Honey sat at one of the front tables in the ballroom, flanked by Nikki and Addy.

The entire staff of the resort was awash with gossip about Wade’s arrest, and speculation about whether Honey was dating the foreign waiter who had saved her from the fire.

Had she wanted to, Honey could have taken her pick of male staff to dance with for today’s demo. Wade was safely out of the picture, and Honey herself was a figure of romance and intrigue.

But it was too late, of course.

And to add insult to injury, just this morning, she had walked past the pavilion and seen Kitt there with Violet again.

Whatever he had said about wanting to be with Honey, about loving her, he was certainly not holding back on pursuing his consolation prize.

Her heart ached with loneliness.

She had never felt a connection like the one she felt with Kitt - it was kinesthetic as well as emotional. Seeing that it meant nothing to him made her feel hollow inside, like maybe she was the one without a heart, after all.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Debra Stine said from the stage, “welcome to Maxwell’s!”

There was light applause from the guests and staff.

“We’re very excited to have all of our activities leaders here this evening to introduce you to how you can spend your time here at Maxwell’s,” Debra said. “I’m going to call Adelaide Barnes, our head swim coach, up first.”

Addy dashed up to the stage, laptop in hand.

“Hey everyone,” she said. “I’m Addy and since I can’t do a swim demo for you, I’ve put together a little presentation.”

The lights were dimmed, and Addy’s swim movie came up on the screen. She had shot it the week before the resort opened after seeing the head swim coaches yammer on in a boring way at each session demo last year.

The movie was pretty funny. It featured a lot of staff members since they had all reported to the resort early.

By the time it was done everyone was laughing and Addy took a little bow and then came back to her seat. It was genius. She had made herself totally approachable. Swim classes would be packed and she’d make a fortune on private lessons, too.

Two guys went up to give an Aikido demonstration and Honey found herself zoning out a bit.

All she could think of was Kitt. She was glad they were in the front of the room, because if she’d been anywhere that she could see him without turning around, she knew that she would have been staring. As it was, she fought her instinct to swivel around in her chair and look for him.

He’s just another stupid guy.

Nikki got up next, along with a guy from the audience. They talked about the theatre program for a few minutes, then acted out a really funny scene from some Neil Simon play or other.

The guy went and sat down. Then Nikki spoke for a moment about the program.

“I do private monologue coaching sessions, of course,” she said. “And in our fun group classes, you’ll perform scenes from Neil Simon, Noel Coward, Wendy Wasserstein, Elomere Claudel…”

Nikki’s face turned white.

“Oh,” she said, looking straight at Honey.

Honey looked behind herself, wondering what Nikki was freaking out about. But no one was behind her.

She turned back to Nikki and gave her a questioning look.

“Um, Elomere Claudel, William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett and more,” Nikki finished. “So be sure to check us out.”

There was light applause and Nikki dashed back to her seat.

“Honey,” Nikki whispered to her. “What exactly did Kitt say to Violet?”

“Um, I don’t know, something about how they always talked about the weather and her mother, and how he wanted to talk about them,” Honey said.

“Did he say this? Every morning I meet you here, every morning you smile at me with your kind eyes. Every morning I’m here by your side, talking with you about the weather and your health and your mother, and all I want to talk about is us.”

“Um, yeah,” Honey said. “Wow.”

“It’s from a play,” Nikki hissed.

“What?”

“It’s from a play, a play by Elomere Claudel,” she said. “Violet signed up for one of my theatre classes. We don’t start until next week, but that’s one of like fifty plays they can choose scenes from to work on. I think your alien was only helping her memorize—”

“Honey McCarthy,” Debra Stine said loudly into the microphone.

“Oh god,” Honey said, getting up.

All she wanted to do was explore the idea Nikki had just brought up. Hope glimmered in her heart that maybe Kitt had meant what he said when he told her that he loved her.

She thought “We were just rehearsing a play” was something cheating jerks said on bad sitcoms, not something that actually happened.

But, apparently, she had been wrong.

Kitt really was just a nice guy trying to help someone.

And she had ruined everything by rejecting him so soundly last night.

And now she had to get on the stage and speak.

Publicly…

For five full minutes…

Honey was good at a lot of things, but speaking wasn’t one of them, especially in front of a group like this one. She had planned to say a few quick words and then dance. That was how all the head dance instructors had always done it at Maxwell’s. It was the best way to encourage guests to sign up for classes.

And she’d been so convinced she would dance that she hadn’t put together a presentation. Not that she was likely to be able to present one anyway, she would trip over her words as she always did when presenting in class.

She was basically guaranteed to get fired today.

Honey stepped onto the stage and looked out into the enormous room.

“Hi there,” she said. “I’m Honey McCarthy. I’m the dance teacher.”

The audience stared at her soundlessly.

To save her life, she could not think of one additional thing to say.

“I’m going to do a dance demonstration for you,” she said. “I teach partner dancing, but today I’ll dance the woman’s part myself, so you… so you can see… um…”

There was a small commotion in the audience.

“Excuse me,” said a deep voice. “Pardon me.”

“My apologies for being late, Honey,” Kitt said loudly as he bounded onto the stage with her.

“What are you doing?” she hissed.

“No one makes you dance alone,” he whispered back.

Some kind soul in the booth hit the lights before she had time to argue.

Kitt took her in his arms and the music began.

The moment their feet started moving, Honey felt confidence bubbling up in her chest again. Speaking in public was terrifying. But dancing in public felt natural to her.

And Kitt…

Well, Kitt had been dancing a technically perfect tango yesterday. But today he seemed to have transcended the steps and entered the soul of the dance. His fierce bravado was almost palpable.

It suddenly occurred to Honey that Kitt wasn’t dancing for fun, or to help her.

He was dancing to win her.

And he was doing it as if his life depended on it.

She caught her breath as he dipped her, so low to the ground she could feel her hair sweep the stage.

His gray eyes burned into hers.

Could she continue to resist him?

Did she even want to anymore?

He spun her around, her skirt was flying and there were murmurs of admiration from the audience.

“You’re mine, Honey,” Kitt whispered.

“I’m no good for you,” she whispered back.

He dipped her low again, his jaw rippling with tension.

“You’re everything for me,” he whispered. “And you need me too. I’m the only one who can break your curse.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You said every man you date goes crazy,” he said. “I find that hard to believe. But even if it were true, I’m not a man.”

She tried and failed to hide her smile.

“Besides,” he continued, his gray eyes flashing. “I have no interest in dating you.”

“You don’t?”

“I’m going to marry you,” he said firmly, and lifted her over his head.

The audience went wild.

Honey could only be glad the music was too loud for them to have heard the conversation.

Kitt lowered her to the ground and then bowed deeply several times.

A few staff members stood to applaud and he bowed again, even deeper. He was really chewing the scenery.

Honey laughed. She was glad the stage agreed with him. He was a fantastic dancer.

She found herself wondering vaguely if he might like to open a dance school with her.

“That was our five minutes,” she shouted over the applause. “Be sure to sign up for classes and private or couples lessons at the studio.”

They left the stage and sat together at the table with Nikki and Addy.

“Holy crap,” Addy mouthed to Honey from across the table.

Nikki patted her knee.

Kitt still held her hand in his. She wondered if he would ever let go. She sort of hoped not.

He smiled down at her and gave her hand a squeeze.

The rest of the room seemed to fade away.