Stars, Love And Pirouettes (Dance 'n' Luv Series) by Roy Street, Alicia Street

title was scrawled across it in black ink: Chi il bel sogno di Doretta from La Rondine — Kiri Te Kanawa
    “Since when did you go from the Four Tops to this?”
    Buster Cotes sat there, shoulders bunched into a slump inside the gray leather wing chair. “What? A brother can’t add a little opera to his list?”
    “And may I ask what inspired such a drastic change in genres?” Aiden took a seat in the matching chair directly across from his old friend.
    “We’ll cover that later. First let me be the one to ask the questions. I want to know what’s cookin’ with you. The world’s loneliest man. Soon not to be. Least I hope.”
    “Ya know, visiting you is like a trip to the dentist. Got the old drill ready to go probing those tender areas.”
    “I may have touched a nerve, but I got no drill. Just want see a smile on your face.”
    “I’m that bad, huh?”
    Buster chuckled. “Last time I saw you, you looked high as a wild-eyed Coney Island junkie.”
    “Geezus, Cote. Is that the best you can do for an analogy?”
    “Never mind my way of putting it. Just tell me what happened with that girl who sent you to the moon and back.”
    Aiden took a breath and shut his eyes. “Sure you want hear all this man-meets- woman glop?”
    “Up to me to keep an eye on you. So don’t go making my job any harder than it already is. And don’t be calling it glop. Remember that glop is what makes the world go round. Now start talking.”
    Aiden went on to recount how he and Jenna had a magical conversation under the stars, gone to the observatory, had a dreamy dinner by the harbor and ended up in his room making love in a way that sent him beyond the moon all the way to Jupiter. But when he reached the details of their little dispute involving her mistaking Aiden for a government operative, Coty slapped his leg and blurted out, “A secret agent? Damn.”
    “I know,” Aiden said, shaking his head with discouraged eyes. “Can you believe it?”
    “You locked horns over that?”
    “She seemed so disappointed when I told her the truth.”
    Coty’s brows jumped. “She never heard of K.Z. Knight?”
    “I told her I was a school teacher.”
    “A noble profession. Just one problem. It ain’t true. You haven’t taught school in six years. Last we spoke I said you’d have to come out of hiding sooner or later. Instead you want to keep playing games. Now what exactly are you trying to prove?”
    “I want someone to want me for who I am.”
    “Why are you so hooked on that?”
    “Because that’s the way it was when I first met Wendy.” His eyes welled up and his voice quaked. “I want somebody who will take me as is. Not somebody who wants a celebrity or James Bond.”
    Buster leaned forward in his chair and dropped his voice. Enunciating his words with the tenderness of a loving father. The kind Aiden never had. “Go back to this lady, son. Apologize and give her a chance. I’ll bet you my personally autographed Mike Tyson boxing glove that she’ll want you just for who you are.”
    Aiden snickered and glanced over his shoulder at the worn, red leather eighteen-ounce glove hanging on the wall. “Get outta here. You’d never give that up.”
    “Not gonna have to. ”
    “Hope you’re right.”
    “I am. And when you lose, you bring her over here to sit back and listen to some of these new tunes I got going. Do we got ourselves a bet?”
    “On one condition. You tell me why you’re listening to opera.”
    Coty sat back. “Had a little problem with my bowels. So they run some tests. Turns out I got something going down there. Doc wants to open me up. Remove some of my intestines. Don’t know how much. We’ll find out three days from now.” He paused and tilted his head. “Anyway I was told classical music is good for easing the mind. Got a whole stack of CDs from one of the nurses. A way of preparing myself in case.”
    The news caught Aiden like a sledgehammer to the chest. Could it be that the two most