He was so close, sitting there on that bench beside me, that I noticed the gold flecks in his otherwise emerald eyes. They’d always seemed so dark to me, like they were brown or almost black. But there they were just a few inches from view now, green and gold and everything I never saw before.
I nodded. “Okay.”
Reese stood, making his way back to the corner, and I felt the loss of his heat like taking a jacket off in the middle of a blizzard. A shiver ran through me, but I ignored it, resting my hands on the keys a moment and mentally touching all the places he’d just pointed out before I began to play.
“Good,” Reese said when I was almost to the chorus. I glanced over to see him nodding, his thumb and forefinger framing his chin as he listened. “Much better.”
There was a knock at the door, and Reese’s eyes darted to it the same as mine. We both glanced at each other, Reese’s brows tugged inward before he pushed off the wall.
“Keep going,” he said, disappearing into the foyer.
I did as he said, mentally checking my shoulders and elbows before ascending into the next verse, but I craned my neck to get a better look when I heard a woman’s voice at the door. I couldn’t stretch back far enough to see who was there without my hands coming off the piano, but I could see Reese, and his hand was gripping the back of his neck like it was the only thing keeping him grounded at that moment.
He stepped back, and I got a flash of a purse swinging through the door before I ripped my gaze away and pretended I hadn’t taken my eyes off the piano. Reese stepped back into the room, and right behind him was a petite little brunette who had to be around his age. She was slight, like a bird, her skin a creamy porcelain white and eyes wide like saucers. Her bright smile doubled when she saw me, and she clasped her hands together, watching like I was what she’d come for.
My eyes found Reese, and he held my gaze for a short moment before clearing his throat and dropping his eyes to the piano.
I watched him a moment longer before offering the woman a tight smile, then I pulled my attention back to the piano, and focused on relaxing as I finished the song. When the last note played, I chanced another look in Reese’s direction.
And he was smiling.
I did it.
“Beautiful,” the woman said before Reese could speak, and I pulled my hands away from the keys, smiling at her again. She clapped softly, lifting her steepled fingers to her lips when she was done. Her eyes were wide with adoration. “That was just… stunning. So moving. So slow and sweet and romantic. You’re quite good, Miss Henderson.”
She knows me?
I folded my hands in my lap, noting Reese’s furrowed brows as he glanced between me and our new guest. “Thank you.”
“That was much better,” Reese finally said. “Much better, Sarah.”
I couldn’t help the way my smile spread at his words, at his affirmation. I could feel his pride like it was swelling in my own chest.
“Thank you,” I said again, cheeks warming.
The corner of his mouth quirked up, but it fell quickly, his eyes flashing to our guest before he cleared his throat again. “Sarah,” he said, gesturing to the woman. “This is Charlie Pierce. She’s a teacher at Westchester, and a long-time friend.”
His lips flattened with the end of that sentence, like the word friend tasted bitter on his tongue. And when my eyes snapped back to the woman, to Charlie Pierce, to the soft, sweet eyes and shining smile — everything clicked into place.
It’s her.
There was no other explanation for Reese’s sudden tension, for how he looked like he wanted to crawl out of his skin all of a sudden. He wasn’t introducing me to Charlie the way he would an actual friend. The introduction was laced with a sense of foreboding, and when he glanced at me again, the plea in his eyes was all I needed to put the puzzle pieces together.
I stood, smoothing my hands over my long, burgundy skirt before extending one toward Charlie. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Pierce.”
“And you, Miss Henderson,” she said, shaking my hand firmly. “Your uncle is a good friend of mine, too, and he loves to brag about you. Of course, in the photo he showed me of you earlier this week, you were maybe fifteen.” She assessed my appearance with a genuine smile, and I hated that I couldn’t find an ounce of malice in the stare. For some reason, I wanted to hate her — but she wasn’t giving me a single reason to. “You have certainly grown into a beautiful young lady.”
The smile on my lips felt foreign and weak. “Thank you. Let me guess, the picture… was it the one of me in the pink dress?”
Charlie dropped my hand and smiled. “I take it he’s not the only one who loves that photo, huh?”
“My whole family has that one framed,” I replied with a roll of my eyes. “Probably because it’s the only time they’ve managed to wrangle me into anything pink since I was seven.”
Charlie chuckled at that, and I didn’t miss the amused smirk on Reese’s face in my peripheral. I shifted on my toes, folding my hands behind my back as both mine and Charlie’s eyes drifted to him.
He shifted his weight uneasily, like he’d missed a cue. “Uh, Charlie was just stopping by to discuss the end-of-the-year concert we have next week,” he explained.
“Because someone has been dodging my calls,” she teased him, nudging him with an elbow. In her eyes, you would have thought they truly were close friends, like she could tease him like that without a single thing being weird or feeling off.
His eyes told a different story.
“We’ve worked together on it the last few years,” Reese explained. “And when Charlie heard you playing from the foyer… well, she had a great idea.”
I lifted one brow, first at him and then at Charlie, who was practically bursting as she waited for him to continue. When he didn’t speak fast enough, she spoke for him.
“We’d like you to open the concert this year.”
I blanched. “Me? Isn’t it for current students?”
“It is,” Charlie affirmed. “But, you’re the headmaster’s niece, and part of the family. It’d be such a treat, the parents would love it, your uncle would be so excited to show you off, and I know the kids would love to see someone so talented play.” She bounced a little, hands wrapped around the purse still hanging from her arm. “What do you think?”
I glanced at Reese, and he offered a tight smile. “It would be a good chance to practice in a performance atmosphere.”
His words were solid enough, but I didn’t miss the pained crease between his brows at the near proximity of Charlie. It was like he was holding his breath or breathing in straight smoke, and he wasn’t going to have another clean breath until she was out of his house.
Suddenly, that became my only mission.
“I think it sounds like a great idea,” I said, more to Reese than to Charlie.
“Wonderful!” she said, smile doubling at me before she turned back to Reese. “Well, again, sorry I interrupted your lesson. I just wanted to go over those last details since I won’t be back in the office until Monday.”
“It’s no problem at all. Here, let me walk you out.” Reese extended one arm toward the door, the opposite hand hovering close to Charlie’s lower back. He didn’t touch her, though, and I wondered if he was afraid it’d burn if he did.