“Thanks, Dad.” I hug him, and he wraps his arm around my side.
“Have her home by midnight,” my dad warns him.
“I can do that, sir.”
“Good. Now have fun, but not too much fun.”
“Dad,” I cry. “Stop it.”
He chuckles and heads back toward the kitchen.
I spot Harlow and Meredith peeking around the corner and give them a small wave before stepping outside with Jasper.
I close the door behind us and look up at him. “I’m sorry about that.”
He chuckles. “I wouldn’t have expected anything less.”
I look down at the flowers in my hands. “Oh, let me take these back in. I’ll be right back.”
Upon opening the door, two forms fall to the floor. “Really, guys?” I glare at my sister and best friend.
“Again, wouldn’t expect anything less,” Jasper pipes in with a laugh.
“Here, take these and make yourself useful.” I hand the flowers to Meredith and promptly close the door again.
“Let’s get out of here before we have two, maybe three, stowaways.
“I like the way you think.”
We walk side by side to his Jeep and he opens the passenger door for me.
“You look beautiful, by the way. You always are.” He brushes his fingers over my cheek and then tucks one of the loose strands of hair behind my ear.
“Thank you,” I whisper, glowing beneath his praise. I don’t need him, or any guy, to tell me I’m beautiful. Even though some days I feel like a troll, I know in my heart I’m pretty, everybody is. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel good to hear it.
Climbing up into the Jeep is normally difficult—in heels, it’s impossible.
“Let me help,” Jasper says. Before I can protest, his hands are on my waist and he lifts me up into the seat. “Need me to buckle you in too?” he jokes, smiling crookedly.
“No, I’m good,” I squeak, and reach for the seatbelt before he can get any ideas.
Jasper climbs in and looks at me. “Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I shrug.
I feel apprehensive about what he has planned, but I keep reminding myself I can’t be that scared little girl who sits at home by herself anymore. Going somewhere like this is completely out of my comfort zone and that’s exactly why I need to do it. Complacency is okay for a bit, but after a while it’s stifling. Being nervous or afraid is a natural emotion—you can’t avoid it, you might as well embrace it. I want to be able to say I lived, that I did, I don’t want to say I sat by idly and watched it happen. I want to be a part of things.
“You’re going to have fun, I promise you,” he assures me.
It’s weird being with him like this, I don’t think this is an actual date, however maybe it is since I’m clueless when it comes to this kind of thing, but it’s nice too. I haven’t known him long, but he’s easy to be around and he gets me. It’s rare to find someone like that I think.
“Just don’t let me make a fool of myself.” I laugh lightly, the sound twinkling with the hesitation of my nerves.
I haven’t danced in so long, and never this kind of dancing, but as I sit in his Jeep my body vibrates with the need to move, to flow, to get lost in the music. Giving up on dance might’ve been one of the worst decisions of my life, but at the time it was what I had to do. I was so tired and weak, not myself at all, that I had no energy or passion left to give it. The dialysis seemed to suck the literal life out of my bone
s and then, when I did feel better, it felt like too much time had passed to bother going back. It was easier to stay away than to fight my way back into dance.
Jasper doesn’t drive for long before he turns into a lot outside a building I’d probably never normally notice during the day. The outside is a gray color, blending in with the other similarly shaped buildings around it. This one, however, in the growing darkness, is lit up with a sign on the outside. It’s not a word, but a simple wave design. It’s large, taking up most of the wall facing us. There’s a line of people outside waiting to get in.