Page 32 of Saving Mr. Bell

“You don’t need it.”

“The girls like it.”

“I daresay the boys do, too. I’m just pointing out you have gorgeous eyes with or without eyeliner.”

A faint flush crept into Rudolf’s cheeks. “You’re making it really hard not to kiss you right now.”

I smiled. “Good.”

We didn’t play any games that evening, both of us happy after the exertions of the day and the delicious meal Rudolf had served up to sprawl on the sofa. I’d switched the main light off, leaving us with just the glow of a single lamp and the wood stove. It created a cozy atmosphere, which left me more at peace than I could ever remember being.

“You should share the bed,” Rudolf announced out of the blue. “It’s plenty big enough for two. It’s not fair that I get a double to myself while you have to sleep on this.”

“It’s a comfortable sofa, not a bed of nails.”

“Still…”

“Stop trying to dress up an attempt to get me into bed as concern.”

Rudolf grinned like I knew he would. “Shit! Busted. You should sleep in the bed, Arlo. Naked. And we should cuddle for warmth just in case something happens to the wood stove while we’re sleeping and the temperature in the cabin plummets.”

“I presume you’ll also be naked?”

“Of course. I’d hate for you to feel like the odd one out.”

“So kind.” Rudolf was sprawled diagonally across the sofa, mostly lying, but the sofa too short for his feet to fit with me on the end. Acting on impulse, I bent over and scooped them into my lap. He lifted his head but said nothing, straightening so he could lie more comfortably.

“I could go to sleep,” he eventually said.

“Then go to sleep. What’s stopping you?”

“Hmmm…” Taking gentle hold of one ankle, I picked up his left foot and studied it. Rudolf lifted his head again. “Am I just supposed to ignore you being weird?”

“These are very famous feet.”

He let his head thud back on the arm of the sofa. “Right.”

“They are.”

“If you say so.”

“Whose idea was it to play the piano barefoot that first time?”

“I wouldn’t say it was an idea.”

“No? What was it?”

Rudolf smiled to himself. “I didn’t like my shoes. They were very un-me, so I refused to wear them. My costume designer at the time told me I could hardly go on stage barefoot and was extremely snooty about it.”

“So you called her bluff?”

“Yeah, I said watch me, and did exactly that.”

“And the media loved it.”

“Yeah,” Rudolf said with a slight sigh. “And now I’m stuck with it, no matter how freezing cold the auditorium might be. And the rest of the image came from people liking it and seeing how far I could push it before someone said, hang on, what does he think he’s doing when he plays classical music? Except no one ever did. I reckon I could go on stage naked one day and no one would bat an eyelid.”

I placed his foot gently back on my lap. “Maybe don’t choose the freezing cold auditorium for that.”

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