Madly Yours novel · Chapter 30 of 32

Chapter 30: Season Opener

Twenty reporters waited on the steps below us.

I didn't look at a single one.

"Yes," I said.

Out loud, with the crack in it, so it carried.

He breathed out.

Then he kissed me on the courthouse steps in front of all of them.

It wasn't for the photos.

His hand came up into my wet hair and he kissed me slow, then deep, then not slow at all.

I got both fists in the front of his coat and kissed him back until my heel slipped on the wet stone.

He caught me against him and didn't stop.

Somebody below us whistled.

When he finally lifted his head, he was laughing.

"They're going to run that," he said against my mouth.

"Good," I said.

Three weeks later the symphony season opened.

I spent the afternoon on my knees under the concert grand, the same one Allegra had cut.

Over the summer my old boss and I had taken it down to the plate.

New strings, every one.

New hammers.

New felt in the dampers.

In August he'd pulled the serial number off the plate and shown it to me with a funny look on his face.

It came out of the same factory, the same year, as the Steinway in the Halstead music room.

"Twins," he'd said. "Somebody wanted you to have this one."

At seven he handed me a program, still warm from the box.

Third page, small print, at the bottom.

PIANOS PREPARED BY COLETTE SHERIDAN.

"Put it in your bag before you cry on it," he said.

I cried on it anyway.

I watched from the wings.

The stage manager stood beside me and wiped his eyes during the slow movement and said it was allergies.

The young stagehand with the buzz cut signed good evening to me without checking his palm.

Up in the Halstead box, Leland sat with Gran.

No cane anywhere.

Gran had one small hand flat on the velvet rail of the box.

She told me later she could feel the bass come up through it.

Dinner was at the Halstead house afterward, at the long scarred kitchen table, because Gran said the dining room was for funerals.

My stepfather brought a rug off one of his trucks as a gift, and Gran made him unroll it in the hall so she could inspect it.

← Chapter 29 · All chapters · Chapter 31 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend