Dances with Monsters

by D. C. Ruins

  "This will be fun," she insisted gently. "I can't wait to meet everyone. Let's go!" Before he could move, she turned and opened her door, hopping out into the driveway. He slowly followed suit, closing and locking the doors before meeting her and taking her hand. For all her comments for Heath's benefit, Drew felt herself starting to get shy and a little nervous; she still tended to clam up in front of new people. She knew she couldn't do that now, so she took a deep breath as Heath knocked on the door. As if he sensed her sudden unease, he glanced over at her and this time, it was him who squeezed her hand reassuringly.

  A petite blonde with big, wide-set blue eyes and a big smile opened the door. "Hey, you," she said to Heath, giving him a quick hug. She turned to Drew and smiled brightly. "Hi," she said warmly. "You must be Drew. I'm Lana. It's really nice to meet you finally." She held out her hand.

  Drew took it and gave it a shake, returning her smile. She already felt more comfortable. "It's nice to meet you too," she replied. "Thanks for having me."

  "Are you kidding?" Lana exclaimed. "Of course! Come on in here." She led them inside and through a short hallway that opened to a living room; beyond that Drew could see the kitchen, and the opened back door where she could hear little girls' laughter. "By the way," Lana added, turning to look at Drew over her shoulder, "my daughters are already obsessed with you. They found out you're a ballerina so, just be prepared to answer a million questions and look at everything they own that's ballet-related."

  "That sounds awesome," Drew said with a laugh. She nudged Heath. "You never told me they were into ballet!"

  "Sorry," Heath replied with a smirk, "must have slipped my mind."

  "Oh, here," Drew said, remembering the bottle in her hand. She held it out to Lana. "It's not wine, it's sparkling juice. So the girls can have some too if they like."

  "Aw, thanks," Lana said, taking the bottle. She smiled at Drew. "You guys go on out back, I'll go put this away. I've got iced tea, lemonade, soda…?"

  "Lemonade sounds great," Drew replied.

  "Sure thing. Heath?"

  "What she said," he answered.

  "Okay. Connor and John and the girls are all out there. I'll be out in a minute."

  Drew let Heath lead the way outside. She immediately saw the two little girls playing with a large golden lab in the yard. Connor was standing at the grill and an older man, tall and stocky, lounged against the deck railing as he watched them play.

  "Hey, guys!" Connor exclaimed, catching sight of them.

  "Hey," Heath replied.

  "Hi," Drew said shyly, smiling and waving at Connor. She jumped in the next instant when an ear-splitting shriek met her ears.

  "Uncle Heath!"

  Drew let go of his hand in enough time for two small bodies to rush toward him; he managed to scoop one of the little girls into his arms while the other hugged around his waist. Drew couldn't help grinning.

  "Hey, you," Heath said to the little girl he held, accepting an enthusiastic kiss on the cheek. He ruffled the hair of the girl who hugged his waist. "And you. What you guys been doing? You been good?"

  "Of course we've been good!"

  Heath turned toward Drew, still holding one niece and maneuvering the other. "This is my friend Drew," he told them. "Can you say hi?"

  "Hi," the girls chorused together.

  "This is Maggie," Heath said to Drew, indicating the girl in his arms. "And this is Lucy." He smoothed his hand over his other niece's head.

  "Hi, girls," Drew said, smiling at them.

  "Aren't you the ballerina?" Lucy demanded.

  "I am," Drew replied, smiling at them. "I heard you guys are ballerinas, too, though."

  "Put me down," Maggie ordered, pounding on his shoulder. "I wanna show her my steps."

  "What?" Heath asked, feigning hurt. "I just got here, I haven't seen you in a couple weeks, and already you're done with me?"

  "Yes, you're not a ballerina," she informed him.

  "Maggie, sweetie, Drew just got here," Connor called to his daughter. "Why don't we let her get comfortable first?"

  "I wanna show her my shoes," Lucy said. Connor sighed.

  "Fine. Go get your shoes." The two girls ran into the house.

  "Hey, son," the older man spoke up. He'd been standing back quietly, watching the interaction between his son and his granddaughters.

  "Hey, John," Heath replied a little stiffly, accepting his father's pat and squeeze on his shoulder with a nod. "How you been?"

  "I been good, I been real good," his father replied. His eyes shifted to Drew and she met them. They were a bright, twinkling blue, crinkling at the corners when he smiled just like Heath's did. She smiled back.

  "And who's this lovely young lady?" his father asked, removing his hand from Heath's shoulder and reaching out for Drew's. She took his hand and shook it. He patted the top of it with his other hand.

  "I'm Drew," she said shyly. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Riley."

  "John, please," he insisted. "Just John."

  "John," she amended.

  Lana reappeared just then carrying two sweating glasses of lemonade. She handed them to Heath and Drew. Drew took a long sip of hers.

  "Mm. This is some of the best lemonade I've ever had," she said sincerely.

  "Aw, thanks," Lana said with a smile. "It's my grandmother's recipe."

  "It's all right," Heath teased. Lana rolled her eyes and laughed.

  "How do you put up with him?" she asked Drew jokingly, shoving at Heath's shoulder. "He's always such a damn smart ass."

  "It's a challenge at times," Drew replied, smiling at him. He waved her off in mock dismissal.

  "Burgers and brats are done, guys!" Connor suddenly exclaimed. "Let's eat."

  Drew accepted a plate from Heath as Lana went to go call her children. There was a large round patio table with an umbrella attached to it and enough chairs for everyone to sit underneath it. It was so unlike family dinner at Drew's house; her mother always insisted on setting a nice table in the dining room. Drew liked how casual it was with his family. She filled her plate and sat down in a seat that allowed the sun to warm her back and smiled as Heath sat down next to her. He seemed to be relaxing a little more, and as his nieces argued over who was going to be sitting next to him, he loosened up even more. He pulled his smallest niece onto his lap to sit there while he ate while the other got the seat right next to him.

  Drew noticed that everyone seemed to be laid back and relaxed; it was nothing like her family. By the time they had actually gotten to eat last Sunday, Heath had already been grilled for at least thirty minutes. Lana and Connor and John asked her general questions about herself and seemed genuinely interested in what she had going on. Drew wondered vaguely how much about her past they were aware of. She didn't think that Heath would tell them anything. At least, she hoped not.

  She warmed to John as well. She knew of his history from the things Heath had told her, but sitting next to her now was only a kindly older gentleman, friendly, funny. She could feel a little tension between the three men, but after a while even that dissipated a bit. John seemed especially interested in the fact that she'd been born and raised in Brooklyn and began regaling her with a funny story about an old Marine buddy of his, an Italian boy from Brooklyn who he'd gone to boot with and then several years later they found themselves in the same unit. At several points in the story Drew found herself laughing out loud at the shenanigans that John and his friend found themselves taking part in once upon a time. She caught Heath's eye during one such moment and found that he was watching her, half-smiling when she burst out laughing.

  As the afternoon stretched on, Lana rose to her feet and started collecting dishes. Drew immediately rose with her. "Let me help you," she said, and stacked her and Heath's plates and silverware together.

  "Oh," Lana said. "Thank you. That would be really nice. It'll give us a chance to talk a little bit."

  "Go easy on her," Heath joked from his seat.

  "I will, I w
ill," Lana teased back.

  Drew followed her around the table, struck with a feeling that it was now her turn to be interrogated. Lana seemed to be a pretty straight-forward woman, and Drew realized just how protective she seemed of Heath. She wondered if he'd ever brought a girl home before.

  Lana was holding the screen door open for her. "This way," she said.

  Drew followed her inside into the spacious kitchen and braced herself for the interview.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Drew set her stack of dishes in the sink carefully as Lana turned on the water to rinse them off. She handed Drew the rinsed dishes to place in the dishwasher and Drew waited patiently for her to start talking.

  "So," Lana said finally. "It seems like you and Heath are really getting along well. Connor had told me that he'd been seeing you for a little while but I guess I didn't know it was this serious."

  Drew shrugged. "I'm not sure what it is, to be totally honest with you," she replied. "We have been spending a lot of time together and I do really like him. I just haven't 'dated' in a really, really long time so I don't want to scare him off with the 'so what are we?' conversation. He hasn't brought it up."

  "Why have you been out of the dating scene?" Lana asked, then quickly shook her head. "Sorry. That came out rude. I just mean, you said you haven't been dating for a long time, so I just was wondering if there was a reason for that."

  Drew cleared her throat, feeling uncomfortable. "I've had a rough year," she finally said, deciding that seemed like an innocuous enough answer. "And before that I wasn't really serious about anyone but I dated here and there."

  "I guess I should just be totally blunt with you," Lana said, and Drew looked up at her. "Heath and I aren't super close, but I do care about him because he is my brother-in-law and he's my husband's brother. I know he still feels a certain way about me and Connor because he felt like Connor chose me over him when he and their mother were getting ready to leave to go west. We've made leaps and bounds over the past six months or so, but we're still not quite there."

  Drew just looked at her, not sure exactly where she was going with her statement, but she had to admit that she had sensed a little bit of tension between Heath and Lana. It wasn't anything blatant; they still exchanged pleasantries and Drew knew he cared about Lana in his own way. She picked up that it was more discomfort and uncertainty rather than animosity.

  "Anyway, I'm saying all of that to say this: Because I do care about Heath and because he is my husband's brother, I feel sort of protective over him. He's had a rough past and now that he's sort of 'famous' I feel like there's no shortage of people who try to take advantage of him. He can handle his own with the general public, but when it comes to girls I'm not so sure. As long as I've known him, he's never dated anyone seriously because I know he has trust issues and he gets a lot of attention from women now, women who only see a nice face or body, and dollar signs or fame. I just don't want him to get hurt."

  Drew listened to her intently but couldn't help having the urge to laugh. Heath had trust issues?

  "I think it's really sweet of you to look out for him," Drew said earnestly. "I knew who Heath was before he and I officially met. But I brushed him off at first because I thought he would turn out to be some egotistical asshole since he's pretty well-known now. I came to realize that he's not like that, and that's what I fell for. I couldn't give a rat's ass about whatever 'fame and fortune' he has. Besides, he hates getting recognized as it is."

  Lana studied her for a moment before a slow smile spread over her face. "I like you," she said finally. "I like to think I have a good radar for people's character and I really feel like you're a good girl. At any rate, Heath's never brought anyone home before, and I've never seen him quite the way he is with you. I guess what I want to tell you is...be careful with him. He's a lot more fragile than you think. He'll never admit to that, of course. But he is."

  Drew nodded as she finished loading the dishes, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. She wanted to tell Lana that no one was more fragile than she was, and that cracking any part of Heath's fragility was beyond what she was capable or desirous of doing. But she didn't.

  "Well, I'm glad he seems happier," she said quietly. "He's a great guy. Any girl would be lucky to have him."

  "He and his brother are cut from the same cloth," Lana said with a smile. "So I know just what you mean."

  "You and Connor seem really happy, really close," Drew commented. "And your kids are really great. I like them a lot."

  "They seem to like you a lot," Lana said with a laugh. "They were pretty good throughout dinner but they'll be back at harassing you again here pretty soon."

  Drew laughed. "It's ok. I'm looking forward to that."

  Just then, Connor stuck his head into the kitchen. "You ladies about done?" he asked. He winked at his wife. "C'mon, babe. The dishes can wait until later."

  "We've just about got them loaded now anyway," Lana said, watching as Drew squirted in some detergent. Lana waited until she'd shut the door then cranked the knobs on the machine. The sound of running water hit their ears a moment later as the cycle began.

  They followed Connor back outside and Heath's eyes sought hers immediately. She winked at him and smiled a little to let him know that everything was ok, and he half-smiled in reply. She wondered if he had actually been worried about Lana being hard on her. She took no offense to anything Lana had to say, and they were all valid concerns. Furthermore, Lana was like a walk in the park on a sunny day with cotton candy compared to her family.

  The rest of the evening passed too quickly for Drew; she was having a great time, and eventually Maggie and Lucy had had enough of their manners and had dragged Drew bodily to their bedroom to show her their costumes, their dance slippers, pictures that their parents had taken of them at their recitals. Then, they showed Drew steps from their upcoming dance recital. Drew watched with a smile, her head cocked as she studied the girls. Lucy was already a graceful dancer for her age; she was very careful to make sure her feet, hands and arms were just right, that she kept her back straight and her tummy pulled in. Maggie was a little clumsier, but she seemed so happy to dance that her enthusiasm made up for her lack of technique. Drew asked the girls to teach her their dance and they spent the next half an hour teaching her the steps. Drew instructed them on how to do them properly, guiding the girls on their posture and form and technique.

  That was how Heath found her a while later, standing between the two little girls, dancing their simple, beginner-level recital dance with them. She turned to look at him over her shoulder, her brown eyes sparkling as she smiled at him.

  "How do we look, Uncle Heath?" Maggie asked, twirling toward him. Lucy joined in, clumsily turning several piqué turns until she crashed into his legs.

  "Real good," he replied, ruffling their fine hair. "Can't wait to see you two on stage."

  "Drew helped us get it all right," Maggie informed him. "We showed her our dance twice and she picked up everything. She's really good."

  "I had two good teachers," Drew corrected, smiling at them. "You guys are going to be incredible."

  "Will you come watch us?" Lucy begged.

  "Please!" "Please! Please!" Maggie echoed, jumping up and down on each word.

  "Of course," Drew promised. She put her hands on her hips and made a show of rolling her eyes. "Took you guys long enough to invite me!"

  "Come on, shrimps," Heath said. "Come say goodbye to us and Grandpa."

  The girls obediently trotted down the hall and he waited for Drew to catch up, taking her hand and pulling her close. He hung back for a moment and leaned down for a quick kiss.

  "Having fun?" he murmured.

  "Yes!" Drew exclaimed. "The girls are a blast. Your family is really great, Heath."

  He smiled in reply and led her down the hall. Drew glanced at the clock on the wall and was surprised to see that it was already well after eight o'clock. The afternoon and evening had passed quickly
between sitting outside in the lowering evening sun—listening to stories from John and Connor and Lana, talking about current events, their likes and dislikes—and holding an impromptu dance class with the two small girls. She had genuinely enjoyed herself and liked his family immensely.

  John shook her hand, then brought it to his lips to peck it quickly.

  "It was a pleasure to meet you, sweetie," he said with a smile. "I can see why my boy likes you so much."

  "Thanks," she said, returning his smile a little shyly. "It was nice to meet you, too, John. Maybe I'll see you at the end of the week, for the tournament."

  "I hope you do come," John said. "It would mean a lot to him if you were there."

  "John, leave her alone," Heath spoke up from a few feet away where he was hugging his nieces goodbye. "She's still thinking about it."

  "I hope you come," Lana exclaimed, surprising Drew by pulling her into a quick hug goodbye. "It would be nice to have another woman there. My God, all that testosterone just really tests your patience sometimes. Even more so than having kids." She smiled at Drew.

  "I'm—I'm planning to go," Drew said, seeing Heath's head lift to look at her in surprise. "I'll see you all there. And keep you company," she added to Lana.

  "Excellent!" Connor said, reaching out to give her a quick one-armed hug. "You'll like it. It's exciting. Don't listen to my wife."

  "Okay," Drew agreed with a laugh.

  Heath accepted another round of kisses from his nieces before pushing them gently in Drew's direction.

  "Say goodbye," he instructed and the girls ran to her, hugging her around the legs and waist, depending on what they could reach. Drew wobbled from the impact of their enthusiasm.