Run, Girl (If You Can)

Jeremy felt like the day was going quite well when everyone settled down on the couch to watch football as the food digested. Based on how Violet blushed when he said he was thankful for meeting her felt like a total victory.

She liked him. Maybe even as much as he liked her. All he had to do was seal the deal with a little romance now.

Michael Gray was surprisingly interesting company as well. He thought Aaron's only friends had been the handful of people he knew at Hale Investments. Then again, it would be a stretch to call him a true friend since Aaron had been so obviously annoyed that he was there.

Jeremy had become quite adept at reading the different levels of Aaron's ice and indifference over the years. Most people wouldn't be able to tell because he acted the same around nearly everyone but he definitely didn't like Michael.

So why invite him to Thanksgiving dinner? Had it been Keeley's idea?

Speaking of Keeley…she wasn't at all what Jeremy expected her to be. He figured she would be someone clinical and detached like the few other scientists he had met. But she was a warm, bubbly person who smiled a lot.

Aaron had been right. It was the same smile his daughter had. He also noticed that every time Keeley did smile that Aaron melted a little. He must love her an awful lot.

When they moved over to the couch and started watching TV, his arm went around his wife's shoulders and he ended up pulling her into his lap. No one else batted an eye at this but Jeremy was completely flabbergasted. It must be a regular occurrence for none of the Hale children to react.

How far the almighty had fallen! He couldn't believe his icy boss was so physically affectionate with his wife in front of other people. It was too bizarre.

Michael didn't seem terribly fazed by it either. He must know the Hales well, which was strange considering how much Aaron seemed to be irritated by his presence. If he didn't know any better, Jeremy would think he was a relative they couldn't get rid of. But he knew Aaron didn't have any other family.

He was an only child and his parents had passed away years ago. Jeremy had already been working at Hale Investments at the time and remembered all of the gossip because Aaron didn't even bother to go to the funeral.

He hadn't seen what the big deal was. He had no plans to go to his parents' funerals either. What would be the point? Why pretend to mourn people he didn't even like?

Their mutual issues with their parents was yet another reason Jeremy felt such kinship with Aaron. They were so similar even though one of them had been born into wealth and the other had been born into poverty.

He had admired the man for so long because he felt like they were the same underneath it all. And in the workplace, they definitely were. But seeing Aaron interact with his family was somewhat like witnessing a zoo animal in its natural habitat rather than in a cage. It was quite different.

All this time Jeremy had figured that work was his natural habitat and his family was incidental but after today he could tell it was definitely the other way around. They definitely had similar characters…so what had made Aaron change?

Jeremy couldn't imagine himself as a devoted family man even if he did end up having children someday. He would obviously try to be better than his own parents had been but a certain degree of that involved providing for their physical needs.

Sending them to good schools. Providing a nice place to live. Making sure they weren't wearing old, out of style clothes that would get them made fun of. Progressing his career was vital for that.

If it ever came down to the wire and he had to choose between his career and a family he would choose his career, hands down. Jeremy supposed that was the main difference between him and Aaron. He had a feeling that if his wife wanted it, he would leave his empire behind in a second. Unimaginable!

Was Keeley Hale really such a powerful influence? Her husband and children definitely loved her based on what he had seen today but he couldn't see exactly what was so special about her aside from her smile.

Come to think of it…should he be trying to act more like Aaron right now? He had never been a particularly touchy-feely person but if Violet was using to seeing that sort of thing as a model of romance he might want to give  it a shot.

Jeremy was sitting next to her anyway, he may as well put his arm around her shoulders. She seemed surprised but pleased when he did it and ended up scooting slightly closer to him. So she had wanted it. Interesting.

It wasn't exactly a chore, especially after seeing the way she smiled at him. He could stand to do this more often.

The game on the TV was the Detroit Lions vs the Las Vegas Raiders. Everyone was cheering for the Lions since that team was based in the same city as Kaleb's baseball team. Kaleb and Nathan both jumped up and yelled when the Lions scored a touchdown but everyone else wasn't nearly as into it.

Aaron seemed more interested in his wife. Michael seemed more interested in the sports fans' reactions. Oliver was playing around on his phone and rolled his eyes at his brothers' antics. As for Violet…she seemed tired.

"Are you alright?" Jeremy whispered.

She looked up at him and gave him one of her polite smiles to reassure him. "Yes, I'm fine. I suppose I'm a little worn down from rehearsals."

The Nutcracker opened the following day and ran Thursday to Sunday until the day before Christmas Eve in order to give the dancers time to spend the holiday with their families. That was only because Christmas Eve was on a Friday.

If it had been a Saturday or Sunday, they would have offered a matinee earlier in the day. Violet said the ballet company usually worked that way in the past. She was dancing the main role so she had been rehearsing like crazy lately.

Whenever Jeremy saw her after work she seemed tired. But today's tiredness was something different. He couldn't put a name to it exactly but it was concerning. He wished he could cheer her up somehow. Seeing her like that was surprisingly distressing.

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