A Wright Christmas - K.A. Linde Page 0,27

made me melt. “I missed you tonight.”

My heart constricted. This girl. This beautiful, magnificent girl. My whole world. God, I loved her.

“I missed you, too, sweetheart.” I kissed the top of her head. “Now, go back to sleep. I’ll be here in the morning. Maybe we can have waffles before I go to work.”

“Promise?” she breathed.

“Promise.”

I kissed her again and then snuck out of the room, carefully closing the door behind me.

Annie grimaced when she saw me. “Sorry again.”

I shrugged and went into the kitchen for another beer. “It’s fine. She wasn’t really awake. If she had been, she would have fought me to sleep in my bed, but she went right back to sleep.”

“Well, that’s good at least.” Annie got to her feet and stretched. “I’m glad you had a good night, and I’m glad it’s Peyton. I’ve always loved her. So do Mom and Dad.”

“Yeah,” I said, remembering the first time I’d brought Peyton home. She’d cast a spell on my whole family. A spell that she had cast on me, too. “When I’m with her, it feels like the entire world stops.”

“I love that,” she said, giving me a hug and heading out.

I stayed up later than I should have, knowing Aly would be up at the crack of dawn, requesting waffles. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the date. I’d never been able to get Peyton out of my system. And tonight, I could still feel her working through me. I couldn’t wait until I could see her again. Especially for a night when I didn’t have to rush home.

Fuck, those thoughts wouldn’t leave me alone either. I carried them with me into the shower as my hand remembered all the ways I’d intimately known her body. And I fell back into bed, sated but not satisfied, wanting Peyton even more than before.

13

Peyton

“Yes, Bebe! That was excellent,” I said in rehearsal. “Grab some water, and then we’ll run through the whole thing one more time.”

The Nutcracker had gone off without a hitch the weekend after my date with Isaac. After our opening-weekend success, the seats in the new Buddy Holly Hall were completely sold out. People were driving in from all over Texas to come see our production.

And in true Peyton fashion, I was trying to up the ante for the next round of performances this weekend. Which meant a lot of time in the studio and pushing all of the dancers to try to reach their potential.

Katelyn hurried back out into the studio space first. “Don’t you think the understudies should go through it once, too?”

“You and Jake have been practicing it behind the leads the entire time.”

“But it’s not the same.”

“If you want more time to do it, then you can stay after class to practice.”

Katelyn pursed her lips. “That’s not fair. I can do those moves just as good as Bebe.”

The class gasped softly and then went deathly silent. Katelyn hadn’t been subtle about her dislike that someone else was taking the spotlight from her. I suspected it had something to do with her feeling like she was owed her spot in the show. But I would brook no disrespect in my studio space.

“You might or might not be able to dance the pas de deux as well as Bebe. However, you were not cast as Clara. So, the statement is not only irrelevant,” I said, standing statuesque and staring at Katelyn with all the strength my own instructors had instilled in me all these years, “but also rude and disrespectful.”

“I wasn’t being rude. I was just telling the truth.”

“I don’t care for your truth. Life isn’t fair, Katelyn. If you don’t like it, then you can get out of my classroom,” I said, gesturing to the door.

Katelyn huffed and then stormed from the room.

Good riddance.

She’d cool off, and then maybe we’d actually get something done without her crowding Bebe all the time. The rest of the students gaped after Katelyn’s sudden departure.

I clapped my hands to draw their attention. “Again, from the top.”

By the time rehearsal was over, I felt beat. Katelyn hadn’t returned, and her shiny white BMW was already gone from the parking lot. If she wanted someone to hold her hand and pet her hair, then she’d just be disappointed because I was the wrong person for that. Kathy sure knew I wasn’t a hand-holder. Not for the first or the last time, I wondered if she had chosen correctly.

I headed home in my dad’s company car and showered