Page 148 of Crescendo

I was still glad when the plane landed, though. Even though it was Melinda and Natália, as always, here to pick us up at the airport, the two of them insufferably cute and happy together—IsupposeI could let them have it. Melinda had treated my daughter well so far, so pending literally anything I didn’t like, I couldn’t be too mad, even when Natália waspractically hanging off of her side when Ella and I turned the corner into the arrivals gate to find them there, the two of them giggling about something. Natália detached herself from Melinda and launched herself at us, giving me a crushing hug before turning to do the same with Ella.

“You’re home,” she gushed, already tearing up. “Aí, meu deus. Look at you! You’re married! Now I have two mothers!”

“Natália,” I said, “you already flew in to gush at our actual wedding and nearly ruin Ella’s dress by sobbing all over her, and I imagine you’re going to go sobbing all over her in a couple days at our wedding here, so can we not sob all over her again in the meantime?”

“Okay. I’ll sob all over you,” she said, turning and burying her face against me. I patted her head.

“Yeah, that’s fine…”

Melinda joined her to give me a fist-bump, never one for hugging. “Finally taking two seconds out of your busy schedule marrying doctors and leading great orchestras to come see your friends again, huh?”

“Don’t be too jealous of my glamorous lifestyle. I’ll ply you with ramen. Ella and I have been daydreaming of it the whole flight over and now that we’ve pulled an all-nighter in our time zone, ramen’s the only thing keeping us going.”

Natália immediately forgot her intention, squeezing Ella in another hug and sobbing all over her. Ella laughed, hugging her tightly. “I’m very glad to see you again, Natália. I did miss you in the five days since I saw you last.”

“That doesn’t count! That was off in London, where it’s rainy and miserable and sad! It’s been years since you were here back home!”

“It has been… six months. Same as it always is. But I suppose that’s just semantics.”

Natália wasn’t wrong, though—LA always felt so nostalgic when we got out of the airport and into the big open desert sky, a rare night of clean air letting us see the mountains peeking out in the distance as we picked up ramen from our favorite vegan spot and crashed back at our Santa Monica townhouse, all of it feeling like it was from years and years ago and not six months. Gathering around the kitchen table chattering and laughing together over wedding drama, hospital drama, orchestra drama, and Melinda’s and Natália’s lives—the wedding had been such a big deal that we’d barely had any time in the UK to talk about anything else, and it felt like there was years’ worth to catch up on in Natália gushing about the mentorship program now that she was the one mentoring an earnest, talented, but sometimes clueless French girl who wanted to learn from the legacy of Natália Torres, Ella Hendrickson, and Lydia Howard Fox—the legacy that had been behind the world-famous score ofThe Quiet Ones.

And Melinda, of course, as always when I was doing well, was in a career slump. Studio cuts had hit her team hard. But these things came and went, and two months from now she’d be on top of the world again, and she was doing a whole lot better than she used to when she was in a rut, which may or may not have had something to do with the way she still looked at Natália like the girl had hung the moon.

Even when the night was dwindling and Ella started to droop like she couldn’t stay standing much longer, Melinda was still alternating between flirting with Natália via eye contact and just gazing at her, and I sighed pointedly when I caught her in a quiet corner of the living room staring at Natália.

“Just ask her to marry you,” I said. “I can’t take any more of this dragging it out.”

She shot me a wild-eyed look. “Dude, you’ve been hovering over me for years like you still want to kill me for dating her, and now you want me to propose?”

“You’ve been thinking about it.”

“Ugh, c’mon, dude. Yes, I’ve been thinking about it. I’m happy for you and your wife, but I’m a little jealous, too.”

I laughed drily, leaning against the couch, shaking my head. “She’s going to say yes, you know,” I said. “She’s waiting for you to marry her and have kids together so that she can teach them ridiculous amounts of music and introduce me to them as their grandmother.”

“If we get married and you start referring to me as your daughter-in-law, I’m gonna kill you.”

“Then I’m all the more tempted to do it,” I said, giving her a playful shove. “She’s like a daughter to me because I love her and I want to make sure the world is good to her. And you’re good to her. So for god’s sake, just marry her already so I don’t have to worry about her moving on and finding somebody who’s not going to treat her as well as you do.”

She laughed, missing my gaze and looking down at the floor. “I, uh,” she said. “I’m not gonna do it while you’re having a wedding. You know, just to be considerate. But… I mean, damn, I’ve really fucking thought about it.”

“You know? I owe you one,” I said, letting my gaze drift to the window, out to the quiet of the back street at night. “Wouldn’t have ever gone to Crescendo without your help. Wouldn’t have married a beautiful woman and led a big, illustrious career together with her.”

“You’ve always had a hell of a career.”

“And greater giants have fallen harder,” I said. “I’m never going to take it for granted that I get to keep doing what I do. Either way, I’m giving you my daughter’s hand in marriage.”

“She literally isn’t your daughter, dude. You don’t even look anything alike.”

“Do you want to marry her, or not?”

“Okay! She’s your daughter. You literally gave birth to her. I’ll ask her to marry me so I can be your daughter-in-law. Jesus Christ, dude, you’re so weird.”

I really was, though. But it wasn’t like that was news.

∞∞∞

Ella and I had picked the biggest, most beautiful venue in the UK for a huge wedding that drew celebrities as well as friends and family, and no doubt—it had been the most incredible experience of my life. Getting to stand under the sunshine in the beautiful countryside setting, holding Ella’s hands, looking into those eyes that had done such a number on me over the years, and swearing to take her as my wife till death did us part, it was one of those moments that felt like it was writ large over the canon of the world.

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