Page 4 of Not Another Love Song

She didn’t hear him at first, staring down at the silky finish of the wood, a beautiful stain for a beautiful instrument. He lifted it by its neck, and handed her the cello, plucking up the bow.

“Um, yes.” She took the neck, and their fingers brushed. “No, I mean.” She turned to her chair, refusing to make eye contact. “I brought my violin. I’m…I’m a violinist.”

She sat, and just as she was about to put the spike into the grass, he dropped a rest at her feet. She looked at him, following his long torso, up his chest to his broad shoulders, and finally to his scowling face. The sun was directly behind him, giving his hair a glow and his outline an angelic aura, and as her heart skipped, she despised that everything about this day was working against her.

“Do you play cello?” he said.

“Yes.” She left it at that and started flipping through the music to the beginning, placing her fingers on the fingerboard and silently working through the fingering in her mind. She was not about to test out these octaves while Xander Thorne stood two feet away, towering over her.

“That’s violin music.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” she hissed. “I’m a violinist, remember.” “Then why aren’t you playing violin?” he said, like it was easy.

“Because Sonya—whoever that is—wanted a cello.” She kept her eyes off him, wishing him elsewhere.

“Sonya is the bride.”

Gwen glanced up, against her wishes. “Oh.” She really should read the emails Jacob forwarded to her.

His gaze was locked on her fingers, and she immediately shifted to a better positioning. She’d never been under his scrutiny before. At the Pops, all year she’d watched him scowl at the cellos and basses that were under him, giving them notes in a bored voice. But he’d had no reason before to look at her face or her fingers or her spread knees cradling his cello—

“Are you about to ruin this wedding?” he asked.

She narrowed her eyes at him. Ah, yes. That was the Xander Thorne she’d grown accustomed to.

“Gwen’s really good,” Jacob piped in, and Xander turned, like he was seeing him for the first time. “She can play anything. She’s like a child prodigy.”

“Jacob, don’t—” she tried, squeezing her eyes shut.

“She’s been playing violin since she was eleven,” he continued, and Xander Thorne cut him off to glance back at Gwen.

“Eleven?” he said, in a mocking tone. “How impressive.”

She pressed her lips together. True child prodigies start playing at three.

“If you’re so concerned, why don’t you play?” she bit out.

“I can’t. I’m in the wedding party,” he said simply, lifting his garment bag.

She blinked up at him. So he knew Sonya well. Of course, he probably knew everyone who had a mansion in New Jersey.

“Alex!”

One of the other groomsmen stood on the veranda waving, rushing him inside.

Xander Thorne or Alex or whoever he was gave her one last haughty stare and then walked away on long legs, taking the stairs up to the main house three at a time.

Ugh, she hated when people did even two at a time. What kind of obnoxious giant would—

“Gwen, what do you need to practice?”

She jumped and shuffled the pages to “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” the bride’s chosen processional song. Unfortunately, now that the guests were here, she couldn’t just start playing the equivalent of “Here Comes the Bride,” but she did silently practice the ceremony songs while Jacob twinkled through “A Thousand Years.”

At five minutes till the wedding was set to begin, Ama came over to check in. “Hey,” she said, placing a friendly hand on Gwen’s shoulder. “I know you’re probably preparing, but I need to hear you play before we start. Can you join Jacob on the next pieces?”

Gwen nodded, knowing exactly what Ama wasn’t saying: I need to make sure you can actually play cello before the bride walks down the aisle to the sound of cats moaning in heat. She flipped to the pre-ceremony music as Jacob got the memo and brought “Can’t Help Falling in Love” to a natural conclusion.

As confident as she had claimed to be half an hour ago, Gwen really was afraid of what sound was going to pour from the strings. She tried to think of what Mabel would say to her, tried to think what it was like over a decade ago, using a bow for the first time on her violin.

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