Sawyer was right, but Anderson didn’t want to admit it. The odds were overwhelmingly good that Silver would be just fine if she spent a month without him in Kodiak. Anderson, on the other hand, was likely to have a nervous breakdown before that month was over. But Sawyer had a point that it was just an hour flight. If Anderson really couldn’t take it anymore, he could always hop on a plane and fly out to see her. That was one of the benefits of being a pilot with free access to a small fleet of private planes.
“Just think about it,” Sawyer said, breaking into Anderson’s turmoiled thoughts. Anderson grunted in response, then grabbed his pilot bag and slung it over his shoulder. He would finish his logbook later when Silver was in bed. Right now, he wanted to go pick her up from Auntie Grace’s so he could have dinner with her. And he didn’t want to talk to Sawyer anymore. He loved his alpha, but he couldn’t help feeling annoyed at the way Sawyer was dispensing advice. Sawyer had only recently become a father himself, and, while Sawyer was a good man, he didn’t understand much about raising a spirited six-year-old. Or about losing your wife in childbirth. Anderson didn’t want to get in a fight with his best friend, though, so he left the hangar as quickly as possible.
When Anderson arrived at Auntie Grace’s house, he found Silver carefully tending to a bucket of minnows. She was talking to them, throwing food in the bucket and calling the fish by name. Anderson felt like his heart might literally explode with love as he watched her work. When she finally looked up and saw him, she squealed and ran into his arms, seeming to have forgotten their argument from earlier that day.
“Daddy, daddy, come see! I caught a bunch of minnows from the stream. They’re all silver, just like my name. Auntie said I have to put them back before I go home, but she said I could at least wait until you got here to show you!”
Anderson smiled and bent down to look at the minnows. Their shining, silvery bodies darted nervously about the bucket. Anderson imagined they must be awfully confused by the confined space, after spending most of the short lives in a wide-open stream.
“They’re beautiful, honey,” Anderson said. “Come on. Let’s put them back in the stream so they can swim freely.”
Silver didn’t protest as Anderson picked up the bucket with one hand and reached for his daughter’s hand with the other. They walked silently together to the stream that ran behind the cabin, and Silver watched as Anderson gently lowered the bucket into the stream and let the minnows swim away.
The minnows darted away joyously, the late afternoon sunbeams reflecting brilliantly off of their scales. Silver squealed in delight, jumping up and down and clapping her hands as she watched the minnows swimming. Anderson ran his fingers through his hair and let out a long, resigned sigh. He knew deep down that he couldn’t keep his precious daughter in a protective bubble forever. Sooner or later, he’d have to let her break away. As much as Anderson hated to admit it, and as terrified as he was at the thought of sending Silver away for a month, maybe Sawyer was right. It was time to let his daughter swim free. Just like the minnows in the bucket, she’d be happy and more fulfilled with wide open spaces.
Anderson continued to watch Silver bouncing around the edge of the stream for several more minutes, knowing deep down that she was going to get her way. Looks like his heart was going to be heading off to Kodiak without him.
Chapter Three
Lexi stared out at the group of twenty five-and-six-year olds, and began to think that maybe the celebrity gossip magazines had been right. Maybe she really was certifiably crazy. Who in their right mind would go from a leading role on Broadway to attempting to corral a bunch of kids and maybe teach them a dance move or two?
Lexi took a deep breath, and attempted her most genuine smile as she stood in front of the class.
“Welcome, everyone,” Lexi said, trying to make eye contact with each girl. She wanted them to all know they were important to her. They were the future of dance, and dance was the closest thing to her heart. Most of the girls fidgeted, and tugged at their shoes or skirts. Only one seemed completely focused, a small, dark-haired girl who sat on the edge of the group and hugged her knees to her chest. The girl’s dark brown eyes were fixed intently on Lexi, and Lexi got the impression that, unlike the other girls here, this girl was here because she wanted to be, not because her parents had jumped at the chance to get a break from her for a month that summer.
That impression only grew stronger as the days began to pass. While the girls were all sweet and listened reasonably well, only the dark-haired girl, whose name turned out to be Silver, seemed to truly feel the music in her soul as she danced. Lexi loved teaching all of her young charges, but none of them impressed her the way that Silver did. Silver had a natural talent that no ballet instructor could have missed. Lexi made a note to speak to Silver’s parents, and suggest that they consider enrolling the girl in some higher level classes. Perhaps the girl could eventually go study in New York. Lexi could teach Silver a great deal, but to have a real, long-term career in ballet, Silver would have to go study with the true greats at some point. Lexi hoped she could convince Silver’s parents that this was a worthwhile investment. Not only did the girl have natural talent, but she had a keen interest in dance as well. One day after class, Silver approached Lexi somewhat shyly while the other girls bounced off to get changed for dinner.
“Hi, Silver. Did you have a question?” Lexi asked.
Silver nodded. “Yeah. I mean, yes, ma’am. I was just wondering what it felt like when you were performing on stage in New York, in front of all of those people. Were you nervous?”
Lexi smiled down at Silver. “Sure. I was nervous. But sometimes a little nervous energy isn’t a bad thing. It helps you realize how special and important what you’re doing is, and it motivates you to focus and give the performance your best effort.”
Lexi watched as Silver paused and carefully considered this information. The girl furrowed her brow, and then nodded slowly.
“That makes sense,” she said, then looked up at Lexi and smiled brightly. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Lexi said. “Please feel free to come to me any time you have questions. For now, though, you better go get changed. Dinner will be starting soon.”
Silver nodded and ran off, and Lexi lazily began to stretch out. She was tired and hungry, but she wasn’t ready to head to the dining room quite yet. Her assistant teachers would be there, taking good care of the young ballerinas, so that Lexi could take a little bit of time for herself without worrying.
Lexi looked around the small studio and smiled. It was tiny, but it was clean and newly renovated. Lexi had converted the building into three separate dance studios, a lobby area near the front entrance, and a small auditorium for performances. The work had been done remarkably quickly, and Lexi had been excited to launch her first group program for young ballerinas. This month long summer camp was something Lexi had always dreamed of doing, and being able to get it going as her first big kickoff event for her dance studio had been confirmation to Lexi that she had made the right decision in coming here.
And not only had setting up her dance studio been easier than she could have imagined, Alaska also provided the added benefit of helping Lexi finally lose the paparazzi who had been insistently trailing her. For the first week, a few photographers had continued to follow her. But they soon realized that there was no exciting story here, and that being in Alaska kept them from being able to follow more interesting stories back in California or New York. Lexi had been in Alaska for three months now, and she hadn’t seen any paparazzi since that first week.
Lexi smiled as she finished stretching, and then walked over to the sound booth. She flipped through the available music, looking for something to dance to. She had been so busy with setting up her new studio and the ballet summer camp that she hadn’t spent much time making good on her promise to dance more by herself, for herself. Settling on one of her favorite pop ballads, Lexi hit play and then positioned herself in the mi
ddle of the room. For a few moments, she stood perfectly still, letting the opening notes of the music pass through her and soothe her soul. Then, she took a deep breath and started dancing.
She had never danced to this particular song before, but she had listened to it so many times that she knew every word and every beat of music by heart. She had often imagined herself dancing to the notes, and, now, she let her imagination come to life. She twirled around the room, losing awareness of everything except her body and the music. She forgot about Greg, and about Broadway, and about the paparazzi who had hounded her for months. She even forgot about the twenty young children who were eating dinner in the large dining room at her house next door.
For three and a half glorious minutes, all she thought about was the music. She misstepped once or twice as she worked through the dance that, until this point, had only been in her head. To an untrained observer, though, the performance would have looked flawless. Not that it mattered either way, since no one was watching Lexi.
Or so she thought.
As the last notes of the song faded away, Lexi suddenly had the feeling that she wasn’t alone. She spun around quickly to look at the door of the studio, and nearly screamed when she saw the tallest, most muscular man she had ever laid eyes on. He was standing in the doorway, unmoving. His body filled the entire frame. He seemed to realize that he had startled her, because he quickly started stammering out an apology.
“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just looking for my daughter,” he said.
Lexi’s heart slowed down a bit when she realized that he was just one of the parents, and not some random man off the street. She knew Kodiak was much safer overall than New York City, but Lexi still couldn’t help but feel suspicious anytime she found herself alone with a man she didn’t know. Years of living in a big city would do that to you.
“If your daughter is in the dance program, she would be next door having dinner right now,” Lexi said, her voice a bit sharper than she had intended. The man nodded, and then took a step backward. He seemed to be snapping out of some sort of trance as he regained his composure.
“Right,” he said. “Well, it was nice meeting you. Sorry again for disturbing you.”
With that he turned around and was gone. Lexi stared after him for a few moments, realizing only after about a full minute that she hadn’t actually introduced herself, and she had no idea whose father he was. She sighed, and walked over to the sound booth to start shutting everything down.
Even though he had startled her, and she hadn’t wanted anyone to see her dancing, she should have made more of an effort to be friendly. After all, he was paying for his daughter to attend the dance program, and this was the way Lexi was hoping to make an income for herself long-term. Having a standoffish attitude toward the parents of her young students probably wasn’t the best business move.
Lexi sighed and made her way toward the front door of the studio. She would go next door and properly introduce herself, even though she really didn’t want to see the man again. If she was honest with herself, she knew that she had been startled by more than just his mere presence. She had been startled by the way he looked. He had been, without a doubt, the most gorgeous man Lexi had ever seen. The memory of his dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes set her heart to racing, no matter how much she tried to push away the mental image.
But Lexi wasn’t here for romance. She was here to escape drama and complicated relationships. Besides, if the man was the father of one of her students, odds were good he was married already. There was no point in Lexi’s getting herself worked up about a man who wasn’t even available. Lexi sighed as she locked the front door of the studio. Maybe it was true that all the good guys were taken. After all, the last several men she had dated had all started out seeming great, but had turned out to be awful in the end. Maybe there was a reason most of the available men were still actually available: no one wanted them.
Lexi trudged over to her house and let herself in the front door. She smiled as she was immediately greeted by the sounds of happy laughter, and she thanked her lucky stars once again that this house had gone up for sale not long after she purchased the building next door for the dance studio. The seven bedroom house was ridiculously large for a single woman like Lexi, but Lexi had jumped on it anyway because the idea of living conveniently next door to the studio had been irresistible. And the price of real estate in Kodiak was so much lower than in New York that the place had seemed like a steal. Besides, she was excited to be in an actual house instead of an apartment, like she’d originally planned. And then, as soon as Lexi signed the papers to close on the house, she had come up with the idea for a dance summer camp.
Filled with enthusiasm, Lexi had remodeled each of the five upstairs bedrooms into “dormitories” with enough bunk beds in each room to sleep four girls. This allowed her to house up to twenty students for each camp. At first, signups had been slow, and Lexi had worried that she wouldn’t have enough students to even hold a respectably sized group class. But as word started to spread that she wasn’t just any old ballet teacher, but rather a ballet teacher who had dated a famous actor and performed in world-class venues, the enrollments started to trickle in faster and faster. Lexi even had some students from outside of Alaska signing up for the program.
By the week before the program started, the program was on a waitlist. Lexi smiled. Silver had actually been the last one to make it in to the first round of camp, and Lexi was so glad that the little girl was here. Even though her enrollment had been at the eleventh hour, the girl clearly had a stronger interest in ballet than any of the other girls in this first round of camp. All of the girls were wonderful, though. As difficult as it was to keep such young children focused, Lexi was enjoying the challenge overall.
Lexi stepped into the dining room and smiled at the three women whom she had hired to help her supervise the girls.
“Hey,” Lexi greeted them. “How is dinner going?”
“Pretty well,” answered one of the women, a pretty, petite redhead named Sara. “As you can see, lasagna night is pretty popular around here.”
Lexi chuckled. All around the table, little girls with sauce-covered faces were happily digging into heaping plates of cheesy lasagna.
“Did one of the girls’ dads come by here?” Lexi asked as she tugged at the tight bun in her hair to loosen it up a bit. “Some guy came by the studio and said he was looking for his daughter.”
“Oh, yeah. Anderson. He’s Silver’s father. He lives up north in Frost Peak, but he’s in town for business so he stopped by to take Silver out to dinner. He promised to have her back before bedtime.”
Lexi tried to ignore the feeling of disappointment that filled her when she realized she had already missed her chance to talk to the man who was not only gorgeous, but was also apparently responsible for the most promising student of the group. Lexi took a few deep breaths and tried to steady her racing heart. What was wrong with her? Unless Silver’s father happened to be divorced or not with Silver’s mother anymore, then Lexi was wasting her time daydreaming about a man who was taken. Besides, dating a student’s father was a bad, bad idea from a business perspective.
“Frost Peak, huh?” Lexi asked, trying to distract herself and keep her tone light. “I’m not sure I know where that is.”
“It’s a bit north of here,” Sara said. “Kind of in the middle of the wilderness, actually. But Silver’s dad is a private pilot, so he can travel back and forth between here and there pretty easily.”
“I see,” Lexi said, nodding her head and forcing herself to bite her tongue instead of asking questions about Silver’s mother. She didn’t want to accidentally say anything that would make the reason she was asking obvious. Her cheeks reddened at the mere thought of one of her employees being able to read her mind and know that she had a mini-crush on one of the student’s dads. How embarrassing.
Lexi scooped herself a plate of lasagna, and forced herself t
o change the subject. She even asked one of her employees to wait up for Silver, saying that she needed to go to her office and get some work done. This wasn’t exactly true, but now that Lexi knew the man in the studio had been the father of her favorite student, she couldn’t stop her heart from racing. Her mind kept trying to imagine all kinds of crazy scenarios involving Silver’s father being single and asking Lexi to marry him. Lexi allowed herself to imagine getting to wake up next to Anderson’s gorgeous face every day, but quickly forced herself to push that image away.
She was getting carried away by a pipe dream, and she needed to get her feet back on the ground. After wolfing down her dinner, Lexi quickly excused herself to her office. Since she didn’t actually have any work to do, she picked up a romance novel she’d been meaning to read and lost herself in the imaginary world of a book. She fell asleep in her office chair, dreaming of a hero who would come rushing in and sweep her off her feet like the man in the novel.
But when she woke with a start a few hours later to the sound of voices out in the hallway, one of which she recognized as Silver’s and the other which she assumed was Anderson’s, Lexi sighed and put the novel away.
No one was coming to carry her off on a white horse, and she had a big day ahead of her tomorrow, teaching dance to her young charges. It was time to go to bed and get some real rest, and let Anderson escape back into the night where he had come from.
Chapter Four
A few weeks later, Anderson slipped quietly into the back of the dark auditorium at Lexi Shaffer’s ballet school. He tried to be inconspicuous, but that was difficult for a man of his stature. All eyes turned to look at him as he settled silently into a chair in the back row. He felt a pang of sadness as he looked around at the crowd, and noticed that he seemed to be the only man there without a wife sitting next to him.
Grizzly Flying Free (Air Bear Shifters Book 2) Page 2