bag and sat down to pull out her shoes. “You ready for our warm-up, Katie?”
Nodding, Katie moved to the center of the floor and sat down, placing her feet so the soles touched and her legs made a perfect diamond. She grabbed her feet and started moving her knees up and down as Jasmine rose and removed her T-shirt and leggings, revealing the leotard and tights underneath.
Will’s heart rate spiked.
He’d been anticipating this moment since the trial lesson. Hell, he’d fantasized about it for days. As pervy as it made him feel, he silently admitted he’d been looking forward to seeing Jasmine in all her ballerina glory nearly as much as he’d been looking forward to Katie’s first lesson.
As the lesson officially started, he moved over to the weight bench and took a seat, his phone’s camera at the ready. Jasmine and Katie went through their warm-ups and stretching as though he wasn’t in the room. That just gave him the freedom to stare at Jasmine as much as he wanted.
Yep. Perv.
As they worked through their positions, Jasmine said, “Your form is beautiful, Katie. You’ve been practicing, haven’t you?”
Katie smiled and nodded as she held her position. Will captured the moment in a photo. The sunlight coming in through the loft’s window made her look absolutely radiant. It was such a moving image that he immediately made it his phone’s wallpaper.
Jasmine would have no way of knowing it, but Katie had smiled more since she met her than she ever had before. He would have given Jasmine any amount of money for that miracle alone.
The hour passed quickly, much as it had during the trial lesson. They were done in what felt like half the time.
“Good work today,” Jasmine said to Katie as she took Will’s place on the weight bench to change her shoes.
“Sounds like you’re wrapping up,” came Frank’s voice as he emerged at the top of the stairs. “I was just about to tell you that dinner’s almost ready.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Dad,” Will said.
“Nonsense. I was here anyway and it’s nearly dinnertime. Just have to toss the steaks on the grill. I rested one for you, Jasmine, hoping we’d be able to convince you to stay for dinner. We’re having steak, mashed potatoes, and Caesar salad.”
“Oh, I don’t think—” Jasmine began.
Katie reached out and grasped Jasmine’s hand.
Will went still.
She’d never initiated contact with a woman in all the time they’d been together.
As he exchanged a shocked look with his dad, Katie used her other hand to rub a circle on her chest. Jasmine looked from her to Will.
“That means please,” he said around the sudden rasp in his throat.
“Ah. In that case, how could I refuse?” Jasmine said, smiling at Katie and giving her hand a squeeze.
“Great,” Frank said. “How do you take your steak?”
Will thought about Katie’s behavior as he helped his dad set the table and get dinner ready. He cast frequent glances into the family room where Katie had pulled out one of her games to show Jasmine. She’d grown more attached to her new ballet teacher in just a few visits together than he’d seen her with anyone aside from him, his dad, or Gareth.
Was their bonding a good thing? Or was it lopsided to the point where Katie would inevitably get hurt?
Maybe he needed to make a point of getting to know Jasmine a little better himself, he mused as they all sat down to eat. That way he could get a better sense of where her head was in all of this.
It was the responsible thing to do.
“So, Jasmine, did you grow up here in Atlanta?” Frank asked.
Evidently his dad was on the same wavelength.
“Largely,” she said. “I was born in Seattle, but we moved here before I was Katie’s age. That was one of the reasons my parents started us in dance. They wanted to offer us something positive after the big change and provide us a way to make friends right away.”
“Us?” Frank prodded.
Jasmine nodded as she cut her steak. Will noted that she used her utensils with the same care and precision she did when she moved. He also noted Katie watching her and attempting to mimic her.
“Me and my older sister, May,” Jasmine said.
“Is she a dancer too?”
“No. She wasn’t bitten by the dancing bug like me and Katie.” She gave Katie a wink before eating the small piece of steak on her fork.
“And why did your folks decide to make the big move?”