Page 33 of Hold my Reins

Rox turned. “Did you stop playing the violin?”

“For many years, I didn’t play any music because I no longer heard it in my heart. I bought a violin when I moved here. But even then, it took me a while before I strung the bow and played.”

“You never played for me last night.”

“I guess that means you’ll have to come around for dinner again.”

“Maybe I can cook you one of my favorite recipes?”

“I’d like that.” Lynck smiled.

“And I want to go home,” Thursten called from behind the counter. “So lock the front door.”

“The boss has spoken.” Lynck walked away, tail neatly braided, the way it always was when he was at work.

Rox spun around and faced the piano. It was very similar to the one he’d grown up with, that he’d sold along with everything else. Which in hindsight had been a grief response and it might have been smarter to put some of the things into storage, but at the time all he’d wanted to do was put it behind him and move on.

Except he hadn’t.

And neither had Lynck. He’d come to the world to escape, but he was still bound by the past. What had Lynck said about shadows having a long reach?

Rox was sure that if he’d stayed in the apartment surrounded by the past and walked the same streets, he would’ve been consumed. He’d needed the time and space and thought he’d moved on, but perhaps that was impossible. Maybe when he pulled out her book and made his favorite meal, all the grief would rush back…his throat thickened at the idea.

Perhaps there’d always be something waiting to rise and remind him, and that was okay because he didn’t want to forget, but he didn’t want to feel so raw.

Mom wouldn’t want him to do anything but live.

She’d be happy that he had a proper job and a boyfriend, even if he was a monster. No doubt she would have loved talking to Lynck about music.

He placed his fingers on the keys the way he had so many times growing up. He didn’t remember the first time, but there were photos of him sitting in her lap when he was about six months old while she played. He must’ve been mashing the keys even back then.

He didn’t even remember when she started teaching him to play, but he remembered doing homework while she practiced, and then he’d play while she made dinner.

He let the weight drop onto middle C. That didn’t sound too bad. He should check if the piano was even in tune so that, if needed, it could be re-tuned. After so many months of not playing, he wasn’t sure how good his ear was anymore.

Maybe, if he couldn’t tell, it was good enough.

Slowly, he worked his way through C Major, listening to each key. The E in the top octave was off, he played it again. And then a different E.

“I think that one’s off.” He glanced over his shoulder to see Lynck wiping the tables and stacking the chairs.

“It is,” Lynck agreed.

“And the others?”

“They sounded fine to me, but I have learned that human ears prefer a slightly different tone to what I was used to, so I am not the best person to ask.”

“Huh…does that mean your violin is tuned differently?”

“It was at first. But I have adjusted it since. Though with the violin, it does not take much to adjust. I am about to start mopping, so you need to remain where you are until I am done because if you slip and fall, I will never hear the end of it from Thursten.”

“I’ll stay here.” He needed to check the black keys, anyway.

Just as slowly, he checked each one. Once again, it was the keys in the upper octave that were off. Perhaps the piano hadsustained a little damage from living in the cafe, or when being moved.

Lynck was still mopping. As he moved around, his hooves tapped, making their own rhythm. It was easy to forget he had them. And because he was so much taller, they never touched him in bed. Rox had been more worried about rolling onto Lynck’s tail or sleeping on his mane. There was a reason he kept his hair around shoulder length, and part of that was practicality. Long hair was a pain in the ass—though he’d tried for a bit, and he didn’t particularly like it when guys slept on it. If it was much longer, they thought it was an invitation to grab a handful.

Since he couldn’t escape because of the wet floor, he should play some scales to get a feel for the piano. Once his fingers remembered how to dance over the keys, the other scales came flooding back. He didn’t realize when Lynck finished working, only that when Rox stopped and looked around, Lynck was sitting and listening.

---