A Wright Christmas - K.A. Linde Page 0,49

week. Your job is there. Your life is there. I couldn’t ever ask you to give that up. I couldn’t do it when I had you when we were kids, and I’d never think to ask now.” I kissed her hand. “But I don’t want to walk away from this either.”

“Me neither,” she whispered. “But how…how is it even going to work?”

“We’ll figure it out,” I told her honestly. “If we want it to work, we’ll figure it out.”

“Okay,” she agreed hesitantly.

“I know it’s not going to be easy, but this…you are what I want, Peyton Medina.”

“Yes,” she said as I brought my lips to hers. “You’re what I want, too.”

“We have one more week. Let’s just take it one day at a time. After Christmas, we can figure out how to make this work.”

She nodded and brought her hand back up to my jaw, pulling me in for another kiss. “In the meantime,” she whispered against my lips, “we have the house to ourselves.”

“Your knee…”

She laughed. “Maybe I can try to be sexy after I finish icing.”

I drew her lips against mine one more time. “You’re always sexy. And I’m here to take care of you…anything else is just a bonus.”

“I’d like to take you up on that bonus.”

Fuck, I wasn’t just falling for this woman. I was in love with her. Unequivocally.

And I let the rest of my fears and consequences dissipate as she tossed the ice aside and drew me toward her. Who was I to deny her anything?

22

Peyton

The snow fell thick and heavy all night and through most of the day Saturday. And while this much snow wouldn’t have been a big deal in New York, Texas wasn’t equipped for it. To my dismay, we had to cancel the show Saturday night.

It ended up being a blessing in disguise since I needed the extra day of rest. Especially considering my…extracurricular activities with Isaac.

Luckily, by the time the Sunday matinee show rolled around, the roads were clear, and my knee was back to normal. Which wasn’t a hundred percent, but the swelling had all gone down, and I could walk again without pain. I was sure dancing was going to make it worse, but there were only two more shows in Lubbock, and I wasn’t ready to hand it over to the understudy.

Isaac had gone home Sunday morning when the roads were clear, promising to see me at the soccer game that night. Since I had no car, Piper agreed to drive me to the studio.

“Remind me again why you don’t have a car,” Piper asked as we headed that direction.

“Remind me again why you were snowed in with Bradley.”

She huffed, “I wasn’t with Bradley. I was just at his place.”

“Uh-huh,” I said disbelievingly. “Is it because Blaire was gone, so she couldn’t talk you out of it?”

“No!”

I laughed at my sister. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she grumbled.

She dropped me off at the front entrance, and I felt the normal swell of excitement right before I went onstage. That dissipated as soon as I saw who was waiting for me—Angelica and Bart Lawson.

I should have anticipated it. Of course I couldn’t hope that Katelyn would actually be a bigger person and let it all go. That she’d realize the consequences of her actions. Instead, she’d brought in the big guns. Great.

Katelyn stood just behind them with wide eyes. It wasn’t the vindictive, smug look I was used to from her. I met her gaze for the briefest moment, wondering what she was thinking, before turning to her parents.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Lawson,” I said with the biggest smile I could muster, ignoring the stares from the rest of the performers who had already arrived for the show. “Thank you for dropping Katelyn off for the show this afternoon. Are you going to stay to watch? She’s a lovely flower.”

“You know why we’re here,” Bart growled.

“You tried to kick our daughter out of the show!” Angelica snapped.

They had an audience now. I had confronted Katelyn in front of her peers but not the entire show. This was humiliating.

“Why don’t we go inside my office to discuss this?” I said graciously.

“We’re not going anywhere with you. I’ll have you know that we plan to sue you and this company for what you’ve done to our daughter,” Angelica said, arching an eyebrow.

“Really?” I said without inflection. “Well then, I believe there’s nothing more that I can say, and I’m going to have to ask that you vacate the