That night, as Noah was texting Liv the final details for his plan, his phone buzzed with a new incoming message. Callie had sent him a series of pictures of a score. The images were dim but even with the poor lighting he recognized Callie’s slanted notation.
He hummed the piece through, the emotion in each note slicing through him like glass, shredding the last vestiges of his restraint with each turn. Then he went back to the first image and hummed it again, the familiar phrases punctuated by new cadences and capped off with a third movement that, to his knowledge, had never existed before. Her sonata. She’d finished it.
He felt like he was floating, his limbs fuzzy. He knew he shouldn’t assign any deeper meaning to it, but he couldn’t help himself. Surely it meant something that she’d finished this piece after all these years, that she’d sent it to him. Fuck, it meanteverything.
She answered on the second ring.
“You finished it,” he said.
“I did,” she said.
“I’m so proud of you, love. It’s…fuck, it’s beautiful.” He was met with silence on the other end of the phone. “Talk to me, Callie,” he pleaded.
“I’d forgotten how much I missed composing. Or I wouldn’t let myself remember. Either way.”
“The music will always find its way back to you.” He squeezed his eyes shut.I’m coming, love. Just wait for me.
Even though he wanted to, he couldn’t make her promises. There were still things to arrange, and she was still too skittish, too determined to sacrifice her own happiness—and his. But he’d not only heard his father’s words, he’d carved them into his heart, and he was done letting fear keep them apart.
“I don’t want to keep you from your work,” she said. He hated how she tried to push him away even now, even with her music playing through his mind.
“It’s almost midnight. I wasn’t working.”
“Oh. Then I should let you get some sleep.”
“Callie,” he began, swallowing down the lump in his throat. “We’re gonna figure it out.I’mgonna figure it out. Just trust me, okay?” Silence. “Callie?”
“Mmhmm. I’m nodding.”
He chuckled.
“Noah?”
“Yeah, love?”
“I miss you.”
He closed his eyes, the words like a balm over the tender places that ached for her. “God, Callie, you have no idea.”
Chapter 28
Liv dropped into the seat across from Callie in the little diner, draping her messenger bag across the back of the chair with one hand as she hailed a server with another. “Sorry, sorry, I got on a local train instead of an express.”
“What’ll you have?” the waitress asked as she poured Liv a cup of coffee.
“Two eggs over easy, rye toast, side of sausage and a fruit cup,” Liv rattled off.
The waitress turned to Callie. “I’ll have what she’s having,” Callie said.
Liv took a long sip of her coffee, her eyes drifting closed, and sighed contentedly. “Thanks for coming into the city this morning, Cal. I have rehearsal in a few hours and I really wanted to see you.”
Callie stirred another sugar packet into her tea. “What’s wrong, babe?”
Liv placed the mug on the table but kept her hands wrapped around it. “Why would something be wrong?” she asked, her voice too high.
“Noah told you,” Callie said, shaking her head. “I guess I should be impressed that it took him this long.”
“What are you talking about?”
