Chapter 27 Dance Break #2
When we arrived, the nurses had said she was really distraught.
We could hear her crying out for Gabe from down the hall.
It was a heart-wrenching cry. Like she was deathly scared of something and just needed her brother around.
My chest clenched tight. I didn’t want to already get emotional, but I hadn’t been prepared for how tortured she sounded.
Gabe went ahead to her room, telling me to hang back. The shouting pretty much stopped immediately. Five minutes later, I could hear some laughter. It was a bubbly and light sound. Such a contrast to the panicked yelling.
“Hey, Eli, meet my sister, Lily, or Lils as she’s known on the streets,” Gabe said as he stopped in front of me. I crouched down and offered her a wide smile, grabbing her bony hand in mine. She wore a rosy pink shirt, blue and purple flowers stitched around the sleeves and collar.
“It’s great to meet you, Lils. I’m Eli.”
She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. She looked down at her lap, hiding a smile. “Let’s go to the courtyard. She loves it out there.”
I got back to my feet and followed them down the hallway. We passed through a common area, where a lot of the residents were hanging out, some eating their cups of Jell-O, others staring at the television playing The Little Mermaid at a barely perceptible volume, a few napping in their wheelchairs.
I hurried ahead of Gabe and Lily so I could hold the door open for them.
He thanked me—and it sounded like it was for more than just holding the door.
I hoped he didn’t think this was any kind of burden for me or something.
I enjoyed being here, meeting Gabe’s sister, seeing this brotherly side of him.
He wheeled her over to an empty table underneath an outdoor heater radiating rays of warmth.
I grabbed one of the white picnic chairs and pulled it closer to her.
Gabe sat on the other side. He gently reached up and brushed a strand of thin gray hair off her forehead.
“Lils here had a bad nightmare. But she’s doing better now, right, Lils? Because the bad guys aren’t real?”
“No,” she said in a soft, meek voice. “Not real.”
“You know, Lils, Eli here is known for his dancing. You love to dance too, don’t you, Lils? Don’t you love salsa?”
She lifted her gaze and met mine for a split second, the smile wide on her face. She clapped a couple of times and nodded. She answered, but her words were mumbled and low.
I was, in fact, not known for dancing, but clearly, it was something Lily enjoyed, so I was more than happy to play along.
I took off my jacket, stood up, and fell into what I assumed was a standard salsa pose—one arm up on an invisible shoulder and the other on an invisible waist. I looked to Gabe. “You gotta play me in, though.”
He looked from me to his sister. A sliver of emotion cracked through his expression before he returned it to a wide smile. He pulled out his phone and set it on the table. “Of course. Lils, any requests?”
She passed her frail hands over the pink and purple flowers embroidered in her jeans. She nodded and said something else I couldn’t quite hear.
Gabe did. He searched on his phone for a second before pressing Play. Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca” started to play. “Wow, awesome taste, Lily!”
She gave a little shimmy in her wheelchair.
I swished my hips and took a step forward, then a step back, then repeated the pattern.
Tossed in a little spin. Pretended to dip my invisible partner.
I tried my hardest to find the beat but was quickly finding the beat, well, beat me.
She didn’t seem to mind the fact that I looked like one of those inflatable balloon men outside the used car lots.
The shyness she had earlier slowly dissipated as I continued to spin and rock my hips from side to side.
That’s when I got an idea. I slowed down and held out a hand in Gabe’s direction. “Would you like to join?”
“Oh no, no, I’ve got two left feet if I’m not on blades.”
“That’s fine, I won’t judge.” I gave him a wink. “Harshly.”
He—begrudgingly—got to his feet. “Only because you’re so cute.”
“I’ll take it,” I said, smiling as his hand slipped into mine. I placed my hand on his waist. Lily watched us like she was front-row seat at a concert for one of her favorite performers.
And then we started to dance. Neither of us knew what the hell we were doing—our feet would bump into each other, and any kind of coordination appeared to be repelled by us, but none of that mattered.
I was having so much fun. And so was Gabe, whose smile stretched from ear to ear across his scruffy face.
Fucking hell, was this man devastatingly handsome.
The song finished as I was mid-step. “Want to do another?” Gabe asked, surprising me.
I nodded. And so we danced again to another song. And then another. We threw in some more advanced moves, some twirls and a couple of dips. Lily was laughing and clapping. It filled my heart with so much joy, especially when remembering how she sounded when we first arrived.
I would have kept dancing with Gabe for the rest of the evening if we could. But after our third song ended, a nurse opened the door and stepped outside. She clapped and gave an impressive nod. “Do you guys do lessons? Our residents could use a dancing night.”
Gabe and I both laughed, splitting apart as if we got caught making out or something. Lils went quiet but continued to smile and was now looking directly at me. It made me happy. “No, no,” Gabe answered. “I’m pretty sure that would turn into a liability.”
The nurse laughed at that. “Speaking of liability, I’m sorry to say, but we’re closing down the patio for the weekend. We’ve gotten some reports of wolf sightings around here, so just want to be extra careful.”
My heart skipped a beat. Gabe’s expression twitched just the slightest, but his smile didn’t drop. “Of course, let’s head inside.” Gabe went behind Lily and started pushing her forward. I walked with the nurse back inside, looking over my shoulder at the bank of trees that lined the back patio.
“Sorry about that,” the nurse said as she closed and locked the door.
She placed a sign on the glass saying the area was closed.
“We have wolf sightings often, and nothing ever happens. I personally think the wolves are pretty much one with the community now. But all it takes is one rabid or extra-hungry wolf to cause problems.”
I looked to Gabe, whose face continued to stay neutral. “Rather safe than sorry.”
“Very true.”
It must have been lunchtime, judging by the smell of spiced meat and potatoes. Sure enough, another nurse wheeled in a large cart full of covered dishes. The common space had also gotten more full as residents went to tables and waited for their meals.
“We’ll get out of your way for lunch,” Gabe said. “Lils, you feel good now?”
Lily looked up at her brother, and I could see the love reflected there. She nodded and said, “Yes, Gabe, yes,” loud enough for me to hear this time. Then she looked at me and waved. I waved back but felt that wasn’t enough, so I leaned down and gave her a quick hug.
“It was great to meet you, Lils. I’ll come back for another salsa lesson soon.”
Gabe placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. He then bent down and gave his sister a tight hug and a kiss on the top of her head. “Love you, Lils. See you.”
We walked with the nurse out of the common room. “Thank you for coming,” she said to us.
“Thank you for taking great care of my sister. I know she’s in good hands here.”
“She is,” the nurse said. “I promise. And I meant it earlier, you both should come give lessons. Terrible dancers, but nice to look at,” she said with a wink and a hearty laugh.
“We’ll think about it, Julie,” Gabe said, laughing with her. “See you next time.”
“Bye, boys.” She waved and walked over to the nurses’ station as we continued on, leaving the nursing home.
Outside was when I asked, “A wolf?”
“Probably just one of us going for a run,” Gabe answered, not seeming too concerned by it. “Like she said, there’s always sightings here.” He unlocked his car and walked over to the passenger side, opening the door for me.
“Wonder why?” I asked as I slid into Gabe’s car.
The pine-scented air freshener filled the space with a fresh scent, but interestingly enough, I could still smell Gabe underneath it.
He got into the driver’s seat. I reached across the center console and placed a hand on Gabe’s leg, squeezed.
“Thank you for letting me meet your sister today. I think she liked me.”
“Oh, she loved you. She doesn’t give those smiles and claps away easily.”
“Think it was my dancing?”
“I think it was just you being you.”
I looked out the window as Gabe pulled out of the parking spot. I didn’t like feeling like we were leaving her behind, which made me wonder just how painful it must have been for Gabe.
“I liked seeing this softer side of Mr. Sager,” he said.
I internally braced myself. Soft was something of a trigger word for me. “Really?”
“Absolutely. You were so warm and caring, and you played along when I didn’t even give you a heads-up.
Thank you.” Gabe must have sensed something because he looked over at me as he rolled to a stop at a red light.
“I didn’t think it was possible to fall even harder for you, but there you go, proving me wrong. ”
I chuckled at that.
“What’s funny?” Gabe asked.
“Just how life works. How before I met you, being ‘soft’ was literally a turnoff to my ex. He’d use those exact words. It made me feel like shit every fucking time.”
Gabe’s grip tightened around the steering wheel.
His knuckles went paper-white. “That’s infuriating.
And it’s the complete opposite of a turnoff.
I love your soft side. I think that’s something that needs to be protected, nurtured.
This world teaches us men to silence the softness.
That there’s no power in it. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Look at how you completely turned my sister’s mood around, as if you cast a spell on her just by being kind, by being soft.
That’s attractive and admirable. Not sitting there like an emotionless rock, too scared of showing even the smallest bit of compassion because you think it’s wrong or feminine or gay.
It’s fucked. And I’m so fucking glad that my mate isn’t one of those red-pilled moron dickheads who have the emotional bandwidth of a flea biting my ass. ”
My heart could have grown a pair of feathery wings and flown right out of my chest. I’d been so conditioned to think that side of me was somehow wrong and shameful. That I needed to always act like a “man” in order to please one.
How wrong I’d been.
“Thanks,” I said, that one simple word encompassing all the gratitude and happiness I felt in that moment. “Also, I don’t want anyone biting your ass but me.”
He laughed at that. The sound was rich like velvet, wrapping around me. “You can do so much more to my ass than just bite it.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mhmm.”
“Then maybe let’s skip getting dinner and just go straight home.” I gave him a devilish grin. “This soft boy is going to show you his hard side.”
“Woof,” Gabe said, and he pressed on the gas.