3. Peyton
1400 Words
3
Peyton
Isaac Donoghue was standing in the Lubbock Ballet Company lobby.
I blinked and blinked again. This wasn’t going away. He was really there. Right there. As if I had conjured him out of thin air. I’d anticipated seeing him but not on my first day back. Not here, like this, where I was so unguarded.
God, I had been so hopelessly in love with him. And looking into those green eyes, I could see it happening all over again. Just how easy it would be to get lost in my first love.
He was somehow even more gorgeous than I remembered. He towered over me, as he always had. And while he’d been tall and lanky in high school with his intense soccer schedule, plus running cross-country, he had completely filled out. His shoulders were broad and defined in his suit, his waist tapered in, and his chest had expanded considerably. But it was the bright green of his eyes, the red scruff along his defined jawline, and the warmth of that smile that had always drawn me in. Just as they did now.
“Hi,” I said, flustered.
He laughed softly, and something in my chest eased at the sound. “It’s good to see you. What are you doing in town?”
“I’m…well, Kathy invited me out to perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy for the season.”
Kathy deviously grinned at us both. “We’re so lucky to have her. If you’ll excuse me…”
“That’s incredible,” Isaac said. “You’re not performing in New York?”
“I rearranged my schedule to dance the last week of the year in New York so that I could be here for the entire LBC Nutcracker season.”
“Wow. So, you’ll be here for a month?”
I nodded. A whole month…and Isaac was here.
He stepped forward, shedding the distance between us. Fire shot through me.
“That’s amazing. I’m sure your family is glad to have you home.”
“They are,” I said at once, fidgeting with the loose curl at my temple that I still couldn’t get into place. I dropped my gaze and then lifted it to his again. I wet my lips. “I thought we might run into each other.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Kind of a small circle.”
“True.”
“I just…didn’t guess it’d be on my first day,” I said with a small shrug.
“Yeah, what are the chances? So, you just got in?”
“Yeah, Piper picked me up from the airport. I’m kind of beat, and I’m still supposed to have dinner with Peter and my parents.”
“Oh, well, don’t let me keep you.”
“You’re not,” I insisted, a faint blush touching my cheeks. “I just mean…this is nice. It’s good to catch up with old friends.”
Something shifted in his face.
Friends. Why had I said friends? What was I even thinking?
“Sure. Definitely. It’s been a long time.”
I wanted to say more. Being around him felt…right. It always had. Fate had twisted us together again. Could I even deny that I’d wanted it to?
“It has.”
“Do you need a ride or something?” he asked, always the gentleman.
“Oh, no. I took Piper’s Jeep. I’m sure she’s counting down the minutes until I bring it back. You know how she is.”
He laughed. “I do. I was just surprised to see you.”
Me too.
Just looking at him, I could tell that it had been so very long since I’d seen him. We weren’t teenagers anymore. Things had changed. And ballet still stood between us…as it always had.
He seemed to be willing to let me walk right by and out of his life again. And for a second, I decided that I didn’t want that.
“Maybe we should meet up,” I blurted out.
My blush only deepened. There was no reason not to get a drink with Isaac. We hadn’t seen each other in sixteen years. It wasn’t like I wanted to start a relationship or anything. I was going back to New York in a month anyway.
“Sure,” he said with a half-smile. “My number hasn’t changed.”
I swallowed. “No. Mine hasn’t either.”
“Then, call me or send a text. We can figure something out.”
“I’ll do that.”
His smile never wavered.
Then the door to the baby ballet room opened, and a surge of little dancers in pink tights and leos and skirts came bounding into the lobby. A smile crossed my face at the excitement on all the little dancers’ faces. I loved this moment. Not all, probably not even very many, of these little ones would make it past the next couple of years. But for the few who loved dance so much that it was in their very bones, they’d keep dancing. And it was in their faces that I saw myself and boundless opportunity. Any one of them could be the next star.
“Daddy!” a little girl with ginger-red hair screamed as she rushed toward Isaac.
My heart stopped.
I hadn’t even wondered what Isaac was doing in the lobby of the ballet company on a Thursday afternoon. It didn’t even occur to me. I’d been so dumbstruck by his presence that I didn’t even consider his real reason for being here—he had a daughter.
“Aly Cat!” he cried, scooping up the little girl and pulling her in close. He covered her face in kisses until she squealed with delight.
And as much as my heart ached to see it, it also glowed. Isaac was a great father. Just as I’d always known that he would be. My own disappointment clouded my mind.
For a second, I was seventeen again and standing at a crossroads. In one direction was everything I’d ever wanted—New York City, principal ballerina, dancing in front of thousands in Lincoln Center. And in the other direction was Isaac, a family, a life. I’d chosen one, and standing before me now was the other. But it wasn’t my family or my life. He had made that with someone else. As he had every right to.
I stepped back, a lump forming in my throat. I was happy for him even if, outwardly, I struggled to show it. He deserved a beautiful child and wife and the life he’d always dreamed of for us. But it didn’t hurt any less.
“Aly, let me introduce you to an old friend of mine,” Isaac said, swinging the little girl around. “This is Peyton Medina.”
“Hi, Peyton,” Aly gushed, wiggling out of Isaac’s arms to stand next to me. She only came up to my hip, but she was full of energy. “I’ve heard all about you. You’re a ballerina. A real ballerina.”
I startled out of my own melancholy. “You’ve heard about me?”
“Of course! My daddy only knows one real ballerina. One day, I’m going to move to New York and dance on a stage, just like you!”
I squatted down to her level. “I believe that you will.”
“Of course I will. Daddy tells me that I can be anything I want when I grow up.”
“He’s right.”
“I’m even going to be a mouse in The Nutcracker this year.”
“That’s quite impressive,” I encouraged. “And how old are you?”
She held her hand out. “Five. But I’m going to be six in April.”
“Wow. That is quite an accomplishment for a five-year-old.”
“I know. I’m smart and a good listener,” she boasted.
I cracked a smile.
“And modest, too,” Isaac said with a laugh, ruffling Aly’s perfect ballet bun.
“Dad, don’t mess up my hair!”
“Do you want to know something, Aly?” I asked.
She nodded vigorously.
I tried not to laugh. “I am going to be the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker here in Lubbock this year.”
Aly screamed in delight. Isaac shushed her with an eye roll as the parents who were still nearby looked over in shock. “That is going to be ah-may-zing! Daddy, did you hear?”
“I did, Aly Cat. Now, you should probably let Peyton go. I’m sure you will see her around a lot at rehearsals.”
“I can’t wait,” she said, clenching her hands into fists and shaking with joy.
I straightened up and hauled my dance bag back over my shoulder. “Well…I’ll see you around.”
Isaac nodded at me. “Looking forward to it.”
I swallowed back my disappointment and all the questions I wanted to ask. First and foremost among them: Where’s her mom?
I was deeply regretting not being on social media. For so long in my career, it had meant direct access to my critics, and I just hadn’t been able to handle that. Now, I was wondering how I could be so out of the loop.
With one more backward glance at Isaac holding Aly’s tiny hand, I hastened out of the Lubbock Ballet Company lobby and away from all my what-ifs from the past.
- Writer
