Violet didn’t get her brace off until the end of January. By then she had nothing to do but physical therapy so she ended up spending most of her free time hanging out at Noah’s dojo and helping him with administrative tasks.

Spring training didn’t start until the end of February but Kaleb finally found a group of people willing to take that backpacking trip he cancelled after getting dumped so he was currently in Europe. Sitting around at home alone had been driving her crazy so she begged Noah to give her something to do.

He talked to the owner of the dojo, explaining her situation, and he didn’t mind letting her help with Noah’s paperwork. The owner had known Violet since Noah was still in high school and knew how efficient she was at helping keep him on track so he allowed it.

Noah’s students loved seeing her every day. Some of the older ones asked her why she was around more often and she replied that it was because she was their sensei’s girlfriend now.

Joey, one of the boys who Noah claimed was crushing on her, seemed confused. “I thought you were already Sensei’s girlfriend.”

That one was a bit hard to explain. Thankfully she was saved by Noah calling him over to help set up some of the practice dummies. He scampered off easily, freeing Violet from answering that question.

She truly was such an idiot. Everyone had seen it except for her!

Well, there was no use fussing over it now. Violet was with Noah and they were getting better about being less awkward when it came to things like kissing. She was confident that once they passed this hurdle that she would be able to consider herself completely in love with her best friend.

Once the last class for the day left, Noah still had some paperwork to do that Violet hadn’t been able to finish. She wandered around his office staring at various trophies and plaques from karate competitions in years past. This particular dojo had resulted in a lot of champions since it was founded in the late 1980s.

Violet paused when she noticed something new on the corner of Noah’s desk. It was one of those folding picture frames with three slots for photos.

The first slot held a picture of the two of them when they were four and two years old. Noah’s arms were wrapped around Violet and he was grinning cheesily with his eyes closed as she beamed at the camera. The second had one of them at thirteen and twelve, shrieking with laughter as the Singletons’ dog soaked them with soapy bath water as they tried to get her clean.

Violet remembered that day. Jennica asked Noah to bathe the dog because she had to take Logan to pick up some supplies for a school project. It did not go well and she ended up walking in on the chaos thirty minutes later, just in time to snap that picture.

The last photo had been taken at the closing night of Violet’s very first show after joining the New York City Ballet. She and Noah each had an arm around each other’s back as she clutched the white-and-pink roses he had brought her.

That show wasn’t particularly memorable. It had been Romeo and Juliet and Violet had danced the part of Juliet’s nurse, who didn’t have many scenes. At the time she was too excited to be a part of a real ballet company to care even though she was barely mentioned in the program.

Nearly everyone she knew came to support her on opening night but the numbers steadily dwindled until no one at all came to the last few shows. Then on closing night Noah surprised her by coming a second time. His seat wasn’t a great one so she hadn’t seen him in the audience and had been completely blindsided when he showed up at the cast meet and greet with roses.

That began his tradition of coming on both opening and closing nights. He bought his VIP box seats for the very next show she was in. Violet smiled fondly at the memory.

“When did you get this?” she asked, gesturing to the frame.

Noah glanced up. “Oh that? I’ve actually had it ever since I moved into this office because I wanted something to decorate my desk with.” He smiled a bit sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. “I, uh, hid it every time I knew you were coming over because I didn’t want to weird you out. No point in that now.”

That was definitely something out of a romance novel. He could be surprisingly sentimental sometimes.

Violet bent down to kiss his cheek and ended up massaging his shoulders as he continued reading through the paperwork.

“You’re sweet,” she informed him.

“Glad you think so.”

As Violet continued massaging her boyfriend’s shoulders, her mind went back to that picture frame. Noah said he had it ever since he moved into this office…but that was a little over two years ago!

All this time…he had loved her so much for so many years and she never noticed a thing. Regret filled her heart. How much different would things have been if she had known about his feelings sooner? Would it have helped them get into a relationship sooner? Or would she have been too young and stupid to appreciate his feelings and brushed them off?

Things probably worked out the way they were supposed to. Her mother always said that everything happens for a reason. In this case, she might be right.

When Noah finally finished his paperwork they ended up going to a sushi place for dinner. As much as she missed dancing, she couldn’t deny it was nice being able to eat whatever she wanted (within reason). She definitely looked forward to this part of being a dance teacher someday.

As they sat down, Violet could have sworn she saw someone she recognized out of the corner of her eye but when she looked again she couldn’t see anyone she knew. She must have been imagining things.

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