The Perfect Partner

1

Chris' p.o.v

"Chris!" I turned my head towards the sound of my sister's breathless voice, raising my eyebrow in question. 

"What's up Carly?"

"Ryan just called to tell me that his car broke down and I need to pick him up, but Stella has to be at her dance class in like five minutes. Can you take her? Or pick Ryan up? Please?" I laughed, quickly standing up.

"Of course! What do you say Stella, you want Uncle Chris to take you to dance?" She ran into my open arms, allowing me to pick her up.

"Yes!"

"See Sis? It works out perfectly! Now Stella, I'm counting on you to give me directions to your dance studio, can you do that?"

"Uh-huh." Carly gave me a look and grabbed a piece of paper off the side table.

"I'm writing down the address for you to put into your gps. She's gonna be late already, let's not make her later."

"You're no fun Mom!" Stella giggled while nodding her head in agreement. Carly just shook her head at us, handing me the piece of paper and kissing her daughter on the cheek.

"Be good, dance well, I love you!" With that she was out the door. I set Stella down so she could get what she needed for dance, going to tell my ma where I was going.

"Hey Ma, can you watch Dodger for a bit? I gotta take Stels to dance."

"Sure honey, have fun!" 

"Will do, Stella let's load up!" We got into the car, Stella buckling her seatbelt while I typed in the address Carly had given me. "Oh, this isn't far from here, we should make it in no time!"

Stella and I sang along to the songs on the radio, and talked about the mean girl in her class that liked to steal her sandwiches on the way. When we pulled up in front of the studio, Stella squealed and jumped out of the car not giving me time to react.

"Stella wait!" I quickly parked the car running to catch up with my speedster of a niece. She was putting on her dance shoes when I came in, and I walked over to her. "You can't do that Stels! What if you had gotten hit!? I don't know what I'd do with myself if something happened to you!"

"I'm sorry Uncle Chris." She jumped up and gave me a hug. "I didn't mean to make you worried."

"It's okay just don't do it again, alright?"

"Okay!" She gave me a kiss on the cheek and ran to see her friends after she apologized, waving goodbye as she went. I sighed and stood up straight again only to feel a light tap on my shoulder. 

"Excuse me?" The voice behind me was definitely not from here. She had an accent, but it was not a Boston one. I turned to see a short girl with long wavy hair standing behind me, her bright blue eyes piercing into mine.

"Hi." The mystery woman smiled a dazzlingly white smile at me, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she did.

"Hi, I'm the 7-10 year old dance teacher, it's nice to meet you. Are you here to enroll your child Mr...." She stopped as a signal that she wanted to know my name, but I was in a momentary trance.

"Uh Evans, Chris Evans. And no, I'm not here to enroll, I'm here with my niece." Her eyebrow rose in suspicion.

"Who are you here for?" It shocked me how quickly her warm demeanor had dropped, replaced with a very protective attitude.

"Stella DuBray." She relaxed slightly, obviously recognizing the name and searched the crowd of girls. Before too long Stella was running over to us with a smile on her face.