by Linde, K. A.
“Good girl.” He kissed the top of her head, but then his eyes moved back up to mine. “Hi, Peyton.”
“Isaac, I can’t believe you’re here.”
God, I couldn’t stop staring at him. How was he here? How was this happening?
“It was a little last minute,” he conceded.
“But…what are you doing here?”
He grinned sheepishly, but then his confidence returned, and he stepped closer to me. “Aly wanted to bake cookies.”
Of all the excuses he could give, that wasn’t the one I’d been anticipating.
And I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Cookies?”
“Yes, Miss Peyton!” Aly cheered. “We were supposed to make cookies. And then Daddy said that you came here instead. But I still wanted to make cookies.”
I looked between them in awe. Of course they hadn’t come here just to make cookies. No matter how excited Aly seemed by the prospect. I could tell what they’d really come for, just from the look in Isaac’s eyes. They’d come for me.
Wasn’t that what I’d been moping around about for the last week anyway? I’d wanted to see them. I definitely hadn’t wanted to leave them. I just didn’t know what Isaac thought was going to happen by showing up.
“Well then, we’ll have to make cookies, won’t we?” I said to Aly.
She beamed. “Yes!”
“How long are you staying?”
“A little up in the air,” he admitted. “I wanted to talk to you first. I couldn’t just let you walk away without fighting for you, Peyton.”
A chill ran up my back at the statement. I hadn’t thought it was possible for this to work. And yet here he stood, proving me wrong, proving that he wasn’t just going to let me go.
“You think fighting will fix this?” I asked curiously.
“That’s why I’m here.”
And he looked so damn confident, standing there in a suit with his black winter jacket, his hair gelled to perfection, and those green eyes reminding me of just why I’d fallen in love with him. Not to mention, the overeager five-year-old at his side, who wanted nothing more than to spend time with me.
He’d flown all the way here. I might as well give him a chance to explain.
“Okay,” I huffed. “Where are you staying?”
He winced and ran his hand back through his hair. “Well, we came in last night and got a hotel for a night in the city. We left our luggage there after we checked out. Since we weren’t sure if we were going to be staying, I didn’t want to get another night. It’s New Year’s, you know?”
“So…everything is a million dollars?”
“Basically.”
“Always practical,” I told him with another laugh. “Come on. Y’all can stay at my place. It’s not much, but it’s free.”
“Thank you,” he said with a smile. He turned to Aly. “What do you think, Aly Cat? Should we go see Peyton’s apartment?”
“Yes! And then cookies!” Aly cheered.
Her enthusiasm was contagious. I should have felt off about him coming all the way here after I’d dumped him, but all I felt was…relieved. Maybe I’d been hasty about the whole situation. I’d just reacted, knowing that two thousand miles was an impossible distance and dance took over my life. I could barely have a relationship with someone here in the city, who danced with me, who I saw all the time.
But after seeing Serge again, maybe it had been our relationship and not all relationships. He was selfish and self-centered, and everything had revolved around his wants and needs. With Isaac, things weren’t like that. We were equals. Plus, he’d flown all the way out here at the last minute to prove me wrong.
It had to be worth pursuing.
* * *
Their hotel was within walking distance from Lincoln Center, and after they packed up their bags again, we checked out of the hotel and took a cab south.
My apartment wasn’t too far away, but the drive felt interminably long with the impending New Year’s traffic coming into the city. Aly gawked at the tall buildings and pointed out every little thing that she found interesting. It was brilliant to see it through her eyes for the first time.
Isaac insisted on paying for the cab, and then we were all on the sidewalk, looking around at the same dirty streets and iron gate over my building that I’d glared at a week ago when I got home.
“You live here?” Aly asked in confusion.
“Yep. Up there actually,” I said, pointing vaguely toward the seventh floor.
“But where’s your yard?”
I chuckled and opened the gate. “I don’t have a yard. Just an apartment.”
“Okay, but I want a dog. Dogs need a yard.”
My eyes met Isaac’s, and I could see he was trying to hold back his laughter.
“You’re right, Aly. Dogs do need yards, but some people have dogs here in New York, and they walk them to the park.”
She nodded and said, “Ohh!” as if that made perfect sense.
We climbed the six flights of stairs up to my apartment, and I let them inside.
“I know it’s not much,” I began.
But Isaac just waved me off. “I like it. It suits you.”
I looked around the one-bedroom from his perspective. It did suit me. Everything was soft whites and blues with elaborate throw rugs and exposed brick. I loved my tiny apartment even if it had felt less like home this time than any time before it.
“Are we doing cookies now?” Aly asked in excitement, walking around and touching everything.
“Not tonight,” Isaac said. “It’s your bedtime. Let’s get you changed and brush your teeth. I’ll read you a book, and then it’s time to sleep.”
Aly pouted. “I’m not ready for bed.”
“If you don’t get a good night’s sleep, then we can’t make cookies tomorrow. Peyton would be really sad about that.”
I stuck out my bottom lip and nodded along.
“Fine,” she grumbled.
Isaac went to get Aly ready for bed, and I made up the couch with sheets and a pillow for Aly. By the time she was passed out, I’d popped open a bottle of red wine, poured it into two glasses, and gestured for Isaac to follow me into the bedroom.
I took a seat on the windowsill, looking out at the fire escape instead of up at Isaac and whatever was about to happen. I was suddenly nervous. Having him here felt…inexplicably right.
It made no sense. Isaac wasn’t New York in the slightest. He had been born and bred West Texas. He said y’all and drove a pickup truck and worked on construction sites. And somehow, even here in this space, he fit in my world.
“Thank you for letting us stay after I ambushed you,” he said with a laugh.
My eyes flittered back over to him. He took a sip of the wine. He’d discarded his tie at some point, and he stood in slacks and a button-up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. He didn’t seem nervous. Rather the set of his shoulders and the tilt of his lips and the steady gaze all said that he was confident and prepared for this.
Unlike me.
“I wouldn’t want you staying in a tiny hotel when you could stay in a tiny apartment for free.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I guess I do,” I said, sipping my wine.
“We should probably talk.”
“Probably.” I bit my lip. “Is this where you try to convince me to come back to Lubbock?”
He cocked his head to the side in confusion. Then, he set the wine down on a dresser and came over to stand before me. He held his hand out, and I took it, letting him pull me to my feet.
“Peyton, have I ever given you the impression that you should have to give up your dreams for me?” he asked cautiously.
“No,” I whispered.
“I’d never ask you to leave New York or the ballet,” he confirmed. “But I didn’t agree with you when you left Lubbock so abruptly. I’d been considering how we could make this work, but I didn’t really put it together until you were gone.”
“That I can’t live without you.”
My breath caught. “Isaac…”
“Not just that, but I don’t want to. We deserve our happiness, Pey, not just our dreams.” He drew me in closer until we were only inches apart. “I’ve figured out how it will work. I’ll come up on the weekends with Aly. You can come down between performances when you have time off.”
“Wait—”
“No, let me finish. And then once I can, I’ll request a transfer to move up to the New York office. It’s smaller, but Wright is everywhere. They’ll find a place for me when they can.”
My jaw dropped open. “You’d move to New York?”
“For you?” He lifted my hand and pressed his lips to my fingers. “Anything, Peyton.”
27
Isaac
Peyton had tears in her eyes.
God, I hoped they were happy tears.
I’d meant every word of it. After Aly had fallen asleep on me on Christmas, I’d decided that I couldn’t sit by and let this happen to me. If Peyton was what I wanted, then I couldn’t let her be the one to have to make the sacrifices. Happiness was a two-way street.
So, I’d booked the first flight to New York for me and Aly, held my nose as I paid the insane hotel price, and purchased tickets to Peyton’s show. I had no idea how it was all going to go down. But I didn’t think Peyton wanted to give our relationship up any more than I did, and if that was the case, then I had a plan to fix what we’d broken.
“We can make this work,” I assured her again. “I really think that we can.”
“What about Aly?” she gasped.
“It’ll be harder,” I admitted. “I can’t lie about that. New York is so much more expensive than Lubbock, and I wouldn’t have the support I’m used to with my parents and Annie. But she’s five. I think she’d adjust just fine here. She’d learn to love the city like you do. And we’ll fly her back to see everyone when we can.”
“Isaac…I don’t know.”
“Look,” I said, pulling the picture Annie had given me at Christmas out of my pocket that I’d saved from the trash can.
She took it from me with trembling hands. “I remember giving this to you.”
“Me too. It was after we went to Ransom Canyon. You wanted me to keep it in my locker. It was a promise.”
She turned the picture over. “Nothing can come between us,” she whispered.
“I still believe that, Peyton. It might be difficult. It might not be what we always envisioned. But for us, for you and I to finally be together, I think it’s worth it. I think it’s all worth it.”
She clutched the picture to her chest with her eyes closed and shook her head slightly. She was going to say no. I could see that on her. All of this was for nothing. It just couldn’t end like this.
“Peyton, look at me.” She shook her head again. “Come on. Look at me.”
She finally opened her eyes, and they met mine with pain in her irises.
“I love you. You’ve always had a piece of my heart, but the last month, when I was with you, was the best of my adult life. It made me realize everything that I had been missing. And that is you. If you feel the same, then please just let us try. Just try with me, love.”
She bit her lip and then sighed. I saw indecision war on her face. But I gave her the space to think about it. It was a lot. We’d said we’d think this through, but she must have thought it wasn’t possible since she’d run.
“Okay,” she finally said.
“Okay?”
“I want to try.”
“You do?” I asked, slightly shocked. I’d been preparing myself so much for her to say no.
“And not just that, Isaac,” she said, taking my hand. “I want to come home.”
“What?” I gasped.
“I’ve been thinking about it nonstop since I got back here. It felt right to be back in Lubbock. I loved being back at LBC. I loved being close to my family. And I loved being with you. When I came back here, everything felt…wrong.” She brushed a wisp of hair off of her forehead. “The dancing is still incredible, but I’d be lying if I said that my knee wasn’t getting worse every time I danced. I don’t know how much longer I have, working on it full-time, even with more PT and my trainer. I don’t want to go out because of a second blown knee. I want to go out on my terms.”
“That makes sense,” I told her. “Your knee is definitely a factor, but, Peyton, you could still be dancing professionally for another five years. I could never ask you to give that up.”
“You’re not asking. I’m telling you that I think if I want to walk when I get older, I can’t continue the way that I am.”
“Okay. Right. Injuries are no joke.”
“And a small fall after tripping shouldn’t cause me two days of pain.”
“Fair,” I admitted.
I couldn’t deny that I was worried about her knee. But I couldn’t see Peyton doing anything that didn’t involve dance. She was happiest when she was onstage or in the studio. She was happiest in tights and leotards with her hair in a bun. That was who she was.
“But what will you do if you come back?”
“I don’t know really,” she admitted. “But I’m sure Kathy would hire me to teach at the very least. She could probably bring me in for the professional company on a part-time basis.” She shrugged with her hands up. “I really haven’t gotten that far. I’d have to talk to her, but I think there are options that don’t involve me destroying my knee.”
“Peyton, I’m really prepared to move here if I have to.”
She brought her hand to my cheek. “Just the fact that you would makes me see that this is the right decision. I want to finish out the season with New York City Ballet. I’m supposed to be in a spring production and original choreography series right before summer. So, it would be six months like this, and then…then I’d retire.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Even hearing those words out of her mouth was mind-boggling.
“It wouldn’t be over though,” she assured me. “I’d still do choreography and workshops across the country. I’d be busy. I’d have a job. It would just be a little less performing and more instructing, I think.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I want you in Lubbock. There’s no doubt about that. Aly and I want you in our lives. But I don’t want to sway you.”
“You did but in the best way,” she said and then kissed me.
I drew her into my arms. She tasted like a hint of red wine, and I could just dive into a vat and get drunk off of her.
This was far from what I’d ever imagined her saying. I’d been prepared to plead my case, to show her how much I wanted us to work. But then she’d surprised me by wanting to move back. Even in my wildest dreams, I hadn’t thought she would do that…or ever want that.
Her fingers moved to my shirt, and she deftly unbuttoned it, pushing it over my shoulders. I let it fall to the ground as I reached for her, running my hands under her sweater to the lithe body beneath. She was perfection incarnate…and now, she was mine. She was really mine.
“I love you,” I said against her skin after tugging her sweater over her head.
“I love you, too,” she gasped.
My hands moved under her tank top, cupping her breasts and causing her nipples to peak.
“Isaac,” she breathed. “The…the door.”
Oh, right, we’d left it open. Fuck.
I gently shut it as she shimmied out of her tank and leggings. I shucked my own pants off to the side and then followed her to the bed. She tugged the covers down, and we fell into bed, kissing, touching, feeling. It was every sense all at once. So much at once. And I couldn’t get enough of her body.
The way she squirmed when I trailed her hip bone. Or the huff of breath as I kissed her stomach. The spread of her legs as my hips settled against hers.
I slipped two fingers between her lips, slicking through her wetness before press
ing deep into her. She moaned softly, a sound that went straight to my dick. It strained against the fabric of my boxers as I dipped my head to lick at her clit.
“I want you,” she said, reaching for my shoulders to pull me.
She grabbed a condom out of the side table as I removed my boxers. She slid the condom on me. Our eyes met as I leaned over her, positioning myself at her opening.
“I’m glad you surprised me,” she whispered. “That you’re here.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
She drew my lips down to hers, and I slid forward into her. She groaned against my mouth but didn’t pull us apart. Our limbs were entangled and our souls connected. There was nothing between us now. Just this moment.
I picked up a rhythm as we let the last week wash off of us. Things weren’t going to be easy for the next six months. Finding our footing and learning to be together was going to be all new for both of us. But it was going to be worth it to have her back in my life. To have her home.
We came together with a passion. I had to stifle my roar of pleasure to keep from waking Aly up in the living room. But it was worth it, seeing Peyton’s flushed face and her beautiful sex-drunk gaze.
We both lay panting on her bed for a few minutes before I got up to clean up. Then I came back to the bed and pulled her into my arms. “You’re perfect.”
She huffed a soft laugh and threw her arm over my stomach. “How long are you staying?”
“As long as you want.”
“Forever?” she joked.
I kissed the top of her hair. “I have off until the fifth, but I never take vacation. So, I could probably ask off for the rest of the week.”
“I’d like that,” she breathed. “What are we going to do while you’re here?”
I tipped her chin up until she was looking at me and grinned licentiously. “A hell of a lot more of this.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “That sounds reasonable.”
“Also, probably bake cookies.”
She giggled. “The damn cookies.”
I brushed a lock of her hair out of her face and kissed her thoroughly. “We can do whatever you want to do. As long as I am yours and you are mine.”
