and holding hands.”
“Exactly. Love can be wonderful. And while it’s true that some people aren’t meant to be in relationships, I don’t think that you’re one of them. You’re a loving, smart girl, and one day you’re going to meet someone who makes your heart flutter.”
“Uncle Harley . . .”
“Okay, maybe your heart won’t flutter. Maybe you’ll go to a soccer game with him, and you’ll laugh, share hot dogs, and hold hands. Before you know it, you won’t be able to imagine how you ever lived your life without him in it.”
She bit her bottom lip and lowered her eyes. “Do you think so?” she asked softly.
He lifted her chin and said, “I know so, because you’re an amazing girl, and some lucky guy is going to see that and never let you go.”
She smiled, and it reached all the way up to her eyes.
“But you’re not dating until you’re thirty anyway, so you don’t have to worry about that for a while.”
“Thirty? I’ll be old!”
“That’s okay. Old is good. It keeps Uncle Harley sane.” He reached for her hand and said, “Come on. Let’s dance and show these boring dads how to have fun.”
She pulled her hand back. “Nobody’s dancing, Uncle Harley!”
“So? Just because they don’t want to have fun doesn’t mean we can’t.”
She shook her head again.
“You’re going to make me dance by myself?” He walked backward onto the dance floor.
“Don’t! Please don’t!”
Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” came on, and Harley moved his shoulders to the beat. “I can’t help it. I just keep moving.” He turned in a circle and put both hands out, beckoning her to the dance floor with his wiggling fingers.
Jolie was beet red, shaking her head and covering her face, peeking out between her fingers. Her eyes darted all around her. But Harley was determined to help her have a good time, and by the way the other little girls were smiling and inching closer as he twirled and shook his hips to the beat, mouthing the words to the song—because Jolie and Sophie used to play it every time they were together—he knew they were close to a breakthrough.
“Come on, Jolie!” He danced around her as her friends closed in on them.
“Your uncle is a good dancer!” a blond girl said.
Another little girl pointed at him and said, “I wish my dad could do that!”
Harley motioned to the high schoolers to repeat the song after it was over, buying him a little more time since he had no idea how many songs he could pull this off to.
Soon a gaggle of girls were gathered around Jolie. Harley pointed to them and said, “Everyone out on the dance floor!” and a group of them ran toward him, giggling. They all started dancing. Jolie was grinning, but still standing over to the side. “Come on, Jo! Let’s show them how it’s done!”
“Come on, Jolie!” a dark-haired girl urged.
Two other girls ran to Jolie and took her hands, dragging her onto the dance floor. She finally relented, dancing reluctantly at first. She quickly got caught up in the excitement and danced her little heart out, laughing and wiggling to the beat. It didn’t take long for fathers and more daughters to join them. They danced to Katy Perry, Pink, some boy bands, and bands Harley had never heard before.
An hour later, Harley knew most of the fathers’ and little girls’ names, and Jolie was no longer nervous at all.
Toward the end of the dance, while Jolie was dancing with her friends, Harley went to get some water, and two men followed him to the snack table.
“How’s it going?” Harley said.
“Great. You saved our asses,” a tall, lean, clean-cut dark-haired guy said. “I’m Gary Lanigan. My daughter Teri is in the red dress.”
“And I’m Ike Preacher. My Kensey is in the yellow dress.” Ike was burly like Harley, with a thick beard and tattoo sleeves. “We’re single dads, and we don’t know shit about dancing. You saved our daughters loads of embarrassment.”
He shook their hands and said, “I’m Harley Dutch, Jolie’s uncle. Seems like the girls are having fun.”
“Yeah, it’s nice to see them so happy,” Ike said. “Thanks for your business, too. You hired our company, At Your Service, to bring dinners to Delaney. She’s an amazing person.”
“She is, thank you. It’s good to meet the men behind the business. Your dinners saved her from herself. I know my sister, and she would have worn herself out trying to do everything on her own.”
“No