Page 54 of My Heart Before You

“That sounds like a perfect first date.” Her friend punctuated her point by clinking her glass.

The only part that could have constituted as imperfect was Colin’s palpable sorrow when he told her about his father’s death. The way he bent his head in the restaurant made her want to hold and rock him. Another time maybe he would allow her to listen while he talked about it.

“It was, but there’s more to it.” She’d been replaying the date in her mind all week, but if Emilie let her mind wander, she found herself focusing on the second half.

Ash bit into her pizza and spoke from behind the back of her hand. “Oh?”

“I told you how he came to ask me out at my condo—”

“Oh yes, you did,” Ash interrupted, winking.

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, we made out like teenagers. Is that what you want to hear?”

“Yes.” Her grin was wide with satisfaction. “At least one of us is.”

Unfortunately, Ash met and started dating another crappy guy a few days after her birthday. Before she left for her trip she broke up with him, swearing off men all together, saying if she couldn’t make a good choice in a man, she was better off without them.

“Like I was saying, when he asked me out, I felt I needed to feel some control over—”

Her friend interrupted again, but this time her voice was very serious. “You are always in control. If there’s any man who makes you feel otherwise, tell me, and I will kick his ass.”

Emilie believed her. As sweet as Ash was, she was also loyal to a degree that made you believe she would happily inflict bodily harm on your behalf.

“I know. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Good.” Ash set down her glass. “Offer still stands.”

Her lips pulled up at her friend’s protectiveness. “So after lunch, I had him take me to a piano store and play me his favorite song.”

“Ooohhh, I see.” She slapped the table, laughing. “A little ‘Dance, Monkey, Dance!’ Aren’t you clever?”

Emilie chuckled. “It totally backfired. I mean we did go, and he did play me a song, but . . .” A sigh broke from her throat. “. . . he is so incredibly talented.” Her mind played the memory of his long fingers stroking the piano keys with different intensities, coaxing it to make whatever sound he wanted.

“Did you expect something different? The song at the Christmas party was really good.”

“I’m not sure what I expected. I guess I enjoyed watching him play at the party, and I wanted to see that again. We talked a bit when you disappeared to ‘get me a drink’—” She used finger quotes.

“You’re welcome.”

“—and he talked about how he hadn’t played since he moved to Boston. He just looked so sad about it. I thought if we went to the store, I could see him play, and it would bring him that same joy again.”

Ash topped off their wine glasses. “Hmmmm, so what part of it backfired?”

“When he played his favorite song, it changed the way he played. He was magnetic with this quiet focus that was tender and at the same time incredibly sexy . . .”

Colin moved something deep inside of her when he played, something she didn’t quite understand. She knew she brought him to the store and asked him to play, but the minute he turned to the keys, she understood that it was as much for him as it was for her. It was a true gift to witness someone doing the thing they loved.

Her friend waited patiently this time as she looked up from her memory. “Then he started showing off. To be fair, I might have instigated it.”

“Might have?”

“I might have challenged him to play ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ which, of course, he could do.” She took an irritated sip of wine.

“I’m not much for classical music, but isn’t that a really hard song? It seems fast anyway.”

“That’s the point. Apparently, he has this huge repertoire under his fingers. I called him on it, and we were joking back and forth.” She swallowed.

“And?” Ash seemed to know where this was going.

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