Rush to the Altar (2 page)

Barb raised her eyebrows and nodded her head with her typical exuberance. “I started my own dance academy a couple of years ago, which is doing really well. Kids mostly, but we’ve pulled together an adult team, up on the northeast side of town. It’s been lots of fun.” She laughed, a little self-consciously. “Lots of headaches too, but you know what I mean.”

“That’s so great. You always wanted something like that. I’m really happy for you.”

“Hey.” She paused, looking at Maddie with a considering gleam in her eyes. “This is going to sound strange, I know, but you were always such a great dancer in show choir and a quick study, too. My team, the adult team, is doing a little halftime show. We were supposed to be here,” she motioned around them, “in the main court, but somehow they overbooked and bumped us to the practice court. We’ll be performing for some kids from Coburn Place; it’s an awesome facility for abused women and children. Anyway, it’ll be very low key and since one of my girls couldn’t make it…well, we could really use another dancer to fill the spot.”

Maddie shook her head, eyes wide. “No way. I haven’t danced like that in years. I don’t even know the routine.”

“We’ll have twenty minutes to warm up. I could teach you.”

“Barb, you’re crazy.”

Barb leaned in. “It’s some older moves. Not so different from some of the stuff we used to do in high school. Come on, it’ll be fun. And think of the kids. Their moms are trying so hard to make life normal and great for them.”

Barb didn’t know it. She couldn’t know it. Of course, she didn’t know she had just played the ace card. Maddie knew all about trying to make things feel as normal as possible. Knew about that moment when Max was about to ask about his father again, and how she would jump in with something, anything to distract and distance them both from the truth. There wasn’t any other reason under heaven that could have made her say yes, except that one.

And Barb had said aloud what she hadn’t even voiced.

Maddie hesitated and then nodded. “Yeah, okay, if you really need me.”

Sasha gasped, grabbing her arm. “Are you joking?”

Maddie turned to Sasha. “It’s in a practice court, for the kids. What harm can it do?”

Sasha nodded, understanding lighting her eyes. “I get it. Okay, go break a leg, or not, or whatever it is they say.” Then, grumbling under her breath, “Leaving me here all alone with my popcorn and glimpses of Jake Hart so you can go be on TV. I’m so abused. See if I ask you to a game again.”

Maddie grinned and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Thanks. And I am not going to be on TV, silly. I would die first.” Turning to Barb she said, “Halftime is coming up soon, isn’t it? Can we get into the court now? I will need all the time I can get.”

Barb nodded. “They’ve assigned us a practice room that we should be able to get into. Come on.”

The two wriggled through the crowd to the aisle, dashed up the stairs to the main level and hurried down the long corridor to the designated room. There were already a couple of the dancers inside.

Maddie could only blink in horror at what they were wearing. Like Olivia Newton-John throwbacks from the eighties, each woman sported matching pastel headbands and leggings with coordinating leotards and white tights. Worse, some of them should have known that their leotard-wearing days were long behind them. What had Barb been thinking?

“I’m not wearing that!” It came out of her mouth before she had time to stop and think how it would sound. Quickly, to smooth it over, Maddie added, “Barb, we didn’t think about the costume. I can’t dance. I don’t have anything to wear.”

Barb grasped her arm and pulled her further into the room, making Maddie feel like a fish on a hook. “Oh, we have several extra outfits,” she assured cheerily. “Just go over to that box and dig around in there. You’ll find something.”

This wasn’t happening.

Maddie slowly walked over to the box, crouched down and plowed through spandex and polyester blends. Sure enough, there were extra leotards in her size—medium. She might have been able to fit into a small before Max was born, but after a year of breastfeeding, her chest had never gone back down. Was there a sports bra in here? Oh no. She suddenly remembered she was wearing her black lacy bra, the one she hadn’t worn since Brandon’s death, and didn’t know exactly why she’d put on tonight, except that she had wanted to pretend to need it. It was going to show through the pale pink leotard for sure. God help her, with her D cups bouncing around in black lace showing through pastel pink…she was going to look like an eighties streetwalker in this getup.

It’s only for the kids, she reminded herself. They won’t notice. I’ll be in the back. I’ll make sure to be in the back.

There was a small screen set up for changing and Maddie rushed behind it before too many of the other girls showed up to change. Everything fit, kind of—too much cleavage for comfort. On the bright side, she’d been doing her exercises and her thighs shouldn’t jiggle too badly in the tights, but a headband? Did she really have to wear the silly headband?

She shook her long, wavy hair out of her ponytail and put the headband on the best she could without a mirror and stepped out from behind the screen.

Barb came over and whistled. “Boy, good thing we are in front of young children or we would have to change the rating on this show! You look phenomenal.”

“I very much doubt phenomenal is the word to describe this outfit. What’s with the Olivia Newton-John look?”

“We’re called the ‘Eighties Ladies.’ Gives us a marketing edge, you know. Something to set us apart.”

“I can see that.” Maddie tried not to sound as appalled as she felt.

“Come on, you look great. Now let’s work on the routine before the others get here.”

Barb plugged her phone into the speaker’s dock and turned up the volume. To Maddie’s further despair, I Will Survive started to blare from the tiny speakers. She wanted to ask if that was really an appropriate song considering the audience, but Barb had begun to shake her hips and move to the music and Maddie could only attempt to follow along and learn the steps as quickly as possible.

Slapping her palms to her hips and twisting around for the first time in ten years, she glanced at the ceiling briefly. “You owe me for this one.”

She talked to God a lot these days, and not much of what she said was very nice.

CHAPTER TWO

A
sweet-faced woman was leading a line of children into the practice court where the dancers had gathered, ready to begin, when a tall, lanky man with a gray beard and mustache, eyes bugged and panicked, arms waving, stopped them.

“The show has been moved. Please, take the children back to the stadium. The children need to find their seats immediately.”

Barb stepped up to the man, questions rushing from her hot-pink lips.

Maddie just stood frozen, deer in the headlights, knowing that something really bad was about to happen. Some sixth sense told her, or maybe it was the ecstatic smile on Barb’s face, either way, Maddie could feel the weight coming toward her, about to run her down, squashed into the pavement by life again, and there wasn’t going to be a thing she could do to get out of it. No brilliant rolling to the side of the road for her. No dodging the truck coming right for her torso. No. She was about to get good and flattened.

The other dancers, faces registering different degrees of shock and awe, surged toward the man.

Barb turned to explain, breathless, eyes alight, like a cheerleader on speed, with something Maddie had long ago hoped she would never see in Barb’s eyes again—heaven help them, “Barbarian Barb” was back. “Mr. McKlesky just explained that one of the halftime acts had a bus accident on the way here and won’t be able to perform. No one was injured,” she assured them in a rush, “but they won’t make it here in time for the show.” She paused for effect, eyes wide, lifted her arms and turned her hips to one side, then announced with a dazzling smile, “Ladies, we’ve been bumped to the halftime show at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.” Seeing some of her students’ faces, she quickly added, “Now, don’t be nervous. Our routine is all of four minutes and we know it beautifully.” Her voice lowered to a growl. “We can do this.”

They had little time to debate it as Mr. McKlesky motioned them to follow the children out the door. “Ladies, ladies, please, we must get into position. Everything is very precise timing around here. Now, let’s move.”

As if an army drill sergeant had spoken, the women lined up and followed Barb out, suppressing nervous laughter as it echoed across the high-ceilinged hallways.

Maddie was careful to wait for the back of the line before moving, hoping for some miracle to save her. Maybe she would trip on the stairs and break something, she thought hysterically. Or maybe she could just slink away. Yes, that was it. She would disappear from this nightmare, run to the car and call Sasha’s cell phone, then avoid Barb for the rest of her life.

The idea had no sooner lodged into her thought processes when she was slowing down, letting the line of dancers get further and further ahead of her. Just a few more feet and she could dash down an upcoming hallway.

One of the girls coughed, causing Barb to look back and frown at them, seeing Maddie so far behind she motioned with her arm and hissed, “Come on, girls. Get a move on. This is our big break!”

Her eyes were truly feverish now.

The corner of the hall loomed and Maddie made to sidestep into it when she felt a hand clamp down on her shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going, missy?” It was Mr. McKlesky. “No nerves now. No time for that.”

He turned her back toward the line and gave her backside a smack. She squeaked with outrage. Had he really just done that? She couldn’t believe it! She stopped and spun around to give him a piece of her mind, only to find him gone. Somehow disappeared. Turning back, fuming, she took another few steps and found herself on the floor of Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the bright lights now taking on a whole new meaning.

Her skin prickled and flushed to her hairline as thousands of eyes stared at her and then she groaned as their gazes seemed to slide down from her face to the black bra. She walked in front of the rows of players’ chairs and poised at the end of the line, waiting, feeling like her backside was coming out of the leotard and wanting desperately to tug it down, but knowing she couldn’t possibly. Her mind went completely blank as she followed the dancers to the middle of the glossy yellow floor. She could almost see her reflection in it; the thought buzzed like a numb distraction, then she laughed, a brief expelled breath of hysteria.

This was a nightmare. She would wake up at any moment in a cold sweat.

She pinched her leg, felt the slight pain and nearly passed out.

Maybe God would have pity on her now and send an earthquake to open up this overly waxed wood floor and swallow her whole. Massive deaths and the carnage of falling spectators raced across her imagination. Okay, too violent just to save her pride. A small tornado, taking only her? A lightning bolt. Just a little zap to get her out of here. That would really be perfect.

No such luck. Before she knew it, Maddie was standing in the middle of the court, at the far right side and in the front—no one in front of her and no one behind her—black lace bra exposed to a bazillion fans. How could she have forgotten the dancer at the end of the line stood in front for the beginning of the dance?

Well, it had happened. The worst thing that could possibly happen to her at a public sporting event had actually come to pass, so she might as well have fun, right? After all, there were the precious children, sitting right there on the second row. They looked so eager, so sweet and excited…Maddie paused, squinting her eyes. Were those two boys talking behind their hands and pointing at her?

A giant television camera seemed to come out of nowhere and zoomed in on her as the crackling of the music started on the million-dollar sound system.

They were not broadcasting this on television, were they? Thousands of eyes just turned into millions.

She heard Barb give the count as she pasted a bright smile on her face and started moving. Slap to the right hip, slap to the left, turn, pivot, freeze, turn, pivot, freeze. Rock step to the right. Flash hands overhead. Rock back to the left. Turn and look over one shoulder.

Barb hadn’t exaggerated that the steps were ancient. It had all come back to her and really, it
was
kind of fun. After all, what a great story to tell Max when he got a little older.

Lemonade. Lemonade. Lemonade.

~~~~~~

Sasha sat in the stands, eyes wide, mouth hanging open with an “oh no” coming audibly from her lips.

“Hey.” A big man leaned over into her space, causing Sasha to lean sideways and stare warningly at him. “Isn’t that your friend? That pretty gal who was sitting beside you?” His stale breath wafted over her face.

“No. It isn’t.” Sasha turned back toward Maddie, ignoring the snorting sound coming from the man, and shook her head. “She’s gonna
wish
I didn’t know her when this is over,” Sasha whispered.

~~~~~~

It was over almost as soon as it had begun. Maddie had no idea how they’d done, could hardly remember even dancing as they marched off the floor and back up the stairs to the rehearsal room. It was over. She would change now and go listen to Sasha retell the whole thing until Maddie threatened to kill her. Life would go on. She would never, ever wear a black bra again, but life would go on.

Minutes later, amid the dance troupe’s excited chatter and different states of undress, Mr. McKlesky stormed into the room, face red, eyes bulging.

The girls shrieked and tried to cover themselves.

“Who’s in charge here? Who owns this monstrosity?”

When no one answered and it appeared that Barb was going to remain hidden behind the changing screen, he leapt at the one closest—Maddie.

“You…the cowering one…I should have known you would be disastrous.” Grasping her by the arm, he shook her hard, causing her neck to snap back and her shoulder to wrench. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Do you? My career is at stake here! I’ll be fired over this! Do you know how ridiculous and horrible your team was? You’ve made me a laughing stock.”