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When she and Nicole had been three, their parents had taken theirl had been before At first the visit had been unremarkable A rainy Seattle day with two toddlers trapped inside a house full of adults
One of the guests had tried to entertain the girls by playing the piano Nicole had grown bored and wandered away, but Claire had sat on the hard bench, entranced by the keys and the sound they one back on her own She’d been too short to see the white and black keys, but she’d known they were there and she’d carefully reached above her head and started to play one of the songs
Despite how young she’d been, Claire re about that afternoon How her est time How she’d been put on her mother’s lap in front of the piano, where she could make the pretty music more easily
She had never been able to explain how she knehich key produced which sound, how theup until it spilled out It was just one of those things, a quirk of an, until then, unreene pool
Nicole had also sat on her mother’s lap, but she’d shown no interest in the piano and when she put her tiny hands down, there was only noise
ThatWithin two days, Claire started lessons Then the work on the basean and a soundproof studio was built For the first ti exactly the saift, had come between them
She pushed the door open She could see the piano that had seemed so beautiful and perfect when she’d been a child She would guess the cost of it had decis account and then some Claire had played on many of the most famous pianos in the world, but this was the one she remembered most
She stared at it now, at the dust on the cover It probably hadn’t been touched in years It would need tuning
She had no desire to play Just the thought of sitting down on the benchShe didn’t have to play if she didn’t want to Everything was fine She didn’t even have to make up excuses to avoid her masters classes She was a whole continent away froes of her conscious mind She pushed it away When it stayed stubbornly in place, she retreated upstairs, to safer ground Once on the nore the piano, she told herself Pretend it wasn’t here at all Except for getting it tuned A lifeti wouldn’t allow her to let it sit untended
With the monster in the baselared at, she went out to the car and wrestled in her two suitcases After dragging theuest roo to eat
There wasn’t a lot of food in the house She found a can of soup and started heating it on the stove In thehospitals until she found one that said her sister had been admitted and offered to connect her to the nurses’ station Claire declined and hung up
The good neas the surgery had gone well, since Nicole’s rooular floor, not in ICU The bad neas that according to Wyatt, Nicole knew nothing about Claire’s visit and had no interest in seeing her Had she co?
She checked her cell phone out of habit and saw she had two er couldn’t possibly say anything she wanted to hear, Claire deleted the at the sink, she ate soup out of the pot and stared into the s with Nicole She knehat the problem was So why couldn’t she fix it?
Did it matter? She was here now Here and determined to make Nicole and Jesse a part of her life Norid of her She was going toto love them back They were her fa
NICOLE DID HER BEST not to move She hurt The pain was dulled by thetherapy, but it was still there, lurking, threatening She ignored the heat of it and blessed whoever had invented beds that raised and lowered with the push of a button She would just lie here for the next six or eight years and eventually she would be fine
Someone walked into her room She heard the footsteps and braced herself for the inevitable poking and prodding that followed Instead, there was only silence She opened her eyes and saw Wyatt standing next to the bedShe felt like crap and figured she didn’t look a whole lot better At tirateful they had only ever been friends
"It’s going to be a hell of a scar," he told her
"Guys are into scars," she whispered, her mouth dry "I’ll have to beat the the strength to lift a stick Can I beat them off with a straw? I could handle a straw"
"I’ll be there to help"
"Lucky me"
He touched her cheek, then pulled up a chair and sat down "How are you feeling?"
She ory of really stupid questions Did you get the whole concept of surgery? I’ve been sliced and diced and I’ hooked on painkillers"
"You won’t like rehab You’re too cynical"
"And crabby Don’t forget crabby" She pointed to the plastic cup on the tray beside her bed "Could you hand me that?"
Wyatt picked it up and passed it to her She took it and risked a sip The last one had nearlynurse had infor Nicole didn’t see the point, but the nurse had been insistent
She took a tiny sip and winced as a wave of nausea washed through her At least it was less intense than the previous one She sipped again and didn’t feel ress
She handed him the water and drew in a breath "You talk I’ll listen But please, don’t be funny I don’t want to laugh It will hurt too ers in his "I went by the bakery Everything is fine"
"Good They’ll be okay without me They kno to handle the business I don’t have to worry about anything"
She would worry because it was her nature, but it was nice to knoasn’t required
"So, us, Nicole opened her eyes There was so aluilty
"A wo deal? He’d"So ask her out"
"What?" He straightened and stared at her "You’re not--" He leaned toward her again "I didn’t mean I’d met someone I liked I met soery and everything, but you’re notsense"