“Plus I need to ditch her so I can go buy her present in secret,” Jace said.
“Well, if you’re really sure.”
“It’s settled then. I’ll get the kids and you two can go do your top secret shopping. You might as well head to Lawley and make an evening of it. More shopping options there.”
And so it was Tara found herself pulling onto the highway a half hour later, with Jace in the passenger seat.
“I see where you get it,” she said.
“Get what?”
“Your ability to sweetly railroad people. You and your mother are like a couple of border collies. Herding people where you want them to go.”
Jace laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“She totally set me up.” Tara cut her eyes in his direction. “Or was it your idea?”
“She likes you. And she knows I like you. So make of that what you will.”
Rather than being uncomfortable, Tara felt kind of warm and fuzzy about the whole thing. She got to spend the next few hours with an attentive, attractive guy, without worrying about her siblings. She’d had no idea how good that would feel.
“So do you have a list?” she asked.
“Nope. Finished my shopping last week.”
“Seriously?”
“Online shopping baby. They deliver stuff right to your door. But I’m still on the hunt for stocking stuffers. Where all do you need to go?”
“I’m not sure, exactly. I haven’t quite adjusted to not having access to everything in the Dallas metro area.”
“Dallas? Is that where you’re from originally?”
“Originally, no. I grew up in Jackson. But I was in college at SMU before I came here.”
“Yeah? What were you studying?”
Tara hesitated. But this was a logical part of that get to know each other routine. There was no sense in hiding it from him. “Dance. I was working on my BFA in dance performance. SMU has one of the top programs in the country.” She paused. “You’re the first person I’ve told that to in Wishful.”
“Really? Why?”
“Why do I keep it quiet or why did I decide to tell you?”
“Both.”
“I started ballet when I was four, and I loved it. I knew from the first time I successfully did a pirouette that I didn?
??t want to do anything else. And as it happens, I had enough of an aptitude that I could pursue it professionally. That was the plan, anyway.
“I was in the middle of my sophomore year when my father was arrested and the social worker tracked me down. I’d never even met Ginny and Austin, and I’d just been cast as Sugar Plum Fairy for that year’s production of The Nutcracker, which was an enormous honor. Underclassmen never get cast in the principal roles.”
“You came anyway.”
“I came anyway. And they gave the role to someone else.”
“So that’s why Christmas makes you sad. Because Christmas means The Nutcracker and the role you gave up.”
“It’s brutal. It plays everywhere from Thanksgiving to New Year’s.”