About Bethany? IDK
She’s hot.
Yeah. But I don’t really know her.
Get to know her so we can go together.
Whatever.
I’m serious.
Fine. I’ll think about.
Good.
Jeremy watched the screen for a minute more, but true to form, Phillip had signed off and was focused on the next thing.
Sitting down on the big La-Z-Boy that was in the corner of his room, Jeremy thought about Bethany. She was in their science lab too. She was hot. She had really long hair, and he’d always thought she was one of the prettiest girls in school. She didn’t have lots of curves like Phillip’s Carson. Instead, she looked kind of willowy.
But as he thought about Bethany, he realized he didn’t think about her looks all that much. Instead, he liked how she was so nice. A lot of people their age were only nice to their friends. Not Bethany, though. She seemed to go out of her way to talk to everyone.
Yep, she was really sweet. And that sweetness—combined with her light brown hair and green eyes—well, he couldn’t think of a better girl in the junior class.
But he didn’t know if he even wanted to go to a dance.
Girls, in his experience, liked to talk. She might want to know about him.
Then he’d have to tell her his whole story. About how Gunnar Law wasn’t really his dad and this cool house wasn’t actually his house.
And if she still asked him questions, he’d have to share that he’d been in four other foster houses and that he’d never had a dad. And that his mom had been real sweet until she’d gotten shot at an ATM.
He could just imagine how cool Bethany would think he was then. Obviously, not very.
Which meant before long, Bethany wouldn’t like him anymore—and worse, she would probably tell everyone about his parents and how he used to live. And then everyone would know how different he was.
That was something he wasn’t ready to deal with just yet. Shoot, he didn’t know if he would ever be able to deal with that.
CHAPTER 4
clara: A young girl who receives a Nutcracker doll for Christmas and dreams that he comes to life.
December 5
Kimber had started helping her sister Shannon clean up her dance studio on the bottom floor of their building once a week. It was a good way to spend time with her sister, since Shannon was married and wasn’t around that much at night anymore.
Kimber also had a natural affinity for organizing and cleaning. She didn’t mind doing either and loved seeing a room with everything neatly in its place.
Shannon, on the other hand, did not.
Their third sister, Traci, sometimes offered to help, but more often than not she took a pass. Kimber didn’t fault her for that, however. Traci was a cop for the city of Bridgeport. She not only had a demanding job, but she was also a new mom. Several months ago, Traci had met a pregnant teenager named Gwen and took her under her wing. A lot had happened, but in the end, Gwen became Traci’s unofficial little sister, and Traci became the adopted mother to Gwen’s baby boy, Bridge. So Gwen had a lot on her plate . . . and a doctor fiancé to boot.
Since Kimber was taking a break from modeling and wasn’t sure what to do next, she’d been trying to help Shannon out in the dance studio. Shannon had been appreciative of everything, which was very like her sister.
But, what Kimber hadn’t seen coming was Shannon’s need to try to teach her to tap dance. No matter how many times Kimber had protested that she really, really didn’t want to learn how to do a time step, Shannon tried to convince her to “just give it a try.”
Like she was currently doing.
Grimacing at both the ugly tap shoes on her feet and the fact that she couldn’t make a single clean tap like Shannon did, Kimber was already counting the minutes until the impromptu lesson was over.
Shannon, however, seemed to think of Kimber’s talentless toes as a wonderful challenge.
“Come on, Kimber,” she coaxed, standing by her sister’s side. “This will be fun.”
“It won’t.” It had never been fun.
“I promise, you’ll get the hang of it. Soon, you’ll be tapping up a storm.”
She was so far from tapping up anything. Annoyed, and barely keeping her thoughts to herself, Kimber eyed their reflections in the mirror. Here she was—feeling a little frumpy in faded jeans, an old sweatshirt, heavy socks, and fake-leather flats with taps attached to the soles. Next to her was little petite Shannon looking perfect in form fitting black pants, a violet tank top, some kind of cute knit-wrap thingy, and legitimate, two-inch-heel tap shoes that were actually very pretty.
Added to the disparity was the fact that Kimber was a good ten inches taller than Shannon. Kimber always felt like a giant next to her. Now, she not only felt huge, she felt like a clumsy oaf too.
“Shannon, it’s real sweet of you to get me tap shoes, but I’d really rather clean.”
As she should have expected, Shannon looked really confused. “Don’t say that. No one would rather clean than dance.”
Oh, yes they would! Choosing her words carefully, Kimber added, “To be honest, I’m not enjoying this all that much.” Like, at all.
“That’s because you’re rushing, Kimber. Now, let’s just take each step slow. Before you know it, you’ll be agreeing with me that tap dancing isn’t so hard.”
“It’s always going to be difficult because I have no sense of rhythm.” She also had no interest in learning how to time step. As in none.
Shannon did some kind of fancy footwork to illustrate her point. “You’ll get the hang of it soon. You just need some muscle memory. That’s where good old-fashioned practice comes in.”
“But—”
“Come now. Don’t give up,” she pressed in her sweet southern drawl.
Kimber was getting tired of being ignored. “Shannon, one last time, I came here to clean, not dance.” She also had come in to talk. She really wanted to talk to Shannon.
Looking deflated, Shannon stared at Kimber in the mirror. “You’re serious.”
“I promise, I’m so serious.” Please, she silently added. Don’t make me pull a New York attitude. It was on the way though, because her patience had left a good five minutes ago.
“Fine.” Pointing to the three closets on the back wall. “How would you feel about helping me organize the costumes for our Christmas ballet? You know, all my students will be performing different dances from The Nutcracker.”