Free Lieutenant (An Ell Donsaii story #3) by Laurence Dahners Page A

it must be Cody’s strong lead that made it that way.
    Cody’s eyebrows drew together, she’d lied! She did know how to dance!   Normally, when dancing with someone new, even if they “knew how to dance,” he had to show them each move several times, whereas this girl just effortlessly followed his lead on every move he threw at her! He decided to push her limits. He spun her out and back in, then turned himself to the inside, then began more and more complex turns and twirls. 
    Ell followed easily. She’d seen each of the moves he was taking her through when he’d been dancing with Connie. She found them simple enough to copy with Cody strongly pulling her through each of the different turns.
    Mixed emotions of irritation that she’d fooled him and pure joy at how well she danced flooded over Cody. He decided to push her as hard as he could.
    Ell found the effortless swinging rhythm of the dancing and turning to be exhilarating, though she knew her poor endurance would leave her exhausted if they kept up this pace! She hoped to herself that Cody didn’t have any moves that she hadn’t gotten to watch him do with the other girl.
    Suddenly, Cody doubled timed his footwork. Ell matched him and then he double timed the speed of the turns, pulling her through the twirling movements rapid fire. Ell found it breathtaking. Having already danced the moves with him at the lower speed, they were easy to follow, even at the much increased speed. She thumped in against his side, then whirled away, then back in, then spun, then began going under and over in a spinning flashing pretzel turn that went on and on.
    He spun her away from him and began dancing solo, feet pounding and hands clapping occasionally. Ell matched him, throwing in her own shimmies and twirls from the line dance earlier. In sudden exuberance Ell did a backflip as the music thundered to a stop.
    Ell clapped a hand to her mouth. The other dancers had all stopped to watch them, people at the tables were standing to get a better view, the band stared and the fiddler waved his bow at them. Cody threw a leg and arm out in a theatrical bow to her. In embarrassment, Ell realized that, in the elation of that dance, she had tremendously over performed. Hands to her cheeks, Ell turned and ran from the floor, shouldering through the crowd and fast-walking to the bathroom.
    Hiding in a stall with her feet up, Ell heard Amy calling her name. “Ell, where are you?”
    “Here,” she said faintly.
    “Why’d you run off the floor?” Amy asked, pulling on the door to the stall.
    Ell unlatched it to let her in. “Embarrassed. I shouldn’t have danced like that!”
    “What do you mean? Why not! Not that I had any idea you could, of course. I thought you said you didn’t know how to dance.”
    “I don’t! It’s just that Cody leads so well.”
    Amy snorted, “Girl, I guarantee, no matter how well a man leads, I would never ever be able to dance like that.”
    “Yeah, well, I’m pretty good at athletics and pick stuff up really quick. But performing like that doesn’t exactly help me fade into the woodwork like I’m supposed to.”
    Amy tilted her head, “Huh… I guess you’d have to be ‘pretty good at athletics’ to win all those Olympic gold medals. But you’re embarrassed about that dance?”
    Ell bit her lip and nodded.
    Amy grinned, “Sometimes I forget that you’re only eighteen. I’d still be out there taking bows if I’d danced like that. Well what do you think, are you ready to go back out and face the world?”
    “Can’t we just sneak out and go home?”
    Amy rolled her eyes. “Come on, I guarantee all those folks think they just witnessed  something cool, done by someone who’d practiced forever. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” She held out her hand.
    Reluctantly Ell took it and they headed back out into Tres Locos. As they stepped out of the women’s bathroom, Cody hitched up away from the wall where he’d been leaning.