Dances of Angels
By: Dana Lynn
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Chapter 6
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“Hello? Anyone here?” Josh yelled into the house. “Justin? Lance?” he continued. “Josh! No one answered the first time. My bet is, they’re out back already!” Courtney laughed. JC turned to Dakota. “Since when did she get so smart?” he chuckled. Dakota laughed along while Courtney looked less than amused. “Come on Court, I’m kidding…” Josh said pulling her close to him.

They walked into the kitchen and just then Justin came in from the backyard. “Hey girls, hey C” he smiled. “Hey J” Courtney said, hugging him tightly. “Hi Justin” Dakota smiled, but still not being all that touchy feely.

Justin kept his 100-watt smile on as he chatted up the girls and JC went upstairs to grab a pair of trunks. JC re-entered the room and Dakota had to keep herself from staring for too long. Well defined biceps and chest. And the abs? OH! The abs had it! She looked away into Courtney’s eyes who had no doubt caught her in the act. She had a look on her face that could only say “Hey girl, I see you checkin’ out my best friend…” Dakota snapped back to reality and followed the rest of them out to the pool.

Dakota leaned back on her elbows with her feet dangling in the water. Her silver bikini did wonders for her tan, thanks to the Florida sun. JC looked towards Dakota and realized he couldn't keep his eyes away from her for any long period of time. Her eyes caught his and she smiled. Taking that as a cue, he swam over to her.

"So, you ever coming in? Or am I gonna have to use force?" he said playfully. "No, no. I'm coming in. I'm just havin' a good ol' time watchin' Court show off." she said. Courtney had been showing off her diving acrobatics for the greater portion of an hour now. "Such beauty, such grace, such..." JC's words came to a hault as Courtney running cannonball landed feet away from the two of them. "...such a BRAT!" Dakota laughed.

Courtney emerged from the water smiling proudly. "That's it!" Dakota smiled, "You're going to get it now!" "WATER FIGHT!" shouted Chris from his chair just outside the pool. Dakota jumped in along side the rest of them. The entire area turning into one big war.

"Make my day, Court!" JC smiled devilishly.
"Is that an invitation, honey?" Court teased back, throwing herself in his direction, knocking him underwater and herself in the process. They both came up laughing hysterically. Dakota laughed along with them as Lance and Joey left the pool to put some food on the grill.

"So, Dakota." Justin smiled. "Courtney tells us you dance?" Dakota blushed. "Yeah. I run a small studio with Court, downtown." "Would I know it?" he asked, intrigued. "It's called 'Dances of Angels' formerlly known as 'Step In Time'." she explained. "Oh! I know where that is. We used to have some rehearsals there way back in MMC days." he said. "That's cool that you own it now. Was it an investment for you, or just something you wanted to do?"

Dakota bit her lip. "When my parents died they left it to me. I didn't even know that they owned it until I saw the ownership papers with all their belongings." "Wow, Dakota, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." Justin started, feeling guilty for bringing up such a grave subject.

"Don't be. You didn't know." she tried to force a smile. I've always wanted to dance. Teaching and choreographing makes me happy. It's a release for me. The studio gives me a chance to get to more people." she said. "That great." Justin smiled. "I'll have to come down sometime, see you work." he was desperately trying to make himself feel less guilty, but it wasn't working. "I'd like that" Dakota smiled. "Just let me know." "I'll take you up on that" he said.

"Hey J!" Give me a hand with this?" Joey exclaimed from the kitchen. Justin excused himself from the conversation, secretly thanking Joey for his timing. Her parents died? She couldn't be more than 22? Maybe 23? How unfortunate. And how odd that JC or Courtney never said anything. 'Yeah well' he thought. 'Probably not something they'd just bring up.' He made his way to Joey, who was now fumbling to get the glass door open with his hands full of grilling fix-ins. Justin smiled, as he walked faster. 'Only you Joe. Only you.'

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