Page 8 of Share with Me

Chapter Three

Ivan McMillan wasn’t entirelycertain what had transpired. He hadn’t intended to playAirfor Brinley Brooks. He and Petrocelli had planned the three-and-a-half minute movement as an interstice to give the rest of the orchestra a break.

But she had walked into his line of sight at that moment.

Our moment.

Was it possible for something like this to happen? If so, why now? He had met Brinley the year before. Between then and now, nothing had happened. No connection, no circumstances, no calling to bring them together. Obviously, they had lived in different worlds.

They still lived in different worlds.

Ivan reached for his beard but it wasn’t there.

Oh yeah. I shaved it off this morning.

His eyes found Brinley again. She was sitting next to Grandma Yun at the Brooks family table. She had a somewhat understated beauty about her and a face so pleasant to look at that all Ivan could think about were breezy summer days—

Tap! Tap!

Ivan heard a throat clearing and more taps.

What?

Ivan looked up. Conductor Petrocelli inhaled noisily and his eyes shot him darts of “I will fire you” as his right hand tapped his baton so hard on the music stand that Ivan thought the man’s favorite control stick was going to break in two.

Ivan snapped to attention. Any misstep and Petrocelli would yank that concertmaster chair out from under him. He needed this job. Between his SISO first violin and concertmaster salaries and his music studio income, he was barely able to support himself and Grandma and pay off all those debts, let alone find a girlfriend to—

Girlfriend?

Nah.

He couldn’t help looking at her, though. Brinley was talking to Grandma Yun, who looked a bit tired. It had been a mistake to drag the nonagenarian to this dinner party. He had thought Grandma might enjoy some free food, spend some time with her two grandsons, and listen to him play in SISO.

Grandma hardly ever got out of the house these days except to go to church and the doctor’s. Doing things cost money that they didn’t have, and Grandma would rather they put every penny toward paying off the three mortgages that Grandpa Otto had left them and those remaining medical bills from her hip replacement.

Yet looking at Grandma in that straight-back chair put a strain on Ivan’s shoulders in that tight thrift shop tuxedo jacket he was wearing, as if he should take Grandma home right away so she could be more comfortable in her rocker. Unfortunately, he knew he couldn’t leave. The dinner party for Quincy’s girlfriend wouldn’t end for a couple more hours though Quincy had promised to take Grandma home at nine o’clock before the after-party began.

Ivan prayed to God that Grandma would last another two hours. She’d been there with him since six o’clock when SISO gathered for a preconcert warmup. Grandma had graciously sat through the rehearsal, a smile on her face the entire time.

She still wore that sweet smile as she chatted with Brinley.

Brinley, who had stood there rooted to the carpet when he playedAir on the G String.

He could play it again and again for her the rest of his—

What am I thinking?

It can never be.

Two different worlds, remember? Even here, the situation was clear. Across from Grandma at the table, the parents of the birthday girl held court, a steady stream of people stopping by to hug them or shake their hands. All of coastal Georgia probably knew them for their generosity to the communities but also for their historical preservation efforts, not to mention their underwriting SISO. It was all chump change to them, probably, as was this guest cottage.

Only a guest cottage. Imagine that.

These people have money coming out of their ears.

He wondered what could happen to the Brooks family now that his brother, Quincy, was dating one of their daughters. Quincy wasn’t exactly the epitome of steady income-producing men. He’d gone from job to job, from being a roofer to a student and now a hairstylist.

It was Ivan’s fault, really, that Zoe somehow ended up with his brother. Some months before, Zoe had fired her hairstylist. Ivan happened to mention that his older brother was a hairstylist. Next thing he knew, Quincy was jet-setting around the world with Zoe, her money tap flowing non-stop.

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