Page 7 of Hideaway


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“I’m Rebecca. Are you from around here?”

“Taylor, and yes. You?”

“Just in town for the weekend,” Rebecca told me.

“Ah.” I sipped my cider. Rebecca was pretty, although not exactly my type with her trendy dress and long, red-painted nails. She looked like she’d never hiked a day in her life. But when I glanced to the left, I saw Phoebe watching me from the stage, and it gave me an absurd thrill to let her watch me flirt with someone else. “Where are you from, Rebecca?”

5

Phoebe

I lowered my gaze to the sheet music in front of me. For the last hour, Taylor had been deep in conversation—a very flirty conversation, if looks were any indication—with a blonde at the bar. Was she Taylor’s girlfriend? It was none of my business, of course. I didn’t have feelings for Taylor anymore. I’d gotten over her years ago, and my heart was still bruised from losing Sabrina. Still, I was curious.

As I sang my way through a Taylor Swift favorite, I found my attention drifting to the other Taylor, watching her talk to the blonde. An off-key note twanged from the piano, refocusing my attention on the music. My piano skills were rusty at best, despite a day spent practicing on my Grandma’s piano.

When the song ended, I heard a smattering of applause and even a few whistles from the bar’s patrons. I wasn’t sure whether they were just being polite, but at least they weren’t booing me. Tanner Reid, the manager of Vino and Veritas, had given me a trial run tonight before making me a more permanent part of the lineup…or as permanent as I could be, given that I was only in town for a month or so.

Apparently, they were short on musicians at the moment, so if tonight went well, I might have a recurring gig for as long as I was in Burlington. It could be just the distraction I needed while I was here. Sitting at this piano, singing some of my favorite songs, I felt something inside me come alive, the creative part of my soul that I’d buried deep beneath job and family obligations, number crunching, and a busy social calendar. The keys were smooth and solid beneath my fingers, familiar and comforting like an old friend.

I finished my set and stood, receiving another round of applause. The bar was a lot more crowded than it had been when I started playing, a fact I was glad I hadn’t noticed until now. I smiled and thanked the people who’d been listening to me play, before making my way to the bar to check in with Tanner.

“Nice job tonight,” he said. “You played well, and the crowd seemed to like you. I’ve got a couple of openings on the schedule over the next month or so that you could fill for us if you’re interested. I’ll email you with the details.”

“Thank you,” I told him. “I’d like that.”

I rested an elbow on the bar, trying to decide whether to stay for a drink before I headed home. The stool beside Taylor was empty now. The blonde had either left or gone to talk to someone else. And that made my decision for me, because there were a few things I needed to say. I walked over to stand beside the empty stool. “Do you mind?”

Taylor turned to look at me, her eyes widening slightly. She gestured to the stool. “Go ahead.”

I slid onto it and reached for a drink menu. I ordered a glass of chardonnay, then sat quietly as I waited for my drink to arrive. The bar around us buzzed with laughter and conversation, except for our little bubble of silence. I didn’t want it to be this way between us. This was my fault, but hopefully, I could fix it.

Once I had my wine in hand, I took a fortifying sip. “I want to apologize for the way I handled our conversation on Wednesday. I wasn’t expecting to see you, and I think I came off harsher than I intended.”

“You think?” Taylor lifted her drink, shoulders tense. She had on snug-fitting jeans and a black T-shirt that hugged her curves. She had more of those than she did in high school, a woman’s body, where before, she’d been a gangly teenager.

“You can still bring your dogs to hike on my grandma’s land, at least until we start renting it out,” I told her. “In fact, I hope you will. I’m sorry for being rude the other day.”

“Okay,” Taylor said, staring at her drink instead of at me. “Thank you.”

“I guess I didn’t know you and my grandma were so close.” It had been bothering me since that afternoon. In fact, it was one of the reasons I’d been short with her. It had caught me off guard to realize Taylor still hiked here, that she’d been keeping up the property, that she’d even hoped to buy it.

“I’m surprised she never told you.” Taylor did look at me then. The lighting in the bar caught her hazel eyes, making them dance with a myriad of colors.

“I am too,” I admitted.

“She talked about you all the time.”

I smiled into my wine. “I was her only granddaughter, after all.”

“You didn’t visit very often,” Taylor said, and my smile fell flat.

“I came as often as I could, but my job kept me in Boston most of the time. After Grandma retired, she came down and stayed with my dad from Thanksgiving until Christmas every year, so I guess I saw her more in Massachusetts than here in Vermont.”

“I just wondered,” Taylor persisted, “why you’re here for a month now but never managed it while she was still alive?”

“Forgot how nosy you are,” I said, swirling my wine so that it caught the light.

Taylor laughed. “You got me. Some things never change.”