“You realize the ridiculousness of this, right?” she asked, and I couldn’t help it from stabbing at the heart I was trying to lay open for her.
“All I feel is the rightness of it,” I told her the truth.
She seemed to take that in for a long moment before nodding, and that eased the worries bouncing around my heart.
“I should go,” I told her. I made a promise to Mom and Dad that I’d help them redo my old bedroom for Chevelle first thing in the morning, and I didn’t want to be dragging my ass around.
“Why does that sound like you’re a teenager with a curfew?” she teased.
I chuckled. “It does, doesn’t it? I guess you could say I’m trying to make sure my parents will trust me enough to leave Cassidy with me.”
“I don’t get it. Why is your family so protective of Cassidy?”
“I don’t really like to tell the story because it’s Cassidy’s to share if she wants to, but she was diagnosed with Triple X when she was little more than a baby. She’s gotten a handle over almost all the symptoms, but her muscle tone will never be the same as the average person, so she falls and gets hurt pretty easily.” I tried to keep to the facts because, just like I’d said, it wasn’t my story to tell.
Tristan took that in, pulling fully away from me and standing up. I joined her, looking into her face. It looked happy. Almost happier than I’d seen it since meeting her. Joy filled my chest, knowing it was partly due to me.
“Will I see you before Tuesday?” she asked. That was the next day she had me scheduled to teach classes. We’d agreed on three days, and even with those days, she’d had to cut everything back to a minimum. I was surprised to find myself enjoying teaching more than I thought I would. Maybe because Elana had already instilled in all her students a deep love and appreciation for music that I easily returned.
Thoughts of the lessons and helping out at the store brought the issues with it to the forefront of my mind, serving to remind me of William Chan and my anger at him for blocking the sale of Kincaid’s to Cass and me.
“I have some things I’m working on for Cass that might take some time, but I’ll try to swing by the store if I can.” I pulled out my phone. “I need your number.”
“Need, huh?” she smiled.
“Need. No doubt about it. One that might make my entire body seize up if it isn’t met.”
She laughed, put her number in, and then handed the phone back to me.
I walked to the door. I turned back to her and said, “I’d like to take you to dinner. A real date. Do you think we can make that happen?” Ideas of romance flowed through my brain.
“My entire family is arriving on Friday for Hannah’s birthday and Easter, so it’ll be a little chaotic,” she said.
“I’ll be in the city on Thursday, interviewing candidates for Dani’s replacement,” I told her, frustration blooming through me that we might not be able to make a date happen within the next week. But then I reminded myself of what I’d told her. I wasn’t in a rush. I wasn’t going anywhere. We had time.
I kissed her slow and gentle, the heat hitting me all over again, making me long for thecrescendothat would come from finding my way into every piece of her, but I pulled back. It would have to wait.
“Goodnight,Cariño,” I said softly.
“Goodnight, Brady O’Neil,” she returned.
I lingered for a second and then opened the door and walked into the night while every single part of me ached to go back. To find that peace that I’d felt sitting on the couch with her in my arms.
???
I spent Sunday cleaning out my old room with my parents, getting rid of things that were so oldI’d forgotten about them. We were turning the space into a nursery for Chevelle so he wouldn’t have to stay in the bassinet by Cass’s bed.
I pulled out a stack of my old songbooks from the closet shelf, and I couldn’t resist flipping through them.
Mom came up from behind me and saw what I was looking at. Her face softened. “Do you remember the song you wrote for me?” she asked.
My eyes grew wide. I did. I was surprised she remembered.
“It was awful,” I told her. All rhyming words that didn’t fall on the correct beats.
She chuckled. “It was, but it was the moment I knew we’d lost you.”
“You didn’t lose me, Mom. I’ve always been right here,” I said, trying to hold back a wave of emotion.
