Save the Last Dance

by Shelley Shepard Gray

After kind of straightening his shoulders, he spoke again, this time his voice gravelly. “I don’t know a lot about parenting, but I’m trying my best. I usually do cook something. I don’t usually sit around here and drink in front of him either.” He inhaled. “No, what I’m trying to say is I don’t drink that much. I don’t sneak alcohol either. I promise, I don’t have a drinking problem.”

  “Um, Gunnar?” Melanie said.

  But it was like the guy’s mouth was on autopilot. “And we’ve even talked about maybe getting him some more help with his schoolwork, you know, for things like chemistry, which I don’t really remember all that good. See, it’s been a real—”

  “Mr. Law,” Melanie interrupted again, this time her voice firmer.

  “Ah, yes?”

  She smiled softly. “Take a deep breath. Everything’s okay.” She pointed to the papers and her open old-fashioned calendar. “I didn’t just come over here to see how Jeremy is. I have some good news.”

  “Yes?”

  Her smile got bigger. “Gunnar, we have a tentative court date set. We have a couple more hoops to jump through, but things are looking very positive. I know your lawyer should be telling you this news, but I asked everyone if I could do the honors since Jeremy and I have been through so much . . .”

  “I’m sorry, but what?”

  “Your application for adoption has been tentatively accepted.” Her smile got bigger. “Though I need to schedule another formal interview with Jeremy and some people at his school, I was able to pull some strings and get you on the judge’s calendar.”

  “What date is it?” Jeremy asked.

  Melanie looked down at her calendar. “Right now, it’s set for January seventeenth.”

  Jeremy couldn’t believe the news. It was really going to happen. “Man.”

  Gunnar glanced his way. “January seventeenth is our date? Jeremy, does that sound good to you?”

  He had a lump in his throat and he felt like crying, but he was going to hold it together. “Yeah. You?”

  Gunnar exhaled and then he leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes.

  Worried, Jeremy looked over at Melanie. Smiling, she reached out and gripped his hand.

  When Gunnar looked at them both again, tears were in his eyes. “This . . . honestly, I can’t think of another moment in my life that can come close to this. I’m real happy, Jeremy,” he said in a hoarse drawl. “I already think of you as my son. I couldn’t love you more if you’d been mine since birth. I can’t wait for the rest of the world to know that too.”

  Gunnar loved him. Loved him like a son. Jeremy couldn’t help it. He started crying.

  Gunnar stood up, wrapped his arms around him, and pressed one of his heavy palms in the middle of his back.

  And that pressure, that touch? Well, it was all Jeremy needed to believe that his life was finally getting better. He wasn’t going to be “that foster kid” anymore. He wasn’t going to be switching houses, switching schools, just getting by.

  Taking a deep breath, he said, “January seventeenth sounds like a real fine day to become Jeremy Law.”

  Melanie, who had gotten to her feet too, folded her arms across her chest. “I’ll most likely be back in touch after the New Year. That’s when I’ll be able to officially let you boys know that we’re all set. Sound okay?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Gunnar said.

  “Me too,” Jeremy said with a grin.

  * * *

  Even though an hour had passed since Melanie left, Gunnar still looked shaken. They’d cleaned up the kitchen together, Mrs. Law had called to say she was going to be late because she was going out with her new dancing friends for dessert and coffee. Jeremy had finished up the last of his homework and texted back Phillip and Bethany.

  The whole time, he’d been kind of waiting for Gunnar to say something more, but he’d been quiet.

  Figuring Gunnar didn’t want to say anything about it after all, Jeremy started for his room.

  “Jeremy, wait.”

  He turned. “Yeah?”

  “Are you hungry?”

  Jeremy shook his head.

  “Oh. Okay. Well, um, come sit down in the living room.”

  He followed Gunnar into the room, stepping around their monster ugly tree that they’d chopped down a couple of weeks ago. Gunnar had turned on the fireplace and the room was warm and looked good.

  Jeremy sat down on the couch and waited.

  Gunnar ran a hand down his face in the way he always did when he was feeling a lot of emotion. Then he rested his elbows on his knees and kind of shook his head. “What a night, huh?” Making a face, he said, “Did I really start talking and never stop until Melanie made me?”

  “Uh, pretty much.”

  His blue eyes darted back to him. “You sure you’re going to be okay with a guy like me?”

  “A guy who sometimes lets me cook ramen for supper, doesn’t nag me all the time about the clothes on the floor, and tells the social worker and me that today is one of the best days of his life? Yeah.”

  A reluctant smile appeared. “All we needed was my mother to come in and start talking a mile a minute.”

  Jeremy grinned. “At least when she did, Melanie knew you came by all that talking naturally.”

  Gunnar laughed. “No kidding. So we should celebrate or something. Do you want to go out to eat tomorrow?”

  Jeremy thought about it, then shook his head. “Let’s wait until January seventeenth.”

  “I can do that. Get ready, though, ’cause I’m going to start telling everyone about the seventeenth. I reckon Martin, Darcy, and Andrew are all going to come here. All our friends here in Bridgeport too. Expect presents.”

  “I can do that.”

  “Good.” After another second passed, he started laughing again. “Oh, Jeremy, I . . . I was so scared. I was freaking out.”

  Jeremy laughed too. “I liked the part how you told Melanie that you didn’t have a drinking problem!”

  “Do me a favor and don’t tell my friends I said that, okay?”

  “I won’t tell a soul.” After all, they were almost official now. Some things . . . well, they needed to remain in the family.

  Their family.

  CHAPTER 22

  “Love the giver more than the gift.”

  —Brigham Young

  Staring at the rehearsal schedule that she’d just received from Miss Shannon, Bethany felt sick to her stomach. How could something she’d wanted so badly also be the same thing that could break her heart?

  The first full rehearsal of The Nutcracker was the same night as the Christmas dance. And, on the cast members’ schedule was an additional note about that specific rehearsal. Miss Shannon stated that if a cast member couldn’t make the rehearsal, they would be forfeiting their part. No exceptions.

  She was either going to have to miss the dance or quit the ballet. To make matters worse, her parents had already bought both her dress for the dance and her Sugar Plum Fairy costume. In addition, they’d also paid for her extra lessons, a new pair of toe shoes, and shoes and a purse to go with her dress for the dance. All of it had cost a ton of money. And even though neither her mom nor her dad had said much, she knew both expenses at Christmas had been a lot for them to take.

  With a feeling of dread, she took the paper she’d just printed out and searched for her mom. Bethany found her in the laundry room folding sheets.

  She looked up when Bethany peeked in. “I’m so glad to see you. Grab all your laundry and take it to your room.”

  “I will. But I need to talk to you about something first.”

  “It sounds serious.”

  “It is.”

  Looking concerned now, her mother finished folding the sheet and placed it on top of the dryer. “Where do you want to talk?”

 
“Here’s fine.” Ready to get it over with, she held up the Nutcracker schedule. “Miss Shannon emailed everyone the rehearsal schedule for the ballet.”

  “Good. We’ve been waiting for it. What’s the problem?”

  “The first full company dress rehearsal is next Saturday night.”

  “On a Saturday night?”

  “Something about it was the only time that week that she could have the theater for four hours.”

  Her mom groaned. “Four hours. You know it’s going to get stretched out until five. Those things never end on time.” She sighed. “Well, I guess we’ll make the best of it, right?”

  “Mom, next Saturday night is the dance! The Christmas dance!”

  “Oh dear.”

  Oh dear was right. Placing the schedule on the dryer, she pointed to her teacher’s note. “Look at what she wrote.”

  “All performers have to attend. No excuses . . .” She sighed. “Students who miss will be cut from the cast . . .” She whistled softly. “This is pretty harsh for a bunch of kids, don’t you think?”

  “Yes.” Then, remembering just how many people tried to get out of stuff, Bethany added, “I guess she doesn’t have a choice, though. I mean, otherwise, half the cast would be gone. The other day before class I overheard a mother tell Shannon that they had a special shopping trip planned so her daughter was going to miss practice.”

  “I feel for both the mom and Miss Shannon. Christmas is a tough time to have a dance recital. But I have to side with your teacher on this one. It’s impossible to fine tune dances when people are missing.”

  “Yeah.” Bethany hated even agreeing that much.

  Looking worried, she said, “I think you know what you have to do.”

  “I have to call Jeremy and tell him that I can’t go to the dance.”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid so. You’ve made a commitment and you have a role that you’ve been working hard for, for years. You can’t ignore that.”

  “I know.”

  “Plus, we’ve already bought the costume. It wasn’t cheap, Bethy.”

  “I know. I guess we can return the dress. The tags are still on it.”

  Her mother nodded slowly. “That would probably be best . . . though maybe you could try to do both?”

  “How could I?”

  “Meet Jeremy at the dance? You’d be late, but better late than never, right?”

  As good as that sounded, she couldn’t imagine that being okay with him. “Mom, that means he wouldn’t be able to ask anyone else and he’d have to show up there by himself. He’s not going to want to do that.”

  “You don’t know that for sure, dear. He might. You should ask him.”

  Ask him if he’d want to do all that for her? “I don’t know. You don’t understand, Mom. He’s really cute. Half the girls in the junior class probably have a crush on him.”

  “He asked you. Maybe he has a crush on you.”

  Her mother always made everything seem like a Disney movie—with everyone’s problems vanishing by the end of the night. “I don’t know about that.”

  “You need to be positive! Try to think that way when you talk to your teacher tonight too.”

  “Mom, I don’t have anything to talk to Miss Shannon about.”

  “Believe it or not, she was once a high school girl taking dance classes herself. I know you have to be at the practice, but maybe she’ll work with you so you can leave a little early.”

  “I don’t think she’ll do that.”

  “You won’t know until you ask.”

  “Fine. But first I have to talk to Jeremy. I’m not going to ask to leave if he wants to take someone else.”

  Her mother looked pointedly at the clock. “You have an hour before we leave for your class. You better go give him a call.”

  Picking up the sheet of paper, she turned around.

  “Bethany, get your laundry too.”

  She turned on her heel, grabbed her laundry basket, tossed the schedule on top, and headed back to her room. This was horrible. Why did everything good always have to happen at the same time?

  By the time she put away half her laundry she felt better and knew that she couldn’t put it off any longer. She picked up her phone and, with a shaking hand, called Jeremy.

  He answered on the second ring. “Bethany?”

  “Yes, it’s me.” Boy that was stupid! She cleared her throat. “Um, sorry. Is this a bad time to call?”

  “No. What’s up?”

  “I have some bad news.”

  “What happened?”

  She loved that there was so much concern in his voice. She was pretty sure that he really did care about her. “Um, there’s no other way to say this, but I don’t think I can go to the dance with you after all.”

  “You’re backing out?”

  “No! I mean, it’s not like that. I’m in The Nutcracker and one of the big rehearsals is the same night as the dance. I can’t skip it.”

  He didn’t respond for a full two seconds. “That’s why you’re canceling? For a dance rehearsal?”

  “I don’t have much choice. If I skip one of the dress rehearsals then I’m kicked out of the ballet. She means it too.”

  “Oh.”

  But everything in his tone said that he didn’t believe her and that he didn’t understand. She felt like crying. “I’m so sorry. I just found out about an hour ago. I went and talked to my mom but she agreed that there wasn’t any way I could get out of the rehearsal.”

  “Okay. Well, bye.”

  She opened her mouth, ready to tell them her mother’s plan about how she could go late and meet him there. But . . . what was the point?

  “Bye,” she said softly. When she heard him disconnect, she threw her phone on the bed.

  He was mad at her. She didn’t even think he believed her when she’d told him her reason. He probably thought she was blowing him off or something.

  Or . . . did he have somebody else in mind and so he couldn’t wait to go ask her?

  What was she going to do if he took someone else while she was sitting around at that dumb rehearsal all night?

  With a sigh, she knew exactly what she was going to do. She’d pretend like she couldn’t care less . . . and then she’d go home and cry.

  Kind of like she was doing now.

  CHAPTER 23

  “God gave us our memories so that we might

  have roses in December.”

  —j. m. Barrie

  Bethany had blown him off and made him feel like a loser. Worse, everyone was going to know that she’d said yes and then changed her mind.

  They’d all think that something was wrong with him, because there sure wasn’t anything wrong with her.

  Looking around his room, he ignored the laundry and the towels that Gunnar was always griping about and stared at the stuff that he’d first stared at when Gunnar had shown him the room for the very first time.

  The full-size bed with the frame made out of black steel that a buddy of Gunnar’s had made for him. The flat-screen television on the wall, the sturdy oak desk, and the black leather chair with wheels that Jeremy secretly loved. Gunnar had even painted one of the walls a dark gray and had hung up a cool photo of the mountains in Colorado.

  It was a great room. A grown-up room for a kid who had money and security.

  The first time he’d gone to sleep in that bed, he hadn’t wanted to close his eyes, sure when he woke up that he was going to be back in one of his other homes. Sleeping on a bed that dozens of kids had slept on before he’d gotten there.

  A couple of days later, he’d told Gunnar that he thought the room was too nice for him. But Gunnar had shaken his head and said it was perfect. That the room with all the fancy stuff was a good fit for him.

  Now, months later, Jeremy had sta
rted to believe it too.

  But, maybe there really was something wrong with him and Bethany had seen it before Gunnar had.

  After all, he was the one who’d had the messed-up life, not her. Maybe he’d said or done something that took her off guard. Going back to his desk, he sat down at the chair and tried to think of their last couple of conversations. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind.

  Looking back at his stack of homework, he flipped to the easiest to accomplish—a worksheet based on the lab they’d done in biology that morning. Scanning through his notes, he was able to fill out the sheet without any trouble. Closing that notebook, he put it on his bed. At least he’d have one class where he wasn’t feeling like he was completely lost.

  Moving onto the next subject, he opened his planner and groaned. He had to write an essay on Julius Caesar. Like he cared about Shakespeare right now. Flipping through the play, he found the correct act and scene and read the question again. How did Marc Antony feel about the plans for battle?

  He didn’t know.

  When Gunnar knocked on his door twenty minutes later, Jeremy was still glaring at the open book and stewing about Bethany.

  “Hey, you almost done?” Gunnar asked when he poked his head in.

  “Nope.”

  He released his hold on the door and walked in. “What are you having trouble with . . . Oh, Shakespeare?” He grimaced.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.” But he wasn’t really thinking about the play at all. No, he was trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

  Gunnar sat down on the end of Jeremy’s unmade bed. “What’s wrong? Are you having trouble in school?”

  “No more than usual. I’m not great at school, Gunnar.”

  “I don’t need you to be great. But, I do need you to talk to me if you need help. That’s something we agreed to do when you moved in, right?”

  “Right. I will ask if I need help. But I don’t.” All he needed was for the guy to leave so he could stew in peace.

  Gunnar looked like he was about to stand up, but then he paused. “Everything else good?”

  “No.” Now why had he even said that? “Never mind.”