Moon Dance Read Free Page B

else in the corps. But I will never be great and I will never go beyond where I am. And I will never be Giselle, Lee. As much as I wish I could be, I can't lie to myself."
    Her green eyes began to gl isten with tears. "At best, I have maybe five or six more years when I can realistically expect to make my living as a dancer. And the question I have to ask myself is, What then? Where do I go from there? And will it be easier to get there if I start now, instea d of when I'm in my thirties?"
    "I don't know what to say to you, cara." Lee reached across the table and wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Did you ever see one of those movies where the earnest young understudy finally gets her chance to prove her stuff when the star breaks a leg or gets pneumonia or something equally dramatic?"
    "Yes, but in the movies the understudy always knocks 'em dead. I'm afraid that won't happen in my case, Lee, but it will for Sharyn." Georgia sniffed and forced a smile. "Ironic, isn't it? Giselle is my favorite ballet—the role I waited a lifetime to perform."
    "Perhaps if I worked with you at night… "
    "You are a sweetheart and my best friend, Lee, but no amount of rehearsal will give me what I don't have."
    "Another dance troupe, then," he suggested. "I know several directors who would surely be pleased to give you an audition."
    "I don't know that things would be different anywhere else."
    "You wouldn't have Ivan to contend with."
    "True, but Ivan isn't really the issue. I'll never be better than I am—regardless of where I go—and I'll always have the same questions in my mind." She spun her spoon around on the table in slow circles. "Maybe it's just time for me to move on, Lee."
    "Move on to what, cara? "
    "I have no idea. Do you realize that, outside of my family, I hardly even know anyone that I haven't met through dance? I exercise. I cook. I read. I dance. I lead a mostly solitary life, Lee." She shook her head. "Scary, isn't it? That I've lived for twenty-six years and I've never seen much of anything beyond the edge of the stage. Even my first love was a dancer."
    "Mine, too," he deadpanned, and she laughed in spite of herself.
    "I think you should perhaps discuss this with your family. Your mother. Your sister," Lee said. "This is a very big decision, Georgia, one you should not make in haste."
    "Actually, I've been thinking about it for a long time now."
    "What's a long time?"
    "Since last summer."
    Lee took one of her hands in his and rubbed the top of her wrist thoughtfully. He had suspected that something had been bothering her for the past few months, but hadn't realized it had been anything this serious. "Tell me."
    "I feel restless. Besides the fact that I feel more and more that it's time to move on, I also know I'm missing so much in life. It didn't used to bother me. Now it does." She swallowed hard. "My brother Nicky got married last summer."
    "I remember. He got married at a lighthouse."
    "Yes. Devlin's Light. His wife's family owns it. After the wedding, I walked up to the top of the lighthouse. You can see all the way across the bay from New Jersey to Delaware from the top of Devlin's Light, and way out toward the ocean. It made me realize just how narrow my own boundaries are— how limited my own little world is. It's bothered me ever since, Lee. That's when I began thinking that maybe it's time to push the boundaries back a bit."
    "And how might you go about doing that?"
    "I'm not sure, but I'm thinking a good place to start might be to take some time off to think things over."
    "An excellent idea. When was the last time you had a vacation?"
    "I haven't had one since I started dancing professionally. Not a real one, anyway."
    "Then I would say you're long overdue." He clapped his palms together. "Didn't you tell me that your 'new' sister owns an inn near the beach somewhere?"
    Georgia smiled at his use of the word "new" to differentiate between Laura Bishop, the half sister whom Georgia had met for the