Page 46 of Dance with Me on New Year's Eve

We sat quietly for a moment as we chewed on our snacks. Then, piercing through the still air was the loudest sneeze I’d ever heard.

Lila and I turned to see Jeff walking back toward us, and Lila burst into laughter. “That was the grossest thing ever, but also the funniest!”

I didn’t laugh though, as I studied his face. His nose and his eyelids were a blotchy dark pink as he tensed his jaw. His eyes looked a bit glassy.

“Do you have the sniffles?” I heard myself asking. He just stared at me, and I added, “I mean, obviously you do have the sniffles, but I’m wondering if it’s cold virus kind of sniffles or allergy sniffles.”

“Stop saying sniffles,” he said sharply. “It’s just a little allergy, not a big deal.”

“It looks like a big deal,” I said. “Your nose and eyes are red, and just a minute ago, you looked fine. Normal. Not that I was noticing or looking at you. I mean, you know …”Stop! You’re rambling. “Anyway, I’m going to guess an allergy. Ragweed sometimes gets me this time of year. You never know where you’ll find it.”

He sighed. “Not ragweed. Same effect though. It’s tree pollen. The maples and willows.”

My mouth was probably hanging open for a long moment before I asked, “You have seasonal allergies?”

He nodded.

“You?”

“Yes, me. Why does this matter to you?” he asked with narrowed eyes.

“It—it doesn’t. It’s just …”

He was slowly becoming more like a human and not just a robot. And I didn’t like it. At all.

“You look confused, Roxy,” Lila said. When we didn’t answer her, she shrugged. “Let’s quit this boring conversation and play Skipbo or UNO!”

We turned to her, and for a moment, I thought Jeff was actually going to laugh. But as usual, he kept his emotions tightly under wraps.

And that was probably a good thing. I didn’t need to get to know him better. Today was just an outlier—it wasn’t like I’d be spending more time with him and his daughter. Next time, I’d make sure I had an excuse ready to say no.

Then it dawned on me. Why would Jeff take us here?

“Wait, Jeff, you led us here on the hike. You must have known about the place already.”

“We went here in the summer,” Lila said around a mouthful of food.

“But … you knew you were allergic to the trees in this clearing, yet you came here anyway?” I looked at his rigid posture in disbelief. “I mean, why are we even hiking in the woods at all if you’re basically allergic to the woods?”

“I took an allergy medication.”

“Which never helps,” Lila whispered loudly.

After a long moment, he said, “My daughter wanted to go hiking.”

“The answer is because he’s a great daddy,” Lila said, coming over to put a lanky arm around his waist. “I mean, at least when he lets me have sweets,” she said, bouncing away back to the table.

She convinced us to play UNO after that, and I yawned as I drew six cards.

“I pick … yellow!” Lila shouted gleefully. “I know you don’t have that color, Dad.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Were you looking at my cards?”

Hearing no cheeky response from Lila, I lifted my gaze. She was staring at me. “Roxy, you OK?”

I tilted my head in question. “Yes, of course. Why do you ask?”

“You were pretty fired up earlier when we made you draw cards. We got to see your competitive side,” Jeff said, his concerned face betraying his light tone.

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