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“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.4Peyton“You will never guess who I ran into at the Lubbock Ballet Company,” I said to Piper later that day as I drove with her and Blaire to my parents’ home on the south side of town.
“Isaac Donoghue,” Piper guessed.
My eyes widened. “How did you guess?”
“Because his daughter is obsessed with dance. She’s there almost every day.”
“What?” I gasped. “You knew this and didn’t tell me?”
“Everyone knows that, Peyton,” Blaire said from the backseat.
I turned around to glare at her, but Blaire just laughed. She was Piper’s roommate and best friend from college. They’d been inseparable ever since they first met. She had a baseball hat low over her wide blue eyes, and her nearly black hair whipped around her face in the wind with the Jeep’s top down. It was too cold to have the top down at the end of November, but Piper always liked to push boundaries.
“Well, I didn’t know that. It was quite a shock to meet his daughter.”
“She’s so cute though, isn’t she?” Piper said.
