Page 30 of That One Heartbreak

Then just as she thought he was going to turn around and leave, he reached out, his fingers brushing her hair.

“You have a leaf,” he murmured, pulling it out and offering it to her. A tiny green leaf was nestled between his fingers and thumb. She took it from him, her fingertips grazing his.

There was that pulse again. It made her breath catch. “Thank you.”

This time he really did turn and leave. But the memory of his touch still lingered.

“Come sit down,” his mom said. “And let me get you a drink. Tell me, are you driving or would you like some hard liquor to get through this?”

As soon as the first note echoed from the stage, Kate felt a shiver through her spine. Not just because they were so close to the speakers – close enough that Maddie was handing out ear plugs to the kids like they were bags of candy, insisting on all of them putting them on. But also because she couldn’t remember the last time she’d sat down and really listened to music.

At first, after Paul died, song lyrics hurt too much to hear. And then it had felt wrong to enjoy songs without him. Sure, the radio could be on when she was driving to work, or when her kids would be playing something in the living room. But she rarely stopped and listened.

But now she was. Everybody had turned their chairs to look at the stage. Half of the people had gotten up and were dancing and swaying to the music. Pres and Cassie were harmonizing, as he played the lead guitar and she played the keyboards.

And next to them the bassist was rocking down like he was playing at Coachella instead of on a little stage in West Virginia.

But it was Marley who kept drawing her eye. He took drumming as seriously as he took firefighting. She could see theattention on his face as he listened intently to the tiny changes in tempo and depth in the vocals, and adapted to them as easily as he took a breath.

He ran his tongue along his bottom lip to catch a bead of sweat and she felt something deep inside her twist.

And then he looked up, his gaze catching hers and she felt her blood start to heat.

The song was building. She could hear the intensity in Cassie’s vocals ramp up. Marley matched it beat for beat, and she could feel the vibrations coursing through her veins like he was playing just for her.

Her chest felt so tight she wasn’t sure she could breathe. He was looking at her again, and she didn’t want him to stop. Didn’t want this to stop, whatever it was.

All she knew was she felt like she was alive. Like she was being touched, not by hands but by music.

Byhismusic. And it felt like a drug. Making her soar.

She took a deep breath, trying to center herself. She shouldn’t be feeling like this. He was Paul’s friend. She was Paul’s widow.

She pulled her eyes away, determined to get her heart rate back under control.

The next moment, Addy walked over with a muffin in her hand, poking at Kate’s leg with the other. Kate lifted her daughter into her lap. It was the third sweet treat Kate had seen her eating. The kid was going to be on a sugar high or a plunge, she wasn’t sure which.

But she stroked her hair and lifted one side of the ear plugs up. “You okay, honey?” she asked her.

“Mmm,” Addy nodded. She had crumbs on her lips. “Tired.”

A sugar plunge then. “Sit here with me for a while.”

When Addy had cuddled up into her, Kate looked back at the stage and Marley was watching her again.

This time she didn’t let her gaze stay on him. She brought it directly back to her daughter.

But it didn’t stop her from feeling like she’d just gotten on a rollercoaster that was about to speed out of control.

Chapter

Nine

“I’m goingto take Addy and Ethan to the car,” Kate told James when the concert was over and people were packing up to leave.

During the show the junior volunteers had weaved their way through the crowds with buckets and those card-reader machines to gather donations for the fire station. Now they were all holding black trash bags and little picker devices to clear away the remaining trash scattered across the field.

James had been given the front of the field – near the stage – presumably so Marley could keep an eye on him.

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