Page 30 of The Blairville Legacies

I grinned, earning a warning look from my mother.

“Lucky for you, there will be no potatoes, young lady!”

“What are you going to cook?”

I was hoping for steak and fries or noodle and cheese casserole. The mere thought of cheese made my mouth water. Especially if my Mum was cooking it...

No wonder my thoughts were all about food when I had only eaten one noodle so far and choked on it, too. My hunger had returned.

Mum just said with a wink, “Let me surprise you.”

Dissatisfied, I snorted. She ignored it, aware of my pickiness.

I finished eating, then cleared my plate and Mum’s. Afterward, I kissed my mother goodnight on the cheek, before I disappeared upstairs, exhausted from this first day, put on comfortable sleeping clothes and slipped under the covers, overcome by tiredness.

The lovely melody of a piano reached my ears and woke me up for good. A few seconds later, the back pain set in.

This bed was damn uncomfortable because the mattress was way too soft. One slid literally into a wide hollow. At some point, I had squeezed a pillow under my back. And that had been a huge mistake.

Now I was lying here, in the middle of a bed that didn’t belong to me, living in a house that I hadn’t known about until yesterday, and plagued by pain in places where I had never felt pain before.

Groaning, I straightened up and again perceived that soft sound.

I looked at my watch. It was only seven o’clock.

Who was listening to piano music at this hour?

I listened attentively to the soothing sounds. They came from outside.

During the night, I had left the window open so that fresh air could come in through the slit. Now, I regretted it, even if the melody was not bad at all. However, loud noises had kept me awake that night and as if that had not been enough, these were also replaced by loud annoying birds in the morning.

Of course, I had nothing against animals, not at all, even though I had already run over three, in my defense, unintentionally.

It was the familiar roar of the city that I was missing.

With a yawn, I rose from the edge of the bed.

I didn’t feel that rested. However, despite everything, I had gotten more sleep than in the last two weeks, when I had had to prepare everything for university and the move. Then Dr. Copeland had called on short notice to inform my mother that she was next on the patient list.This doctor... I swear.

The soft music brought me back to reality.

Curious, I crept to the window to take a look outside and search for the source of the harmonious sound. The neighboring house was only about four meters away from ours.

I tried to see something, but the rising sun on the horizon behind the trees blinded me.

Protectively, I raised a hand in front of my face so that I could see through the window.

What I spotted was a guy in sweatpants, sitting at a grand piano...playingthe piano. He had no top on, which allowed me to see his defined masculine upper body, and I immediately wondered if he wasn’t freezing.

My gaze lost itself on the muscles over which the taut skin stretched, wandered over the traitorously broad shoulders down the arms where aesthetic veins stood out.

His fingers moved rapidly over the keys while he sat straight and stared in concentration at the notes that lay somewhat chaotically scattered on the grand piano.

I must have stared at him too long because he turned his head in my direction.

I winced.

It was none other than Julian Bardot.

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