Graceful Scars Read online

  “Sorry,” I smiled shyly as Talon smoothed a strand of hair behind my ear. I could feel the warmth of his breath dance across my face.

  “You don’t have to apologize.” He sat back on the floor, resting his arms across his knees so that his hands were hanging in front of his legs.

  Awkward should have been my middle name because I had no clue what to say next. Talon must have known this because he stood and offered me a hand to help me up from the couch. “I should probably be going, it’s pretty late.” That’s when I noticed what time it actually was; a couple minutes past midnight.

  “Holy smokes! How long have I been asleep?” I whispered so I wouldn’t wake Zoey.

  “About as long as I had been.” Talon laughed as he ran his hand up and down the back of his head. “Thanks for letting her stay; she doesn’t have many people in her life.”

  His words caused tears to flood my eyes. I managed to choke them back before they threatened to spill over, but the thought of Zoey—and even Talon—not having many people in their lives broke my heart. I knew Talon was raising Zoey because Adalynn had spilled that can of beans one day, but Talon had never said anything like he just had to me before. I wasn’t sure if it was because our lives were beginning to intertwine together more or if he had let it slip; either way I knew exactly how he felt. Yes, I had Adalynn by my side and I was close to my parents even though they were on the opposite of the country as me but I still felt alone more often than not.

  As we walked to the door we both fell silent. I almost built up the nerve to ask Talon to stay, but where would he sleep? Zoey was going to have to share a bed with me since my spare bedroom was more of a storage room than an actual bedroom so I didn’t think adding Talon to the mix would be the best idea. Offering up a couch for him to crash on probably wouldn’t be very appealing either considering he most likely had a comfortable bed at his place. As he opened the door he stopped in the doorway and turned to face me.

  “I’ll stop by early in the morning to pick her up.”

  “Actually, just bring her bag to dance tomorrow. I’d like to keep her until then—if that’s okay, I mean,” I rushed the last of my sentence in case I was stepping on any toes.

  “Really?!” He stepped forward with the biggest grin on his face that had me smiling back just as big.

  “Yes, really. I like having her around, and I have some things planned before class tomorrow.”

  Talon’s smile began to fade as he stepped even closer to me. My back was pressing against the island and my arms hung loosely at my sides. His dark eyes were piercing me where I stood as he brought one of his hands up, running it across my cheek before burying it into my hair and pressing his lips against mine. My brain was seconds away from short-circuiting when I felt his tongue flick against my bottom lip, begging for entrance to my mouth, so I gave it.

  My hands found their way onto Talon’s biceps before moving up slowly to lock around his neck as he bent over just enough so I wouldn’t have to tip-toe to reach. The movement of his mouth against mine was slow and sensual, not demanding or rough, and it sent a shiver through my body that was new to me. I wasn’t sure how long we stood there intertwined in one another before he broke our moment and placed a long kiss against my forehead. I slowly opened my eyes to look up at him. His eyes were even darker than usual but were also shining with happiness.

  “I should go.” His voice was barely audible as I slid my arms down his until I could wrap them securely around his waist. I rested my head against his chest as he wrapped his arms around me, placing his head against the top of mine. It was like we were made perfectly for one another.

  “Goodnight, Talon.” I stepped back from our embrace.

  He leaned down and kissed my forehead once more before turning and walking to the still-open front door, stopping with his hand on the doorknob. Looking at me over his shoulder a small grin tipped up the corner of his lips, “Sleep well, Tegan.” And with that he shut the door and I sunk back against the counter to catch my breath.

  “Boys have cooties, so brush extra long before bed,” Zoey’s sleep-filled voice sprang to life.

  A laugh erupted from me before I could stop it. “You, little missy, are going back to sleep.” I walked back into the living room, turned off the television, and picked up Zoey’s bag from the floor.

  Surprisingly Zoey didn’t ramble off a million questions like she usually would. Being sleepy must be the only way to get her to be quiet, but I knew she was following me back to my bedroom from the pitter patter of her tiny feet against the wood floors of the hallway. A small yawn escaped her which had me yawning myself.

  “Did you like the movie?” I asked as I pulled back the comforter on the bed and pointed to the bathroom attached to my room for Zoey to go change in.

  “It was funny.” She chuckled at the thought of the movie and pulled her duffle bag by its handle into the bathroom. I’m sure the thing weighed more than she did.

  “Good.” I turned on the bedside lamp before turning off the overhead light. “You’re not afraid of the dark or anything, are you?”

  “Nope.” She popped the P loudly as she came walking out wearing a leopard print onesie-style pajama.

  “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you love animal print.”

  “Yep.” She popped the P loudly again. I chuckled at her short answers. A sleepy Zoey was almost as adorable as a wide awake bouncing off the walls Zoey.

  She hoisted herself up into my bed and I pulled her side of the covers up around her neck before climbing into my side and doing the same for me. “Goodnight, Zoey,” I said as I clicked the lamp off.

  “Night,” her tiny self replied.

  My mind wouldn’t shut off. After what had happened, the feel of Talon’s lips were still lingering on mine and I had no idea where it put us. I didn’t do the whole relationship thing, hell, I could hardly even talk to men before him and suddenly I was actually kissing one. I shook my head and touched my lips with my fingers. I couldn’t help the goofy grin that had my cheeks hurting from staying on my face for so long.

  “I told you Talon likes you,” Zoey piped up out of nowhere, like she was reading my mind.

  “Oh, go to sleep!” I laughed at her and gently smacked her in the head with a throw pillow I was hugging causing her to erupt in a fit of giggles.

  Chapter Four

  The sound of clattering coming from the kitchen woke me from the best sleep I had experienced in a long time. Without opening my eyes I reached over and found Zoey’s side of the bed empty; obviously she was the culprit in the kitchen. When her little voice started singing some new pop song I dragged myself out of the bed and stretched my arms above my head before heading towards all the noise. I rounded the corner into the kitchen and found Zoey sitting at the island with a stack of pancakes in front of her and another beside her.

  “Good morning!” She smiled brightly at me. What seven-year-old was a morning person?!

  “Did you make those?” I pointed to the delicious-smelling pancakes.

  “Yep.”

  “Where did you learn how to cook?” I had never in my life known a seven-year-old that could cook anything, much less pancakes.

  “I just started doing it.” She shrugged her shoulders like it was nothing and crammed a large bite of pancakes into her small mouth.

  It was easy to decipher what Zoey was actually saying. She had learned to cook and clean while Talon took care of bringing in the money they needed to survive. I didn’t know what their back story was, but I was hoping Talon would open up fully to me some time soon. I wanted—no, I needed—to know why it was just the two of them.

  “I made extra,” Zoey said through a mouth full of pancakes.

  “Thank you.” I patted the top of her head as I walked past her to make myself a plate. “So what do you want to do today?” I gave her the option of creating our agenda until dance class in the afternoon.

  “I dunno.” She shrugged again, giving her pancake
s a nice stab with her fork.

  “Well, you think about it and if something sounds good to you, let me know.” I placed a hand on her arm that was resting on the counter before I began to dig into the pancakes she had fixed.

  As we both silently devoured our pancakes I couldn’t believe how good the damn things were. Zoey had many talents for her age, hell she had more talents than most people my age. I stood from my chair and collected our plates as she cleaned up the mess from making them. As we finished up putting everything away and wiping everything down she turned towards me and nervously began wringing her hands together.

  “What’s up?” I pointed to what she was doing with her hands. When she realized that I knew she was nervous about something she turned away from me, walked into the living room, and sat down on the couch without saying a word.

  “Zoey?” I called out to her without moving from my spot beside the refrigerator.

  “Yeah.” She even sounded nervous. I crossed the room and took a seat beside her on the couch. Flipping a strand of her long chestnut brown hair over her shoulder I asked her again what was going on. The response I got wasn’t one I expected. “I wanted to ask you if you would learn a dance routine with me, but I know you get scared of dancing.”

  Scared of dancing? It didn’t take long for it all to sink in. Zoey had been a witness to a couple of my flip-out sessions. The first time I met her I had gone into a pretty bad episode because of Talon putting his hands on me to try and help me up from the floor when I had fallen. Apparently I had terrified Zoey to the point of her not wanting to ask me to dance with her. My heart was aching in my chest from it all. I adored this little girl, and would do just about anything for her.

  “Zoey, honey, I didn’t get scared of dancing. If you want to learn a dance with me then I would be honored to do so.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her into my chest so I could fully hug her.

  “Really?!” She almost jumped from my arms with excitement.

  “Yes, really.” I laughed and kissed the top of her head. “Go get your butt ready so we can head to the studio.”

  Zoey hopped up from the couch and took off running into my room like a bat out of hell as I slouched back against the cushions behind me. “Please, give me the strength to have a good day,” I pleaded quietly out loud to myself.

  I flipped the light switch and we watched the studio come to life. Zoey took off running past me to the set of bleachers lining the wall to the right of the entrance and sat down to change her shoes. She always lit up when she stepped foot into Graceful Moves; it reminded me of how I used to feel about my studio, about dancing. My light had since burnt out, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy the happiness it brought others.

  I slipped off the jogging pants and jacket I had put on over my leotard and placed them on the chair right inside my office door. Wearing a jacket had been a good idea. The wind was rather chilly most of the time in Chicago even if the temperature was a decent degree.

  “Do ya have a song picked out, Zoey?” I asked as she met me in the center of the floor.

  “Yeah.” She bounced up and down on her toes.

  “Well, go put it on!” I pointed towards the stereo system and she took off running in its direction. She had a way of brightening even the worst of days.

  A few seconds later and the studio was engulfed with the sounds of Taylor Swift’s latest song Shake It Off. A loud laugh ripped from my lungs causing Zoey to stop dead in her tracks. She placed her hands on her hips and squared her little shoulders.

  “You better not be a Swift hater!” The sternness in her statement made me laugh even harder.

  “I’m—I’m not!” I bent over, placing my hands on my knees because of the severity of the tension in my stomach from the continuous laughter. “I love Taylor Swift.” I laughed in-between my words.

  “Then what?!” Zoey threw her hands up in the air and finished walking to the center of the floor where I was standing.

  I really couldn’t give her much a reason for my laughter except I knew that she would choose an upbeat song. But I wasn’t expecting Taylor as her choice.

  “I knew you would pick an upbeat song.” I hugged her against my side and wiped the tears from my laughter away. “Okay, do you have a routine in mind or do you want to work on something together?” I knew giving her free rein would make her feel special, and I didn’t mind since it was her idea from the get go.

  Before I could fully finish my sentence Zoey started the song over with the remote, stuck it in her pocket and started dancing to the song. I fell into step and followed her movements as the song continued on. Saying that I was amazed by her choreography was an understatement. Zoey was pouring all kinds of emotions into the song, making the message behind it stand out even more than by simply listening to it. Listening to Zoey talk me through some of the steps was too cute, and the thought of passing down the studio to her someday filled my mind. She adored dance; lived and breathed it. Dancers like her had inspired my original feelings about my studio: pride, love, and accomplishment instead of sadness and uncertainty.

  We ran through the song five times before taking a break. The two of us were famished so we headed to a local burger joint a couple blocks down from the studio. Zoey ate an unbelievably-sized cheeseburger while I settled on my usual ranch chicken wrap and chocolate milkshake. We walked back, sipping on our milkshakes. It was a good thing I forced Zoey to put a jacket on because the wind was brutal as it blew in between the buildings we passed.

  “Do you like my brother?” Zoey asked casually before she took another slurp from her milkshake.

  My steps faltered as I almost choked on my milkshake. She was a very observant seven-year-old and seemed to like to throw out questions at the worst times. Not that any time would be a good time to answer that one. How could I tell her that I had feelings for her brother when I hadn’t even told him? Was I going to tell him? I unzipped my jacket and quickly pulled it off; for some reason my temperature had seemed to spike, I could only imagine why.

  “Yeah, we’re friends.”

  Zoey started skipping backwards so she could face me. “Not what I meant!” She smiled widely as she continued to skip.

  “You’re going to fall if you don’t watch where you’re going,” I changed the subject at hand. She stopped dead in her tracks, almost causing me to walk into her and placed her hands on her tiny little hips.

  “Do you like my brother or not?” She stomped her foot at the end, trying to seem more intense than a seven-year-old wearing a hot pink tutu, black and white polka dot leggings and a black leotard could look. I wanted to laugh, but knew one of two things would happen; she would get angry or think I was making fun of her, when neither were the truth.

  “Zoey…” I warned her.

  “Tegan…” She mocked me.

  Sassy little seven-year-old…

  I walked past her without saying another word. If she wanted to be Miss Sassy Pants, I decided that I didn’t have to answer her. Real adult like, huh? What can I say!

  “Wait up!” Zoey called out. I could hear her shoes slapping against the concrete as she ran to catch up to me. I smiled to myself because I had won. It’s the small victories in life.

  When the front parking lot to Graceful Moves came into view I noticed quite a few cars parked. Checking my phone for the time I almost fell over. It was time for some of the students to be arriving for class! I had been so caught up in spending time with Zoey that I had lost track of the day. As we passed some of the cars I noticed no one was in them, which meant Adalynn had to be inside. I sighed in relief because I would have felt awful if parents had to wait on me to let them in when there wasn’t a major situation at hand.

  As I opened the door the sounds of children laughing and singing flooded my ears, making me smile. I loved that sound. Even though the darkness consumed me in this studio at times, that sound brought me back to the light. I hated to think where I would be without each and every student at Gra
ceful Moves.

  “There you two are!” Adalynn waved from just outside my office door. Zoey waved back and took off skipping in the direction of the other children in her age group. I would be lying if I said I didn’t scan the room for Talon. But the hope I was feeling quickly deflated when I couldn’t find him.

  “Here we are.” I held my hands out to my sides as I reached where Adalynn was standing.

  “How did you end up with Zoey today?” Adalynn raised an inquisitive eyebrow at me as I passed her in the doorway to enter the office.

  Temporarily ignoring her question while I attempted to get my bearings in order, I took a seat at my desk and fumbled through the stack of papers in front of me. Deciding to just hit her with all the information I knew about Talon and I, I brought my head up to look at her. “Well—” I stopped myself from going any further with the conversation because there stood Talon wearing a navy blue Henley and light colored jeans.

  I took in every inch of his gorgeous frame before Adalynn turned around to see what I was gawking at. “Talon!” She stepped towards him so they could hug. I fidgeted in my seat just enough for him to notice as he smiled over her shoulder and shot me a wink.

  It’s a wee bit hot in here.

  Heat engulfed my cheeks as I smiled back at him stepping out of Adalynn’s embrace. I quickly discarded my jacket and draped it over the back of my chair.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute, Tegan?” Talon asked, never taking his eyes from mine.