Page 66 of Hope & Harmony

Maybe Sarah’s right. Does it matter if I’m not the next king of rock and roll? Really, I just want to sing, and she’s giving me a chance to sing with a beautiful and talented woman.

“Yeah, Sarah. I’m in.”

She turns to Blaire. “And you?”

Blaire opens her mouth but then closes it when Professor Morgan grabs her arm.

I absently curl my right hand into a fist. Who the hell does he think he is, touching her like that?

“I’m afraid Blaire is otherwise obligated,” he says.

Sarah narrows her eyes. “I think I askedher.”

Blaire tugs on her lower lip with her teeth, and damn… What that woman does to my body… One thing about being a rocker and performing at the Haven for open mic night—I hardly have a dearth of women throwing themselves at me. I usually go home with a new one every week. Then I make her pancakes the next morning, kiss her goodbye, and never see her again.

So what is it about this particular woman? She’s beautiful, yes, but I’ve been with beautiful women before. Maybe it’s her talent. Maybe it’s her spitfire personality. She has no problem telling me to go to hell, but for some reason, she freezes up in front of this professor.

And I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.

Finally, she opens her mouth. “I think…I’d like to try it.”

Morgan glares at her. “Blaire, it’s not a good idea.”

She turns to Morgan. “Professor, I have two weeks off. This is a chance to broaden my musical horizons. What can it hurt?”

“You need to rest your?—”

Blaire ignores him and turns to Sarah. “Are you sure I’ll be able to fulfill my obligations to Opera Livingston?”

“Honestly, I don’t see why not,” Sarah says. “You don’t start there for two weeks, and it’s a local company, so you’ll be here in town. We’ll work around your schedule. I’ll give you a call if theplan for tomorrow changes. The industry is one of constant flux, and sometimes things change early in the morning, so keep your phone’s ringer on in case I have to wake you up.”

Blaire nods, takes out her phone, and switches it off silent mode. And then she smiles.

Blaire Cavileri—my perfect duet partner—smiles.

And the world just became a little bit brighter.

CHAPTER 6

BLAIRE

“I wish you would change your mind,” Professor Morgan says as he walks me to the door of my apartment. “You have so much talent, and you’re a future star in the opera world. I hate to see you waste it all away.”

I shrug. “I guess I don’t consider this opportunity to be wasting anything. Weren’t you always the one who told me never to let an opportunity pass by? That the more people who heard me sing the better? Because you never knew when that one person might hear me and take me to the next level?”

He shakes his head. “But your voice, Blaire. It was made for opera. You’re made to sing the music written by the great masters. No one writes music like that anymore.” He grimaces. “Certainly not thisMary Louiseperson who your new friend Sarah is talking about.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” I say. “But being on that stage with Gunnar felt… I don’t know. I just want to try.”

I can’t bring myself to tell Professor Morgan that I felt more myself tonight on that stage with Gunnar Healy than I’ve ever felt—even when I sang the title role in Rossini’sCinderelladuring my final year at school. The adrenaline rush, the high, the appreciation from the audience. The thrill of singing Cinderella’sfirework coloratura in the opera’s finale. The applause. The whistles and the shouts of brava. It’s what keeps me going. It’s what keeps me going in this dog-eat-dog world of performing arts. Because it’s a tough road. It’s more like a mountain with rocks and jagged edges and cliffs. It’s scary as hell, and at times my self-doubt plagues me so much that I want to give up.

But then…I perform again. And whether it’s for judges in a competition, or producers at an audition, or best yet, for a real audience, I feel alive again.

I love opera. My voice lends itself well to the classical genre, but singing with Gunnar tonight?

It was a new high. More phenomenal even than singing Cinderella.

And that kiss at the end…

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