by Anna Bloom
My lips curled in a small smile. “You’ve got very wise, brother.”
“I’ve always been the wisest.”
I snorted. “Sure.” My laughter didn’t last long. “What would Grams say if I came home?”
Getting up, he walked over and sat at my side, gripping my hand. “She’d want you to do what was right.”
“She’s always been so sure I’m meant to be a star.”
Luca nodded. “Lyra the star.” He cocked his head and met my gaze. “Has she always meant with the violin? I think Grams loves you enough that you’ll always be a star, no matter what you do.”
A tear prickled the edge of my lashes and quickly escaped, slipping a path down my cheek.
“Come on. Shall I show you around campus? You didn’t get to see it properly when you dropped me off.”
“Sure thing, but I’ll have to go in a couple of hours, this is a long ass migraine I’ve had.”
I chuckled and leaned my head against his shoulder, relishing the familiar scent of home that clung to him. “Thank you.”
He kissed the top of my head. “Are you going to play, in the gala?”
The thought of picking up my violin burned my blood. The only way I could play… and this was the desperate truth, was if Jack was there… but now he’d be there with his girlfriend.
So, no. I guess I wouldn’t play, and if I did it wouldn’t be for long.
“I’ll try,” I lied.
“That’s my Lyra. Gram’s little star.”
“Hey, not so much of the little.” We lapsed into silence and I wrestled with the need to tell him about finding Jack. I hesitated though. Jack was different here. I didn’t know how Luca would react when he found out how well his old best friend had landed on his feet, or rather with his ass in the butter.
“Come on. I’ll get you the worst cup of coffee you’re ever likely to taste.” I got up and reached for his hand.
“You know just how to treat a guy who’s been travelling since yesterday morning to get to you.”
Impulsively, I threw my arms around his stomach, squeezing him as hard as I could. “I love you, Luca. You really are the best brother.”
“I know. I’ve been trying to tell you for years.”
We walked down the hall and all the way down the stairs. On the turn of the last corner I caught a glimpse of a dark head coming up the other way. The shiver across my skin told me all I needed to know.
My pulse spiked. My flight reactor kicking into overdrive.
“Seriously, Lyra. Your ass must have killed you the first few days. Couldn’t you have got a room on a lower floor?”
The dark head on its way up the old wooden staircase stopped. Green eyes flashed in my direction.
Oh shit.
Why did this feel like it had disaster scrawled over it?
Jack shook his head, just the tiniest movement, and then turned, his feet pounding on the worn tread of the stairs.
Luca looked down the hallway of the second floor, his attention diverted by doors with stickers and signs, and I breathed out an enormous gust of air.
“Lyra!” I turned at the familiar voice before me, another set of feet clattering on the stairs and drowning out those of Jack Cross below.
I gratefully grabbed at the unexpected distraction. “Alex! Meet my brother, Luca.”
Alex looked between us. “Brother? I thought you were cheating on me.” He smirked and I elbowed him in the ribs while Luca glowered an impressive big brother glare. Jeez, back off.
“Lyra, you didn’t tell me you had family visiting? Where are you going?” Alex fell into step beside us, making us an uncomfortable line of three precariously walking in time down the stairs.
“Well.” I shot Luca a glance. “I didn’t exactly know, it’s a surprise, so I’m just doing a quick tour.”
“Oh, right.” Alex nodded. “Why aren’t you in class, though?”
Luca’s gaze swiveled to my face. “There’s a class you’re supposed to be in, Lyra?”
“No…” My face gave me away. “Maybe.”
Alex held up his hand, UN peacekeeper—I shot him a grateful smile. “Greene cancelled anyway. He’s working with Brittany.” His cheeks tinged with pink and he studied the laces on his Converse with more care than the stairs deserved.
“Because…?” I coaxed.
“He’s decided that another student should be prepared to step in on Friday, just in case you aren’t, uh, well enough.”
“Oh.”
Well that stung more than I expected.
Luca curved an eyebrow in my direction, his lips flickering. “Not a problem. Lyra will play like a maestro on Friday… she has to. Otherwise our grandma, who’s almost blind and infirm, is going to get the bus here to talk to her.”
I slipped down the last step. “What?”
Luca bit down on his lower lip, but then slapped at his forehead in feigned forgetfulness. “Oh, yeah, that was the other message I had to deliver.”
“She knows?” I howled.
“She’s a witch. Of course she knows.”
Alex looked between us. “Your nan is a witch? Wow, mine’s just a bitch.”
“No.’ I shook my head, waving off the conversation. “It’s a family joke. She just knows everything whether you tell her or not.”
“Still better than a gin drinking bitch,” Alex mused, looking faintly put out.
I couldn’t say he was wrong. Grams wasn’t the one with the drink issues in our house.
Luca waited for me to process it all. I bet the bastard planned to drop it as a bombshell before he left.
“She can’t come here, Luca. She’d be so disappointed in me.” My throat tightened, squeezing hard.
“So what you going to do about it?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“Don’t parent me,” I snapped.
He laughed, holding his hands up. “Just something for you to think about while you give me the grand tour.”
Alex gave us a wave and went to walk away, but Luca caught the sleeve of his sweatshirt and held him back. “Oh, no. Not so fast. I haven’t got to know you anywhere near well enough yet.”
My turn to blush; cue scorching face burn.
“Luca! We’re just friends.”
He blew air though his lips like a horse. “Yeah right. Get walking and talking.”
As we left the building, I glanced over my shoulder only to find Jack watching from the shadows by the kitchen area. His face wore a stony mask, but his eyes burned deep with a dark emotion. I would have said it looked an awful lot like hate.
It shouldn’t bother me. But it did.
“Thank you sooo much. I owe you one.” Eva and I stood outside a dress shop in town. I’d called in the roommate favor after Luca had left.
Eva had been right this morning. I didn’t have a single thing to wear to anything formal—possibly the only violinist in history not armed with a modest black dress.
“If shopping is the emergency, I’m always on hand.”
“You’re a true friend.” I sniggered as we pushed through the door causing a bell to jangle above our heads. The sales assistant looked up from flicking the pages of a magazine on the counter. “You need help?”
Wow. Customer service with a smile.
“Just browsing thanks.”
She dropped her gaze and went back to her reading.
“Okay, so demure, or ‘I’m so hot you won’t even hear what notes I’m playing?’” Eva eyed the rows of dresses.
“Um… well, demure, I guess. But then I’d kind of like them not to hear what I’m playing too.” Nerves fluttered in my tummy like big dark moths with mutant bat wings.
Eva cast me a glance. “I heard about Brittany.” The way she said it made me giggle. “You know, Lyra. I haven’t even heard you play yet, odd I know for two girls sharing a room and studying music.” She cocked her head to the side. “But I kind of have a gut feeling you are going to be epic.” She turned for the rack of clo
thes, going straight for the blues. “So you need something suitably epic to knock them all off their feet when you walk in.”
“Surely it shouldn’t matter?”
She winced, pulling her lips between her teeth. “You heard about all the scandal last year, right?”
“Scandal?”
“The Collins Foundation was accused of being racial bigots.”
My stomach plummeted. “What?”
“They were accused of not being diverse enough.” Eva rolled her eyes. “Them and everyone, surely, right?”
What was she hinting at? It took a moment and then it clicked. Not clicked, it snapped into place.
“They took me on because I’m bi-racial?”
Eva shrugged, pulling out a long, electric-blue slip dress with spaghetti straps. “I don’t know. I’m just telling you what happened.”
A small leather sofa waited empty outside the changing room, no doubt put there for poor boyfriends and husbands bored of shopping and waiting. I staggered for it and then sank down into the cushions. “So that’s why they gave me the scholarship when the other guy dropped out? I knew it was strange after I messed up so bad in the interview.” I ran my palm across my face, finding sticky sweat under my skin.
And to think I thought it was Jack… oh my god. I had to get a grip on my stupid meter.
“Let me get this straight. I want them to ditch me because I don’t actually want to play violin. On the other hand, they are possibly looking for any excuse to get rid of me because I’m a bit black—although the exact ratio to white has never been determined.”
Right now: Fuck my life.
And somehow, Jack, the obsession of my entire existence was here and dating a racist while also being my teacher.
Again: Fuck my life.
Eva dropped into a squat by the side of the sofa. “So, what are you going to do?”
I sighed, trying to get all the jigsaw pieces to fall into place.
“Well if I’m going home it will be on my terms.”
“Which are?”
“I just walk away.”
“So Friday…?”
I leaned my head back against the sofa. “I think I do need a dress.”
“Yes! If you’d let that Brittany of big titty fame have your place, I’d never forgive you.” A pile of silk landed on my face. “You’re gonna need to try this. It will bring out those blues.”
My stomach dropped.
Blue.
I’d need more than a dress. I’d need my muse, or I’d need to learn for the first time in my life how the hell to play without him.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jack
Monkey suits. I hated them.
Pulling at the collar of the starched shirt, I tried to find room to breathe. Oxygen had been slow coming all day.
I’d run for miles around the lake, my lungs screaming.
I’d stood under the hot shower, my lungs pressing against my chest, unwilling to give my brain the oxygen it needed to think straight.
Now, as I stared at myself in the mirror, looking at the man I’d become, they wanted to leave my body and let me drop dead to the floor.
“You’re very tense.” Miriam sidled up behind me, smoothing her hands over the curve of my shoulders under cotton.
“Hardly surprising, considering the pressure your family have put on this evening.”
Miriam smiled at my reflection and I ducked from under her touch, clutching up the crystal tumbler full of my own personal kryptonite.
I smiled as I threw the amber liquid back.
Everything would end tonight.
Lyra would be going back to New Orleans, the one place I couldn’t follow. I thought I’d take pleasure in the moment. Instead… instead, it ached deep down inside.
It had all been for nothing.
All of it.
“Jack.” Miriam caught my face, turning me to face her. “It’s fine. Your job isn’t at risk here. The Collins Foundation is simply making sure that their investment is well placed.
I caught her wrist, pulling it away, enjoying the little crack of ligaments beneath my grip.
“She’ll play.” I swallowed hard, the bourbon threatening to burn a path back up.
“Alex told dad she’s a certifiable flight risk.” She chimed a laugh, melting my brain.
“Maybe Golden Wonder Alex doesn’t know everything.”
Miriam smirked. “Well you know what he’s doing, don’t you?”
“What?” I actually hated to think.
“Payback on dear Daddy. He’s taking little Lyra as his date.” She leaned into the mirror, smoothing the skin under her eyes. “Daddy didn’t give him the scholarship. Now Alex is going to make him pay.”
“What’s that got to do with Lyra?”
Miriam narrowed her eyes. “You’re taking this far too personally, Jack. Daddy spoke to Greene, he said it’s not your fault. Picking Lyra Lennox as the scholar has merely proved the point. Not everyone is worthy of the chance. Next year, this won’t be necessary.”
“You’re all sick.” I whirled in her space. Pressing myself close to her skin, towering over her. My veins hot with anger and alcohol. “This family is deranged.”
“You didn’t say that four years ago when we made you.”
I shook my head. “I never wanted to be involved in this, Miriam.”
She smiled, head cocked to the side. “But you were happy to take the Collins money to build Blue’s bar, happy for Daddy to get you a job at Berklee, although for what reason I’ve never understood.”
“Yeah, and you were happy to stick two fingers at your father by bringing me home and upsetting the apple cart. We both got something out of this.”
Miriam cast a critical glance over me. “With hindsight you came out of the deal better. After all, you got me.” She laughed, throwing her head back, her sheet of shiny straight hair swinging over her shoulder. “What Alex is doing is no different. This girl will be gone next week, and Alex will have challenged Dad into giving him the scholarship.”
“Oh my god, what is wrong with you all? He doesn’t even need it.”
“I think Alex’s pride thinks otherwise, and you know how attached us Collins’ are to our pride. Even more so than you, Jack Cross.” She leaned closer, filling my head with Chanel. “I mean, you sold yourself just to stay in this town.” Her dark gaze held mine. “So next week when Alex is in that practice room with you, just remember all the reasons why you wanted this.”
She swirled out of the room, her black evening dress rustling the only sound apart from the pound of my heart.
Turning, I poured another drink and sank it down.
Curse it all to hell.
Ravensbrook Hall shone under a million lights, the fountain tinkling and filling the air with the soft sound of rain dropping into a deep pool, a backdrop to the clink of champagne glasses and fake conversation.
Miriam tugged me closer, her arm iron clad on mine. “Ooh look, the Faircloughs.” She nodded to the British aristocracy who supported the arts on the other side of the pond. Elijah Fairclough had changed, mellowed the last couple of years. Fatherhood had transformed him from boring British stiff into a person I could almost get on board with.
His wife Faith gave me a small wave.
The boy who grew up in a timber framed house in Florida, New Orleans was a long way from here. I wonder what would happen if I ever had to get back to him. Would I even be able to find him?
I liked the Faircloughs though, and I was pretty sure they weren’t raving racists.
“Professor Greene,” Miriam pulled my attention toward my boss.
“Ah, Miriam, stunning as always.” She preened under his admiration and I tried not to pull a face. “Jack.” He nodded to me.
“Professor. How are things looking?”
He met my gaze, a shadow of warning in the depth of his eyes. “The students are all gathered.”
My stomach tightened… all of them? She’d come?
<
br /> I was sure she wouldn’t, especially after she’d cried off sick all week from all lectures. Greene pointed and I followed the direction of his index finger.
Fuck. Like a sledgehammer, she hit me, erasing my brain of all thoughts.
Lyra Lennox. Wearing a blue gown, the color of her eyes, which skimmed her body and all the things that I wanted to know but had never allowed myself.
My throat tightened, strangling me with my dress shirt.
Alex fucking Collins grasped her hand tightly, smiling as he pointed out people he knew around the room.
Her back straightened and she glanced over her shoulder, her piercing gaze sweeping in my direction. Could she feel me even with her back turned?
Greene leaned into my side, whispering, “Back up is sulking in the corner.”
I turned to find Brittany in siren-red slouched into a low brocade sofa. She might still get her chance, best not to pout too much yet.
Alex guided Lyra toward his parents. “Ha, now this I have to see.” Miriam chuckled low and towed me after her. Greene gave us a distracted smile. I bet he was bricking it.
“Dad, Mom, this is Lyra Lennox, your scholarship student this year.”
Jenson Collins inclined his head like he was the king. “Lyra, we are very much looking forward to hearing you play.”
She smiled a curve of her lips. “And I’m looking forward to playing. I hope you’ll be happy with your choice.”
She met his eyes, standing tall. I realized her denim shorts never showed her willowy stance off to its full advantage. She had the grace of a poppy swaying in the early summer breeze, beautiful and delicate but with a stem that could withstand the elements if needed.
“Alex, are you going to introduce us?” Miriam smiled like a cat on the prowl.
He glanced between them. “Lyra, this is Miriam, my sister.” Alex looked at me, his lips smirking. “And you know Jack of course. Mr. Cross.”
Lyra met my stare. The world swirled to a dangerous pace where things could cease to exist if I let them.
“We are very much looking forward to hearing you play.” Francine Collins’ sincerity didn’t reach her tone.
“I’d better go and meet my classmates. Alex?” Lyra reached for his hand, her eyes flashing.