The question was, did she have the courage to do it?
Chapter Eleven
“How in the world are these things supposed to fit you?”
Will held up the pink tights Jasmine had helped Katie choose on their shopping trip two days ago. He looked from the tiny-looking tights to Katie’s legs. His brain just couldn’t compute the discrepancy in size.
Katie was currently perched on the edge of her bed wearing just her Tinker Bell underwear, waiting for him to help her get ready for her first official lesson. He’d made her wait until now to wear her new stuff, knowing she’d likely spill something on it if he didn’t. Now he wondered if he should have tried a dry run after all.
Parked squarely on Will’s feet, Gump panted heavily and moved his eyes between the tights and Katie. Will couldn’t tell if the dog was amused or attempting to offer him emotional support.
“Guess we’ll figure this out as we go,” he said at last. “Hold up a foot.”
When a knock sounded at the door ten minutes later, Katie was still on her bed with the tights bunched up around her knees, Will had broken a serious sweat, and both of them had abandoned all hope.
He looked to the door like the answer to a prayer.
“Dad?” he called out. His dad had come over to see Katie once she got changed.
“No. It’s Jasmine. Frank led me back here. He said you might need my help.”
Turning to Katie, he said, “Are you okay with—”
He stopped short at her vigorous nod.
“Okay then.” He grabbed the T-shirt Katie had discarded before they started the whole tights debacle and pulled it over her head. “Come on in.”
The door handle turned and Jasmine eased the door open a few inches, a wise move since Gump was barking like they were being invaded by hostile forces.
“Don’t mind Gump,” Will said. “He’s just going to try to sniff you to death.”
She leaned down and offered her hand to the dog, who gave it such a long series of sniffs that it might as well have been a cheeseburger. She smiled.
“I’ll bet he smells my cat, Dido.”
“Ah.” Will reached down and gave Gump a quick pat. “Okay, that’s enough, big guy. Head on out.”
It took physically lifting the dog to finally get him out of the room. Will surmised he really liked the scent of Jasmine’s cat.
Will, on the other hand, just really liked the scent of Jasmine.
He subtly drew it in as she finally moved past him all the way into the room. She was wearing an oversized black T-shirt and leggings today, he observed, along with that ever-present bun. He pondered why she seemed to go to such extremes to hide her figure. Then he decided if it kept other guys from noticing her, he didn’t really care.
Before any other inappropriate thoughts like that one ran through his head, Jasmine made a tsking sound and started removing the tights.
“Rookie,” she said, sending Will a good-humored look.
“I think you bought the wrong size.”
She lifted her chin. “Watch and learn.”
She deftly gathered one of the legs of the tights until it was little more than a half-inch of fabric between her fingers. Then she instructed Katie to lift her leg and hold her foot pointed like they’d learned during her previous lesson. Beginning at the toes, she expertly slid the leg of the tights all the way up to mid-thigh before switching to the other leg and doing the same thing. This time, there was enough give in the fabric that Katie could stand and pull them all the way up to her waist.
Will crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, sure,” he said, “if you want to do it the easy way.”
Jasmine laughed. It made him grin.
“Where’s your leotard?” she asked Katie.
Will grabbed both leotards from a drawer and held them up. Katie pointed to the pink one. He tossed the black one back into the drawer and bent to hold the pink one for her to step into. Once he got it up to her waist, she wiggled out of her shirt and into the top of the leotard. He handed her the matching skirt next.
“Perfect,” Jasmine said once she put it on. “Now it’s bun time.”
Katie bounced over to her dresser and picked up her brush and one of the new hair ties. She turned and looked from Will to Jasmine. After a brief hesitation, she held the items out to Jasmine.