Chapter Two
Isabella Harper spun, her leg flying out and then back in with each rotation. Her eyes caught the mirror each time her head snapped around. Faster, faster. Her thigh and calf burned. She almost had it. Just one more turn.
“Dammit,” she yelled as she collapsed on the ground.
She rubbed at her kneecap, cursing the injury that had reduced her to where she was today. Unable to perform the signature move that had been second nature to her just one year earlier.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Natalie stepped in front of where Izzy lay sprawled on the floor, her hands on her hips and her short, blonde bobbed hair framing her face. She may only be five-foot-two, but there was a lot of energy packed into that little package. “That was great.”
Izzy threw a frustrated look at her best friend, shifted her feet beneath her, and pulled herself upright. Sweat dripped off her forehead and trickled down her chest. “It wasn’t great. Not by a long shot. But it’s getting there.”
“From where I was standing, I couldn’t tell you were ever injured.”
Izzy would let her friend live in her fantasy world a bit longer. She felt every muscle twitch, every strain of the tendons and ligaments in her knee that just wouldn’t behave the way it used to. And after all that time recovering and avoiding physical activity that might strain her healing knee, the rest of her body also wasn’t in the tip-top shape that it had been before.
She strode over to the rack in the corner and snatched a towel off the shelf. To everyone else her gait might appear normal, but Izzy felt the way her left leg lagged just a bit behind her right. Enough of a difference to end an otherwise promising career. She swiped the sweat off her forehead and finally met her friend’s gaze. “Is everything ready?”
“Yep. The plumber just finished with the touch-ups in the bathroom and kitchen, and the final barres were hung an hour ago. The tent and table are set up outside. All we need is… well, you.”
Here goes nothing. Izzy chucked the towel in the basket and headed for the door. Today had to go perfectly. This was her last chance, her last opportunity to, in some little way, prove that she could still cut it as a dancer. Although a small dance studio in her hometown of Cedar Hill, Pennsylvania was hardly the premiere ballet company in New York where she’d ended her performing career. But she would prove to everyone who said she’d never walk again, much less dance, that Izzy Harper was not through making a name for herself.
All she’d ever wanted to be was a dancer, and it had taken a long time after her surgery to accept the fact that her career was over. At least by opening the studio, she’d still be able to dance every day and share her passion with a new generation of kids, like Madame Kline had done with Izzy from the first day she’d twirled in a tutu. “How much time do I have?”
Natalie glanced at her watch. “About thirty-five minutes, but people are already starting to mill around outside. I think the push we made on Facebook and Instagram and the posters around town worked.”
Starting a business was tough, especially a word-of-mouth and reputation-based business like a dance studio. But Izzy wasn’t afraid to put in the hard work necessary to make this succeed. “Just give me fifteen minutes to shower and I’ll be out.”
Natalie nodded and stepped up beside Izzy. She laid her hand on Izzy’s arm. “I know this has been hard for you, but the studio is beautiful and you looked great. There are a whole crop of boys and girls who can’t wait to get on the stage and dance like the great Isabella Harper. And they’re waiting right out there—” she gestured toward the window “—with hopes and dreams just like yours when you were a little girl. This town has needed a dance studio for a long time, and I’m so excited to be opening it with you.”
When did Natalie get so introspective? Izzy had met her best friend the first day of ballet class all those years ago, and they’d shared their love of dance ever since. Natalie had never aspired to New York like Izzy had, but that hadn’t stopped them from each pursuing a career in dance. Natalie’d been teaching at a studio in Philly with a temperamental director who left the dancers in tears on a daily basis. That wasn’t the kind of studio Izzy planned to run. She’d had enough of that attitude with her partner in New York. Natalie was thrilled to join Izzy to get Studio Rhythm up and running. Between the two of them, they had a full slate of classes scheduled. Now all they needed were the students, which they wouldn’t have if Izzy didn’t get in the shower.
“FitzGerald’s tonight?” Izzy yelled behind her as she headed for her private office at the back of the studio.
“Oh, yeah.” Natalie’s response followed Izzy down the hall. She chuckled. Natalie would never turn down a chance to go out for drinks and dancing. If only she’d meet a nice guy and stop hooking up with losers who never called her again.
Thirty minutes later, with only a few seconds to spare, Izzy brushed her hands down her leotard and pink wrap ballet skirt, patted her bun, and stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the studio.
“Ms. Harper?” A man with a pad and pen in his hand approached her. “Derek Johnson with the Philadelphia Journal. I was hoping to interview you. I’m writing a story about a prima ballerina returning to her hometown.”
With her tail between her legs. The reporter didn’t have to finish the thought. It had been the soundtrack in her mind for a long time now. Not that she didn’t love being back home with her older brother Justin and her younger twin sisters, Serena and Alexis. But she hadn’t planned on her previous career ending the way it did.
Izzy was thankfully saved from being trapped with the reporter when Natalie waved her arms from the booth, a line of kids and parents in front of her. “I’m sorry, maybe later. Right now, I’ve got to go.”
Izzy ran away from yet another potentially uncomfortable encounter and hurried into the tent. Natalie handed her a bottle of water.
“Thanks. And thanks for the save.”
“I tried to send him away earlier, but he was insistent. They all want to talk about the star of the show coming home to Cedar Hill. You’re big news in town, and I’m happily riding on your coattails and thankful to get away from Madame Dracula.”
“I’m glad I could be of service.” Izzy plastered on a smile and turned to the line of giggly girls. She had put her career as a professional dancer behind her and was focused on her future with the dance studio. There were so many opportunities she was looking forward to offering her dancers. “And who do we have here?”
For the next hour, Izzy’s head spun. In each of the girls and boys she spoke with, she saw a younger version of herself, when she had stars in her eyes and big dreams as a dancer. Her dreams may have changed and her idyllic image of a career as a dancer tarnished, but she had picked herself up and was excited about the possibilities ahead of her.