Anything for Her(105)

“You can’t know that.”

“I do. It was like...like shaking a bottle. All the bad stuff rose from the bottom.”

He laughed, but not altogether happily. “I wish I could say that’s what I meant to do, Allie. But we both know better.”

She heard the sound of her mother weeping. When she looked, she saw that neither Jason nor Mom had moved. He held her, his head bent over hers. Allie’s grip on Nolan’s big hand tightened.

“I love you.” The words trembled with her intensity.

“And I love you, Allie the dancing girl,” he said, very deliberately, never looking away from her.

“Not the dancing girl anymore.”

His smile was slow but sure, like Nolan himself. “Yeah, you are. Every step you take, every movement, is part of a dance. I figure, clumsy as I am, I got real lucky to be picked as your partner.”

Although her eyes were stinging, she was smiling, too. “In dance, the male role is to lift the female dancer. He helps her fly. That’s what you do for me, Nolan. And I always feel safe with you.”

He climbed another step so he could wrap his arms around her. “Funny thing is, sometimes lately I think you’ve taken me flying with you.” He kissed her with tenderness more than passion. “Are you happy, Allie?”

Her smile bloomed until she didn’t think it could get any bigger.

Past Nolan, Sean waited at the foot of the stairs, his hand on Cassie’s head. Both gazed anxiously upward. There was Nolan, his eyes so blue and intent on her. And when Allie turned, she saw that her brother had his arm around their mother and they’d turned. Mom was laughing through her tears. And Jason...the look in his eyes could have broken Allie’s heart, if it wasn’t also so amazing.

“I didn’t know it was possible to be so happy,” she told Nolan. She kissed his cheek and then called to Sean, “Come up here and meet my brother.”