“Horses have 205 bones in their body.”
The foot massage stalled. “Why do you know that?”
“I was big into horses as a kid. I still enjoy riding when I get the chance.”
“Okay, that counts then.” He continued rubbing her left foot, moving down to her heel, and somehow having his hands on her felt delightfully intimate, never mind that it was only her foot. Weren’t feet considered scandalous in Jane Austen’s time? “I meant something aboutyou, not horse anatomy.”
“Well, I told you both. Your turn.”
He was quiet a moment, then said, “I started playing piano when I was three. I got a few big books from my father’s study, stacked them on the bench, climbed up and started poking the keys.”
“And within a week you were playing ‘Fur Elise’ by ear.”
There was the low chuckle again. Claire smiled up at the ceiling to be the cause of it.
“Not ‘Fur Elise,’” he said after a moment. “’Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’”
She sat all the way up, and the motion drew her knees up and hid her feet under her gown. “At three years old.”
“Yeah.”
“Just that song? Or like, every little-kid song you knew?”
Tai passed a hand over his mouth, but he wasn’t really trying to hide his smile.
“You annoying genius!” She threw the pillow at him. “Every song you knew!”
“Music has always been my knack. Everybody has a knack, Claire.”
“When I was three years old, I was not winning dressage championships.”
Tai threw his head back as a deep laugh shook his chest. “And I wasn’t performing ‘Fur Elise,’ so don’t get mad at me if you’re going to compare apples and oranges.”
She shoved his arm, and he laughed again. She flopped back down to the couch and thrust her feet onto his lap.
“Other foot?” He grinned.
His teeth gleamed in the dimness of the room, and she hummed happily when he took her right foot between his hands. Gosh, they’d been sitting here for hours. They’d turned her well-worn break room couch into a make-out spot. Tai showed no inclination to leave, and Claire didn’t want him to.
“Do you have a favorite color?” she said.
“Sandstone and royal purple.”
Claire blinked. “Wow, that was decisive.”
“I like them best. You?”
She’d planned to keep it simple withgreen, but if he could get specific, so could she. “Cool greens. Not lime or avocado. I like jade, shamrock, shades of a forest. Oh! I know one. What’s your middle name?”
Tai gave a sigh of longsuffering that rivaled the drama of a sleepy toddler.
“What?” Claire nudged her toes into his palm. “Is it awful?”
“It’s Aksel.”
She spluttered a laugh, and he gave an even more dramatic reprise of the sigh. “You mean like Axl Rose? Are you serious, Tai?”
“Not like Axl Rose. A-K-S-E-L.”
