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And it was hellaHto theOto theT, hot, hot, hot.
Again, she thanked her stars she wasn’t rocking a sheer tank top. Her nipples would have slashed through the fabric like diamonds splitting glass.
Forget the nips. Focus on the music. There was a child present.
She glanced at Aria, playing away like a mini-Mozart, then changed key and tweaked the melody, testing if uncle and niece could adapt.
The nimble musical ninjas didn’t miss a beat.
But she still had a few tricks up her sleeve.
Strumming away, Landon joined them, standing a few feet from her. She glanced up at him and bit back a smirk, cooking up a tune that would surely throw him for a loop.
Her guitar-strapped dare-match husband wouldn’t know what hit him.
Flexing her musical muscles, her fingers fluttered across the keys as she dialed up the tempo and increased the complexity.
To her delight, Aria hung in with her like a champ.
And what did Landon do?
He mirrored her smirk as if he thought her littleaccelerandowas child’s play. Like a mind reader, he followed her lead and even added his own side riff to the made-up song.
And then he parted his lips. “Uncle Landy eats all the candy, and Harper and Aria have none. The girls have none.”
She steadied herself.
He repeated the verse, then peered down at his niece. “Sing it with me, Aria,” he crooned, and heaven help her. Thank God she was sitting. She might have passed out if she had to juggle the complexities of standing while listening to this man sing. His voice had her clenching her core, and her poor nips were done for.
Doubling her focus, she prepared to change up the melody again, ready to throw a few octave jumps into the mix, when her pint-sized partner in piano crime yanked her hands away and sucked in her cheeks like she’d been force-fed a bag of lime lollipops.
Before she could play another note, the mood shifted from light and jovial to dense and destructive.
And Aria wasn’t the only sourpuss.
The brassy bray of the guitar disappeared.
Landon’s expression darkened. He dropped his hands to his sides and stared at his niece.
What happened?
All he’d done was ask her to sing.
She stopped playing and looked between the suddenly sullen pair.
Say something.
“I found Aria in here,” she said, stating the obvious. “We were messing around, making up songs until you and your parents returned.”
He nodded as the joy glinting in his eyes petered out.
“You’re not half bad on the guitar,” she teased, trying to lighten the mood.
It didn’t work.
She turned to Aria and gestured to the piano. “This is good stuff. We should write this song down. Do you have any blank pages of sheet music or a notebook handy?”
Aria huffed, then scrambled off the bench, scaled the boxes, and returned to her perch.
