The dress Lacey had in mind for Frankie to wear to the ski lodge gala was the prettiest, puffiest dress Frankie had ever seen.

Frankie had only been to once dance before in her entire life. It had been her sophomore year homecoming and she had worn one of her sister's dresses. That dress had been plain and black, nothing frilly, nothing special.

The dress Lacey had waiting for Frankie when she arrived at her house Saturday afternoon to get ready was the exact opposite of what Frankie had worn to homecoming. Lacey's dress was dark green and velvet with a skirt that poofed out at the waist before ending right at Frankie's knees. It was shorter than Frankie was used to but Lacey had a pair of black tights for her to wear underneath.

The sharing adventure stopped at the shoes. Frankie's feet were bigger than Lacey's and so she had to resort to wearing her nice church shoes with the dress. Walking into the ballroom of the Hummel Ski Lodge, Frankie immediately regretted her decision to not squeeze into a pair of Lacey's heels as she took in the attire around her.

The room was filled with silk, lace, velvet gowns, and tuxedos. Everywhere Frankie looked, guests were dressed to the nines, jewelry on full display, elaborate hairdos to match. Frankie's nicest shoes were a pair of black converse. She was the only person not wearing fancy dress shoes in the entire room. She immediately felt out of place.

Frankie only entered the ballroom further because Lacey had grabbed her arm and was pulling her along. The further in she went, the more out of place she felt. The more she took in the ballroom decorations, the more the scene around her felt like a fairy tale.

From an objective standpoint, after pulling herself out of the depths of her spiraling sense of self-worth, Frankie could see why the lodge gala was such a big deal, why the tickets were so hard to acquire and how they had the resources to hire Johnny Stephens as musical guest for the evening.

The ballroom was a separate room attached to the main body of the building by a glass hallway. It was rounded on all sides and the majority of its wall space were windows that looked out onto the snowy landscape and quaint little Hummel sitting at the base of the mountain.

As for the decorations, Frankie felt as though the spirit of Christmas herself had been hired as decorator. There were multiple Christmas trees, hundreds of lights and multiple crystal chandeliers garnished with holly hanging from the ceiling.

While Lacey dragged her to their table, Frankie's eyes searched the room for Johnny, trying to spot him in the older crowd. Frankie had a feeling that she might be the youngest person at the party.

Lacey let go of Frankie's hand when they reached one of the tables closest to the dance floor. Frankie could read her name, along with Lacey's, Corey's, Dan's, and Hannah's on clean white place cards. Lacey didn't notice Frankie's state of extreme shock and awe as she herself was remarking on everything around them while Corey followed her pointing finger and excited glances.

When Frankie's eye grew used to the magnificence around her, her panic forced her to look to the crowd, searching for disdainful glances, judgmental stares at her attire, anything to affirm her discomfort. She found Dan and Hannah a few tables away chatting with a group of people. Lacey's words from their trip to the antique store came back to her, a brief distraction from her state of overwhelm. Watching her boss interact with those around him, Frankie found she was watching a different side to Dan that she had never seen before.

From where she was standing, Dan was the center of a small group of men and women. He was taller than everyone else but seemed to lean forward slightly to lessen the difference and to appear as if he were listening intently. From the number of nods and half-smiles, Frankie could tell he really was.

She looked to Hannah next, where she stood next to her husband.

If Dan was the patriarch of Hummel, then Hannah was the matriarch, and Frankie could see it in how she held herself. Hannah looked as if she belonged. She stood next to Dan but with elbow room between them, not leaning on him but her own person. Her hands were folded in front of her and she was smiling and giving encouraging nods as the people chatted around her. Her face lit up when she started to speak and every eye around her was drawn to her, every ear ready to hear what she had to say.

They were professionals. This wasn't a space they were in often but the two of them had learned to socialize with the higher class in their community and they fit right in with everyone else.

Hannah was wearing a beautiful floor-length ball-gown a soft gold color that matched her complexion while Dan was wearing the neat black suit Frankie knew he only saved for funerals and special occasions.

Frankie was stunned watching the two of them so easily socialize with the people around them. And there she was, standing awkwardly, too aware that her dress was not hers, that her shoes were not the right kind, that she was not wearing enough makeup, and that she had simply let her hair dry to bring out its natural curl instead of putting it up in some fancy up-do that she had no idea how to do.

Her sneaking suspicion of being completely inadequate to ever run Hummel Farms grew with each passing second as she watched Dan and Hannah excel in their positions. Luckily, dinner was soon served and all the guests retired to their assigned seats.

Dan and Hannah made polite conversation with their table companions and Lacey and Corey got to know their seat neighbors while Frankie sat in the middle with no one to talk to. The eating portion of the night only lasted twenty minutes and Frankie was saved when the owner of the lodge stepped up onto the stage set up alongside the dance floor and the room turned quiet to hear what he had to say.

The smiling short bald man lifted a hand to wave to his guests as he stepped up to the microphone set at the center of the stage. Behind him, men and women dressed in white suit jackets took their seats on the bandstand.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome, to the Hummel Lodge Gala!"

The perfect host, he waited long enough for the cheers to die down.

"We have a very special surprise for you tonight. Joining our in-house jazz band is a local superstar, in town to spend the holidays with his family. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Mr. Johnny! Stephens!"

The crowd clapped, a few people cheered, all of them made noise as Johnny appeared from one of the doors on the side of the stage and made his way up to the microphone. He gave the owner a warm handshake before taking his place in the spotlight.

"Good evening, Hummel! Thank you for having me tonight. Let's dance, shall we?"

And with his short introduction, Johnny nodded at the band leader and a jazzy rendition of Winter Wonderland started to play. As Johnny started to sing, couples from every table stood and migrated to the dance floor. Lacey and Corey were quick to join them. But Frankie stayed behind to watch Johnny perform and when she looked over her shoulder, she noticed Dan and Hannah had stayed as well.

Watching him perform, Frankie could finally see why his band had been so successful, why they had amassed such a large group of fans. Johnny sang as if his life depended on it. The deep voice Frankie had heard in their music that played in the store was richer, fuller, live.

He made eye contact with the group, smiled, winked, nodded, kept them looking at him, and kept the music energy high as the group on the dance floor spun circles at his feet.

Watching him perform, Frankie understood why he had left home at such a young age, why he had sacrificed so much for a dream. It was easy to see that this was what he was born to do.

The music turned slow when Johnny took the spot behind the large black piano set off to the side, the rest of the band taking a break while he sang a solo rendition of White Christmas. Everyone on the dance floor stopped dancing to watch him when he started to sing. The only sound in the room was his voice and the melancholy notes he played on the piano.

The whole crowd seemed to sign a collective sigh as Johnny sang. Hummel hadn't seen snow since before Thanksgiving and in that moment, it seemed the whole crowd was praying for the heavens to open up and let some down.

The magic spell faded away as Johnny sustained the last note. Leaning into the microphone he called out a "Thank you, Hummel. Have a good night" and then left the stage.

It took Frankie a second to return to Earth. It helped that Lacey came rushing back to the table, talking a mile a minute about how good he was. Her praise soon found a target when Johnny reappeared at the side of their table.

"Hey everybody! Enjoying yourself?"

Lacey poured out her praises and once those were released, she pulled Corey back out onto the dance floor as the band started up the music again. Hannah and Dan had both stood when Johnny approached. Hannah rounded the table and pulled Johnny in for a tight hug.

"You did amazing," Frankie could hear her say into his ear.

"Thanks, Mom. I'm glad you guys could come watch."

"We wouldn't have missed it for the world."

Dan's tone was gruff but Frankie could see his lips were turned down, his tell for when he was trying not to cry. He extended a firm hand towards Johnny, who returned the gesture with a solid handshake. The two of them met each other's eyes for a long moment, a silent conversation happening between father and son.

Someone approached to chat with Dan and Hannah and the moment was let go of, as was the handshake. That left Frankie and Johnny.

"You were good. Really good," Frankie said.

Johnny's face was glowing. Frankie guessed from both excursion and pride.

"You think so?" Johnny said.

"I get the whole boy band thing now."

Johnny smiled. "That's high praise."

Frankie nodded and looked down at her shoes. Wincing at the sight of them, she looked up again to look anywhere else.

"You look beautiful."

Frankie's heart stopped at Johnny's compliment and she could feel her own cheeks redden.

"Thanks," was the best she could do.

"Come on," Johnny said, taking her hand, "I'll introduce you to the owner."

Frankie didn't have time to protest as Johnny led her through the crowd, accepting compliments from all sides as he did. They found the owner by the drinks table and his attention immediately turned to Johnny when he approached.

"Johnny, I can't thank you enough for performing tonight. The guests loved it! You'll have to come back next year and do it again!"

"It was an honor, Mr. Green. Truly." Johnny turned his attention to Frankie and forced Mr. Green to do likewise. "I'd like to introduce you to Miss Frankie Rivera. She works down at Hummel Farms. She is my father's, right-hand man."

Frankie extended her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. This is a wonderful party."

"Now you must be Frank!"Mr. Green's handshake was bouncy and excited as his eyes lit up in recognition. "Dan and Hannah talk about you all the time. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. If I'd known you were such a lovely young lady, I would have extended Hannah's annual invitation to you as well years ago! Now that we've met, I'll be making sure that mistake gets rectified."

His smile was big and infectious and he was curious about Frankie's responsibilities down on the farm. Johnny stepped in when Frankie's words faltered as all she could think of was all the animals she fed and cleaned up after. The way Johnny talked about her work made it seem like she ran the place single-handedly. Everything he said was true, everything he attributed to her was correct but she was blown away by how he made her position as farmhand and Dan's gofer sound so important.

That was how the two of them spent the next hour of the evening. So many people wanted to meet Johnny and every time he introduced himself, he always included Frankie in the introductions. He also made sure to include her in the conversation, bringing the topics around to the importance of her work on the farm, setting her up to talk about what it was like, how they ran things, plans they had for further expansion in the future.

The longer they talked with people, the more comfortable Frankie got speaking about her work. It was easy to talk about. She knew that farm inside and out. And not once while she was speaking to the guests did she think about her shoes.

Johnny decided they had talked to enough people when the band ran out of Christmas carols to play and started on more modern pieces.

"Wanna dance?" He asked, extending Frankie a hand.

"I would love to," Frankie said.

Before they made it to the dance floor, a voice called for their attention.

"Over here, Miss! Mister."

Frankie and Johnny turned as one of the room photographers caught their attention. Johnny slipped his arm around Frankie's waist and she responded in kind as the flash went off. The woman handed them a ticket and told them to pick up their print at the front desk later that week. With their attendance at the gala recorded for the history books, Frankie and Johnny had nothing left to do but dance.

And dance they did. Out of the floor, Johnny led Frankie along in time to the music and the two of them danced their way into the center of the crowd. Frankie's rudimentary dance lessons from her mother in their kitchen when she was ten perfectly matched Johnny's skill level from the few lessons he had gotten from his mother as well.

Out on the dance floor, they were a perfect match. And thinking over the way they worked together in conversation, Frankie couldn't help thinking they were a perfect match in that regard, as well.

A/N:

Anyone got some paralellisms I could borrow?

I used all of mine up for this scene.

😎