A Winter Dance

by Samantha Rose

  Taking the first bite was always the best. The melt in your mouth food made me moan and close my eyes.

  “If you moan like that, I’ll take you again. You can’t do that when you eat food, you know this,” he joked, spooning a mouthful of scrambled eggs into his mouth.

  “It’s hard not to moan when your cooking is amazing.”

  He nodded, agreeing. “Someone has to cook. We both know that you burn everything.”

  I knew he was still joking with me, but it was also the truth. I couldn’t cook a lot of things without them coming out black and burnt, almost like an overdone potato chip.

  “You love my flaws.” I jabbed my fork into the air in front of him. “They’re irresistible.”

  Jack got up to put his plate in the dishwasher and then made his way over to me. He kissed my forehead and headed for the bedroom. “I’m going to start getting ready. We have to head back over to the theater in a few hours to help with the prepping.” He stopped just shy of the doorway and turned back to face me. “Your doctor also called. She wants you to give her a call back.”

  Finishing my meal, I put my plate in the dishwasher and dialed my doctor’s office on the landline.

  I was patched through to her straight away, and after a brief discussion, I hung up. I was floored.

  I’m pregnant.

  I was on the pill, and I hadn’t missed one, but we hadn’t used any other type of protection, so even I knew stuff like this could happen, but we hadn’t planned for children just yet. We hadn’t even fully moved in together. I mean, we never really talked about it. Me having most of my stuff here was just a habit of mine. I needed to have my things around me, and I spent most of my time here. Jack had even helped.

  I chewed at my bottom lip with worry; I had to tell him.

  Squaring my shoulders, I made my way into the room and froze when I saw Jack standing by the window, looking out at the playground. The same one I had woken up to not long ago.

  “Jack, we need to talk.”

  “What’s on your mind?” he asked me, holding out his arm and tucking my hand in when I clutched him.

  “I’m pregnant.” Now that I said it aloud, I could stress. I didn’t know what to think. I wanted this, but would I be a good mom? I think I feared what every other mother to be feared. But Jack anchored me with his radiant personality, and I knew everything would be fine. I would be okay; he would be there with me through it all. I was only in the early stages, maybe four weeks, give or take a few days.

  “I was hoping this would happen eventually.”

  “Did you now?”

  He shrugged and gave me a goofy grin. “A man can only hope that his swimmers will find their way. Don’t worry, we will figure this out. We will take this one day at a time as this comes.”

  ∞∞∞

  Standing behind the curtain as the crowd waited for the show to begin made me edgy. My costume fit fine now, but knowing I was pregnant and that this would be the end, I would perform like I never had before. I would make this show unforgettable.

  As the drapes parted, the spotlight shone bright indicating for me to escort the string of swans behind me out.

  I kept looking toward the opposite side as I twirled my way out to the middle of the platform.

  Jack was on the other side of the stage, behind another curtain waiting for his cue to begin.

  On my next move, a battement, the drape parted, and Jack and his group of men glissaded over to us, and we started our dance about tragedy, magic, and love.

  “Are you ready to elancé and sauté?” Jack whispered in my ear as we did a plie’ together.

  “I think so.” I hadn’t really thought about the jump, but now I knew I couldn’t mess this up. If I fell, I could harm my baby. Now I knew why women would leave this job. It was not only time-consuming, it was dangerous.

  “Get ready.”

  We spun apart and I readied myself. Bracing my legs, I darted and jumped. The air flew past my face, my tutu rustled, but he was there to catch me when I came down.

  “I’ve got you, my swan, and I’m never letting you go.”

  Epilogue Two

  8 months later

  Jack

  Wincing at her curses and how tightly she was squeezing my hand, I tapped my foot under the hospital bed.

  Isabel had gone into labor in the middle of the night. She’d randomly woke up from a dream stating, with embarrassment that, she’d wet the bed. Only, the fluid didn’t stop leaking. And that’s when we knew it was her water. I’d called it in, and once I grabbed our hospital bag, we took off.

  She was only thirty-five weeks, sooner than the doctors wanted and were comfortable with. Sooner than I was expecting too.

  When we’d arrived, they were ready and waiting for us. That was somewhat of a relief for me, but that feeling didn’t last long.

  Once we got into a room, they had checked her and stated the obvious that her water had broken, but she wasn’t dilated.

  We were then whisked off to another room where they hooked her up to all sorts of monitors, gave her an epidural, and put in an IV. They then gave her medication, stating it would help dilate her.

  So far, it hadn’t, and I was left standing there as the doctor came in an hour later to see if she had, but when the woman shook her head, I knew something wasn’t right.

  “I’m sorry, we will have to perform a c-section. If your baby doesn’t come out now, things could go wrong and we don’t want that,” her doctor informed us.

  I looked down at the woman that held my hand. Isabel hadn’t pressed the button that would allow her to have more pain meds to help her fight the discomfort once, all she had was what the doctor had given her an hour ago... Isabel had said it was only to take the edge off, that she could still feel most of it and she didn’t want to get all drugged up, but now she wouldn’t have a choice.

  I could see it in how her face started to drop into a heavy frown; she was disappointed.

  We’d been preparing for this moment. We’d gone to yoga birthing classes together, taken parenting classes. We’d set up the baby’s room in a neutral color since we wanted to keep the gender a surprise.

  Isabel and I had everything planned.

  When she left her career behind as a ballerina, so had I. I hadn’t thought twice about the decision. She didn’t ask me to do it, I just did. It felt right. After I heard her talk about a dream to teach, together we started the dance studio for younger children ages five to ten and we taught them the basic techniques.

  I had found and rented a place in the mall just a few blocks away. After we got it all set up and put out a few ads in the newspapers around the city, as well as placing a few ads online, our little studio was booming with activity.

  Everything we did now was together. We owned our own business, and it was the joy of my life. We had planners, and we set up our own schedule.

  This—I wasn’t ready for. Things like this happened all the time, I just never thought that it would happen to her, to us. How did others handle situations like this? For once I was scared. Even if modern medicine was better today than it was a decade ago, I wasn’t ready to see her put under the knife.

  “I have a few papers that I need you to sign and then we will go,” the doctor said, and all I could do was nod at her. My throat was too tight to speak.

  When the other woman left, Isabel sighed.

  “I never thought I would have to go through a c-section. I dreamed that I’d be able to have our child like other women...”

  Hearing her say those words pissed me off. How was she any different? “What do you mean like other women? Isabel, you are still having the baby like other women. Just because you’re not pushing our child out of your—” I waved a hand toward her pelvis. “Doesn’t mean you’re any different. Don’t be ashamed because you’re having our son or daughter in a different way, be happy because you will wear a scar that shows how brave you are.”

  Her lips thinned as she thought it over,
and a single tear slipped down her cheek.

  “You’re right.”

  “I know,” I whispered, crouching down beside her and kissing the top of her hand. “When it comes to you, I am always right. I was right about having you in my life, and I know I am about this. You’re my brave woman, and I will be here with you.”

  ∞∞∞

  I sat beside the egg-shaped bed my son had been placed in the day before. He’d been placed inside the NICU right after the surgery to get him out and, shortly after Isabel and I had moved up into a private room to be with him.

  Ethan…

  My son was perfect, with all ten fingers and toes. The medical team looking after us didn’t think he would be here more than a few days. They couldn’t find anything wrong with him; we’d been lucky that everything had been formed on time.

  “He won’t disappear if you look away from him,” Isabel said from the bed, yawning. She’d been amazing through all of this.

  I thought I’d been proud of her during the Swan dance, but this topped everything.

  “I just can’t seem to leave his side. He’s so—”

  “Beautiful? Perfect? Ethan is all those things; I didn’t know I could love someone so much.”

  I knew what she meant. I didn’t think it was possible either, but it was. Once you became a parent it was like seeing color for the first time. My love grew, and I felt whole, almost invincible. I’d helped create a life with the one woman that was meant for me in my lifetime, and here was a piece of us.

  Getting up, I joined Isabel on the bed and curled up next to her on the mattress. We snuggled and held onto one another.

  “When we get home in a few days, I think I would like to book that cabin again, for when I’m healed up. I want to dance with you again.”

  Leaning in to kiss her sweet, soft lips, I placed her hands over my heart and rested my head against hers. “I’ll dance with you until the end of time, Isabel. I love you.”

  Author’s Note

  Hello and welcome beloved readers,

  I hope you all enjoyed my dance themed contemporary holiday novella, A Winter Dance!

  With this book, I stepped out of my comfort zone to do something that was new to me. I’ve always loved the thought of seeing the Swan dance in person. Something about the ballet is magical to me. Maybe one day I will. This was sort of my own little imagination of how things would go down. I do apologize if it’s not how things work; this is just fiction and what I would like to think would happen if I was single and worked with a sexy man! *Laughs*

  I plan to do more contemporary over time, mind you, not all will be safe with first time lovers, but all of them will be insta-love themed.

  There will be more coming out in 2020. Here is a hint to what is next, a “men in uniform series” with my good friend Pixie Chica!

  Also, remember to check out all the other wonderful books in the series; we plan to do 25 days of Christmas.

  Side note, I want to say a big thank you to everyone that took the time to read my book, it truly means the world to me.

  I’m still new to this whole contemporary romance book thing, but I hope to grow better with time. I’ve got to say that I’m indeed hooked on this genre.

  For my last bit, I want to say a big thank you to my beta’s, my editor, my arc team, my family, and my boys; oh, and my pets, because there are never enough thanks to send out! I truly appreciate all the help.

  Please feel free to give me any type of feedback. Connect with me on Facebook on my author page, Samantha Rose, Author, or join my group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/SamanthaRosesSkyClan/ for more updates on my future books. You can also find my newsletter on my author page for sneak peeks and advanced updates!

  Please leave me a review! I read them all and I appreciate every single one.

  May all your unearthly dreams come true. Much love;

  ~ Samantha Rose