Free White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick Page B

to see anyone right then but knew she couldn't explain.
    "Big plans for the weekend?" he asked.
    "I have a dance thing Arcineh told him, not mentioning that her dance performance in the children's wing at a hospital was coming two days before the one-year death of her parents, partnered with the fact that she'd never danced without her mother before. She felt sick at the thought and suddenly knew she wanted to go home.
    "Do you get nervous?" Landon asked. He noticed her demeanor but didn't understand it. They had become more friends than anything else. Landon had wanted more but never said that to Arcineh. He could tell that she didn't see him that way, and when he'd found out about the death of her parents, he didn't have the heart to demand more of her.
    She was the first girl he'd been sensitive with. The girls in New York
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    had liked his looks and money and wanted to be with him. Arcineh was different, and Landon had not been willing to lose her friendship over his own ego--a mature act for his normally selfish behavior.
    "I think I'm going to go home Arcineh said, hoping she wouldn't be sick on the spot. "I don't feel too well:'
    "Okay," Landon replied, noticing that she looked white, but he didn't say that. He didn't offer to walk her to the office either--he wasn't that sensitive--but when he saw Daisy, he reported to her, feeling as though he'd done his part.
    "Better?" Violet asked Arcineh after she'd had a brief nap. "I think so:'
    "Did you get sick?"
    "No:"
    Violet touched her forehead. "No fever:'
    "I don't think I'm sick:' she said.
    "What's going on?" the housekeeper asked, well aware what day was approaching--not Arcineh's dance performance, but the death of her parents.
    "Geneva gave me the lead. I can't just back out:'
    "Why do you want to?"
    "I can't do it, Violet. My mom's not here. I've gone on with my life. She would be so hurt:'
    "You haven't gone on with your life Violet argued, wishing Sam were there. "Your little heart has been turned upside down over this, Arcie. You didn't even want to dance until a month ago. And even if you had, your mother loved you more than her own life. She would want you to do whatever makes you happy. If you want to dance, she would want that for you:'
    "But she's not here!" The tears and anger finally arrived. "How could she leave like that? I need her here:'
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    Violet just sat on the edge of the bed and let the child cry and vent. Arcie alternated between grief and rage and then guilt that she would accuse her parents of dying on purpose, and for the first time she tried to remember what had happened.
    "You fell asleep, Arcie," Violet reasoned. "You can't remember something that's not in your mind."
    "But what if they needed me? What if they cried out to me for help?"
    The tears came again, and Violet was glad. Trevor's and Isabella's deaths were swift and violent. Mercifully Arcineh's parents had no time to call on their daughter for help. Violet would tell Sam what Arcineh had said, but she would not be the one to explain these details. She hoped that Arcineh would fall asleep after crying so hard, but the girl finally calmed and lay awake. Violet offered both food and drink, and just about everything else she could think of, but Arcineh declined it all. Not until Sam came home from work did Arcineh want to get up. She didn't discuss her parents with her grandfather, but she stayed very close to him the rest of the evening.
    Saturday morning found Violet and Sam at the hospital, lingering in the hallway outside the children's wing, waiting for the dance to begin. The troupe was scheduled to do what Geneva would call a mini-musical. She enjoyed taking portions of musical productions or a medley of dances from just one show and putting together a 20- to 30-minute performance that seemed to be just right for the children.
    There were no singers in the group--the music was all on tape--but the dancers performed the steps in costumes as close to the original as they