Sonata for Springtime by Thea Landen

Author:Thea Landen [Landen, Thea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Decadent Publishing LLC
Published: 2023-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“I have a confession to make.” I stood in the middle of Natalie’s living room and took a deep breath.

“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow and one side of her mouth curled upward.

“Yeah. I…uh, well…” Scratching the back of my head, I looked down and kicked one foot back and forth across the carpet. “With the holidays and everything, and traveling to see family, and wrapping up the end of the year at work…I haven’t been practicing much lately.”

Her sly expression bloomed into a full grin and she burst out laughing. “Is that all?” she said between giggles. “You’re singing the song of every musician, professional or otherwise, I’ve ever met in my entire life.”

Some of the tension eased out of my shoulders. “Shh, you’re not supposed to reveal industry secrets.”

Natalie placed one hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side. “Do you really think I’ve been slaving away over the piano every day for the past few weeks?”

“At least I’m in good company, then.” I offered her a helpless shrug. “Since I’ve told you my deepest, darkest secrets, do you even want to bother with today’s lesson? Or should I come back another day, when it won’t be a complete waste of time?”

“I’ll leave it up to you, but you won’t be wasting my time, I promise.” She gestured toward the piano. “It’ll come back faster than you think, believe it or not. So you might as well give it a try.”

“If you say so.”

I trudged across the room and set the book of music on top of the piano before plopping onto the bench. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I said as I opened the book to the page I’d been halfheartedly working on.

She sat on the armchair, crossing her legs at the ankles. “You’ll be fine.”

Sitting up straight, I found the notes of the first chord and began to play. Despite Natalie’s encouragement, I didn’t get very far into the first line before everything fell apart. My rhythms were off, I kept missing notes, and the piece sounded nothing like I knew it was supposed to. I slogged through another few measures before throwing my hands up in defeat. “I told you this was going to be terrible.”

“Keep going,” she whispered.

I swallowed back a sigh and tried to pick up where I’d left off. Whatever sounds were coming out of the piano sounded more like noise than music, and I gave up after an especially dissonant missed chord. “Nope. Waste of time. I’ll come back next week and try to redeem myself.”

Natalie leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “You don’t sound half as bad as you’re pretending you are. Your fingers will remember what to do if you let them.”

“You have way too much faith in my fingers right now.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Do I have to come over there and force you to start playing again?”

I chuckled. “You’re not nearly as threatening as you’d like to think you are, you know.”

“Oh, is that so?”

She hopped up from the chair and stood behind me.

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