Page 46 of Dancing on Air

“Cora just came up with a perfect name for your bakery. Sweet Expectations,” he typed and waited.

Missy’s text response was instant.

“It’s perfect! I’m using it. I’ll write her a monthly check for the use of it. LOL”

He showed Cora the screen and she chuckled. Telling the taxi driver where to go, he tucked his phone in his bag and wrapped his arm around Cora.

“I got a nice call from my mother,” he told her.

“Oh?” Cora shifted and laid her head on his shoulder.

“She informed me that I—well, me and Missy— each own ten percent of the family business.” He waited for her response.

“That’s…” She glanced up at him. “Good?”

“It is if I can sell it. I won’t officially have access to do so until after my birthday in September.”

“September…” she asked.

“Fourteenth.”

“I’m the twenty-first.” She smiled.

His arm tightened around her shoulders as he tried to memorize that key fact about her.

“You’ll be…” he asked her.

“Twenty-two. You?”

“Twenty-five.” He sighed. “The same age my father was when he had me.”

“Young.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t planned. Actually, my parents started Sharper Image right after I was born. My dad figured that if they couldn’t dance together, then at least they could choreograph together.” He leaned his head against hers. “I wonder when things went wrong?”

“I’m sure you had some good times.”

“We did, up until around my tenth birthday, when I had my first onstage performance. I was a rat in the Nutcracker,” he said with a grin.

“My father was completely absent until just after my eighth birthday,” Cora told him. “My mother came and went my entire life. My aunt was the only steady person, up until her death.” His arm tightened around her. “Until I found my brother and sister. Now, JT, Kayla, and the rest are the only family I need.”

“What about your dad? I know your mother… is out of the picture.”

“He’s out of the picture too. JT fends him off. But in all truth, he doesn’t care about me. All he cares about is money. He is constantly asking”—she shook her head—“demanding money from JT and Emma. Like he’s due it.”

“My mother just tried to convince me to give her my ten percent so she could have more than my father when it came time for them to divorce,” he said as the car pulled to a stop.

“Families.” Cora shook her head. “I’m going to be the best mother ever, if I ever have kids.”

Suddenly, that image was the only thing in his head. Cora. Cora’s children. His and Cora’s children.

Chapter Twelve

She hadn’t been on a date in New York. Ever. Was this an official date? An unofficial one?

Was she overthinking it? She’d rushed upstairs and had quickly put together her outfit. She didn’t feel like going to the Italian restaurant in her normal sweats.

She’d been thankful when he’d noticed she had taken the extra effort on her attire.