“What’s this for?” she asked
“Dinner.” He said the word slowly, like he was testing it out. When it came out perfectly, he grinned. It reminded her of when her son struggled to do something and was pleased when he succeeded.
Ezreal was so cute.
“Is it all right to share some of this with my student?” When Ezreal nodded, she went to the entrance to the living room. “Ryan, would you like some pizza?”
“Yeah. Sure.” He hopped from the piano bench and hurried into the kitchen.
Ezreal had opened the box and placed some paper plates on the table.
“Help yourself,” he said to Ryan.
“Thanks.”
While the boy selected a large piece, Sara considered the blond man. Since their trip to look at wallpaper, she’d been thinking about his sudden breakthrough. He’d shown he could speak fine to children he’d just met and, evidently, to teens. It seemed like he’d almost overcome the triggers for his stuttering. She’d only seen him interact with Rafe, and that had seemed a normal exchange. Was it just unfamiliar adults? Or adultwomen? Thinking back on the day she’d met him, she couldn’t recall if he’d spoken to Ahri.
Francie would have some answers. Sara had already looked up REKD Gaming online. There were plenty of pictures of the four Billionaire Boys as the press had labeled them. Francie’s son Rafe seemed to be the main spokesman which made sense as he was their CEO. Sara hadn’t been able to find a single interview where Ezreal had spoken. She didn’t know if his comments had been cut or if he hadn’t made any. The latter seemed most likely.
He handed Sara a plate and nodded toward the pizza. She accepted it.
“I suppose I should introduce you to each other,” Sara said, taking a slice. “Ryan LeBlanc, this is Ezreal Wallach. Your father works for his company.”
The boy choked on his food and had a coughing fit. Ezreal patted Ryan on the back.
“Aren’t you the one over music?”
Ezreal nodded.
An idea occurred to Sara. Since he would be helping her with the group lessons, it might be interesting to see him at work during one.
“Ryan is just finishing up his session today,” she said, “and he was expressing some dissatisfaction with my choice of practice music. Would you have some suggestions for pieces he might enjoy playing?”
“An important thing to remember about teenagers,” Ezreal said, “is that modern technology seems to hardwire them to learn a lot faster. We’ve been conditioned to expect rapid and immediate gratification. That can make it harder for kids to focus.” Ezreal glanced at Sara but his gaze almost immediately darted back to the young man. “There’s also a difference between how boys and girls learn. Unfortunately, most methods for teaching piano haven’t changed much over the years.”
Sara knew some of this but she hadn’t thought about it in terms of her music lessons one-on-one.
“You get bored easy, don’t you?” Ezreal asked.
“Yeah. My dad complains about it all the time.”
“Do you like to play video games?” Ezreal’s expression turned thoughtful. “I’ll bet you’d handle practicing better if you had short-term goals to work on.”
“Maybe.” Ryan glanced at the pizza.
“The kids are staying the night at the Diederiks’,” Sara said.
“Take all you want then, Ryan,” Ezreal said. “I’ve had my fill. Just leave some for Sara.”
“I’m good too, so feel free to finish it up.” She glanced at him, surprised at his unexpected concern for her. It was something her ex had never shown, even when they were dating.
“Now,” Ezreal said, as though warming to the subject, “one of the reasons for practicing drills is for the muscle memory. It takes time and repetition to build those synapses in the brain, and it can be boring as heck even for music geeks like me. The key is to find fun ways to do the repetition without actively thinking about it.”
“How can it be fun to play the same things over and over again?” Ryan heaved out a breath, his expression disbelieving. “It’s killing me.”
“There are some games out there that help, but the ones I’ve seen are geared toward young kids or lower level skills. Sara said you’re a gifted pianist.”
The boy blushed and glanced at her, and she nodded. “I’ve not just been saying that.”
