Chapter Seventeen
Izzy paced across the backstage area. They’d worked so hard over the last few weeks to perfect the Giselle lift and get Garret up to speed with the partnering. Time had gone so fast, she couldn’t believe that they were ready to hold the dress rehearsal. Normally, they would have done it the night before the performance instead of two weeks in advance, but this was the only time the auditorium was available.
“Garret?” She knocked on the door. “Are you ever going to leave the dressing room?” She’d given him his costume, which consisted of the modified navy tunic and beige ballet tights. They’d decided that he’d be better off dancing barefoot, so that was it. He ought to have been in and out in under two minutes.
“I’m still deciding.”
She moved closer to the door and spoke softly. “Just get out here and let me see.”
“That would be a big nope.”
“If you won’t come out, then I’m coming in.” She put her shoulder down and pushed hard against the door, but it didn’t budge.
He laughed. Laughed at her. “There’s no way you’ll be able to get in here unless I let you. Just give me a minute and I’ll come out… Maybe.”
She stood directly outside the door, tapping the box of her pointe shoe against the floor.
“Izzy, you can’t annoy me into leaving the dressing room. Just chill.”
She kept tapping. A loud thump sounded, followed by a curse from Garret, then a loud bang that rattled the door. Finally, about a year-and-a-half later, he left the dressing room. Wearing the custom made tunic and the tights…and his football pants over them.
“What the—”
“Don’t bother to argue with me. I tried a few small leaps in the dressing room and the tunic still revealed everything. I’ll wear this or nothing.”
“Well, that’ll certainly get the audience’s attention.”
He glared at her. “I meant I won’t wear a costume at all. My sweats will work just fine.”
“Garret, we had that tunic specially made for you so it would cover everything. You know as well as I do that—”
He put his hand over her mouth. “Izzy, I am not going on stage in those tights. When I lift you or leap, you can see everything. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. So we can either take all of the lifts and my leaps out, or I’m wearing the football pants.”
She took a deep, calming breath. It wouldn’t do her any good to fight with him now. However, on the night of the actual performance, those football pants were going to mysteriously disappear.
“Fine.”
He took a step back from her, probably thinking he was being funny, but she was too stressed out to see any humor in the situation.
“Izzy.” He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. She sighed and relaxed into his chest, calmed by his presence despite his stubbornness. They were drawn together like the pull of a magnet. “Nobody is going to care what I’m wearing because they’ll be too busy watching you dazzle them with your dancing.”
Aww. That was really sweet. Probably he was right, and no one would notice his pants today. Except for anyone who had ever danced or watched a ballet.
“Seriously, you two?” Jeremy said. “Garret, we need you to help move the heavy props.”
The props had already been placed in the wings, so all three of them left backstage and headed out front. A normally very calm Lauren dashed in front of them.
“All right, everyone on stage now. Absolutely no cell phone use during the performance. Leave them in the dressing rooms. Anyone who breaks this rule will be doing ten burpees on stage.” She glanced around at everyone. “Got it?”
There were only nods in return. No one dared to defy her.
“We’re going to run this just like we will on the night of the show, only stopping if I decide something needs to be fixed.”
More nods ended the one-sided conversation.
Garret took off with Jeremy to get the props in place for the first scene, which was set when Sleeping Beauty was a baby and the fairies brought her gifts. Izzy went with the girls from the Level Four ballet class, who were dancing the parts of the fairies, Diamond, Sapphire, Silver, Gold, and Carabosse, the evil fairy who places the curse on Sleeping Beauty. Each of them had their own solo to perform.
“You’re going to be fantastic, ladies. This is when all of your hard work will show. You’ve got this.” Each girl received a hug from her, then she turned to the younger girls. They had a tendency to freeze up on stage.
“Are you ready?” Izzy asked.
The girls nodded, staring at the closed curtain.
She led them backstage and moved into the wings to watch, since she didn’t appear until the second scene.
Voices from behind her drew her backstage. She stopped when she saw Garret smiling and laughing with the Level Four girls. A stab of jealousy ripped through her. Jeremy had her second-guessing herself. But she trusted Garret. He wouldn’t have asked her to make their relationship real if he didn’t want to be with her. It was just her nerves about the production bothering her.
Izzy watched from the wings for a while then went backstage to prepare for her first solo as the sixteen-year-old Sleeping Beauty at her birthday party. While making her way onstage, she caught the toe of her pointe shoe on a prop.
“Do we need to move that back?” Jeremy asked.
She shook her head. “No. I need to pay more attention to what I’m doing. Luckily, I only caught the edge of the box and didn’t hurt my foot.”
What she needed to do was keep her focus on her dancing and let go of everything else. After a few breathing exercises, she was ready to go onstage. Her solo was nearly perfect. The rest of the scene went off without a hitch, and once she pricked her finger on the spindle, it was time for the intermission. Of course, there was no need for it during rehearsal, so as soon as they changed costumes and the set, they moved on to the second act, which began with the Lilac Fairy talking Garret, the prince, into waking up Sleeping Beauty. He had a short solo in this scene that went just fine. No one would ever guess that he’d only been dancing a few months.
The last scene was the royal wedding. Everything had gone so well. All of the little girls playing the fairy-tale characters did better than she could have imagined. It seemed as if they could do no wrong. That was, until the lift. She was distracted by the older girls who stood in the wings, ogling Garret, and she completely messed up her jump. She almost knocked him down, and he barely kept from dropping her.
“Izzy, you have to keep your shoulders back and your chest up. If Garret weren’t so strong, you’d be on the ground right now.”
Lauren hadn’t said anything she didn’t already know.
“Garret, I’m sorry. That was entirely my fault. Can we try again?” At this point she wanted to smack Jeremy upside the head. He’s the one that put these stupid ideas into her head. Garret was just being Garret. He wasn’t cheating on her or trying to hook up with the other girls. She’d let herself get sidetracked, something she definitely couldn’t do during the performance.
Once again, she rushed toward him and leaped as if she meant to jump over him, but this time she held her frame in place.
The rest of their dance was easy after the lift. They went through the wedding ceremony and then they were done. All she had to do was make sure she didn’t mess up the lift, and she’d be one step closer to dancing for Ballet Americana. If only she was certain that was still the right path for her to follow.
…
Izzy’s phone chimed, and she put her book down.
Garret: There’s something I need to tell you. Can I come to your house now?
Izzy: Good or bad?
Garret: Good, I hope.
Dad was back in Austin again, and Anna Maria wouldn’t mind. It was only ten thirty, though it felt like midnight after the stress of the dress rehearsal. She pointed her toes then flexed to stretch the back of her calves.
Izzy: Sure. C’mon over.
Removing the tie from her hair, she brushed through it, dabbed some powder on her face to reduce shine, and put a bra on under her shirt. There was no point in doing more. He’d already seen her sweaty, red-faced, and smelling like a pig. The honeymoon period of their relationship was already over, and they hadn’t even been officially dating for a month.
It probably wasn’t a good idea to let Garret in her bedroom. She sent Anna Maria a quick text, then called Roley and Dozer, went downstairs, and turned on all the lights in the kitchen and the small family room niche that opened off the breakfast room. Garret was always hungry, so she tossed a bag of snack mix into a bowl and poured two glasses of soda water.
With nothing else left to do, her mind wandered.
What if he didn’t think it was a good idea to do the Giselle lift? Or worse yet, what if he wanted to back out of the performance? Or worst of all, what if he wanted to break up with her.
But no, he would never lead her on, telling her it was a good thing and then dumping her. He wasn’t mean.
Thankfully, headlights shined in the front windows, ending her speculation. With her canine escorts leading the way, she went to the front entrance and opened the door.
Garret’s smile overwhelmed her and her stomach unclenched a bit. It didn’t seem to be bad news he wanted to share.
“Izzy, it happened. With the rehearsal and Lauren’s no phone rule, I didn’t even realize it until I got home, and I wanted you to be the first to know. I haven’t even told my parents yet.”
She raised a brow. “Okay. Get inside and then tell me what the heck you’re talking about.”
He grabbed both of her hands and squeezed, then followed her into the house. When they reached the kitchen, he spun her around to face him. “The head coach from Michigan University called me during the rehearsal and left a message. I’ve been invited to visit campus and meet the team. They’ll pay for my flight and everything.”
She jumped into his arms and he spun her around. “That’s fantastic. It’s your first choice, right?”
He bit his lip. “Yeah.”
Izzy was happy for him, she really was. He worked hard and deserved the chance to play in college. She knew what it was like to want something so badly and be so close to it. But if she went to New York, and he was in Michigan, they’d never see each other. Not with the busy schedules they’d both have. There was a part of her, the most selfish part, of course, that had hoped he might get an offer from Syracuse, or some other school closer to where she would be if she made Ballet Americana, but she wasn’t so self-centered that she didn’t want him to get his first choice. It had never bothered her before, but now that things were getting real, the thought of not seeing Garret every day left a hollow space inside her.
Enough. This wasn’t about her.
“So you talked to the coach? Did you like him? Is it all arranged?”
“No. By the time I noticed the message, it was too late to call back.”
“So you’ll call him in the morning. In the meantime, we’re going to celebrate.”
He pulled back to meet her eyes. “There’s still a chance I won’t be offered a scholarship. I don’t want to jinx it.”
“I don’t think a bowl of ice cream will change your luck.” She grabbed his hand and towed him to the table. The coach would be a fool not to want Garret.
“Do you want chocolate chip cookie dough or chocolate peanut butter?”
“Do you have anything that isn’t chocolate?”
“Pfft. No.” Boys could be so silly sometimes.
“Then chocolate chip cookie dough it is.”
She filled both bowls with ice cream then pulled some fudge and caramel sauce out of the cupboard and put everything on the table. He slid her bowl over so she had to sit next to him then grabbed her hand and held it in his lap. Warmth rushed through her, heating her skin.
“Have you told Coach Comstock yet?” It was a bit difficult to scoop up ice cream without holding the bowl in place, but she wasn’t about to move her hand away from him.
He shook his head. “You’re still the only one who knows. I’ll tell my mom when I go home and talk to Coach in the morning.”
“What about your dad? He’ll want to know.”
Garret licked caramel off the back of his spoon. “I’m not so sure. He wants me to stay here and help run the salvage yard.”
“Maybe he’ll change his mind. I’m sure he’d be proud to have his son play college football at a school that has national television coverage.”
Garret shrugged. “I’ll tell him if I receive a scholarship offer.”
“Just to warn you, if you do end up playing there, you might be featured in some of my dad’s campaign literature. He thinks anything good that happens in his district is fair game.” She took another bite of ice cream and studied Garret. “Don’t you like the ice cream?”
“Nah, it’s fine. It’s just that this is pretty much the most exciting moment of my life so far, and I can’t fully enjoy it because of my dad. That’s messed up.”
“You’d probably never guess this, but sometimes my dad can be very wise.” She leaned closer and squeezed his hand. “I know, hard to believe, but whenever I get upset, he always tells me that I’m in charge of how I feel. I can’t control anyone or anything else, but I can decide how something will affect me. And tonight, I am over-the-moon excited that you’ve been given this opportunity. So for now, let’s forget about what our dads think, or whether you’ll get the scholarship or I’ll make company, and let’s just enjoy this moment. This one perfect moment, where the chance that our dreams will come true is possible.”
He grabbed her and pulled her into his lap and kissed her so thoroughly she couldn’t remember her own name. She was safe, cherished, and happier than she’d ever been, and it was because of him.
A thump sounded on the stairs, and Izzy stiffened, then pressed one last kiss on Garret’s neck and pulled back. “That would be Anna Maria coming to check on us.”
Garret stood and gently lowered her to the ground.
“So I guess I should be going,” he said just as Anna Maria entered the kitchen.
“Are you two okay?”
They both nodded.
She narrowed her eyes and studied Izzy’s mussed up hair.
Izzy cleared her throat. “I know it’s late, but is it okay if we go upstairs and watch a couple episodes of The Twilight Zone? I’m still amped up from the dress rehearsal and won’t be able to go to sleep anytime soon.”
Anna Maria glance back and forth between the two of them, giving them the stank eye. “Fine, but the door stays open at all times, and I will be making random appearances to make sure you two are behaving.”
“Okay,” they said in unison.
He grabbed her hand and they headed for the stairs. “Which episode should we watch first?” he asked.
“‘Eye of the Beholder,’” they said in perfect unison.