Page 86 of Dance with Me on New Year's Eve

“Oh, don’t bother with those things. You’re better off meeting a man in person.”

“How am I better off doing that? That’s really hard for me, Mom.”

Dad walked into the room then and made eye contact with me briefly before going to the fridge.

Mom eyed me for a moment, her disappointment evident on her face. “It’s time you outgrew this shy thing, Roxy. I can’t understand why it’s so hard. Sometimes you just got to try. That’s not so hard.” She turned to my dad. “Right?” But he just shrugged, as usual, preferring to not get involved. To not defend me. Story of my life.

I tried to breathe in slowly, but my breath caught in my throat. There was no use trying to explain anything to her. She’d never accepted me, and she never would. She wouldn’t even try.

“Do you even want to find someone?” she asked, sounding exasperated as she stirred faster and faster.

“Well, I don’tnotwant to. But—”

“You’ve got to make up your mind and just do it. Simple. Quit overthinking everything.”

“OK.” Tears pooled in my eyes, and I walked backward slowly and then turned, walking as casually as I could so they wouldn’t suspect I was upset.

Dad glanced at me briefly but then went back to peeling an apple.

I tripped and nearly fell down the steps leading to my old bedroom, but I managed to stay upright by palming the wall.

I rushed into the room and closed the door softly so they wouldn’t hear.

After sobbing quietly for a few minutes, I wiped my eyes and opened up my laptop again.

I felt numb as I turned it on, even as I opened the chat window.

Danny wasn’t online.

I started browsing random sites, starting with a quirky gift website to look for a birthday gift for Hazel. I eventuallyfound myself on a news site when my eyes landed on the scrolling red banner near the top: Winter Storm Warning for central Tennessee and Kentucky.

What?

I blinked a few times and refreshed the page, certain it couldn’t be right. But it was. The storm was expected to roll in tomorrow and potentially last a few days.It had originally been expected to head further east, but now it was heading straight for middle Tennessee.

I’d lived here long enough as a child to know that snow was taken very seriously. Schools closed whenever there was even a slight dusting of the white stuff. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if a blizzard blew through here, especially in the mountains.

But something stirred in me. Maybe this wasn’t so bad, I thought while navigating to a travel website. I could go home early. I could leave this place where I was constantly criticized and my feelings dismissed. Before long, I’d found a new flight to replace the old one, which was two days from now.

I was about to click the PURCHASE button when the door suddenly opened.

Mom walked in and sat on the bed, trying to see what was on the computer screen, but I pushed it aside.

Guilt set in. Mom was coming in here to see how I was doing because she cared, and meanwhile, I was trying to get the earliest flight out of here.

And then she spoke. “What are you doing hiding in here?”

My spirits deflated once more. “I wasn’t hiding—”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, I know you better than that.”

“Do you, though?” I asked bitterly. But she didn’t hear me because she was moving my suitcase off the treadmill. “Oh, are you … you’re here to work out?”

She gave me a strange look. “Obviously.”

My old room had been turned into an exercise room. At least it had a futon that I could sleep in when visiting. But now, Ifelt like an intruder in my own room.

I pulled my laptop back over to me and saw the pop-up message stating that I had only fifty more seconds to decide before the airfare deal expired.

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