Our Last Dance

10.

By the time Friday had come along, Lindsey would have picked Leo up from the airport that morning so that Shelly could run a few errands; one of them being getting to class early so she could speak to Stevie privately about her personal matters.

When she got to the dance studio, she was met by both Trevor, Ireland and Stevie.

"Shelly!" Ireland ran right over to the young woman and she hugged her.

"Hi, little one. How are you?" she squatted down, embracing her warmly.

"I missed you," the girl said on the shy side.

"Oh, I missed you too. I've just been so busy, but I knew that if I came early, we'd be able to spend more time together..."

"Yeah," she grinned.

Shelly giggled, standing tall while simply holding the girl's hand.

"Hey, I haven't seen you," Trevor walked over, hugging his high school friend. "How ya been?"

"Pretty good... Just a little stressed out and exhausted," she assured, rubbing his back gently. "Your daughter and I are like best friends..."

"Is that right?" he chuckled, rubbing his daughter's head. "Is Shelly your best friend?"

"Mhmm," she nodded, swinging the girl's hand in hers.

Shelly giggled. "What about you? What are you up to? I wasn't expecting to see you today."

"Not usually, but Annelle's parents wanted to spend time with Ireland this weekend since they're in town. They just got back from a vacation, so they asked and we don't want to tell them no," he shrugged.

"I understand..." she nodded.

"I wanna stay with my gwamma," she sighed.

"Oh, honey, but you have to spend some time with your other grandma and your grandpa," Stevie squatted down to her level. "They love you so much and they miss you because they're always busy..."

She pouted.

"But next week, we'll do something fun, okay? Just you and me, sweetheart."

"Okay," she nodded, on the verge of tears.

"Give me hugs," she opened her arms.

Ireland responded by wrapping her arms around her grandmother's neck, hugging her with all her might.

Watching the two of them, Shelly herself was on the verge of tears.

"Are you... alright?" Trevor wondered as he took in the girl.

"Hm? Yeah... I'm just... I don't know, I'm going through a lot right now. I was just hoping to talk to your mom about something else... And these two are just so sweet..." She didn't hesitate to let her tears fall.

"Shell..." he wrapped his arm around her, hugging her from the side. "It's all gonna be fine."

Stevie got the hint immediately that the girl's hormones were acting up and she had probably wanted to speak about other things regarding the situation.

Pretty soon, Annelle walked in and she could see her daughter hugging her mother in-law, but then she could see her husband with his arm wrapped around Shelly.

"Hope I'm not interrupting..." she cleared her throat.

Shelly and Trevor both spun around.

The young woman wiped her tears away and she smiled. "Annelle, I haven't seen you in so long," she walked over and she hugged her. "How are you?"