“I love you, too,” I echoed, and Dash made a face.
“Yuck!”
But he laughed, and that was everything.
I took Harper to dinner at an Italian restaurant and held her hand across the table, the ring I’d given her glinting in the candlelight.
“How long do I have for this date?”
“Depends,” Harper said, arching a brow.
“On?”
“Is Easton home? I prefer privacy if we’re going to pull an all-nighter.”
“What do you take me for, some kind of amateur?” I scoffed. “Andall-nighter? Really?”
She laughed. “I like it better when you’re the romantic one.”
“Clearly,” I said. “Good thing I’m a natural in that department or we’d be hopeless.”
After dinner, we drove to the Academy. Harper headed up the walk, toward Atlas Hall, but I tugged her hand toward the school itself.
She frowned. “Because we don’t spend enough time in there?”
“Hopeless, Bennett,” I said, laughing. “Hopeless.”
I led her to the Arts Wing. Her eyes widened as she took in the Nocturne and the metronome sitting on the piano. “Am I getting a private performance?”
“Is that completely cheesy and big-headed of me?”
“Are you kidding?” She swatted me on the arm. “This is all I’ve ever wanted. Why do you think I gave you the Nocturne in the first place?”
I laughed. “All right, all right, don’t make me self-conscious.”
Harper sprinted to Ezra’s chair, sat ramrod straight, arms folded in her lap. “Ready.”
“That’s not where you’re supposed to sit.” I scooted over on the bench. “Come here.”
Her face softened, a side of Harper very few people got to see. Herromantic, soft, sweet side. And so beautiful because it felt like it was just for me.
Slowly she sat down beside me as if awed. I couldn’t understand it, couldn’t wrap my brain around the fuss that people made over my playing, her and Ezra and Octavian. I pushed it all aside. This was just for her.
“When did you set this up?” she asked softly.
“Earlier today. I’ve been practicing.”
“As if you need to practice.”
“Shut it, Bennett. My neck will not hold my head up if it gets any bigger. Now, if you please…”
I cleared my throat and adjusted the sleeves on my suit and set the metronome to 4/4 time. Then I laid my fingers on the keys and played.
I played just as I had earlier that evening, only this time Harper was sitting beside me and it was ten times more powerful because it was for her.
When it was done, the last notes hung in the air, wavering, then faded away. Harper was quiet, and I looked over. Tears stood out in her eyes. She was staring at the keys, then my hands, then me.
“I thought it was beautiful the first time,” she said, shaking her head. “Orion, do you not want to do this forever?”
