Nothing until the last couple of days. Two perfect days spent with the man I’ve never stopped loving, not even for a day. It doesn’t matter that I tried to pretend I didn’t. It doesn’t matter that I spent nearly seven years in denial. All that matters is that I can admit the truth now, that I love him just as much today as I always have.
But we are a love written in the stars, and like the stars that burn bright for millions of years, we too eventually will burn out. Maybe that’s what this is. They say the brightest stars burn out the fastest. Maybe our love has simply run its course, and this is the way fate has decided to tell us it’s over.
But Cat and Penn... That can’t be the way this story ends.
Can it?
“Oh, honey.” My mom’s eyes fill with a soft pity that nearly breaks me in two.
“I just... I can’t believe it. After everything we’ve been through to finally make our way back to each other, only to be torn apart by something like this.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“No.” I swipe at a tear that manages to slip past my lashes. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Sometimes saying anything is better than saying nothing. I’m sure he’s probably having a really hard time right now and your support could be what gets him through this. This doesn’t have to be the end. Just because things turn out differently than you expect, doesn’t mean they have to be over.”
“I can’t, Mom. I can’t stand by and watch him raise a child with another woman, especially with that woman being Cat Stewart. It would break me.”
“So then what’s your plan?”
“I think I need to get out of here for a while.”
“You’re leaving? Again?” She doesn’t try to hide how much she dislikes this idea. “What about the studio? You’re supposed to meet with the landlord next week. Your father pulled a lot of strings to get you bumped to the top of the list of possible renters. You can’t just not show.”
“That was Penn’s idea,” I say bitterly.
“And? That doesn’t make it a bad one. Honey, you were born with dancing in your blood. I think you need this more than you realize.”
“So I can do what? Open a studio so that in five years I’ll be forced to teach Cat and Penn’s daughter?”
“One, you don’t know it’s a girl. And two, there’s no saying this child will be interested in dance, boy or girl.”
“Oh, you can bet with Cat as their mother, dance will be their whole personality, and she will have raised them that way to spite me.”
“I don’t mean to be cruel, but I think you’re overestimating your importance in Cat’s life.”
“You only say that because you don’t know her the way I do.”
She lets out a long sigh.
“So then you’re just going to disappear again? Give up?”
“It’s not giving up if you’ve already lost,” I grumble.
“Sounds like something a quitter would say.”
“I am not quitting, Mom! I’m cutting my losses and trying to save some of my fragile pride in the process.”
“And your job? You’re going to quit without notice? Leave them without a bookkeeper?”
“Janet comes back in like two weeks. They’ll manage.”
She looks at me for a long moment, like she wants to say something but isn’t sure she should.
“I’m disappointed,” she finally says, standing from the table. “You’re not the woman I thought you were.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I call to her back as she starts to walk away. “Mom!”
