Gray thanked them for the meal after they dropped him off and they agreed they should meet up again 'soon.' Keeley's exhaustion shot through the roof the moment he was gone.

"Ugh," Aaron groaned, voicing her thoughts exactly. Ugh indeed.

"I don't think he expects to be a part of our holiday celebrations so I think you're safe on that front," she informed him.

"He better not. I don't even like the idea of him meeting our kids at all. But the idea of having him go to one of Violet's shows was clever; he won't be able to get her alone there."

Keeley smiled briefly at the praise before succ.u.mbing to her weariness and leaning her head against the back of the seat. She really hoped they wouldn't have to see Gray terribly often. And that it could usually be without any of the kids present.

Violet and Nathan were fairly busy these days but what about Kaleb? He barely got dumped; he wasn't in the mood to go out and socialize, no matter how much he played the break up off.

Keeley knew her son. He wouldn't have been moping around in his pajamas all day every day and begging his siblings to hang out with him ever since he got back if he wasn't upset.

He had always been a very social person. If he was in a good mood, he would be out taking part in New York's nightlife every night. Poor kid must have really liked this girl.

"It should be fine. Besides, there's a decent chance someone else will go see her at the same performance. You know most of our friends go to a few of her shows a year," Keeley reasoned.

"You have a point," Aaron sighed. "But I hope he knows his place and doesn't get act too forwardly."

She reached out and patted his thigh to comfort him. It really should be fine. Gray wouldn't risk doing anything that would make Aaron hate him; she was certain of that.

When they got home, Kaleb was still watching TV and they offered to play a VR game with him. He immediately brightened and went to get out his headset. Spending time with their oldest son should perk both of them up. It was so nice having him home.

===

Noah was more than a little annoyed that he hadn't seen Violet alone once since Kaleb got back into town. First he crashed what Noah was going to use as a date to try and get her to see him in a different light. Then Kaleb prevented her from going out to eat with him unless he came along.

Their casual talks and game playing were invaded by Kaleb as well. What was he even doing? Normally when he came home to visit he was off doing his own thing with the exception of a few family dinners to appease his mother.

Noah was ready to lose his mind by the time the opening night of Cinderella rolled around. At least he knew Kaleb wouldn't come to this. He hated ballet so if he did come to support his sister, it was always to one of the later showings after much internal debate.

Her parents usually came to later shows as well because they reasoned less people came out to support the ballerinas at that point. Opening night and closing night were always the crowded ones.

But Noah liked being there at the beginning and the end. Violet always seemed happiest during the first and last shows.

As he sat in the audience and the lights began to dim, he did his best to focus on his best friend's performance. He appreciated the artistry behind her dancing, as always, but this time he had to restrain himself from laughing when he noticed some of her facial expressions.

They reminded him of the conversation they had the night he crashed her rehearsal. She had looked so cute the way she massaged her face in irritation after smiling too much. Normally she was much more composed than that.

'Cute' wasn't a word that most people would use to describe Violet Hale. Typically people thought she was elegant, intelligent, beautiful, or aloof. She only showed her cute side around her family, and by extension, him.

Noah considered himself lucky to be able to enjoy Violet in her full glory. She let him see what other people didn't get to. Even her family probably didn't know her or understand her as well as he did; she had told him as much.

Violet did really well as Cinderella. She took her craft seriously, even if she did have to put on a sad or happy mask while dancing.

Noah found himself turning bright red during the scene dancing alone with the prince, remembering his brief tenure as a stand-in. Especially when she and the prince performed the almost kiss that had kept him up at night for a solid week.

Since Violet had dated before and he hadn't, Noah already knew she had kissed a few people. But that tiny lip brush during her dance practice had been his first.

It wasn't like he hadn't tried getting over her but it never worked. When he was younger he fully expected they would get married someday because his parents talked about how they were each other's best friends. Little Noah figured marrying your best friend was the standard thing to do.

The older he got, he realized that the love of his life treated him like one of her brothers. He had been devastated at first.

Once she started getting boyfriends, Noah realized that most men didn't trust a woman with a male best friend. He came to the conclusion that if she ever married someone else, he would need a girlfriend of his own to appear nonthreatening and be able to stay a part of her life.

But that was a horrible thought. He didn't want to be with anyone else! He couldn't even see other girls. Their faces passed in and out of his head without leaving any meaning behind.

Trying to get a different girlfriend was pointless. Noah came to that conclusion a couple months after Violet broke up with her last boyfriend a few years ago.

She was his one and only. No one else would ever get him the way she did. All he had to do was make her see that they were meant for each other romantically, not merely as best friends.

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