Dancing Lessons Read Online Free PDF

made him feel tinier. “You already knew my name. Don’t act like you weren’t just using me for my body.”
    Ruthie went ooh like a child on the schoolyard watching a fight, but Rafael cracked a smile and laughed a second later. His gaze swept up and down Chico’s body from his sneakers to his jeans to his sleeveless T-shirt, and settled with warm approval on Chico’s face. “It’s true,” Rafael admitted, almost sadly, to Ruthie, although his eyes stayed on Chico. “Before he ran out like Cinderella, I used him as a dancing dummy, even though he kept trying to tell me he wasn’t there for the class.”
    Chico opened his eyes wider, then glanced away.
    “Anyway,” Rafael went on in the silence that followed, “I’ll take these.” He picked out a few tomatoes and one yellow onion while Chico fidgeted with his paper cup and pretended to care about peppers. “Have you met Chico, by the way?” he asked, while Ruthie got his change for him.
    Chico raised his head again. Ruthie smiled politely at him, clearly not caring about meeting new people or anything outside of her own world. Teenagers had the best fake smiles. Chico was amused despite himself. No pressure with self-centered teens. He nodded at her and smiled back, pointing to the peppers he wanted. What the hell he was going to do with them, he had no idea. But he had them.
    “That’s the most excited I’ve ever seen anyone get about peppers,” Rafael commented as he stuffed his onion in his bag. “Except for that chef on TV with the yellow hair and the goatee.”
    “I…” Chico closed his eyes for a moment, then lifted his gaze. “It’s the first time I’ve thought about cooking in a while.” He pressed his lips into a thin line while he considered his next words. “Your class was fun. Please don’t be insulted that I didn’t stay.”
    “I was. But now I’m not.” Rafael gave him that cinnamon-coffee smile, the one that warmed Chico from the inside out.
    Chico nearly forgot his change and glared a bit when Ruthie left it on the tabletop. She smirked at him, clearly enjoying how obviously flustered he was in Rafael’s presence.
    He focused back on Rafael. “So you knew I wasn’t supposed to be there the whole time?”
    “Nah. Not until later, when I thought about it.” Rafael shook his head. “Every so often, we get really shy students at those classes, and I thought you were one of them.”
    “That explains the extra encouragement,” Chico realized out loud. Rafael tilted his head, as though Chico wasn’t making sense. Chico explained himself, sounding as shy as Rafael thought he was. “You’re a good teacher. It’s no wonder the class was full. I didn’t want to be there at first, but I stayed anyway.”
    “Thank you!” Rafael put a hand over his heart, then turned away from Ruthie’s stall. Chico took a step to follow him. “You should know my father is normally the one who teaches the intro classes, but he’s had a summer bug, so I’ve been filling in. The compliment is appreciated.”
    Chico recalled Rafael was the teacher in a family of professional dancers. He might not get a lot of compliments.
    “Then what do you teach?” He frowned to think that, if he had signed up for a ballroom class to meet people, he would have ended up being taught by some probably intimidating, well-known dancer.
    “After the big recital? I’ll be handling the regular practices as well as the evening ballroom classes for the tourists. Basically everything but tap, hip-hop—don’t ask—the dreaded yoga, and the introductory lessons.” Rafael lowered his voice. “My mother brought in the yoga because people in town asked, and she adores the yoga instructor, but it’s not dance, and she refuses to admit she enjoys it. She acts like it’s a dirty word.” Rafael stopped, and Chico realized only then that they had been slowly walking past the stalls together. “I’m so sorry. You don’t know my name, do you? Small town. I forget