if it’s because it’s all I’ve ever known. When I see the joy on her face, I remember the joy I used to feel when I danced.”
“Do you think you’ll recapture that feeling if you succeed in your goal of dancing professionally?”
Jasmine swallowed the lump that lodged in her throat. “I don’t know.”
Her session ran through her mind on her drive to Katie’s lesson afterward. When she thought about auditioning, it both excited and terrified her. She had been on the sidelines for almost fifteen months. She’d done everything she could to stay in top form, but would that be enough to land her a job?
And what would she do about her work with Katie if it was?
As soon as she pulled into Will’s driveway, she did her best to push her uncertainties to the back of her mind. Katie deserved her focus.
She smiled when she headed up the sidewalk toward the house. Katie had been out with her sidewalk chalk again. There were drawings of rainbows, smiley faces, and colorful hearts from the driveway to the front door. Spying a stray piece of blue chalk under one of the bushes beside the door, she impulsively reached down, picked it up, and drew a baseball near the front step.
“The laces need to be tighter.”
She glanced up and spotted Will standing just inside the front porch’s storm door. She tried to tell herself that her racing heart was due to startlement and not just her reaction to seeing him again.
“Have you seen the size of this chalk?” she asked, holding up the chunky piece.
He grinned and opened the front door for her. “That wouldn’t stop a true artiste.”
“Oh, yeah? Which of these smiley faces is your handiwork?”
“The lopsided ones.”
She handed him the chalk as she passed him and walked into the house. “I thought so.”
“Everyone’s a critic,” he intoned.
She laughed, the weight from her session with Dr. Smythe completely falling away. Will always made her feel better. It was just one of the reasons she looked forward to these lessons as much as she did.
Her lesson with Katie went as well as each of the previous ones. Jasmine was catering the lessons to Katie’s interests, which meant she was listening to a lot of The Void’s music. In her spare time at home, she was working on some choreography to “Not Mine,” one of The Void’s most popular songs. The ballad lent itself to ballet more than the band’s typical music. Katie was sure to love working on it. For now, Jasmine was teaching her the proper forms and transitions so they could eventually put everything together with the music.
“Are you hungry?” Will asked after the lesson concluded. “I thought we could order pizza.”
Jasmine had learned that Will didn’t do much cooking. He tended to either order something or microwave it, which meant he and Katie ate a lot of prepackaged meals loaded with sodium and preservatives. She suspected that was why Frank came over for dinner a couple times a week, since he seemed to enjoy cooking.
“Why don’t you let me loose in the kitchen for a change?” she offered as she put her dance shoes in her bag.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I love to cook.”
That was stretching things a little. Her sister was really the cook in the family. But Jasmine had learned enough from her parents and her sister over the years to make a decent meal.
“All right. Have at it,” Will said, waving her toward the stairs. When she passed him to head down, he added, “Of course, if your cooking’s as bad as your sidewalk chalk art…”
“Hey, if that’s the standard you’re setting, we don’t really have a problem.”
“Oh boy.”
Thank goodness Frank helped Will out with the grocery shopping. Jasmine found frozen chicken breasts, red and green peppers, an onion, cheese, salsa, and flour tortillas. She would have loved some Mexican crema or ingredients to make fresh guacamole, but the fajitas would be fine without them. With the help of Will’s indoor grill and the seasonings in his spice cabinet, she cooked the chicken and sliced the veggies while Will and Katie played a game on their Wii. Thirty minutes after they got downstairs, they all sat down to dinner.
“Lord, these smell good,” Will said. “Thanks for cooking.”
“My pleasure.”
As he always did, Will put Katie’s plate together first. While Jasmine imagined it was what most parents did, it never failed to tug at her heart. When he glanced up and saw her watching him, he smiled.