A Chance in the Night by Kimberly Van Meter Page B

City Ballet. At first I was doing very well. I managed to catch the eye of the choreographer and in spite of the fact that some of the other girls had better dance credits under their belt, I was starting to land bigger roles. Then I was cast as one of the Auroras in Sleeping Beauty and I thought for sure I’d died and gone to heaven. It was a major deal. Then, one day in rehearsal when I went to do a grand jeté somehow I landed wrong and tore my ACL. The surgeon said it was the worst tear he’d ever seen and even though I had surgery to repair it and followed up with physical therapy, it remained weak. The verdict was clear—my professional dancing career was over.”
    She finished with a halting breath, the loss of her career still a sore spot with her even though it’d been five years since that awful day. She could tell he was doing the math, speculating on what happened next in her life. She’d have to explain Nico somehow but she wasn’t quite ready so she quickly put the spotlight on him. “So, you’re a bartender at Martini…how’d you end up there?” she asked.
    He caught her not-so-subtle deflection but decided to follow her lead for which she was grateful. He smiled. “Would you believe I came to New York to be a bartender?”
    She didn’t want to offend him but her hesitation gave her away. It was hard for her to imagine wanting to become a bartender. To her it seemed a job you fell into due to circumstance rather than seeking it out. Sort of like what happened to her with her current profession. “Why?” she asked tentatively, cringing at the bald question. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that…”
    “No, it’s okay,” he assured her, sealing her belief that he was quite possibly not only the most good-looking but nicest guy she’d met in a long time. “I wanted to become a bartender because I wanted to know everything about how a club works and the bartender is a good place to start. I plan to own my own club someday soon and because of my bartending experience I know what it’s like behind the bar. I know what to look for if an employee is dipping into the till and I know what to avoid in personality types for management. It’s been an educational experience that was exactly what I was looking for. With that said, I’m ready to make the transition from employee to boss.”
    She arched her brow. “Really? That’s pretty ambitious in this town. I mean, you have to know that start-up businesses, particularly restaurants or bars, have a fifty-fifty shot of failing in the first year.” Oh, God, what a downer. She nearly clapped her hand over her mouth in dismay. “I’m sorry. That was so rude of me. I just meant to say…well, actually there’s no other way to say it. But I hope you know I mean it in the nicest way possible.”
    “Trust me, I know the statistics. My business partner and I are well aware of the risks. That’s why we’ve set away two years’ worth of payroll in the bank.”
    “Two years?” she murmured. “That’s a lot of money.”
    “Yeah, it is. But with two years’ payroll we won’t have to stress about the bottom line so much as building a solid reputation. The money will come in time. I have faith.”
    Faith…she knew all about that word. She also knew that after faith failed, came misery and disillusion but she wisely kept that to herself. No sense in raining on his parade when they barely knew one another. She kind of liked the idea of seeing him again, crazy as it seemed, and she didn’t want to run him off with her cynicism. “I hope it works out for you,” she said, truly meaning it. “Following a dream is a ride worth taking.”
    Amiable silence stretched between them and Skye basked in the happy moment to insulate her against the bad times that were surely on the horizon.
    After the market they made the trek to the sun-dappled park and after convincing Nico to eat a few bites, the boy dashed off to the play structure that was within her