Page 106 of Just Like Home

His eyes darted to hers. “Josh forgot about rehearsal. He’s got the kids out at the pool—wants to know if he should bring her now.”

“Is she having fun?”

Cole texted Charlotte’s question.

Josh replied with a photo of Amelia and AJ in the pool, both wearing the same wide grin.

He turned the phone around and showed his response to Charlotte.

She smiled. “Let her stay. We’ll reschedule.”

“You sure?” Cole asked. “I hate that we wasted your time.”

She smiled. “It wasn’t a waste. I have a better idea of what I’m working with now.”

“And you haven’t given up yet?”

She shrugged. “You’re not completely hopeless.”

He took a step away. “I can’t even believe I’m doing this.”

“Just rememberwhyyou’re doing it.”

He texted Josh back to let him know that he didn’t need to bring Amelia, then watched as Charlotte moved across the studio with a quiet elegance that he was sure had been ingrained in her from the start. He thought about her letter to Julianna, the box of letters that he’d unloaded into his spare room, and he wondered how many other things she’d never done. All the things that came with attending high school and college—dances and parties and high school football games. She’d apparently never had a cinnamon roll until he came along, and today was the first day she’d received flowers from a man.

He probably shouldn’t be excited to have been that man, but he was.

After she mentioned at dinner that she’d never dated anybody, he’d spent more time thinking about that than he cared to admit. How did someone make it what had to be almost thirty years without a single date? Especially someone who looked like Charlotte. It seemed impossible.

And maybe that was the reason he wanted to protect her. Maybe he didn’t want her to stumble on a guy like Max, someone who was married when he met Gemma and still started an affair. Someone who continued that affair long after Gemma got married, as if he couldn’t pick between his wife and his girlfriend, as if he shouldn’t have to.

But he wasn’t the only guilty party in that scenario, was he? And Charlotte was nothing like Gemma.

“Okay, so, what? Practice again later this week?” Cole asked, shoving the thoughts aside. “I’ll bring Amelia with me next time.”

“Tomorrow.” Charlotte took off her dance shoes and pulled a pair of sandals from a bag leaning against the wall.

“So, is this an everyday thing?”

“This recital is only a month away.” She quirked a brow up at him, and he heard what she was too polite to say. If the goal was to keep him from making a fool of himself, then yes, they had to practice daily. He gave her a nod and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Does this time work? We can make it a standing date,” she said.

“Yep.”

She stood and slung the bag over her shoulder. “Great.”

“Great.”

They stared at each other for a long, awkward moment.

“I’ll walk you out,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said quietly. She picked up the bouquet, and they walked out of the studio, then down the hallway to the lobby. She stopped in front of a framed photo of Julianna, surrounded by little girls dressed up as ballerinas. Jules’s face was bright and happy, exactly the way Cole remembered her.

She’d loved being here, in this studio. She loved to dance, and sharing that love with her students gave her life meaning.

Her image looked back at him, eyes bright and kind, not a trace of inauthenticity anywhere. And even though Julianna’s passion could sometimes get her in trouble—she was a bit of a hothead, after all—his sister loved with her whole heart. She did everything she could to make the world a better place.

---