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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Teagan swirledand jumped into Tristan’s arms. She pushed him away and swiveled her hips to the loud beats that filled the dance studio. She surrendered herself to the only outlet she had left after breaking up with Devlin and getting into a fight with her family.
It had been weeks since she last saw Devlin in his room at the clubhouse.
Three weeks of silence.
Twenty-one days of heartbreak.
Five hundred and four hours of questioning herself if she did the right thing by calling him out on his bullshit.
“Hey, are you all right?” Tristan held his hand on her shoulder and she immediately took a step back.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just tired. Do you think we could call it a night? Maybe rehearse that final bit tomorrow?”
“Sure. We’ve got it covered for the showcase this Friday. We can go out for a drink? Maybe discuss the dance over some tequila?”
That wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. Tristan was a nice guy, but he needed to stop asking her out. She saw that three of the other dancers in the dance studio were packing up their things, so she also wanted to head out. Tristan wasn’t really making her feel unsafe, but he wasn’t getting her gentle brush off, either.
“Hey, guys. We’re going for a drink at this bar Jazzy found yesterday. Want to join us?” one of the other dancers, David, asked them.
Tristan ducked his head, retrieving his towel, so she couldn’t read him.
“I’m in!” she said as she grabbed her duffel bag.
“Cool, T.” Jazzy said.
She picked up her phone and called Ryan. Things were still awkward between them. If she were honest, things weren’t all that great at home between Teagan and the rest of the Moore family.
Her dad had nodded his head when she came home that night of the break-up. She’d called a cab from the clubhouse to take her to the farm. Her father sat at the kitchen table with his whiskey and didn’t ask her a thing as he got back to reading his stupid newspaper.
She didn’t answer questions from Mae about Devlin. She wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of saying ‘I told you so’. So she’d kept to herself and cried herself to sleep in bed.
“Ryan.”
She remembered how Devlin had picked up his phone exactly like her brother, by only stating his name.
“Hey, Ry. I know you’re supposed to pick me up at the Dance Academy, but would it be all right if I would go hang out with a few other dancers at a bar nearby?”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll head over to Lucky’s. Call me if you need me to pick you up, okay?”
She nodded. “Okay… Thanks, Ry.”
She went to turn off her phone when Ryan said, “Take your time, sis. It will be good for you to hang out with people your age.”
Just when she thought he was being nice, he needed to throw that in. ‘People your age’. His comment was just another reminder that he still disapproved of her time with a much older biker.
After hanging up the phone, she huffed a breath. It was time to look out for an apartment or something. She had enough of her wallowing and taking cheap shots from her brother. And she definitely had enough of the cold shoulder from her dad.
She would ask the other dancers if they perhaps knew of a place she could rent. If she would stay at the farm and continue to let them treat her like a child that needed to be dealt with and chided, then her family would never see her as an adult. She needed to clack the heels of her dancing shoes and walk towards a new chapter in her life.
The one thing she had Devlin to thank for was making her see that she was finally ready to spread her wings. She could keep complaining about being treated like the baby of the family, but she hadn’t exactly showed them she could hack it on her own either.
Devlin was the first guy she’d opened up to after the miscarriage seven years ago. It showed her she wasn’t broken inside. She just needed to find the right man who wanted a real future with her. Not a real great time right now.
“Okay. I’m in,” Teagan said.
Jazzy slid her arm over her shoulder and said, “Yes! We’re going to have so much fun! Come, T. Let’s head for the showers. See you boys in fifteen,” Jazzy said.
