Page 46 of Naz & Roz

FIFTEEN

Roz could feel his gaze on her. From where in the room, she didn’t know. It was hard to tell when it seemed like her parents had invited every person they knew to Luca’s birthday party. Oh, she loved her parents for the fact they always celebrated their children’s birthdays even now that Luca and Roz were probably beyond the age of all that.

Still, she wondered where Naz was.

She could feel his gaze on only her. It was the way her skin hummed with the strangest buzzing sensation. Like all the fine hairs lifted from the back of her neck, and her breaths came out a little shorter than normal. She loved that feeling, and yet … she still wished she could watch him, too.

She couldn’t see him, though.

Her gaze scanned the crowd even as her hands continued moving over familiar keys on the piano. She didn’t need to actually look down to know what she was doing when it came to the piano. Especially not if it was a composition she was very familiar with and had been playing for years.

She wasn’t actually supposed to play the piano tonight for the guests, anyway, but someone thought it would be a great idea. Roz got roped into it because she didn’t like telling people no, and her parents loved showing off her hard work.

Some things never changed …

Roz didn’t break stride or form as she looked for Naz in the crowd. Her smile was still firmly in place as her gaze drifted over the faces of familiar people. Back straight, shoulders loose but firm, and arms at the correct position for her hands to do all the work. She was sure everyone just thought she was smiling for them, but really, she wanted to find him.

He’d been back for a few days—things went back to normal. Just like he said. Like he hadn’t been gone at all.

If anything, that only made Roz edgier. For reasons she wasn’t even sure of, to be honest. Like she might blink, and he’d be gone again.

Even if he promised that wasn’t the case.

That fear hung on.

Soon enough, Roz had finished the piece on the piano and was standing from the bench before the clapping had even started. The guests did clap, though. The noise was thunderous. She heard the congratulations and praise, and took them all with a smile. Even the arms reaching to hug her, and pat her cheeks as people told her how much she had grown up since the last time they saw her.

People kept saying that.

She didn’t see it like they did.

Moving through the last few people while accepting their hugs, too, Roz finally spotted Naz. Finally.

She was entirely unsurprised to find he had tucked himself into the far corner of the room where he couldn’t be bothered. She found he didn’t like that very much. Hated when people interrupted him while he was watching her.

He looked like a woman’s walking wet dream standing there in a three-piece suit, his hair pulled back like he’d been dragging his fingers through the strands, and a glass of whiskey in his hands. Easy posture, lazy smile, and eyes only on her. He looked like he didn’t have a fuck to give in the world because he had everything he wanted standing just a few feet away from him right then.

Naz grinned, and winked.

Roz smiled back.

Soon enough, she was going to hide that grin of his when her lips found his. She swore … would put her hand on a fucking bible to say it … that her music was made better when this man was watching her. Something about him being there made her hyperaware, and the music just sounded better.

It didn’t have to be reasonable.

It just was.

“That was beautiful, Roz.”

Katya slipped in beside her daughter, and took her attention away from Naz for a moment. As much as it sucked, she supposed she could wait another few seconds before she could get back to where she wanted to be.

Tucked right into his side.

With him.

“Thanks, Ma,” Roz said.

Her mother looked at someone over Roz’s shoulder before her gaze came back to her daughter. “When you’re playing sounds like that, it makes me wonder why you’re still considering backing out of that audition.”