Page 27 of Not Another Love Song

As they approached the chorus, the lines came together and they played the melody in harmony. The tension in her shoulders was traveling down her arms, affecting her grip and the way she moved the bow. Gwen lifted her eyes to him.

His gaze slid over her fingers, up her arm to her neck. She could almost feel it on her skin. When his eyes met hers, he held her there, and she felt pinned. He was focused, as though trying to solve an equation.

Gwen’s stomach twisted. She wished she were playing better in front of him. She tried to roll her shoulders back, working to release the tension mid-song, but it just wrecked her concentration.

By the time “Marry You” was done, she felt like crying. She had gotten worse and worse, tighter and tighter, the longer it went on.

She reached forward and turned the page, ready to start “Unchained Melody.” There were two early guests sitting in the chairs, smiling over at them. Gwen gave a small grin back, and turned to Xander. “Ready?”

He was staring at her like she was a dead fish that had washed up on his perfect, white sand beach. And she felt like exactly that. His lips parted to say something, ask something, but then he stopped himself and narrowed his eyes at her. “Yes.”

Gwen took a deep breath. She was first chair. They’d given her first chair. She’d earned this over him. No matter what he thought of her.

She cued him for “Unchained Melody.” They’d start together, and then he’d take over the broken chords, finger-picking the cello like a stand-up bass as she took melody. Gwen tried to breathe. She did marginally better, but she still felt like an amateur playing next to a Stradivarius. And that was exactly what she was.

When they concluded the piece, there were seven more people in the chairs. Ama gave her a happy thumbs-up.

She could feel his gaze on her as she turned the page. The next song was “We Found Love” by Rihanna. “Ready?”

When he didn’t respond, she chanced a glance at him.

His eyes were still narrowed at her. Suddenly he reached out, grabbing her sheet music.

“Let’s trade.”

Gwen’s mouth dropped open. “Trade? What do you mean?”

He plopped her violin music in front of himself, and stretched to drop his cello music on her music stand.

“You know how to transpose by sight,” he said.

“That—that doesn’t mean I want to,” she hissed, trying not to catch the attention of the group of guests entering.

“It’ll be fun,” he said with a smirk, and her pulse raced at the sight of it.

Gwen searched for Ama, like she would swoop in and save her from this colossally bad idea.

Xander counted her in. She had seconds to understand the quick rhythms and places where the cello would normally support the violin melody.

Her bow lifted, and she followed his cello line, turning off her brain and letting herself play. He joined her in two measures on what should have been her violin line, yellow diamonds in the sky.

Her eyes moved over the page, following the notes, her brain unable to do anything else. She echoed him at one point, and the only thing she could think was, This is gorgeous.

The cello line—her, on violin—was supposed to take the section in the song where the techno beat lifts, the part that you jump to in clubs—if Gwen were the kind of person that went to clubs. The bow danced over her violin, climbing the scale. She had no idea what she was doing, but she knew this song.

She looked up, and Xander, forgoing the sheet music altogether, was focused on her. He was under her, shivering through the same lift. His lips were parted, and his breath was shallow. It was the closest she’d been to him as he played like Xander Thorne, bow strings breaking, strong body moving quickly to the beat.

She watched as his eyes dropped to her mouth.

They spun into the chorus again, and she didn’t need the sheet music anymore. The song was repetitive in that way that danceable pop songs were. She followed his lead, and he followed hers. Gwen didn’t need to show off, she just needed to keep playing like this.

Like it was water, flowing through her.

After another verse and chorus, Xander nodded at her, and they slid their bows together to an ending.

Every hair on her body stood on end. A breeze rippled across her, and she felt the cherry blossoms land against her skin like a kiss.

And she held Xander’s eyes.

---