A Wright Christmas - K.A. Linde Page 0,51

more time, pinched Isaac’s cheek, and then headed back out.

He laughed and shook his head. “I’m going to grab Aly. I’ll see you at the game.”

“Sounds good,” I said as he drew me into a hug.

His lips found mine, and I debated on dragging him into an empty dressing room. But of course, we couldn’t act like high schoolers even if he made me feel young and carefree.

“I’ll see you later.” He kissed me one more time and then disappeared to locate his daughter.

I headed back to the dressing room and changed out of my tutu. Luckily, my knee had held up through the show. In fact, the day of rest seemed to have helped it more than I’d thought it would. It hadn’t been too bad during the show and I could walk just fine now.

I shouldered my dance bag and went to check my messages as I headed out of the studio. I froze on the threshold when I saw that I had five missed calls from Annabelle, the assistant to the production director for NYC Ballet as well as a few from the production director and artistic director.

My heart thudded in my chest. What the hell had happened?

I clicked the first voicemail.

“Peyton, hey, it’s Annabelle. We’re in a tight spot. Can you call me back as soon as you get this? ASAP!”

Well, shit.

I needed to call her right away and find out what had happened. This couldn’t be good. I hadn’t really heard from anyone in the month since I’d been gone—besides regular check-in stuff because we were all friends. Nothing like this kind of bombardment.

With a sigh, I hustled into my car to get out of the cold and dialed Annabelle’s number.

“Hey, this is Annabelle.”

“Annabelle, it’s Peyton. What’s going on?”

“Oh my God, Peyton, I’m so glad that you called. Disaster struck. Lauren just had an emergency appendectomy!”

“What?” I gasped. “Is she okay?”

“Yes, she’s fine. She’s going to be fine. The doctor said that they got to everything in time. She’ll make a full recovery, but she can’t be on her feet for two to four weeks.”

My eyes bugged. “That’s awful. I’m glad she’s okay, but oh my God.”

“I know. We all had a meltdown. It happened right after the show today.”

“Wow.”

“And she was supposed to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy for the rest of the week. I’ve reached out to everyone we have who’s rehearsed the role, and literally, no one is free. Could you by any chance hop on a plane and be back in New York for tomorrow’s performance?”

My mouth went dry. Tonight. They wanted me to fly out tonight? But what about Isaac’s game and the after-party and the Christmas Eve performance? Crap, what was I going to do?

The ballet was my job. It was my dream job at that. It was all I had ever wanted growing up. And now, I had it, and I’d thought that I’d be able to have everything else I’d ever wanted, too. A life. A family. But…that just wasn’t possible.

My career and life were back in New York. They weren’t here in Lubbock. This was who I had been, and it had been nice for a few weeks to think that everything could work out…go back to how they had been. But I’d just been deluding myself. There was no way this could all work out.

I wasn’t even going to get to have Christmas here with my family. That was how it was…how it would always be.

As much as I wanted it to work with Isaac, neither of us knew how it would happen. We’d been avoiding it more than we’d really discussed it. We’d “figure it out.” But what was there to figure out?

I was going back to New York. He was staying here with Aly. That was the truth. The unavoidable truth.

“Sure,” I finally said. “Yes, I can be there. I have to move some things around, but I can make it.”

“Thank God! You’re a lifesaver. I don’t know what we’d do without you,” Annabelle gushed. “Okay, I’m going to buy your ticket right this second. First class from Lubbock to New York City with a layover in Dallas. It looks like the latest flight is nine fifteen tonight. Think you can make that if you hurry?”

“Yeah. Lubbock is small. I only have to be there forty-five minutes early.”

“Ah, the joys of small towns,” Annabelle said. “I already have your frequent flyer number. This should be in your inbox in a few minutes. Thanks