“June and I were just discussing our shared love of music,” Callie says. “Specifically, the cello.”
“Oh, yeah. She played it,” he says.
“June, you didn’t mention that.” Callie elbows me lightly before sitting in her chair and tucking one leg underneath her.
“I was about to,” I say, offering Flynn a tight smile.
He looks at me, confused.
“Do you know how to tune one?” Callie asks.
“Yeah,” I murmur, my gaze drifting back to the photos.
“If I buy an electric tuner, would you tune mine?”
Flynn perks up. “Wait. Are you feelinginspiredto play your cello?”
I smirk without looking at him. He sounds far too pleased with himself.
“Perhaps,” Callie says.
“June, let’s go get a tuner … or whatever she’s talking about,” Flynn says.
I shake my head slowly, gaze snagging on a photograph of a man steering a fishing boat. He has Callie’s smile and Rupert’s jaw. He must be their son.
“June?” Flynn says my name again.
“Huh?”
“Let’s go get the tuner thing.”
I study Callie, tracing the resemblance, wondering what other features she passed along to her son and grandson.
“You don’t have to tune it,” she says.
I shake my head. “No. Uh, I can. Where is it?”
“Top shelf of my closet,” she says. “But I said I don’t have a tuner yet.”
“That’s … fine. I don’t need one.”
Her eyebrows lift. “You don’t. Then how do you know it’s in tune?”
“By ear.”
After a few seconds of studying me with an indecipherable expression, the corner of her mouth twitches. “Very well. Flynn, will you carefully retrieve it from the top of my closet? Left side.”
“K,” he says, setting the cat down.
I look away, wringing my hands. Her suspicious smirk makes my pulse jump.
“Here,” she says when Flynn returns with the cello. “Take my seat.”
I sit and open the case. It’s a beautifuland expensivecello. A Paolo Vettori. Easily seventy thousand dollars. I lift the cello andbow from the case, unprepared for the rush of emotion that hits me. Bowing my head, I breathe through it, waiting for the tears to pass before they notice.
It feels like home.
The weight against my chest and thighs.
