lips pursed and I could see from her expression that whatever had been said had been upsetting to her. “I don’t want to pry, but I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
“Thanks, but, it’s fine.” She shook her head as she adjusted her hold on me by resting her hands on my shoulders and changed the subject. “What about you? What did you do today?”
I hadn’t planned on telling anyone that I was playing again, but there was something about Sasha that was constantly making me reveal much more than I’d intended to. “I…um…I played. I haven’t played for years but I did today. For hours. And I wrote.” I left out the part that the new song I was working on was about her.
“You did?!” Her excitement was palpable, and I couldn’t deny the thrill that ran through me seeing her reaction. “That’s amazing!”
“It was…amazing.” I rubbed my hand on her back and could feel the heat of her body through the thin material of her cotton shirt. “And I have you to thank for it.”
“Me?” Her forehead crinkled. “Why me?”
“Meeting you, spending time with you did something to me. You tapped into a place that I’d shut down for so long I was pretty sure that part of me was gone forever.” I could see from her expression that she wasn’t really grasping the significance of what I was saying to her. “When you left today, I felt…anxious.”
Her smiled dropped and I realized that sounded wrong.
“Not anxious like worried, more like unsettled or restless,” I explained. “I tried to ignore it and distract myself by doing some small projects around the house. But nothing worked. I was still agitated, like I needed to do something I just had no idea what. Then it hit me. I didn’t recognize what had been bothering me at first because it had been so long since I’d felt it. I wanted to or no, actually, needed to play. I haven’t had that feeling since I walked in on Rachel. Music was my first love, but after that happened, all of my inspiration, all of my drive, all of my passion died. But now it’s back. You gave that back to me.”
“Me?” She appeared genuinely confused at my statement.
“You gave me back a piece of me.”
As she stared up at me, I found myself leaning down and my mouth hovered above hers. Her body melted into mine, but as soon as our lips touched, she stepped back, out of my embrace.
“I’m sorry,” I hadn’t meant to kiss her. It seemed to be as involuntary as a reflex when she was around.
She glanced around, over her left shoulder, then right shoulder. I felt like shit for almost kissing her in public. When she looked back at me, I expected to hear that we couldn’t do this, or that the dance was a mistake.
“Do you want to get out of here?” she asked expectantly.
“Yes.” My heart and another organ farther south swelled at her suggestion.
The million-dollar smile that spread across her face made me feel like I’d just won the lotto. How in the world had I gotten so lucky to not only meet this incredible creature, but to be the one that put that smile on her beautiful face?
“Okay, I just have to go to the um…ladies’ room. I’ll be right…” She didn’t finish her statement before turning and leaving me alone on the dance floor.
I went back to the table and looked around the bar, my brothers were nowhere to be seen. I checked over to where my sister and her friends had been and saw that they were gone, too. As much as I loved my family, I was happy that I’d be able to leave tonight without any comments from the peanut gallery or interference.
I was headed to the bar to make sure that our tab had been taken care of when I felt a hand on my arm. I turned and saw Rachel.
Damn. I might’ve spoken too soon.
“Hi,” I greeted her as she lifted up on her toes and threw her arms around my neck.
I didn’t hug her back, instead I just stood there with my arms at my side. When she didn’t let go, I reached up and removed her arms from around my neck and took a step back. When I did, she stumbled forward into me. I caught her and stood her back up, keeping my arm in place to steady her as she found