Rocking Her Slowly

Chapter 20

Owen

He pulled up to The Vinyl Edge to get ready for the day with a smile. The last five weeks had been amazing despite everything that had happened. His Princess was getting better, yes, she was still learning how to use her new leg, but she had accepted it and was now looking into college for a new career. On top of that, their marriage, damn if it wasn't better than ever! He never knew he could be so damn satisfied with sex that he was physically tired... but that's what he was. Hence, the smile that never left his face.

He whistled in the early morning hours, remembering his morning sendoff, and chuckled with keys in hand as he unlocked the door. He pulled it open and glanced up at the little ballet studio where his Princess used to dance, and his smile finally fell. He walked in with a sigh and walked into the back room and turned on his office light. His thoughts turned back to Jojo, sitting at the table looking over classes at the community college. He remembered when she had thought about teaching ballet when she was done with her career and wanted to start a family. It was right then, thinking back, he saw that she wasn't as happy at looking at the college classes that he thought she might have been.

He sat down at his desk and ran his hands over his face as the guilt that he had tried to shake off from what happened to his wife came right back, hitting him in his gut. He sat back in the chair, not knowing what to do, or what he could say to help Jojo find something new that she would be happy with. He wanted to see what was out there for her, but some invoices had to be done first. He saw the sun starting to rise, then switched on the computer and began to get to work.

The morning went on and soon Pauly, and Sabrina, along with the new employee, Rick, showed up. New boxes came in, and he was going through them when he got a call from Frank. "What's up, Frank?" He asked, checking off the vintage records.

"I'm on my way home from your place and didn't know if you knew that Jojo was looking at going back to school?"

"Yeah, she has been looking at things for the last couple days. Why did something happen?" He asked, stopping what he was doing and walking back into his office and putting Frank on speaker.

"No, nothing bad, or anything like that. But she did seem really frustrated by it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when I came over, she was trying to stretch like she did when she was dancing," Frank explained.

Owen fell into his chair. "And... was she having a hard time with it?" He asked, imagining the worst.

"Not as bad as you might think. She was trying to make her leg move the way she wanted, but she worked really hard at it. It's been a while since I'd seen that kind of determination in her." Frank said. "When I asked what she was doing, she said that even though she can't dance anymore, she wanted to keep somethings in her life before everything happened."

"Well, that might be good for her. It shows that she really wants to move on."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too. I just wish there was a way she could still dance, that's all." Frank sighed. "Oh, and just a heads up. I was invited over for dinner tonight."

"Cool, I'll see you later then."

"I just wanted to let you know that something is up with our girl."

"How do you know? Did she say something else to you?" He asked.

"No, she didn't. But she wanted me to come over for dinner. Kind of pushed the point is all."

"Okay, well, thanks for the update. I'll see you tonight." He answered and then hung up. Only a minute after that, there was a knock on the door. "Yeah, come in."