Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
“At least she’s nice to her,” Anne muttered.
I grabbed my phone, which practically lived on the windowsill since Eloise would have tossed it into the pool if I’d wasted rehearsal time looking at it, and found two missed texts.
Reagan: Just checked into the hotel. This sucks without you. You’re coming to the reception tomorrow night, right? He has to renew your contract.
My thumbs hovered over the keyboard. Every MBC principal dancer had reached out, but not once in the five weeks since Vasily announced the casting had he called. Neither had Eva.
Alessandra: I’ll see you there. Promise.
With a swipe, I switched to Hudson’s thread.
Hudson: Gavin’s on his way to pick up Juniper.
Allie: I’ll make sure not to get confused and let him into my bed.
“Seven o’clock. Time to hang it up for the evening,” I told Juniper.
“Awh.” She danced by to a melody only she could hear. “Already?”
“Yep.” My phone buzzed. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
Hudson: Don’t even joke about that. It would be a shame to break my mother’s heart by committing fratricide.
I scoffed.
Allie: I hate that I can’t see you tonight.
Hudson was on twenty-four-hour duty and wouldn’t get off until just before the Classic in the morning. I breathed through an irrational swell of panic. We hadn’t had enough time, and yet we’d had exactly what we’d agreed upon.
“At least I get to wear it tomorrow for real.” Juniper sighed, then took her bag out of the studio, hopefully headed to the bathroom to change.
Dinner smelled scrumptious as I headed into the house, dodging one of the suitcases Anne had already packed in preparation for our departure. She’d been a godsend, cooking to Kenna’s exact specifications all day, playing with Sadie when I spent too long in the studio, and even prepping the endless pointe shoes I went through.
Sadie trotted over to me from the living room with a stuffed bear in her mouth.
“Hey, girl.” I bent down to scratch behind her ears.
“I hope Vasily is ready to have a dog in the building,” Everett said, walking down the stairs, his hair still wet from a shower.
“You think he’ll let me bring her?”
Everett grinned. “I think he’s going to give you anything and everything you want after tomorrow.” He pulled me into a hug. “We’re ready, Allie. You’re ready.”
I squeezed him back. “In case I forget to say it tomorrow, thank you.” My phone buzzed and I pulled away to read the text.
Hudson: Me, too. But I’ll be dead center, back row tomorrow.
I was counting on it.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hudson
BriellePiers73: Best GRWM I’ve seen lately. Good luck today!
“I cannot believe you’re making me do this,” Caroline muttered as we waded through the crowd at the Haven Cove theater and I protected the bouquet of pink peonies that cost a hefty chunk of my pay. “Remind me why?”
The last time I’d simultaneously anticipated and dreaded a day had been when I’d left for basic. Seemed fitting this time revolved around the Rousseau girls too.
Today was the last official day of my relationship with Allie. Every cell in my body rebelled at the thought of walking away. I’d somehow managed to battle last night’s impulses to go AWOL, bloody my hands climbing the trellis to her room like I was eighteen, and lay out a full, exhaustive, thought-out argument as to why she should give us a real chance. I’d saved that for tonight.
“First, because we’re here to support our brother, and secondly, culture is good for you.” Gavin nodded to a year-rounder and his costumed son as they hurried past us with excited smiles.
“Says the man who preaches that Die Hard is a classic.” Caroline shifted sideways, making room for a train of four girls in various colors of tutus. “Not a single one of those girls is a local. Didn’t any local girls enter the contest?”
“I’m sure they did,” I answered.
“I don’t recognize any of them.” Caroline scoured the halls, and I prayed Juniper was already out of sight.
“Trust me, there are more ballet studios around here than you realize,” I muttered.
“Besides, you can’t hate the hand that feeds you,” Gavin argued. “Whether or not you like Sophie Rousseau, you have to hand it to her for bringing in a shit ton of business to a small town. This is the kind of thing that happens in New York or Boston. Not here.”
“Fine,” she grumbled as we turned left into the theater. “I can admit that we made some record-breaking money this week at the café, which is where I should be.”
“Thought you were training a new manager,” I said, skipping over the programs on the table and leading my siblings to the back row. “Part of your whole work-life balance thing.”
“He’s not . . . ready,” she muttered.
“Or you’re just a control freak,” Gavin noted.
“Possibly,” she admitted. “I’m working on it. Just not there yet.”