Sometimes he woke in the middle of the night and couldn’t chase the noise from his mind. “He somersaulted down the embankment and his head smashed against boulders once, twice. He landed face down in the water.”

  “Oh, Ryne. No.”

  “I slipped down after him, feeling the bite of jagged rocks as they ripped into my thighs. I turned him over so he could breathe. But no breath came. Blood was everywhere—in the water, on the grass…on my hands. I’ve never seen so much blood. I pressed my hand to his head to try to staunch the bleeding, but it was like putting a fingertip to an explosion. The blood just kept coming. I heard the backup sirens wail, and I radioed my location. I told them to hurry, but…”

  “I’m sorry.” Kaci lifted a hand to comfort him, tracing the scar along his fo
rehead. “So sorry, Ryne.”

  “I started CPR, and all I could think was, he’s only sixteen, barely able to drive. He should be home doing schoolwork, not out scouting for drug money. How did this happen? Why did it happen?”

  Kaci sighed. “Sometimes there aren’t any answers—at least not the ones we’re looking for.”

  “By the time the rescue squad arrived, it was too late. They took his body away, covered in a sheet just like you see on TV—except this time it was real. And someone was going to have to break the news to his mom and his little sister.” Ryne shook his head. “It took two days to find the knife, lodged in the creek bed half-a-mile downstream. Internal affairs called for an investigation, but it was purely a formality. They determined I hadn’t done anything wrong. Yet, I can’t help but wonder…if I hadn’t chased him—if I’d handled it differently…”

  “Differently how? You were doing your job. Surely you must know that, and the investigation backed you up.”

  “I do. It did. But it doesn’t make the outcome any easier to stomach. A kid needed help and the system failed him. I failed him.”

  “You could have shot him, but you didn’t. Instead, you put your own life in danger. You could have been killed, too.” Her voice cracked. “Don’t you understand that?”

  “Of course I do.” Ryne nodded, touched by the tenderness in her voice. He gazed into her rich chocolate eyes, shimmering with tears for him. “And I know something else—I don’t ever want to fail like that again. I want to help kids, not chase them down the street with a gun clasped in my hand. That’s why I requested the transfer to Angel Falls High, Kaci. I want to make a difference.”

  ****

  Kaci curled up on the couch, sipping a cup of hot tea as she read over her lesson plans for tomorrow. Patches curled at her feet, snoring softly. She’d never heard of a cat snoring, but Patches sure had the corner on it. The little guy could motor. She grinned and stroked his sleek fur.