Rita grabbed his arm. “Hugh, just wait a minute. I want to know more about this cellist.”
“Like, if he’s dating anyone,” Shonda teased.
I laughed, pressed my hand to my heart, and lifted an eyebrow. “Sorry. He’s taken.”
“Oh, girl . . .” Rita grinned wickedly. “I figured. He couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
“Of course, he couldn’t,” Hugh said. “She’s got legs for decades.” He shuffled the papers on the table in front of him. “That’s enough out of you, Rita. Stop holding up this girl when she’s got to come here and get her ticket to New York.”
The crowd cheered.
My eyes welled with tears and my legs threatened to give out, but somehow, I made my way down the stairs and up the steps onto the judges’ platform. The ticket was a fake airplane one, the airline listed as Dance Dreams, and it was surreal to hold it in my hand. I blubbered out ‘thank you’ at least a dozen times to the judges as I accepted both the ticket and a few additional compliments spoken only to me.
Grant was waiting at the bottom of the steps. I wiped under my eyes with my thumb and reached out to help him with the folding chair. Oh, shit, I’d left him on stage with it and his cello.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I . . .” My voice wavered with emotion.
He laughed like I was being silly. “No, I’ve got it.” Seeing me with unshed tears in my eyes had a powerful effect on him. “Congratulations, Tara. You did it.”
“No, we did. I couldn’t have done this without you.” I didn’t care that we were standing beside the judges and in front of an enormous audience, or that his hands were full and he couldn’t stop me. I lifted on my toes and put my mouth on his, sinking all that I had into the kiss.
“Get a room,” Rita teased lightheartedly.
I wanted to tell her she’d better believe that was going to happen, but instead I finished the kiss, clutching my ticket in one hand, and the most important person in my life in the other.
-29-
Grant
It was nearly eight o’clock by the time we left the Auditorium Theatre. Tara had disappeared into a room with the legal department to go over paperwork, and while she was gone, I texted Ruby to tell her the good news. My girlfriend would be a contestant on the selection show of Dance Dreams, and if she danced well enough there, a choreographer would pick her from the other sixty hopefuls to join their team.
We were physically tired but also wired during the cab ride back to my place, and as she burrowed in under my arm, she texted her friends the news, starting with Elena.
“Are you going to tell your sisters? Your parents?” I asked.
“Not tonight.” She shrugged. “I don’t think they’ll get it, and I don’t want the buzzkill.”
I understood. I didn’t want anything to ruin this night for her either.
She tapped out a new message, and from the way she held her phone out where I could easily see, it felt like she wanted me to read it.
Tara: Good news, bad news.
Tara: Got my ticket to New York, yay! But Grant and I broke some rules.
Regan: CONGRATS! We’re so excited for you!
Regan: Which rules did you break?
Tara: Not the big one. He went down on me and used his fingers.
After she sent it, she stiffened, like the thought had just occurred to her. Her voice was nervous. “Uh, is it okay I said what we did? I don’t keep secrets from them.”
Just me, I guess.
I wanted to scowl at the thought. It wasn’t fucking fair, because I was keeping secrets from her too. Not just that I knew she worked at the club, or the first night we’d met, but how I was fairly certain I was in love with her. Her slip-up earlier today still buzzed in my ears. I wanted her to say it again, and this time, not retract it seconds later.
“Yeah, it’s all right,” I said. “Honesty is important.”