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)
“So do you,” Kenna countered. “You’re not exactly living, Allie. You’re just . . . breathing. And I love you, but I don’t have time for you to wallow in my office, especially when the solution is a call, a drive, or a flight away. You could be happy in the next ten minutes if you walked back to the dressing room, picked up your phone, and dialed his number. But you insist on suffering, and making the rest of us watch. It’s . . . disappointing. Why are you brave for everyone but yourself?”
My eyebrows rose. “I mean, tell me how you really feel.”
“I feel like there’s a reason you haven’t signed a contract, and until you’re ready to actually talk about that, the rest of this is just whining.” She reached back over her desk for a clipboard. “And I’m happy to listen to you whine over margaritas, but my mother is going to kick your ass for being late again, so either go . . .” She looked me in the eye. “Or go.”
Yes. That. My stomach tensed.
“I have my own role,” I blurted. “It’s the dream. You don’t walk away from the dream.” But she was right. There was a reason I wouldn’t sign. I’d worked so hard to get back here, and now all I wanted . . . was to go. I wanted Hudson. Being scared to admit it wasn’t going to change the fact that I was happier with him than I’d ever been on a stage.
“You do if the dream changes.” Kenna tucked the clipboard under her arm. “Dreams aren’t stagnant, Allie. They grow. They shift.”
My heart started to pound. “Vasily would kill me for walking away two weeks before a show.”
“Fuck him.” Kenna shrugged.
“Eva needs—”
“To grow up.” She backed away toward the gym door in her office.
“But you . . .” I shook my head.
“I am glorious. I have a career I love, a man I can’t get enough of, a world-class brain, and an enviable designer handbag collection. You need to stop hiding behind what everyone else wants, because you’re the only one responsible for your happiness. You may have told your mother off, but you’re sure living the life she chose for you.”
I clutched the envelopes. “I still love to dance.”
“That stack you’re holding says you don’t have to be here to do that. Allie, you can have everything you want if you’d just get out of your own way.” She reached for the handle beneath the glass panel of the door, then took a deep breath and gave me a sad smile. “I’m going to do the job that I adore”—she twisted the handle—“and I hope you do the same. I don’t want to find you in this office when I return. Go, Allie. Be happy.”
Eight and a half hours later, I stood on Hudson’s front porch with Sadie and knocked.
Again.
I breathed through the nausea churning in my stomach, clutched Sadie’s leash, and rang the bell.
She whined.
“He’s probably just at work,” I told her, scratching the top of her head and walking toward the closest window. This was not how the big grand gesture was supposed to work. I’d rented a car, driven all the way here with an obscene amount of luggage, and he wasn’t even home.
I cupped my hands along the glass, then leaned in to see inside the house. My stomach pitched. It was empty. No bookshelves. No soft leather armchair. No framed map. Just hardwood and pristine walls.
Oh my God.
Panic kicked in as I backed away. Where could he possibly be? He wouldn’t have moved in with Caroline—
Caroline. She’d know where he was. I got Sadie into the back seat of the rented SUV, then drove straight to the café and ignored the side-eye from a few year-rounders when I walked in with a dog. I spotted Caroline behind the counter immediately.
“Where is he?” I asked, walking straight through the center of the café.
Caroline looked up, as did the young man at her side, who she appeared to be teaching. Her blue eyes flared wide. “Allie?”
“Where is he?” I stopped on the far side of the fifties-style counter. “Because I packed all of my things, and I walked away from my company, and I rented a car and drove all the way here, and his house is empty.” My throat started to close, and I arched my neck.
“I wondered when you’d show up,” Caroline said. “Tanner, why don’t you grab Allie a glass of lemonade.”
“Sure thing.” The young man grabbed a glass from beneath the counter, and within thirty seconds, I was chugging to save my life.
“Thank you,” I said once half the glass was gone. “How’s Juniper?”
Caroline softened. “She’s great. She’d probably love to see you since she’s at your house with Anne right now. You know you could have called.”