Page 4 of To Believe In You
“Not important since you are who you are.” He folded his hands on the counter. The movement interwove the words spelled on the backs of his fingers. Love and hate. As if the jury were still out on how he felt about her. “What can I do for Awestruck’s social media manager?”
“I’m not here for Awestruck. That role’s part-time. I also accepted a position with the non-profit Adeline Green is setting up—In the Key of Hope Music Lessons.” The music studio, funded by the band and directed by the lead singer’s fiancée, Adeline, would offer kids from low-income families the opportunity to learn an instrument once it was up and running. “You’re familiar with it?”
Matt nodded. “Didn’t you live out east or something? You moved to Lakeshore?”
“All the cool kids were doing it.”
Matt would know she meant Awestruck. Gannon had talked his bandmates into moving to small-town Wisconsin so he could live near Adeline. Mattwouldn’tknow that, while Gannon had moved toward love, Lina had relocated to escape it. Or, rather, to escape the wreckage of her own love story.
She had yet to find the fresh start she longed for.Insteadshaunted her life in Wisconsin, as they had in New York. Instead of married, she remained single. Instead of cooking for two, she cooked for one. Instead of eagerly awaiting her own turn to have a baby, she stayed busy lining up instructors to teach music to other people’s kids.
If those students were the only children she could look out for, she’d ensure they got the very best from Key of Hope. She would supervise Matt closely if he took the position. And she wouldn’t let his silence fluster her into spilling personal details. She focused on business. “Adeline wants the freedom to travel with Awestruck after she and Gannon get married. So, she hired me to work on-site, managing the day-to-day at Key of Hope.”
“Quite a change.”
“You’re one to talk.”
This time he didn’t flinch. When he wasn’t strung out on drugs, he was actually good-looking. Somehow, both mischievous and dashing at the same time. He’d look killer in a tux.
But the pictures and clips she could recall of him dressed for awards shows or benefit galas involved stumbling, slurring, or worse.
Tim was convinced Matt would stick to the twelve-step program.
Lina would believe it when she saw it.
Maybe.
People could be awfully good at hiding dark secrets.
Anotherinstead: Instead of her naïve, trusting nature, she’d become a skeptic.
“What brings you here?” he asked.
She drew a deep breath. Not every man was Shane, and because she wasn’t as naïve as she used to be, she would take the necessary precautions to ensure Matt did no harm to any of the kids enrolled at Key of Hope. She could do this. She had to do this.
“It turns out when a famous band moves to an area, a lot of kids discover a new interest in music—especially guitar, bass, and drums. If we don’t get more teachers, we’re going to have to turn some students away.”
His cheek twitched, and the corners of his mouth rose. “You want me to teach?”
* * *
Matt’s shin stung,and the moisture cooling his ankle had to be from blood seeping into his sock. He resisted checking. Watching Lina squirm was infinitely more fun than giving her another reason to look down her pert little nose.
From her milky skin—she either used a lot of sunscreen or didn’t get out much—to her flouncy sky blue top to her pointy-toed shoes, she hadhigh maintenancewritten all over her. She wore subdued makeup, her lips only a shade too dark and glossy to be natural.
Her curls were what mesmerized him, though. He’d seen tight curls and loose waves, but not Lina’s texture of … big curls? Frizz-free and soft-looking, her hair fell in thick swoops to her collarbone.
“Our program got a lot of applicants.” Indents around her fingertips showed how hard she gripped her arm.
This one was wound up tighter than all those blond curls.
“You want me to teach.” He’d like to hear her say it, since she’d been shedding judgmental vibes since she’d waltzed across the lot.
She smiled—he didn’t buy it—and nodded. “It’s part-time, but Tim said if you’d come, he’d work out housing for you—”
“Can’t.”
His interruption earned him the death stare.
