Page 3 of The Dance

“Where?” Dad inquired.

“San Francisco,” he answered.

“California?” Mom gasped.

Brandon nodded and took a deep breath. “Yeah, and we’ve decided to move there.”

Mom sucked in a breath while my eyes widened. Dad stared at his older son, the card game forgotten. With every gym Brandon opened, he had never left Texas.

Texas was in our blood.

Texas was all we knew.

Texas was home.

“When are you leaving?” I asked.

“We found a building we still need to scope out, but if it’s a suitable location, we’ll move while we get it up and running, so we won’t need to travel back and forth.”

“Where are you going to live?” Mom frowned.

“If things go as we hope, we’ll find an apartment we can share until we can all purchase places of our own.”

“Purchase?” Mom gasped, her hand going over her heart.

“You’re planning on living there for a while?” Dad inquired.

“Hence the moving part.” Brandon snickered.

“Need help packing?” I offered. I didn’t really want to help, but I’d support him if it meant he would leave sooner, so I didn’t have to watch my parents fawn over him every Sunday.

Mom’s phone buzzed on the table. She picked it up. “It’s Deb. I need to take this before dinner.”

I grinned, thinking about the woman I spentthat summerwith. “Tell her I said hello.”

2

Stacey

Five MonthsLater

I saton my full-sized bed in the two-bedroom apartment I shared with my friend Molly, massaging lotion onto my aching feet from the week I’d endured. I was attending the University of Houston with a major in business and a minor in dance, but dancing was my life. My third year was almost over, and I had two more months of classes left before I could give my feet a brief break. I’d worn out two of my dance shoes and one pair of ballet flats in just one year alone.

“You arenotgoing to believe this.” Molly stuck her head into my room. “I just got a text about a party at the lake.”

“Oh yeah?”

“We’re going.”

I blinked. “We are? You don’t have a date tonight?” It seemed every weekend Molly was going to dinner with someone. I never knew who and didn’t think it was the same person each time. When I’d ask, she would tell me it was a first date and never went beyond that.

“Nope, and there’s not a chance in hell I’m missing a party out at the lake.”

“It sounds fun, but what’s the big deal?” I finished rubbing the lotion in.

“Because it’s not a college party, Stace.”

She had a point. The only parties we went towerecollege ones. We’d gone to a few bars near our apartment since I’d turned twenty-one, but that was different because we had to pay for our drinks. Being students, we needed free alcohol because we were broke, and we couldn’t rely on random guys buying us drinks.