Page 53 of Painting Together a Family
That had Bryan chuckling. “Are you ready to go back to school tomorrow?”
“No, but we need to. I have a math test in second period.” She rolled her eyes, so dramatic.
“Are you ready for it? Done all your studying?” Bryan asked.
Juni shot him a look. “Are yousureyou’re not a teacher?”
Bryan just laughed.
“I did. I’m good at school. It’s dance I suck at.”
“Marley! You do not!” She loved dancing and threw herself into it wholeheartedly.
“I do too—Madame says so.”
Dev’s lips tightened. “You know, baby, I’ve already told you, we have options, and that old bat isn’t the end all and be all of dance.”
Marley was way farther ahead in her piano lessons, but she had loved to dance.
“How about trying hip-hop or jazz or something totally new?” While he went and bit that old biddy. It was one thing not to believe a kid was ever going to be at the top of the game, quite another to dash their dreams like that.
“I’ve always liked square dancing,” Bryan said, glancing at Marley out of the corner of his eyes.
Marley glared. “No stupid folk dances, I don’t think. I want to be good at it.”
“I was teasing you, honey,” Bryan told her. “I don’t expect you to want to do square dancing. But there’s all kinds of dancing out there, you know? Have you watched thatSo You Think You Can Danceshow? They do all kinds of dancing on that, and you could see if any of them appeal to you.”
“I just—I like to dance, but I can’t give up piano. Ican’t.”
No, his girl felt about her piano like he felt about his paint. “You should show Bryan the music room. We hadn’t gotten there yet.” It was technically one of the six bedrooms, but they didn’t need it for that, and it had been easy to turn it into a conservatory, even if that was an old-fashioned name for it.
“Oh? I’d love to hear you play. Maybe after we’ve finished our sandwiches?”
“Sure. I’m working on a Vivaldi piece.”
“Oh, that’s impressive. There’s a lot of notes in Vivaldi, isn’t there?” Bryan really did look impressed, bless him.
“There are! Are you a musician?”
Bryan shook his head. “But I enjoy music. Especially classical. I love putting it on while I’m working.”
“Yeah? Daddy likes to listen to rock when he paints, right?”
“I do. I like it to drive.”
Bryan chuckled at that. “I like rock music, but it and working on numbers do not go together for me.”
“There is a lot of math in music, did you know that? It’s really half math, half art,” Marley informed them.
“No way. Seriously?” Bryan asked.
Marley nodded.
“That is so cool.”
Marley’s smile was beautiful, stunning, even, and so pleased.
“So are you good at math then, too?” Bryan asked.
