Page 65 of Echoes of a Silent Song
“Mmph,” Blair said again.
“I expect a full report at the end of the day” came Joy’s cheerful farewell.
Good thing Joy could be cheerful.Blair’s stomach knotted.Did she want Callum to bring it up?Did she want him to ignore things like he had after homecoming?Was he still angry?Was she?
She sighed and slipped through the door into the hallway that led to the choir room.
Some days there just wasn’t enough coffee in the whole entire world.
The chair creaked beneath Callum’s weight as he polished off the last of his emails and leaned back.Three hours.That was how long it had taken to get through everything he’d been ignoring.At least he’d found a silver lining to not having been able to sleep, finally giving up, and coming into the office at four in the morning.
It was his own fault, of course.He shouldn’t have kissed Blair.He shouldn’t have done a lot of things he did last night.
But their fight wasn’t entirely his fault.She had been ...unreasonable.Yes, that was it.Unreasonable.The perfect way to describe her.And she’d been that way since the moment he’d met her, when she’d looked him up and down and decided, in a single glance, that he didn’t measure up.Doubtless all his predecessors since Vic had received the same look.Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that nobody lasted long at Peterson.
No, that was unfair.Their reasons for departure—childbirth, a job in their hometown, a messy divorce, et cetera—had been legitimate.Blair likely had nothing to do with them.All the same, he had nevermet someone so stuck in their ways, so resistant to change.Since August she’d ranted and raved about how they needed someone who cared about the kids.And he did.Far more than he’d ever planned on or wanted to admit.
He thought she’d have been happy about that.But no, she wasn’t, because he was pushing them, and God forbid anyone get pushed out of their comfort zoneever.He’d reached his wit’s end with her.
Or so he’d thought.
But then he’d asked what she wanted, and she turned those big brown eyes and those full pink lips toward him, and that single moment of helplessness, of vulnerability, made it clear she had locked far more inside her than he knew.
Had he wondered what lay beneath that icy exterior?Well, now he knew.Pure fire.A volcano had erupted between them, and in a split second there were hands and lips and he was melting ...
And then Blair had pulled back and stared at him like a frightened wild animal.A second later she’d slipped backstage and out the door, vanished as though she’d never been there at all.
Last time he checked, when someone was happy about being kissed, they didn’t flee the scene without a word.They didn’t turn their phone off and ignore their texts and send all their calls straight to voicemail.
So regardless of who’d started their latest argument, he needed to apologize.With any luck at all, they would put it behind them and go back to life as usual—their tentative truce, their unpredictable partnership.
Yeah.And maybe unicorns would fly into the choir room and deposit rainbows and lollipops and tenors who sang in tune.
God, I’ve made a mess of things.Again.And once more, I find myself desperately in need of your help.If you could send some my way, anything at all, I’d—
The door cut his prayer short, and there stood Blair.She wore a white wool coat he’d never seen before, one that made her hair shine like fire.
“Morning.”She swept past him without making eye contact.
“Morning.”He watched her enter the office, hang her coat on the hook inside the door, and turn toward her desk.Any second now she’dfind the cardboard cup from Teddy’s, because a few minutes ago he’d celebrated being almost through his emails with a coffee-and-breakfast run and had grabbed a cup for her.
Apologies always went better with coffee.
Sure enough, she emerged from the office, coffee in hand.“You brought coffee?”
“Think of it as a caffeinated apology.”He offered a hopeful smile.“I’m sorry about last night.”
She lifted the coffee halfway to her lips, her expression maddeningly unreadable.“Are you sorry for the concert?Or the ...after-concert part?”
Both.And yet ...neither.The first piece had needed a faster tempo, and he hadn’t realized it until just before the concert.I’m sorry for taking a calculated risk?I’m sorry for thinking these kids were better singers than they are?I’m sorry for caring about them in a way you disagree with?No, he couldn’t say that.
I’m sorry for kissing you?Couldn’t say that either.Not without lying through his teeth.
“I’m sorry I hurt you.”
She tilted her head to the side.“I wasn’t hurt.I was angry.”
“As was I.And I’m apologizing for expressing that anger in a less-than-professional way.”
