Page 12 of An Unexpected Home

At Melanie’s confused look she expanded. “I come into town and all of a sudden you are AWOL.”

Leah and Carly hadn’t gone to bed until after midnight and Melanie still hadn’t been home yet.

“Yeah, sorry about that. My OCD won’t let me just wait till the last minute to do things.”

Leah knew exactly what she meant because for years that was how she had been. But something had happened when her life had turned upside down. It was like her brain decided it could finally rest.

“I’ve been there,” was all she said.

Melanie looked basically the same as she had when Leah had met her at eighteen. Tall, slender with legs for days. It made sense considering she had been a ballerina but damn if the girl hadn’t aged even a day.

“How the hell do you still look amazing at twenty-eight?”

Melanie laughed. “My outside may look good but my insides are like a hundred. Everything on me hurts all the time.”

“From dancing?” she asked.

“Yep. The price I pay I guess for all those years of putting my body through hell.”

Silence passed between them as Leah sipped her coffee and Melanie finished cooking her eggs.

“I didn't get a chance yesterday to really ask how you are doing?” Melanie said.

“Is shitty a good answer?”

Melanie laughed. “Damn straight it is.”

“Well then shitty with a side of getting better every day.”

“I admire how strong you are. I think I would crumble into pieces and just let the rain wash those pieces away.”

“I kinda felt like that at first.” She moved around the counter and took a seat on one of the stools. “But then I remembered that I didn’t do anything. None of it was my fault. So I had to force myself to get up every day and try and live my life.”

Melanie leaned her hip against the counter and started to eat her eggs. “I’m happy you are choosing to live it here. Carly and I really need your business expertise to get the studio up and running. Dancers do not make good business owners.”

“I think you guys would have been fine without me but I am so grateful for the job and the place to live.”

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After breakfast and once Carly finally woke up, they headed into town where Leah got her first look at the new dance studio, Dragonfly Dance. It was located right off the main strip but was still within walking distance for anyone who lived right in town.

“This is a great location,” she said as she walked around the outside of the building taking it all in. “What was this building before?”

“A plumbing company owned it about five years ago but it has been sitting empty since then,” Carly said.

“Wanna see the inside?” Melanie asked.

“Lead the way.”

Inside Leah looked around at the huge space and all that had already been done to it. It was blocked off into four separate areas and a hallway dividing them down the middle. At the start of the hallway was what looked like it was going to be an office.

“Wow you guys, this is awesome.”

“There are two studios on each side,” Melanie pointed out, “with one large one and one small one on each side.”

“And this is the office,” Carly said, pointing to what she had seen.

“It’s pretty big,” she said.

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