AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I knew I was prying and didn’t care. If the man was in my daughter’s life, I needed to know about him.
“Well, my last conversation with him and my mom involved sending Skylar to private school. One that has boarding facilities.”
That wasn’t ideal. I didn’t want Skylar away from home. “Do you not like the school they had in mind?”
She sagged against the car door and folded her arms. “It's a great school. Except they have no dance program. If she was a border, she would have to give that up. My parents don’t want, and I quote, her to make the same mistakes career wise, as I did.”
Aah. “So, they want to control the two of you.”
“I think they’ve given up on me.” She looked up at me and there was no mistaking the sadness in her eyes. “But they never approved of me going into show business. It's worse that I am aperformer. I think if I went into production, they could handle that.”
Wow… while my problem was the exact opposite of hers, it seemed we both had to deal with parental disapproval.
“And dancing makes her happy?” I didn’t want Skylar to feel that just because she was good at something that she was obligated to pursue it.
A smile lit up Everly’s face. “Her whole being brightens when she’s on stage. She lights up when she thinks about choreography. Of course she works hard at it, as well, and she’s really talented. I don’t know if she’ll do it forever but if she wanted to, she’s the one in a million that could make a career out of it.”
Everly pointed to the entrance of the building. “Here she comes. Shit, I forgot I’m dropping Jason at home.”
I looked at where she was pointing. Skylar looked very different in a pair of black sweats and a hoodie with her hair pulled back into a neat bun. Alongside her was a boy, probably about the same age as her and approximately the same height. He was also wearing a pair of sweats and a hoodie.
My body tensed at seeing that kid smile and laugh with my daughter. I needed to know more about him.
“Who’s that?”
“Jason Towers.” Everly didn’t sound concerned at all. “He’s her Ballroom and Latin dance partner. Like her, he also does ballet, tap, and hip hop.”
The kid sounded like an overachiever to me. “Dance partner?”
Everly turned to face me. She rushed her words, obviously not wanting the kids to hear her. “You will not intimidate that boy. They’re friends and dance partners and not at all interested in each other.”
Well, that was something. And if he was a dancer, chances are he had to put up with a fair amount of bullying. I was not going to make that kid’s life harder. “Fine, I’ll be nice. For now.”
“Hey, mom.” Skylar frowned between me and her mother. “Why are you and Noah fetching me together? And why are you using Nick’s car?”
“We’ll talk about that at home.” She looked over at the boy. “Hey, Jason.”
“Hey, Miss H.” Jason opened the back door and held it as Skylar stepped in.
I lifted a brow and did the same for Everly. No way was some twelve or thirteen-year-old going to show me up. Everly rolled her eyes but got into the car without a word.
In between Everly directing me to Jason’s house, the kids gave us a blow-by-blow of their dance class. Apparently, Skylar’s idea to combine a song from The Sound of Music with one of Gwen Stefani’s songs was approved for some freestyle number. Their ballet teacher would help them choreograph one part, and they’d already got the thumbs up from their hip-hop teacher.
By the time we’d dropped Jason at home, I understood the friendship a little more. Jason was just as passionate as Skylar was about dance. I guessed he didn’t have many guy friends and therefore his friendship with my daughter was very important to him. I was not going to interfere with that.
When I pulled into the driveway of the big house, I looked over at Everly. “This is where you live?”
Her eyes narrowed and that brow knitted. “Wait, you've been in Marina De Ferrier for weeks and you haven’t heard of Forte Femme?”
“I think we’ve established that a number of people have been careful with what they say around the two of us.”
“True.” She tilted her head to the side. “Cassie rents it out like a boarding house of sorts. A few good women have lived hereover the last few years. Bex Salinger rents one of the rooms at the moment. I, however, have rented the cottage at the back since Skylar was a baby. It has two bedrooms and it’s private.”
Skylar opened the back door. “Enough chatter you two. Let’s get inside so you two can drop whatever bomb you think needs to be dropped.”
We both turned to her in the back seat. Everly was the one to speak up. “What makes you think we have a bomb to drop?”
“Please.” I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to roll their eyes any wider than Skylar at that moment. “If you think no one could feel the tension, you’re mistaken. Even Jason could feel it. And he's a boy, he doesn’t usually pick on these things.”
