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An hour passed before Leo decided a break was in order, and he pulled out the book Sam had practically shoved into his hands before he left their apartment. The name “Hartrick” stood out on the cover like a swift jab to his heart. Getting even more involved with Piper and her family was a terrible idea, but Leo opened the paperback to the first page anyway, pulled in by the intriguing cover art and Sam’s repeated declarations that it was the best book ever written. The prologue wasn’t much of anything at all. Just a date, a time, and two sentences.
October 15th, 1:42 AM
A pivotal moment for some meant buying a new house or getting married. For Landon Cole, it meant helping his girlfriend slide a bloodied knife out of a soon-to-be corpse.
It was one hell of a hook, and Leo no longer had any qualms about reading further because he needed to know what happened. Sam was onto something. Leo could practically picture the descriptions and the imagery playing out in his head. For a while, he lost the plot of his own life in favor of the fictional one in his hands. It was that same spark he had when he watched a good movie or when he was directing the musical.
Before Leo knew it, the leather-bound journal Moreno had given him was open on the desk, and his hand was flying over the pages as he took notes. Sam was going to be pissed that Leo was underlining lines in the book, but he’d just buy a new copy from Walker when he went home for Christmas.
Donuts in hand, Leo wandered out to the stage humming Taylor Swift under his breath because, to his surprise, Piper’s suggestion about female rage music had been a good one. The reputation album had fueled a few of his boxing sessions so far, and when Taylor Swift was pissed off in his knockoff AirPods, he could perfectly imagine Hornbill’s face as his target.
“Donuts?” Leo raised the box into the air like Simba in The Lion King when he found a few cast members on stage. “I’m going to be hard on all of you today, so I’m buttering you up with sweets.”
“When are you not hard on us?” Wes eagerly reached for the box, whipping out a glazed donut as people started to flock to Leo.
“I expect everyone to give me their all.” Leo shrugged. “I don’t think that’s asking too much.”
“Well, I think donuts are an excellent way to sweeten the pot.” Elliot walked out on the stage and gave everyone a wide smile before reaching the donut box and pulling out an iced bear claw. Leo tamped down his gut reaction to say something snide. Jealousy was not a good look on him. Elliot had done nothing wrong, and yet, every fiber of Leo’s being wanted to scream every time he was in the guy’s presence. He had never been overly territorial before, but he had also never been in love before, and his heart constantly wanted to lay claim to Piper like he was a caveman.
Leo cleared his throat. “Thanks, Elliot. You and Piper working on the set today?”
“Yeah.” Elliot swallowed a bite of his donut. “We’re taking some measurements today so I can start building since we’ve finally narrowed down the perfect design for the Hot Box. She’s a genius.”
“Yeah, she’s talented in lots of ways,” Leo said.
Emma cut in with a sideways glance at Leo that said to cool it. “And I’m sure your architecture and engineering majors are coming in handy.”
“You know me, I love to work with my hands.” Elliot lifted them for show, and Leo had the brutal thought of chopping those same hands off at the wrists so Elliot could never touch Piper with them. That thought was quickly followed up with a more sane one: okay, Jigsaw. What the fuck is wrong with you?
“You’re doing great.” Leo mustered some fake enthusiasm because, really, Elliot was doing a good job and did not deserve the vitriol Leo’s brain was conjuring up. Piper was turning him into a fucking psychopath, and, truly, if Elliot was what she wanted, then Leo should be happy for her.
Elliot beamed. “Thanks, boss.”
Leo opened his mouth to offer another compliment to backtrack on his previously unhinged thoughts when his cell phone started ringing in his pocket. “Uh, one sec.” When he pulled it out, his mom’s caller ID glared up at him, and he furrowed his brow. He thought about declining it and calling her back later, but it felt a bit odd for her to be calling at a time when she was usually at work, so he picked up. “Mamá.” And that was when he heard it: the unmistakable sound of crying.
“Leo,” his mom sniffed on the other line. His heart stalled and then started beating out of his chest. Something was very, very wrong.
“¿Mamá? ¿Qué pasó?” The frantic tone he used must have alerted everyone because Sam quickly stepped forward, eyes emblazoned with concern.
“Abuelita—”
His mother’s crying intensified, and she barely got the words out before Leo found himself sitting on the floor, head spinning and nausea roiling in his stomach as Sam held him upright.
Forty-Nine
PIPER
The orchestra pit was dimly lit when Piper finally found a way inside after dragging information out of a tear-streaked Sam. Showing up to rehearsal to find Leo missing and everyone looking forlorn was a punch to her gut. Even more so when she learned of Isabel, the woman who had told Piper to take up space and with whom she’d laughed in Leo’s living room. More than anything, the urgency to find Leo came first. The bone-deep need to sit beside him as his world came crashing down. She would hold him to the earth and ground him because she was starting to think that being alone was always worse.
When Piper found him, Leo was sitting on the first violinist’s chair amidst the half moon facing the conductor’s podium. His face was buried in both hands, back hunched over, and hair even messier and more unkempt than usual. He had never looked so small before. That commanding presence Piper was so used to had vanquished in the face of Leo’s grief. With any luck, he would get his confidence back, unlike the way she had allowed herself to dwindle away when her parents died.
“I knew you’d come,” Leo whispered. His voice was hoarse and pained, the kind that splintered Piper’s heart and sat deep in her chest next to her own grief. He didn’t look up from his hands at all to meet her gaze as she sat down beside him, but she knew that he meant the words for her. Somehow, he had known that out of anyone, she’d be there. Maybe it was because of her parents, or maybe it was the strangely emotional connection they seemed to share. The one she had been trying to fight off since meeting him all those years ago.
“Of course I did,” Piper said. She hesitated for only a second before reaching out to take one of the hands Leo had covering his face, pulling it into her lap for comfort. It was almost indecent the way she was desperate to piece his heart back together.
“I’m not okay, Piper. You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be.” Leo let out a short, pathetic excuse for a laugh.
The pad of her thumb brushed over his palm with reassuring strokes. Leo finally dropped his other hand from his face and looked over at her with tear-streaked cheeks. “Someone I know keeps telling me that it’s okay to feel,” Piper teased with a soft smile.
