Rayne glanced at the stage, debating whether he should approach Emilio now or wait until he wasn’t in the middle of a rehearsal. Rayne wasn’t sure what kind of reception he’d get. Their breakup hadn’t been acrimonious. To Rayne, it had felt inevitable once he left for college, but that didn’t mean Emilio would be happy to see him.
“I can come back and take notes later,” he said. “I don’t want to get in their way.”
Emilio had stopped his dancers again to correct some problem with the choreography. The group of girls were made up of tweens and early teens, and one of them, an older girl, watched Rayne with a shy smile.
“Annabeth! Attention on me, please!”
Startled, Annabeth looked back toward Emilio with a guilty expression, but Emilio glanced out at the auditorium to see what had distracted her. Rayne knew the moment Emilio recognized him, because he went still, his dark gaze fixed on Rayne as though he was seeing a ghost.
Since he was busted, Rayne decided to make the best of it. He walked closer to the stage and waved.
“Hey,” he said, offering a friendly smile.
Emilio had a killer smile that had gotten them both out of trouble more than once, although there was no evidence of it now. Emilio’s expression was neutral, yet Rayne could almost see the frost forming in the air between them as Emilio acknowledged the greeting with a curt nod. “I heard you were doing the renovations.”
“I am,” Rayne said, keeping his smile pasted on despite the lead weight sinking to the pit of his stomach. “I’ll try to inconvenience you and the other performers as little as possible.”
Emilio gave an expressive shrug. “I’ve already blocked all the dances, and we’ve started rehearsing on stage earlier than usual so the performers can learn their marks. As long as we have three days before the first performance, we’ll manage. Far be it from me to stand in the way of progress.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rayne was puzzled by the remark, which Emilio’s tone made sound like a dig.
“Nothing at all.” Emilio waved a hand as though shooing away an annoying fly. “If you will excuse me, I have work to do.” With that, Emilio turned his attention back to the dancers and clapped his hands. “Places! Back to the beginning! We have enough time for one more complete run through before class is over.”
“Okay, I think I’m done here for now.” Rayne tried to sound more cheerful than he felt after being stung by the blatant dismissal. “I should probably unpack and get settled in anyway.”
“Of course!” Steve walked with him back to the lobby. “If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”
“To start with, you can get me any existing photos, newspaper clippings, or notes from when the playhouse was built, if you have them,” Rayne said. “If not, I’ll check with the library and newspaper files, but I was hoping there was some kind of archive at the playhouse itself.”
“We do have one,” Steve said, nodding. “I’ll pull whatever I can find and have it ready for you tomorrow.”
“Perfect,” Rayne said, his smile becoming genuine again. “If you could include color photos from the early decades plus any invoices that show what materials the designer used, that would be great. I want to keep the playhouse as close to its original appearance as possible.”
“So you aren’t planning to give it a more modern look?” Steve asked, raising a questioning eyebrow, and Rayne stared at him, shocked and a little affronted.
“God, no! Why would I do that? The Art Deco style is part of the playhouse’s charm as well as its history,” he said. “I don’t want to change it. I want to make it beautiful again.”
Steve grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. “There were a few people who were concerned you might want to make too many changes. I’ll be glad to let them know that’s not the case.”
“Please do,” Rayne said, irked that anyone would think such a thing.
At the main entrance, he and Steve shook hands again, and then Rayne headed back to his car and typed the address of his rental house into the map app on his phone, ready to get settled in his temporary new home. As he drove down Main Street, the comforting warmth of familiarity filled him as he took in the sights.
For the first time in a long time, he felt as if he’d come home.
