Love Takes Time (Christian Romance) by Kaci Hart Page B

was
uncalled for.  When they found out that I decided to pursue dance, they
forgave me but didn’t want to spend their money on it.  My dad is a
carpenter that owns a home improvement business and my mom is an elementary
school teacher.  They felt that they had worked so hard so that I could
have a chance and then for me to throw it all away was childish and
selfish.  They had saved up money for years in case I didn’t get
scholarships and I was hoping they would give that to me for dance school but
they looked at me as if I was crazy when I asked.  Instead, they said they
would keep the money and I could have it if I ever decided to go to a real
school.  Otherwise they’d use it for retirement.”
     
    “That’s
a hard story for everyone.  On the one hand I see your side but I also see
theirs.  They think you threw your life away.”
     
    “Yeah. 
Well we made almost completely opposite decisions with the same type of
parents.  Do you think I made a bad decision?”
     
    “It’s
not for me to judge.  I made my decision because I thought it was the
right one for me to do.  You did the same.  They just didn’t want you
to have it as hard as they did.”
     
    “I
know.  The funny part is that for the past few years they have been
completely right.  Dance school wasn’t what it was cracked up to be for me
and money was tight.  That was why I started waitressing to meet the bills
and that just wasn’t doing it.  I was so far behind on some bills that if
it hadn’t been for the studio, I would have had to go groveling back to them
admitting defeat.”
     
    “Well
how do they feel about the studio now?”
     
    Chelsea
looked down at the ground.  She knew what his response would soon be.
     
    “They
don’t know.”
     
    “Huh?”
     
    “I
haven’t told them about it yet.”
     
    “What?
 Chelsea, it’s been a few months now hasn’t it?  Don’t you think they
deserve to know?”
     
    “Yeah,
I know you’re probably right but I’m just not ready to admit failure to them.”
     
    “Who
says you failed Chelsea?  You just need to make a decision on what you
actually are going to do and do it.  What I’ve learned now is that you are
an extremely talented woman.  Bright and beautiful and able to achieve
anything you put your mind to.  The question is, what are you going to
really dedicate to?”
     
    Chelsea
placed her hand on his cheek and tilted her head to stare into his magnetic
warm eyes.  
     
    “It’s
funny how we both started out with similar pressures and responded to them
differently, but still ended up finding the part of us that we ran from in each
other.  You’re lecturing me on being more serious and I’m telling you to
smile a while and give your serious eyebrows a rest.  We really do make a
pretty good combination.”
     
    “I,
for one, am really happy about that.”
     
    “Me
too.”
     
    “Like
I said, tell me how you feel about me after meeting my folks.  For now, I
am going to take full advantage of you still seeing me as prince charming.”
 He took her hand.  “I’m sure you’re pretty much starved since you
worked me so hard today.  Want to get something to eat?”
     
    “I
think I’d like that but for the record, I was totally easy on you.”
     
    ***
     
    It
was Saturday and Chelsea felt the butterflies flittering around in her
stomach.  Normally she was the last person in the world that even cared
about what people thought about her but since she and Ryder had been getting
closer and closer in their relationship, she found that she wanted nothing more
than to make sure that she made a good, lasting impression on his family. 
She knew that his family was extremely important to him.  Leading up until
today, she had been pretty confident in herself that she would make a good impression. 
That all changed on the way over as he coddled her.  Now she was wondering
if he was thinking the same thing that she was. 
     
    “Don’t
worry about me