Chapter 256: Penny
My legs feel like jelly, my bun’s slipping loose, and my ribs still ache from that last pas de deux, but I don’t even care. I’m on some kind of post–rehearsal high, all adrenaline and disbelief, still riding the buzz of almost nailing it.
Luc stretches beside me, one leg pulled up to his chest. “Your fouettés were solid today.”
“Solid?” I scoff, reaching down to unstrap my pointe shoes. “I was borderline levitating.”
He laughs. “Yeah, yeah. I’m just trying to keep your ego in check.”
I swat him with the ribbon I just peeled off. “Please. My ego lives in a constant state of fear.”
“You hide it well.”
We’re still bickering over counts and landing angles when the studio door swings open and a blur of velvet and perfume barrels in.
“Penny freaking Vale!”
I don’t even need to look. I know that voice.
“Mila!” I shoot to my feet with a grin so big it makes my cheeks hurt and barely brace myself before she crashes into me, arms flung tight around my shoulders.
“I haven’t seen you in two weeks,” she says against my hair. “That’s like, emotionally damaging.”
I cling to her, heart full. “I missed you too.”
When we pull back, her mascara’s smudged just enough to hint she’s been crying – or laughing too hard and her hair’s in this wild ballet bun I recognize from her performance days: pins barely holding on, curls rebelling in every direction.
She’s in her dressed rehearsal leotard too – black velvet, deep V, little rhinestones scattered like constellations. She looks fierce.
“Wait,” I blink. “Your dressed rehearsal was today too?”
“Just wrapped,” she says, fanning herself dramatically. “My feet are broken, my back’s gone, but I got a standing ovation from my instructor, who is basically allergic to compliments.”
“That’s huge!”
“It is,” she says, then nudges me with her elbow. “Yours was today too, huh?”
I nod, cheeks flushing. “It was… a lot.”
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Chapter 256: Penny
She gives me that look the one that says she knows exactly what that “a lot” means. All the weight, the pressure, the thrill of getting this close to the dream.
“Luc?” she asks, nodding toward him.
“Injured but alive,” he says, offering a graceful little wave. “Madame only crushed my soul like, four times.”
“Sounds like love,” Mila says sweetly.
Before I can roll my eyes, someone clears their throat near the door. I glance up.
Boomer.
My whole face lights up.
“Booms!” I rush over and throw my arms around him, and he catches me like he always does – big arms tight around my back, warm and steady. His hands linger on my waist for a little longer, reminding me of how safe I’ve always felt near him.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, pulling back to look at him.
He scratches the back of his neck, sheepish. “Uhh…”
–
“We’ve been talking,” Mila says, cutting in smoothly. She leans into his side like she owns the place or maybe like she owns him, and honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked. “And he’s hot, so now he’s taking me for sushi. Right?”
Boomer stares at her for half a second, then gives a slow grin. “Right.”
I blink. Once. Twice.
“Mila.”
She shrugs like it’s nothing, but there’s a little blush in her cheeks. “Don’t look at me like that. You know I’ve had a thing for him since that first night he opened the car door for me and said ‘ma’am‘ like we were
in a Western.”
Boomer groans under his breath. “Still not over that, huh?”
“Never,” she says with a wink.
I look between them, eyebrows raised. “Are you for real right now?”
Mila nods. “One hundred percent.”
And okay, it takes a second. Maybe two. But then it hits me.
“Oh my god.”
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Chapter 256: Penny
Luc, still half–splayed across the floor, doesn’t even look surprised. He shrugs. “If I were her, I’d take full advantage too. You’re a fine piece of man.”
Mila looks Boomer up and down like she’s evaluating her next meal. “I plan on it.”
Boomer blushes.
Like, full–on blushes. This big, 6“2 man who I saw with my own eyes take down multiple men in a fight is blushing over Mila.
I clap a hand over my mouth to muffle the laugh.
“This is insane,” I say through my fingers. “But also… yes. Go. Have your sushi date. Just don’t break him,
Mila. Please. I kind of like him.”
She grabs her bag and throws me a wink. “No promises.”
They head for the door, Boomer holding it open for her, and I swear I catch the tiniest smile twitching at the corner of his mouth when she walks through. He turns around and gives me a small wave goodbye with a shy smile.
I just stand there, stunned, watching them disappear.
Luc leans over. “You good?”
I nod slowly. I am good. I feel… strange? I don’t know why. But there’s one thing I know for sure. “I’m just… so happy for them.”
He snorts. “You’re just realizing your best friend’s dating a literal dream boy. This guy seems like the opposite of your boyfriend’s mood, like a golden retriever instead.”
“Who could snap someone in half.”
“Hot.”
I laugh, shaking my head, and the last of the tension in my shoulders finally melts away.
The stage is waiting. Three weeks from now, I’ll be on it. So will Mila and Luc.
But today?
Today, my people are happy.
And so am I.
