“Don’t faint,” Eric called up to him.
Barrett set me on a stool. “We need you, Kit, so you’re not allowed to go anywhere. Okay? How would we function without you? I’m serious about that.”
“I know you have things to say to me, Barrett. If you want to, I am not moving right now.”
A siren sounded in the distance.
Barrett gave a short, trembling laugh, the kind that held back tears. His hand was on my shoulder. “Good. Because you’re not off the hook yet but I am not going to do this with you right now. I am going to major in whatever I want. You are just going to have to deal with that.”
“Sorry to be this person right now, but should we hide this body?” Jeremy called out. “Or are we telling the police we killed someone?”
“Let me worry about the police.” Stephen shook his head. “Daniel and I will handle it. Nothing will happen because of this. Making crises go away is something I’m good at. Even if it’s usually Kit’s foray.”
He laughed, the sound full of pain. “At least you are all willing to admit I am good at something.”
“Lots of things.” Rosalind kissed his cheek. “Many, many things.”
I hoped he was right because the ambulance was here.
The guys couldn’t lose Kit. Their family dynamics didn’t always make sense to me but that much I understood. They loved each other.
After so much chaos,the house seemed too quiet. Barrett and I stared at the blood stains on the floor. “We should try to get it out.”
“I think there are companies that could do this for us.” Barrett sighed. “I know how that sounds. I’m doing my favorite rich boy thing again, but I really, really don’t want to scrub the floor right now. I just don’t.”
“What do you want to do?” I stared at him. I shivered. Maybe he was right. We shouldn’t be scrubbing anything.
He tugged on the end of my hair. “Feel okay to sit up for a while?”
“I am standing, so I think I must be able to sit.” I shook my head. “I think I might have actually reached a point where I’m not even noticing how sick I am.”
Barrett walked me over to the piano. He sat down on the bench, his legs spread. “Come sit here. Almost like you’re on my lap. I want to play music and not think about today. I want to play you the song I’ve been writing for you while you sit here with me. And then you are going to drink some bubbly sweet soda and go lie down. Sound okay?”
I did as he said, leaning against his chest. My breath was short but not from sickness. “Are you serious? You wrote me a song?”
“It’s probably terrible. But yes.”
He flexed his fingers above the keys, pausing for a moment as if letting the silence fill up with possibility. The first note was soft, uncertain, like a question he didn’t know how to ask out loud. I closed my eyes and let the music wrap around me, the melody meandering at first, then blooming into something gentle and bright.
Barrett’s chin brushed my hair, and I could feel the vibration of the piano in his chest. For a little while, the world shrank down to just the notes he played and the warmth of his arms around me. He played with more confidence as he went, the song shifting from hesitant to hopeful, from apology to something like love.
When he stopped, the absence of the music left my heart aching. The weight of the day pressed in again, but softer now, blurred around the edges by something beautiful. I turned enough to look at him, my voice barely above a whisper. “That was not terrible.”
He let out a shaky laugh. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I said, the word lingering between us, holding back everything else I was too tired to say. Finally, I found my voice. “I loved every second of it.”
We sat there for a minute, listening to the echo linger, and I let myself believe, just for tonight, that the song could hold us together after the day we’d just had.
The door opened and Phoenix came in. He had left with the twins to go see Kit in the hospital. As I was running fever it was just better that I not go and possibly infect anyone in there.
He walked toward us. “What was that? I could hear it outside.”
I smiled up at him. “Something Barrett wrote for me.”
“Amazing.” Phoenix dropped down into a chair. “It’s beautiful.”
“Thank you. How is Kit?” Phoenix kissed the back of my neck.
