Then Brianna stood there and shrugged. “Happy?”
Tino smiled, a real smile, one he felt because she looked really fucking perfect to him right then. “Now I’m happy.”
She pulled back, her cheeks turned pink again, and she messed with the hat. “I guess this works.”
“Yeah, it does,” he agreed. “Rock it out. This is the only thing I’ve had to look forward to.”
“No cable,” Brianna whispered in understanding.
“No cable,” he agreed with another smile. “So make it good.”
She nodded, her cheeks pinker than ever. “I will.”
“It’s gonna be amazing,” Carina assured him as she pulled open the door.
They were three steps into the door when someone shouted, “Tino!”
Tino stopped and looked over to see one of his friends from the Harlem kids’ gym. Otis had moved over a year ago when his dad got a promotion and they lost touch.
“Holy shit!” Tino shouted in surprise and handed one crutch to Carina to give Otis a real hug when he came up. “I fucking forgot you were in Brooklyn.”
“Did you move here?” Otis asked as he hugged him back. “I thought you guys were East Harlem forever.”
“Yeah, uh, my dad got custody.” Tino avoided his gaze rather than admit Romeo was in jail. He gestured to Carina. “This is my sister.”
“Sister?” Otis frowned and looked at Carina in surprise. “Oh.”
Carina covered the awkwardness by hugging Otis. A big, tight-armed hug that must have been developed by Carina to cover up the fact that her father was a sadistic murderer and her mother rented kids to truckers in rest-stop bathrooms.
“This is my best friend Brianna,” Carina introduced Brianna, who was standing next to her. “She’s auditioning.”
“Cool.” Otis nodded and grinned at Tino again. “You gonna audition too?”
Tino looked down at his cast and arched an eyebrow.
“What happened? Karate?”
“I jumped off the first-floor landing of my building. It was stupid.” Tino winced, because he was really tired of this cast.
“When do you get it off?” Otis asked and then turned to a tall black woman who walked up. Her braids were pulled away from her face, and she had a warm smile. “Jasmine, this is Tino Moretti. We used to hang in East Harlem. He does a front tuck that’s sick. Tino, this is Jasmine. She’s one of the choreographers.”
“You can do a front tuck?” Brianna asked in surprise.
Tino looked back at his cast. “Usually.”
“It’s awesome,” Otis confirmed. “Our coach at the gym even went to his house, trying to recruit him for the team.”
“I had a lot going on.” Tino avoided Brianna’s and Carina’s gazes rather than admit that they were laying low. It was the reason he and Nova didn’t compete in karate either, and Nova gave up playing competitive chess.
They quit everything after their mother died.
“Moretti,” Jasmine frowned. “Like—”
“I’m Brianna Darcy.” She stepped forward and held out her hand before Jasmine could dig further. “I’m really thrilled to audition. Thank you for the invitation.”
“I remember.” Jasmine grinned at Brianna and looked around as if expecting someone else. “We’re excited you came. Is your mother here?”
Brianna shook her head but didn’t seem too embarrassed about it as she searched in her bag. “I have the forms. She signed them for me.” She handed the papers to Jasmine. “And you can call her for verification. She wrote her number on the bottom. The phone is listed in her name, so you know it’s her talking and—”
“It’s fine,” Jasmine said with another smile. “We’ll figure it out.”
Brianna pulled back and took a deep breath, making it obvious that her mother’s lack of participation in dance was usually a huge issue. “Thank you.”
“What song are you dancing to?”
Brianna turned to look at Tino and then said, “Can I keep it a secret?”
“He doesn’t have cable,” Carina explained.
Jasmine frowned at the three of them, but then smiled again, as if that wasn’t the strangest thing she’d heard. “Okay. Sure.”
Brianna wasn’t the only one trying out.
So everyone sat in a big semicircle in the studio, leaving the back and the mirrors open. This crew was interesting. It was a mix of all types of people, different ages, different nationalities.
And Tino was going to have to correct himself on Brooklyn.
The girls here could move.
The guys could too.
Brianna was in a corner stretching. Tino and Carina sat with Otis between them so he could give them a play-by-play on who was dancing. Some of the crew members danced in groups, practicing their routines and bringing up the energy in the room before the tryouts. Some did solo routines.
Tino was a decent dancer, but he wasn’t anywhere close to the category of these dancers. Then Otis got up to do a routine his team had been working on, and Tino sort of understood why Otis thought Tino should audition when his foot healed.
Tino wasn’t the greatest dancer in the world.