Page 4 of Love In The Air

Iz’s light brown eyes narrowed. He imagined laser beams coming out of her eyes, boring into him, like a character in those manga books she used to carry around with her everywhere back in school. It still blew his mind that he was standing in front of her after all this time. He’d figured Iz would have moved as far away as possible after they graduated high school. It was what she always claimed she’d do. She’d always talked about how she was going to travel, see the world.

She’s going to do that now. We both are.

His chest warmed at the reminder. The opportunity that lay before him. The promise he would get to keep to his brother.

“Un-fucking-believable!” she swore under her breath.

He laughed, couldn’t help it. Riling Iz up had always been a good time. He loved the fiery challenge she got in her eyes whenever he pushed her buttons. Immature? Maybe, but old habits died hard.

“Aw, now come on, Iz. Don’t be like that or I might get the impression you don’t like me.”

He didn’t think it was possible, but her eyes narrowed even further until all he could see was the tiniest peek of her iris behind long, dark lashes. Still the same feisty Iz. She hadn’t grown even an inch since he last saw her. He still towered over her tiny five-foot frame, but the intricate works of inked art all along her arms were new. So was the light peach hair color she was sporting.

Such an odd choice. The soft, warm color was in direct contrast to the sharpness of her attitude. Or maybe it was just him who brought the fight out of Iz. As much as she put up a front of badass ice queen, he knew better. He knew in school she volunteered to help tutor anyone in their math class who needed it. Iz always headed up the donation drive for their town’s local food bank. And she’d helped Susan, their school’s nighttime maintenance manager clean the school for an entire week after the woman had minor surgery. Yeah, Iz was a big ‘ol softie.

To everyone, but him.

“Cut the crap, Chance. Let’s not pretend we ever liked each other.”

There’s where she was wrong. Not that he’d ever say that to her—telling Izadora Grant she was wrong was a death wish for sure—but he did like her. Always had. The tiny fireball of smarts and sass had challenged him every day in high school. He was fairly certain that if it hadn’t been for Iz competing with him, he never would have pushed himself so hard and beaten her out for that scholarship. He appreciated Iz’s competitive spirit, and he genuinely liked her. When she wasn’t verbally castrating him.

Okay, maybe a tiny, unbalanced part of him liked it when she did that too.

Iz glanced around the room, desperation etched on her face. “Maybe we can switch partners.”

“Would it really be that bad to perform with me?”

Her gaze whipped back to him, brow arched. Ouch. He knew she didn’t care for him, but did she have to make her disgust so plainly obvious?

“Look.” He moved closer, lowering his voice. “I don’t think it’s the best idea for us to start off this show causing waves. It’s only one act and—”

“Izadora! Chance!” Jen’s cheerful voice sounded from behind him. “Meg and I loved both of your auditions and we think your piece together is going to be phenomenal. Have you two gotten a chance to introduce yourselves?”

Turning, Chance smiled at the company co-owner. “Hey, Jen, actually me and Iz go way back.”

“You do?” The tall woman blinked, a smile replacing her shock. “Wonderful! Oh, this is great. A piece like this is always better when the performers have a personal connection.”

Yeah, he wasn’t so sure about that. Hard to perform a believable lover’s duet when your partner would rather kill you than kiss you.

“Group conditioning starts in fifteen,” Jen said, waving as she turned and headed over to talk to another group gathered a few feet away.

“Why did you say that?” Iz hissed in a hushed voice.

He searched his earlier words, wondering what she was pissed about now.

“Um, because we do go way back.”

“You made it sound like we’re old friends.”

For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why she was so upset. Why was it a bad thing if the owner of the company thought they were friends?

“Failing to see the problem.”

A heavy sigh left her as her eyes rolled upwards. Oh goody, he knew what was coming next. A classic Iz talking down. Where Iz got on her high horse and talked to him like he was the biggest moron out there. While he loved trading barbs with her, he really didn’t appreciate when she insinuated he was stupid. He was the one who scored higher than her on the ACT’s.

“Look, Iz.” He held up a hand as she opened her mouth. “As much as it sucks, we’ve been paired together for this act. This one act. I know as well as you that there are a dozen other aerialist who didn’t get into this show who would love the opportunity to take our spots.”

That got her mouth closed. A tiny frown marred her brow. She waved for him to continue.

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