by Tonya Plank
Epilogue
Arabelle
The studio was packed. Jett and I had decided to give an encore performance at the big mid-summer studio party. It was a couple of months after Blackpool, and we’d basically recovered all the students who’d left Infectious Rhythm for Natalia’s studio, and then some. Well, besides the coven—Cheryl and Luna—thankfully. Most people over there were not happy with the fact that Natalia had been disqualified from the world’s most prestigious showdance championship because she’d lied to organizers in order to get her competition disqualified. She’d single-handedly given the studio a bad reputation. To save face—and her job—she’d turned around and blamed it on Cheryl and Luna, and said it was their hair-brained idea since it had worked in the regional U.S. competition earlier. I actually felt a bit sorry for the owner; you couldn’t blame him for wanting to hire such star dancers and it wasn’t his fault they’d gone behind his back and behaved so badly. He tried to save his studio by firing them. It was anyone’s guess where they’d show up next. They were certainly banned from Infectious Rhythm over the problems they’d repeatedly caused us in both competitions.
Sasha and Rory showed up at the celebration. “We have two Blackpool champions at IR now!” Alessia hooted. Rory and Sasha were hugely popular the world over. I loved that we shared the same studio. They didn’t dance; she was very pregnant, her face glowing. The students wanted an update on their lives.
“Well, I guess you can kind of tell what we’ve been up to.” She laughed, pointing at her enormous belly. “Other than that, I’ve been preparing for the baby, doing work on the trial I’d worked on before I came here, and peeking in on Sasha’s filming! As you may remember, after Blackpool last year Sasha was cast in both a movie and a documentary. The film wrapped last month. It’s in editing and is scheduled to premiere in April. They’ve given me their word you will all be invited to the Hollywood screening!” Everyone screamed. “As for upcoming plans, we will continue work on the documentary later this year, after we acclimate to life as a threesome. And, next year, we plan to tour with Jett’s new company!”
Now I squealed with delight.
In the past two months since Blackpool, Jett had made me so, so happy by deciding not to return to Beauty in Motion. He explained that now that he’d worked with me and we’d done so well together that he no longer believed in the thrill aspect of dance alone. He didn’t want to subject himself to danger just for big audience-wowing stunts. There had to be art involved. But since Blackpool only came around once a year, and there were no more prestigious championships than that, he didn’t think he would be satisfied only doing the competition circuit. He was a performer, and now a choreographer, with lots more stories to tell through movement.
So, he decided to follow in his father’s entrepreneurial footsteps after all, albeit not in real estate, but as founder of his own dance company. He named it Moving Through Space and Time, and planned to focus on different dance styles, what they had meant as an art form, and how they’d evolved throughout American history. He’d hire a corps of dancers, but would also include stars to do cameos. Who better to start with on that front than Sasha and Rory?
Unbelievably, his father was tremendously pleased with his decision, delighted that his son was now the owner of his own business. His father even lent him a good deal of startup money.
Eventually, we’d probably leave Alessia’s studio, but for now we were still teaching our old students. She’d already attracted several more top local dancers to teach, due largely to our Blackpool win and notoriety.
Jett talked to the crowd a little about his new venture, and said the company’s first performance would be in this very studio—only for Infectious Rhythm students—before moving on to larger venues in Los Angeles and then going on tour. He said everyone was invited to the premiere later this year at the big Hollywood theater where he’d once performed as a member of Beauty in Motion. The crowd went crazy with applause. I was so proud of him.
When he’d told me about his initial thoughts for the company, I’d liked the idea of touring. L.A. would always be our base, our place to come home to. But I’d always wanted to see more of the world than the few showdance competitions I competed at year after year allowed for. I longed for new places, new experiences. This would give me the chance.
After all the chatting and catching up, we performed for the studio. We hadn’t danced our routine since Blackpool and it felt like magic all over again. Every time Jett lifted me in that absolutely beatific one-legged lift, I felt the bliss all over again. I felt Willem in the room, looking down on me, telling me it was all good. Better than good. He was happy, he was at peace, and he was loving his ability to watch me live my life.
After Jett brought me down and lowered me into our ending fish dive, the crowd went crazy wild, as expected. Not to sound obnoxious of course. But what was not expected was that, just like Blackpool, they started tossing bouquets onstage. I laughed. Our studio never did this. Jett reached out and caught one big one. He caught it just like a football player would catch a football, grabbing it right out of the air and claiming it as his own.
“Wow, this one is gorgeous,” he said. It was.
This time he bent down on one knee to present it to me. I laughed and reached out to take it. But then I noticed there was something shiny secured to the stem. It was so lucent it almost blinded me momentarily.
“Wait, what’s that?” I said, feeling for it.
“Lights, please, lights!” Jett called out.
All of the studio’s lights flashed on and I could see much better. Oh my gosh, it was…it was a ring. And the ring had diamonds on it.
“Arabelle, I love you. You are my everything. You made me the person I was always meant to be. I didn’t see it until we came into each other’s lives. I hope you’ll say yes to becoming one forever.”
I felt tears well in my eyes and I looked down at him. Here was the man who thrilled me, who set my passions aflame, but who also listened to me and trusted me to know the best way not only to wow a crowd but to create poetry and beauty. He was the man who helped guide me back from the edge of despair, who helped me to see what my true life’s passions were, and helped me to overcome the horrible thing that was thwarting me from being who I was meant to be. That bolt of light shone down on me again, the one that happened every time I pressed my palms together in prayer. I received Willem’s blessing, just as I knew I would.
“Yes,” I said, tears filling my eyes. “Of course!”
Jett wrapped his arms around me and I held the bouquet with the ring still attached to the stem up high above our heads, my hand not trembling one bit.
The End
Thank you to Rebecca Kimmel, my excellent editor, Marisa-rose Wesley, my wonderful cover designer, and all of my inspiring co-writers in the Los Angeles and Arizona chapters of Romance Writers of America for their generous advice, encouragement and words of wisdom. Thank you to my parents for their never-ending support.
But mostly, thank you to you, dear reader. To an indie author, reader support is absolutely everything. There are so very many books out there and I am so beyond grateful that you chose to read mine. I would love it if you would leave a brief review on Goodreads or wherever you purchased this book. Sign up for my newsletter here! And please do connect with me on Facebook, Goodreads, my blog, or wherever else you find me on the internet!
After working for many years as an attorney in New York and Los Angeles, Tonya Plank returned to Southern Arizona, where she grew up. A former amateur ballroom dancer, she wrote the dance blog, “Swan Lake Samba Girl.” Her first novel, Swallow, won several awards, including gold medals in the Independent Publisher and the Living Now Book Awards, and was a finalist in ForeWord’s Book of the Year and the National Indie Excellence Awards. She is also the author of the Fever: A Ballroom Romance trilogy and Sasha, a duet, both part of the Infectious Rhythm dance romance series.
When she’s not hard at work on her next n
ovel, she enjoys taking road trips with her rescue dogs, Sofia and Irina, cuddling up with her cat, Katusha, and a good book, and of course watching dance performances of any kind.
