Her blond hair was caught back from her face but hung long and loose over her shoulders. A circlet of delicate pink roses rested on her head like a halo. Bonnie was at her side and their guests trailed along behind: faithful, dependable Tom, and his fiancé, Trish; Lola and Zach; Carol and Geoff; and Dean who, among his many other talents, just happened to be a Justice of the Peace.
Keats fingered the ring resting in his jeans pocket—pink tourmaline.
Old friends and new; a brand new chapter of life. A shaft of sunlight pierced the cloud and shone down on Darby just as she reached Icarus peak. Keats jumped down from his outlook, strode over and took her hand. “No rime ice, just sunbeams,” she whispered.
“Yeah, special order just for you.” He squinted up at the cobalt blue sky and wondered if that were true, or if it was arranged by God for him, letting him know Jess was looking down from Heaven and giving her approval.
“Only you could pull it off, Keaton Atticus Cooper.” She threw her arms around his neck and he hugged her close.
“More to come, every day of our lives.”
“Is that a promise?” she whispered.
He leaned back and looked into her shining blue gaze. “Boy Scout, remember?”
Darby nodded. “My Boy Scout.”
He lowered his head and sealed the promise with a kiss. “Hey, none of that stuff until after the wedding!” Garrett’s tease was like a buddy slap on the shoulder.
“Garrett, show a little sensitivity,” Bonnie said.
Keats felt the laughter bubble up in his bride-to-be, and the joy overflowed into his heart forever.
THE END
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Dear Friends (and if you’ve read our story we count you friends for life),
Thank you for joining us on the trek up Icarus Peak. Life is a journey, and nothing portrays that truth as eloquently as a four-day backpack trip into the wilds. Like Darby and Keaton, unplugging from modern society, carrying all you need on your back, depending on God and your fellow travelers, and spending time alone with your thoughts, is its own journey into Spiritual growth and self-discovery.
The Cuffe sisters have spent many fun times (and, according to Sophie, some not-so-fun times, like when we backpacked to Wassataquoik in October - it snowed and she slipped off a bog bridge and fell into the quagmire up to her armpit [and Sadie laughed at me!], but we won’t go there) hiking and camping. From the Continental Divide to Katahdin, from the California coast to Isle au Haut, we’ve left our footprints here and there.
We were blessed to have parents who loved the outdoors and were brave enough to pack up us four kids (yes, the Cuffe sisters have brothers) in the VW bus with our huge canvas tent and go off on, as our dad would say, “true cross country” treks. These involved dirt roads, marked trails, and unmarked bushwhack hikes.
We were little kids the first time we hiked Katahdin (the highest peak in Maine, home of the infamous Knife Edge, and the end or beginning of the Appalachian Trail) and stood atop Baxter Peak (elevation 5,267 feet) with stars in our eyes and the world at our feet. And we’ve never lost our taste for adventure, beef jerky, and polenta pizza.
Darby and Keaton’s story is purely fiction, but we tried to fill the pages with a mix of memories and real trail experiences. You won’t find Paul Bunyan’s Misery, Heaven’s Gate, or Icarus Peak anywhere around here, but you may encounter similar sites and vistas along the trails in the mountains of western and northern Maine.
If you’d like to make your own jerky, the Cuffe sister recipe for this wicked good hiking staple can be found at www.cuffesisters.com/cuffe-stuff .
Thanks again for spending time in the pages and on the trails with us. Find us on our Facebook page and check out our other books at www.cuffesisters.com/cuffe-works .
Best regards,
Sadie & Sophie Cuffe (real life sisters forever!)
Forbidden Dance
A Love’s Sporting Chance Novella
By: Lydia Joy Nickerson
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Noël Lehmann,
A great friend/sister in my little writer world!
Thanks for inspiring me! Write on!
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank G.T.F. For being there for me and being my inspiration! He rocks! His son is pretty epic too.
Thanks to Tony Altobellis, for being my cheerleader and celebrating with me, as well as bouncing ideas towards me.
Thanks to Noël Lehmann! You have been there for me
through a lot and helped me round out a few characters so they weren’t so one dimensional! And also for being such an epicsauce friend! ^-^
Thanks to Sarah Chapin, my rainbow girlfriend! She did my author photo. She’s a great photographer! You should find “Sarah Marie Spectrum” on facebook.
Lastly, thanks to my mom, for helping me get this opportunity! You hard hardcore, thank you.
Write on, dudes! And don’t forget to be awesome.
Chapter One
New York City, center of the universe, times are hard in January of ‘83, but I’m certain they can’t get any worse. My mother died of breast cancer two years ago, and my dad is working on paying medical bills for all of the visits to the hospital. I currently go to the School of American Ballet, a prestigious school for people with my particular type of art, on a scholarship.
As I pick up my bag one of my toe-shoes falls out so I pick them back up. The sound makes my roommate groan in her sleep and twist in bed. I’ve lived with Sarah for almost two months since I had to get out of the house, too many memories.
I sigh softly and shake my head. My dad’s a black hole in my childhood home, too obsessed over the loss of mom, and I know he sees so much of her in me and with that going on, I felt like I should disappear or be sucked up.
As I walk the half mile to my school in silence, I shake my head over the catty girl that tends to try to mess up my game. In the past week she has taken to calling me “Scholarship girl”, put a thumbtack in my toe-shoes—let me tell you that still hurts, but luckily only my big toe got cut, not to mention I found my street clothes in the toilet of the ladies room. I had to walk all the way home in my leotard. I sigh again, why is Jennifer so mean to me?
Wait, scratch that I know why she’s mean to me! She’s the daughter of dancers, her mother was a ballet dancer, her grandmother was a ballet dancer, her oldest sister is in France studying because she won a contest a few years ago and got to stay on with the group! Who am I compared to that? A nobody, that’s who.
I push the door open to the school at 8:50, with ten minutes until my first class of the day, and plunk my bag out of sight before I change into my black leotard, transparent green skirt, and white tights. I lace my toe-shoes up my calves checking to make sure they’re tight before I check my bun in the mirror for loose strands of hair on my way out the changing rooms and head to the ballet room that is my class.
I caught the end of the conversation between Ash, Ashley, and Jennifer as I enter.
“I’m practicing on the other end of the room,” Ash said.
I glanced towards Jennifer and her friends. Out of everyone in the class, Jennifer is the only one wearing black ballet shoes. I guess she never read the fairy tale about the woman who danced herself to death. Her blonde hair reaches her knees in flowing waves, and her ice blue eyes are glaring holes at me. Sometimes I swear she’s trying to stare into my soul to burn holes with it.
Ashley, not to be confused with Ash, is a girl with Hispanic blood that makes her skin a lovely golden color and her eyes a dark brown. She smiles shyly at me and waves when Jennifer can’t see her.
Ash is shaking her head at Jennifer, who she has been friends with since the cradle. She was a little taller than the other two, but her hair is a shorter cut and honey blonde, and she tends to wear navy or any
thing dark that fits her mood of that day.
I take my place at the bar as far away from Jennifer as I can just as the teacher walks into the room.
“Alright, everyone, I have news for today. One of the Students of New York University is coming here to record the fine arts of dancing for an assignment.”
At that moment, the door burst open, and a twenty-something man entered, he had disheveled blonde hair, glasses, and his clothes looked like he had just thrown them on straight from the floor. A lot of the girls in class were chuckling, but not me. Or Jennifer.
She scoffed. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”
“Jennifer,” the teacher warns. “This is Luke Rogers, the student I was talking about.”
Luke adjusted his glasses and shifted his feet as he wound up his camera. “Just pretend I’m not here!”
“It’ll be hard not to, you don’t have much presence,” Jennifer mutters, just loud enough for the class to hear.
Luke blushes but keeps on fiddling with his camera.
Ash elbows Jennifer gently. “He’s not competition, stop being petty.”
Jennifer rolled her eyes and went back into our basic warm-up drills. Shortly afterward the teacher barked commands for a simple dance from Swan Princess, just to see if we could work in sync. Jennifer was of course ahead of the class, playing the part of Odette, performing perfectly. I, on the other hand, was hidden in the back. And for some reason, Luke was paying more attention to me. I tried my best not to blush but ended up doing so.
“It’s alright,” he said. “Just I’m uh not here.”
I chuckle and smile at him. “Sorry, I’m just not used to being recorded,” I whisper.
“I understand.”
“Out of curiosity, why are you mostly recording me?”
Luke smirks. “My assignment is finding hidden talent in major dances, as well as showing them what art there is within dancing. Ya know, most people don’t think that dancing can be an art.”
I blink. “Really? With all of the ballets that happen every year, you would think otherwise.”
Luke nods.
“Miss Roberts,” the teacher calls my name, and I squeak. I hadn’t noticed the others had stopped while I was talking to Luke. “Since you seem to have volunteered,” the teacher continued, “why don’t you dance the solo from Giselle for us as the final dance of class?”
I took a deep breath and winced.
“She won’t do it,” Jennifer said as if I couldn’t hear her. “She’ll get nervous and fall.”
“I’ll do it,” I said, narrowing my eyes. My toe throbbed, reminding me that it still hadn’t healed yet, but I didn’t care. I wanted to show off! I wanted to prove her wrong.
I heard the music cue up as I took the center spot on the dance floor starting in a ballet position called fourth where your feet cross in front, but a hands width apart from each other. I walked forward and stood en pointe, raising my hand above my head. As the dance went on, it got more complicated, and my big toe did not want to dance much longer. I wince as pain throbs through my foot, but I kept dancing. Until it got to a point where I was on my left toes with my right foot moving in time with the music, the small hops made me travel the floor. It was then that the pain became unbearable, and I fall to the ground with a groan. The fall twisted my left ankle a little, and I rubbed it, wincing in pain.
“Are you alright, Miss Roberts?” the teacher asks.
I see Luke kneel next to me. “Are you okay?”
I sniffle and nod through my pain. “I should be. It only hurts a little bit.” This pain is nothing. I’ll live through this. I felt someone tap my shoulder and glanced up at Ash in surprise.
“Hi…”
“Hey, you want some ice or something for that ankle, April?” she asks.
I nod. “Thank you very much, Ash.”
As soon as she left I look around. It’s no surprise that Jennifer is glaring in my general direction after all her friend did just help me. I sigh as I glance back at Luke, who was packing up his camera and dropped it. I leaned forward and caught it before it hit the ground.
“You need to be a little more careful with that,” I say softly.
He accepts the camera from me and smiles shyly. “Uh, thanks.”
Well, he’s shy and nerdy, but adorable. I wonder if he can understand flirting. “So what’s a shy, klutzy guy like you doing here?”
“I uh, brought the camera,” he says, and he just sounds so confused at the moment.
“Obviously…” So much for flirting, I laugh on the inside.
“Oh!” He gets it. “School project.” Or not.
I hear Jennifer snort behind me and wince as I look up at her just as Ash gets back with the ice. I place it over my tender ankle. With ice and rest, I should be right as rain within a few days.
“Look it’s dork and dorkier. Let me guess, scholarship kid too?” Even I hear the scorn in her voice.
Luke runs a hand through his hair and shifts his feet nervously. “Uh, half and half, my parents are helping pay for it too.”
I stand as Ash gives Jennifer a look. I wince on my tender foot, but I need to get out of here. “It was nice meeting you, Luke. I uh, gotta go.” I say before I run off. I need to head home. I have homework to do.
I hear Jennifer shout behind me. “Yeah, you’d better run!”
Only when I’m in the locker rooms do I let my tears fall as I change before heading back to my apartment. I just want to be accepted.
Once I get inside my apartment, I realize how accepted I am by anyone that isn’t in the ballet world because Sarah hugs me.
“Pookie!” she says, grinning. “How was class?”
I chuckle and hug Sarah back. “It was alright. I met a rather cute nerdy guy.”
“You were limping when you got inside.”
I grimace, Sarah noticed everything at times.
“Were those girls being mean to you again?”
I look down and sigh. “Yes. But it’s just Jennifer. Ash and Ashley are nice enough to me.”
Sarah shakes her head and pats my back. “Take a nap. Your ankle should feel better after a nap before you head to your next class, right?”
I nod.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you up if your alarm doesn’t go off.”
I smile before I head to my bed and fall asleep.
~
I wake around 1:30 and gasp. I need to be at school at 2! I look around, Sarah’s nowhere to be found. I got up quickly, grab my bag, and ran out the door, only to have to stop when my toe-shoes fall out of my bag again. I groan and pick them up again as I make my way down the hall.
I wasn’t watching where I was going until I slammed into someone. I fell to the ground with a groan. I grab my toe-shoes and place them in my bag, which dumped everything I had in it when it hit the floor.
“Hey, you alright?” the person I bumped into asks, he sounds pretty cute. But why does that seem to be the question of the day?
I look up at the speaker and barely keep my jaw from hitting the floor. He was hot! In a grungy sort of way. I look him over. He was wearing a leather jacket, his hair was blonde and spiky, and he had on blue jeans. The man was also tugging headphones from his head as he moved to help me get my things.
I clear my throat to keep from stuttering. “Yeah. Are you? I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to run into you!”
“I’m fine, don’t worry… Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he asks.
“Class, I’m on my way to my second of three ballet classes today. I’m running late because I didn’t wake up to my alarm. And my roommate didn’t wake me up.” I sigh, where was Sarah?
“Geez,” he says, and I look up to see him wince.
I stand and take my things from his hands, smiling a little. “It was nice to meet you. But I have to get going!” With that, I ran off down the hallway and towards my ballet school.
Only when I got there did I realize that my toe-shoes weren’t in my bag, a
nd I groan. I know I picked them up! I rummage through my bag again when I heard someone run up. I look up to see Dodge holding my toe-shoes out to me. I took them with a smile.
“I knew you would need those,” he says.
“Thank you.” I wave to him as I head to class.
~
Once I get out of my second class, I double check my bag. I know I should have done that at home, but I was in a hurry. Good, Sarah placed a check for her half of the rent that I need to pay today. I sigh in relief before I head back home.
Once at the complex, I go through the door to the left with the receptionist. However, I don’t see her there today. Did she go on vacation? I shrug and call out.
“Hello? Mr. Jenkins?”
“He’s not here. Give me just a moment,” says a male voice I had not heard before.
I patiently wait as I dig out my checkbook and write my check for my half of our rent. As soon as I finish signing it, an African-American young man comes out from the back office. He’s wearing a suit with a tie and looks like his hair is cut short, so he doesn’t have to deal with it too much.
I smile at him. “You’re obviously not Jenkins.”
“No, I’m Samuel Winston the Third, but most people call me Sammy.”
I offer my hand. “April Roberts, I live in Apartment—”
“201,” he finishes for me. “With Sarah Miller. Nice to meet you.”
I nod. “Nice to meet you as well. Can I ask what happened to Mr. Jenkins?”
“He put in his two weeks and his last day was yesterday.”
“Are you the new manager then?” I ask.
Samuel chuckles. “No, I’m the owner of the building.”
My jaw hits the floor, and I gasp. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t know.”
“It’s quite alright. No one expects me to be the owner of this building. I’m quite young as you can see.”
“I understand. So should I give my rent payment to you then?”
“That would be good,” he said.
Love's Sporting Chance: Volume 1: 6 Romantic sporting novellas Page 37
