All For Love
ALL FOR LOVE
A Walker Island Romance, Book 4
© 2015 Lucy Kevin
Paige Walker loves her life on Walker Island—teaching dance classes, spending time with her family, and enjoying the beauty all around her. The last thing she’s interested in is the spotlight. One fiery brush with that a few years back was more than enough for her! Still, sometimes she can’t help but secretly long for more than her quiet life on Walker Island…
TV star Christian Greer has finally gotten his big break starring in a major motion picture. The catch? He needs to learn how to dance like a pro, preferably in a studio far enough from Los Angeles that the paparazzi won’t be able to catch any of his stumbles along the way. Walker Island seems like the perfect place to learn to dance and beautiful Paige Walker definitely seems like the perfect teacher.
From their very first lesson, attraction sizzles between them. Christian has never met anyone like Paige and wants their dance to continue beyond the studio. But will he be able to convince her to step into the spotlight with him, and his love, at her side?
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
Paige Walker stood in the wings of the Walker Island ballet school’s performance area, smiling as she watched her students move gracefully through the brisés and arabesques, échappés and fouettés of
The Nutcracker
. This performance was always one of the highlights of the year for both the school and the community. She could see how excited her students were as they danced their way through the Christmas classic.
She was very proud of her students. They’d all learned so much and had worked so hard this past year. There was nothing she loved more than seeing her students succeed, going from being a little uncoordinated or lacking in confidence to being able to pirouette on stage in front of everyone. It was one of the main reasons Paige devoted so much time to her work at the school.
Dance and her family were the two most important things in her life.
Turning to look out into the audience, she could see Grams in the front row, as beautiful and engaged as ever. In her early eighties now, Ava Walker still lived in the big family house. She was usually at home when Paige returned in the evenings, often answering emails, or doing fundraising work for the dance studio. Grams was just as devoted to the business now as she had been back when she opened it several decades ago.
Paige’s father, William Walker III, whom everyone called Tres, was one of the local high school English teachers, and just like he did every year, he sat beside Grams, silently cheering on his students who were in the ballet production.
She had seen her eldest sister, Emily, backstage just a few minutes ago, looking elegant and composed as always while she helped to keep things organized during the performance. Paige and her sisters referred to Emily as being
bomb-proof
. No matter what was happening, she always managed to look as if nothing was wrong and everything was under control. It was part of what helped make her such a great high school guidance counselor.
Paige’s second-oldest sister, Rachel, was also here tonight. Back for the holidays after months of traveling the world with her daughter, Charlotte, and her fiancé, Nicholas, Paige was thrilled to see how blissfully happy all three of them looked. And she was stunned by how much her six-year-old niece had grown in just a few months.
Her sister Morgan was currently backstage, ready with lipstick and mascara for any dancers who might need a touch-up during the performance. Over the holidays, Morgan was taking a much-needed break from work so that she could spend extra time with her fiancé, Brian, and finish planning their upcoming spring wedding. As a professional makeup artist who also had her own makeover show, she had made each and every one of the young ballerinas look beautiful under the lights. Almost as glamorous as Morgan herself. Her star-quality good looks turned heads everywhere she went, but she never seemed to notice.
Last but certainly not least, Paige’s youngest sister, Hanna, was also here tonight while her University was on holiday break. A free spirit, Hanna had a style all her own, and in celebration of the season, she’d added Christmassy red and white highlights to her hair. As usual, she was filming everything with one of the many video cameras she used to make her documentaries. Paige smiled at the thought of Hanna and her new husband, Joel Peterson, standing hand in hand at the big upcoming Christmas Eve party. It would mark the first time a Walker and a Peterson had done that in decades.
Paige was thrilled that the whole Walker family had been able to come to tonight’s performance—it marked the beginning of their annual Christmas celebrations. After tonight, the dance school would shut down until January, when an excited group of girls would come bouncing in ready to start class again. Ordinarily after this performance, Paige would be on vacation herself, but this year things were going to be a little different.
Actually, teaching a big TV star how to dance is more than a little different
, she thought as the performance came to an end and the crowd burst into applause, giving the students a standing ovation.
All thoughts of TV stars fled her mind as several of the girls gestured for Paige to come out onto the stage with them. She waved them back. This was their moment, not hers. Besides, she didn’t exactly look her best—her blond hair was tied back in a loose bun that was coming undone, she was wearing her dark-rimmed glasses, and to top it off, she hadn’t had time to change out of her leggings before the performance began.
Not that Paige normally thought much about her appearance. Her sisters were the beautiful ones. Morgan, always glamorous with perfect makeup and hair; Emily with her effortless grace; Hanna, always so pretty and artistic looking; and Rachel with the newfound happiness that came from finding true love. Compared to her sisters, Paige knew she was a little bit ordinary. But she didn’t worry about it. After all, she liked her life just the way it was.
“Ms. Walker,” one of the younger ballerinas said as she exited the stage, “I think I hurt my foot.”
“Let me have a look, Tiffany, and then I’ll take you out to your parents.”
Paige set to work, gently running her fingers over the little girl’s ankle to make sure there was no major damage and then carefully wrapping it with a tensor bandage from the first aid kit. It looked to be only a very light sprain, and Paige was certain that Tiffany would be feeling better by tomorrow.
After Paige took her student out to her parents and explained how to best care for her ankle, Tiffany’s mother said, “That was another wonderful performance. I don’t know how you do it every year. The kids were terrific.”
“They really were, weren’t they?” Paige said with a smile. “They’re wonderful students. We all have so much fun together.”
“Still, I bet you’re looking forward to some time off. You deserve it.”
After Tiffany and her parents wished Paige a Merry Christmas and she said good night to several other students and their parents, she headed backstage. While she began to clean up, her thoughts shifted again to the work she’d be doing over the holidays this year.
One of the major film studios had decided the time was right for a remake of the 1937 Astaire and Rogers musical
Shall We Dance
, and somehow Paige had managed to let Morgan talk her into helping the leading man with his dance moves. The film was due to start filming in Seattle in early January, which meant the holidays were the only time to get the job done.
To be honest, Paige couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to try topping the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers original. She remembered sitting curled up on the sofa on a rainy day, watching the movie with her mom, when her mother had suddenly pulled her to her feet.
“Dance with me, sweetie.”
They’d broken down every step of every dance in that movie. Her mother had always loved to dance, and Paige had inherited that love completely. Every time she saw the movie, she thought of her mom, and of running through those famous dance sequences in their living room. Ellen Walker had been gone for years now, but Paige still missed her.
When the studio had announced the new female lead, Paige had been impressed, despite her concerns that the remake would ruin her memories of the original. There weren’t many ballroom dancers out there better than Liana Haves, and choosing her for the role made Paige think that the studio truly wanted to do justice to the remake.
At least until Morgan had told her who they were casting as the leading man.
“Christian Greer?”
Paige had been stunned to find out that the star of the latest hit TV medical drama to break through from the Seattle studios had been chosen to dance in Fred Astaire’s shoes.
“You’ve got to admit,” her sister had said, “he’s going to be a big draw for the audience.”
“You mean a big draw for the fans who just want to drool over their favorite TV doctor,” Paige had replied, her heart sinking at the thought that the movie would be ruined by a lead actor who didn’t know how to dance.
Okay, so Christian Greer was gorgeous and he would look great in every dance costume—heck, he’d probably look good wearing an old pair of sweats. He was a great actor, too, which everyone seemed to agree on, from the beautiful models who consistently appeared on his arm at Hollywood parties, to Paige’s own father, who had settled on
Seattle General Medical
as his favorite TV program.
But none of that meant he could dance. When Paige had pointed that out to Morgan, her sister had shocked her yet again by asking, “Why don’t you teach him?”
At the time, Paige had laughed off the absurd suggestion. But thanks to her makeup work with most of the current A-listers and her own hit makeover show, Morgan had plenty of contacts in both the TV and film biz. Paige supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised when Morgan came back to her a few days later and said, “Christian thinks it’s a great idea. Liana is so busy preparing for the world championships that she won’t be able to train him on the dances before they begin shooting. He said himself that he could really use the help. Of course, I told him you’re the best dance teacher around.” The slightly wicked twinkle in Morgan’s eyes made her wonder if dancing lessons were truly the only thing her sister had in mind for Paige and Christian during the week he was on Walker Island.
He was due to arrive tomorrow to start dance training, giving Paige one week to turn him from a total beginner into Fred Astaire. Although, honestly, even with twelve-hour days in the studio, Paige simply didn’t know if it was possible. Then again, she thought as she reached down to pick up a set of ballet shoes that one of her students had left behind, how much harder could wrangling one actor for a week be
than getting fifty kids to work together perfectly for
The Nutcracker
?
Morgan had already told everyone how nice he was, but Paige was still more than a little nervous about the upcoming week. Thank God she still had another twelve hours to try to get used to the idea of being alone in her dance studio with a big TV star. Especially since it had been quite a while since Paige had been alone with
any
man.
Refusing to let the bad memories of her ex in on what had been such a lovely night, Paige had just stepped around the backstage curtain when she uncharacteristically stumbled. Both her feet and her insides immediately went off-kilter as she realized that Christian Greer was already there, standing in her dance studio, talking with Morgan.
And that he looked even more gorgeous in person than he did on TV.
* * *
Magazines and TV shows always made their stars look better than they did in real life, yet Christian clearly didn’t need any help—makeup or otherwise. He was tall and lean, but with obvious strength and muscular definition under his clothes. His black hair was cut in a slightly old-fashioned style that she guessed was a nod to Fred Astaire and the role he would be playing soon. His eyes were deep green, and they seemed to reflect the room around him. And his cheekbones!