Juliette blew out a breath and considered her response. “Believe me, I’ve thought about it. I’m not sure getting involved with anyone right now is a good idea.” She waited for Candace’s attempt to change her mind. It was something Holly or several of her other friends would do in this situation.
“Fair enough. I won’t bring it up again, but think about it.”
Oh, Aaron would pop into her thoughts whether Candace mentioned him again or not. Whether she’d change her mind about asking him out, though, was anyone’s guess. “Did you hear back from the parks and rec office?”
The last time she’d joined the family for dinner, Candace mentioned she’d left another message with the director there.
Nodding, Candace sighed. “Yesterday. The high school and middle school gyms are booked until June for a spring basketball league. And the elementary gym is being used for senior yoga and futsal. Sandy and I have the high school gym every Saturday for three hours in June and July. My daughter wasn’t happy when I told her.”
When she was Tiegan’s age, anything more than a week or two felt like a lifetime away. “That stinks.”
It doesn’t hurt to ask. The half-baked idea had popped into her head over the weekend and refused to leave. One of the reasons she’d come up here was to make some decisions about her life. She’d always loved dancing. Even now, she sometimes missed it. So maybe the crazy idea bouncing around in her head deserved some serious thought. And the question on the tip of her tongue would factor into any long-term decisions she made.
“Before it clo
sed, did the dance school in town have a lot of students?”
“Probably between two hundred and fifty to three hundred. Not only kids from Avon danced there. We had a decent number of students from Ashford and a few from Danielson. The studio was much smaller when I started dancing there.”
The schools she’d trained at had been bigger, but she’d also grown up much closer to Boston. However, two hundred and fifty students would be enough to keep a small dance school in business. “What happened to the space when the owner retired?” A location already set up as a studio would make opening a new one a much quicker and possibly less expensive process.
“It’s been for sale since Merry retired. I don’t think anyone has looked at it. Why?”
Juliette shrugged slightly and reached for her drink. At the moment, she didn’t care to share her crazy notion with anyone. “Just curious.”
Coming around the bend in the driveway, Aaron spotted Juliette’s car parked out front. The sight of it didn’t surprise him. She’d become a frequent visitor over the past week and a half. Sometimes she joined them for dinner, and other times she got baking lessons from his sister. Considering the time of day, either was a possible reason for her current visit.
After parking in the garage, Aaron grabbed his jacket and computer bag from the back seat. He’d had a meeting with Stephen, his department head, at work today, so he’d spent the day working in Boston rather than at home. As much as he enjoyed the convenience of working from home, sometimes it was nice to go into the office. It not only gave him a change of scenery, but it allowed him to see his coworkers somewhere other than on a computer monitor. If it didn’t involve dealing with the traffic into and out of the city, he’d do it more often.
The scent of something fresh-baked greeted him when he entered the kitchen. Both his sister and Juliette sat at the counter chatting away. They each had empty plates in front of them, and he hoped they hadn’t finished whatever they’d baked.
“Hi,” he said, closing the door into the garage.
“You’re home earlier than I expected,” his sister said after both women greeted him.
When he spent the day working in Boston, it was anyone’s guess when he’d get home. Since he’d arrived at the office long before just about everyone else today, he’d left right after his meeting with Stephen to avoid the worst of the traffic.
“Is there any more of what you baked left?” He’d eaten a rather early lunch and nothing since.
Candace pointed toward some kind of cake on the counter near them. “Have you thought about greeting your eyes checked?”
Although there were pieces missing, the majority of the cake remained. Perhaps if his eyes hadn’t been so focused on their guest, he would’ve seen it himself. It didn’t seem to matter how many times he saw Juliette, he had trouble looking at anything but her when they were in the same room.
“I’ll add it to my to-do list.” After leaving his stuff on a kitchen chair, he got a dish from the cupboard. “What is it?” He pointed toward the cake with a knife. He didn’t wait for an answer before cutting into it, because, in the end, it didn’t really matter. When it came to food, he wasn’t fussy, and it smelled great.
“Lemon-blueberry upside down cake,” Juliette answered. Her voice pulled all his attention her way. “Today’s baking lesson.”
He didn’t bother with a fork. Instead, he ripped a chunk off the slice he’d cut and popped it in his mouth. “It’s delicious.”
His compliment earned him an immediate smile from Juliette, and for a moment, he could not look at anything but her.
“I planned to order pizza for dinner tonight. Anything specific you want?”
Candace’s voice broke whatever spell their guest’s smile put him under. He dropped his gaze toward the cake and ripped off another piece. “Whatever is fine. You know what I like.”
“Do you want to stay and eat with us?” His sister pulled out the menu for Bruno’s Pizza and opened it.
Juliette shook her head, causing the few pieces of hair that had escaped her braid to sway. “Not tonight, thanks.” She tucked the stray pieces behind her ears the way he wanted to. “But if you don’t mind, I’ll take a piece of cake home with me.”