Andy sat across the table from Sharon, the remains of the boys' pizza scattered between them. The boys were across the room playing with a large wheel for tickets, close enough that he could keep an eye on them in the busy restaurant. Somehow he had lasted the past half an hour in small talk with the ballet teacher, but he felt himself starting to wish he'd get a call from his partner.
"Do you have somewhere to be? I don't want to keep you." Sharon's voice interrupted his thoughts and he turned his head from his grandsons to look at her.
"Hm? No, I don't. Unless it's an emergency, I'm off to spend time with the boys." He shrugged and tossed some of the dirty napkins onto the pizza tray.
"Emergency? Are you a doctor?" She leaned forward and rested her folded arms on the table, her vibrant eyes focused on him.
He shook his head and leaned forward too. "I'm a cop," he answered. "Lieutenant with the LAPD."
Surprise flickered across her face before she nodded. "Oh. Wow. What exactly do you do?" She paused a moment. "I'm sorry if I'm being too nosy?"
He couldn't help but laugh a little and shake his head again. "No, you're fine. I work with the Major Crimes division. Homicides, high profile cases. Things like that." He shrugged and a smile crossed his face.
"I know the boys certainly look up to you. I can see why." She smiled and brushed her hair back from her face.
"Thank you." She couldn't know how much her words meant after dealing with his past and his gaze wandered to his grandsons again—they had moved onto skeeball and were arguing over the balls. "How long have you taught ballet?"
"Years," she answered simply. "I've been teaching for almost four decades and I've been dancing since I was little." He looked at her and he noticed how her face and eyes lit up as she talked about her work.
"That's… incredible," he admitted. "I don't know anything about ballet—or dance—but you seem like a good teacher."
A light flush covered her cheeks and she smiled. "Thank you, Andy. It's nice to do something you love. I never dread going to work and when you're your own boss…" She shrugged and pulled her cardigan closer as she leaned back.
"I can understand that."
She raised an eyebrow. "You never dread going to work? Dealing with… bodies and murders…"
He shook his head. "No, I don't. Sometimes it's difficult, but wanting to get justice for the victims always makes it worth it. Knowing that I can make a difference in someone's life. And it's all I've done for as long as you've been teaching."
A knowing smile crossed her lips. "And you never get tired of it?"
"Do you get tired of dance?" He raised an eyebrow and watched her.
"I've been dancing for almost 60 years and I've yet to get bored of it. Granted, when you're not able to dance as much as you used to, it's harder to get tired of it." She laughed a little and a look of longing crossed her face—but it was gone before he could process it.
"I couldn't sit in retirement knowing there are dirtbags on the streets. Eventually, I know it'll happen. But that day isn't today." He cleared his throat and fiddled with the toothpick he had discarded at the start of lunch. "So, O'Dwyer Dance Company. How'd you come up with the name?"
She raised an eyebrow at the subject change and he watched as her eyes moved back and forth before finally settling on him. "It's my maiden name," she finally answered, just as he was starting to worry he had pushed too far. "My parents helped me open it right after I graduated college and after I got married, it didn't make sense to change the name."
An odd feeling filled his chest at the news that Sharon was married and he tried not to think about it. He'd had several flings here and there since his divorce ages ago, but none of them compared to Sharon, a successful, beautiful woman in his age group. He quickly pushed those thoughts away. The last thing he needed to be doing was crushing on his grandsons' married ballet teacher.
"It's catchy," he finally said, forcing a slight laugh.
She shrugged and smiled. "I made a name for myself and it didn't make sense to change that."
"No, that does make sense. And like I said, it's catchy."
"Grandpa Andy! Look! Look!" Harry's shouting drew his attention back to his boys as they came running up to the table, wide grins on their faces. A long string of tickets followed them and his eyebrow rose in surprise. "Look!"
"What's this?" He moved the food out of the way as the boys piled the tickets on the table, their grins filling their faces and brightening their eyes.
"I won the jackpot!" Tommy declared happily, his eyes roaming over the large pile of tickets. The papers tried to slide off the table but Andy reached out and fixed the pile. Across the table, Sharon starting folding them into a neat pile. "I don't know how, but I did and look at all these tickets!"
"He took the last tokens," Harry added, but Andy couldn't detect even a hint of disappointment in his younger grandson's voice. "Can we go get something now?"
Andy could foresee a problem arising with dividing the tickets and he hesitated as he watched Sharon continue folding them up. "Yeah, sure. Let's go see what you guys can get." He moved to stand up and glanced at Sharon who was standing as well. "We'll be right back."
"I've got some of the tickets, I don't mind tagging along." She smiled and held up the large portion of tickets she had folded so far, the boys scurrying to gather the rest.
"They have a lightsaber, Grandpa Andy! I want the lightsaber!" Harry chanted as they walked through the gaming area to the prize counter in the corner. "That one!" He pointed to the hanging blue lightsaber Tommy cheered his approval.
"Okay, okay. Let's see how many tickets you have first." He turned to the ticket counter behind them, but Sharon was already feeding them into the machine.
She looked up and smiled again, her slender fingers holding the tickets straight while the machine sucked them in. The boys moved closer, craning up on their tiptoes to watch the numbers climb higher and higher. In Sharon's distraction, Andy allowed his eyes to roam over her slender form. She was in shape, that much was obvious, and she looked nowhere near the 60 years she had mentioned earlier. He cleared his throat and forced himself to look away from her, noticing that an employee had appeared behind the counter.
Before he could turn back to Sharon and the boys, they were beside him. The boys pressed against the glass displays and Tommy passed the paper for their tickets to the both beamed happily and Sharon loosely crossed her arms as she stood behind them, her eyes locking with Andy's briefly. He smiled and rolled his eyes a bit, a laugh slipping out before he could stop it.
"Can we get two lightsabers?" Tommy asked, his lower lip sticking out as he looked between the employee and the hanging toy.
"Uh, yeah. Sure." The guy fiddled with a calculator for a moment. "What colors?"
"Green!" Harry cheered immediately. "Green like Luke's!"
"I want blue like Obi-Wan's," Tommy added.
The employee grabbed the lightsabers down and handed them to the boys who immediately hurried back to the table. Andy laughed again and fiddled with his shirt as he looked at the employee.
"Are they good?" he asked.
"Yeah, that finished off their tickets," the employee answered before he slipped through the double doors to the back room.
Andy shook his head before he and Sharon followed after his grandsons to the table. "Are you boys ready to go?"
"Yeah, we wanna play! Do we have to go back home?" Tommy held his lightsaber with both hands as he looked up at Andy.
"No, you guys are staying with me the rest of the week, remember?" He smiled at his grandsons and watched out of the corner of his eye as Sharon grabbed her purse.
"I should get going," she said, slinging her purse onto her shoulder. "Thank you for lunch, Andy."
"It's no problem. Thank you for accompanying us." He smiled, trying to ignore the part of himself that wanted to see her again. He knew it was a bad idea and his daughter would give him a few warnings if she knew where his thoughts were.
"I'll see you two in a few days, okay? Make sure to work on your solos." She smiled and the boys lowered their lightsabers long enough to hug her tightly.
"Yes, Ms. Sharon. Thank you!" They murmured, beaming up at her.
Sharon smiled once more and offered a wave to Andy before she made her way through the restaurant to the door. Andy watched her leave, trying to keep his eyes on her head even as they wandered down to her backside. He knew this couldn't end well and even the mantra of, Christ, she's married, couldn't keep him focused.