I couldn’t stop the tears in time. Squeezing my eyes shut didn’t help; they still streaked down my cheeks.Please don’t notice.I tried to make myself very still, turned my head to the side to swipe under my eyes. But the piano sonata abruptly ended.
“Oh God, I’m sorry,” I told him.
He turned his body toward mine and cupped my cheek with his hand. I tried to turn my face into it and hide, but he wouldn’t let me. “Whoa, talk to me. You’re killing my ego. I thought you’d like it. I know I said it scared my teacher, but I wasn’t trying to scare you.”
“It’s fucking brilliant,” I said, growling in frustration as another tear slid free. “You are a… thing. That thing. Your sister said you were. A genius. Dammit!”
He didn’t offer word help. “I’ve been playing since I was six, so it’s not like I just picked it up overnight or anything. I’m not a genius.”
“You’re amazing, and that was… Please keep playing.”
“Um, no.”
“I ruined it, I’m sorry. Who’s the Ruiner now, huh?”
He gave me a soft smile and wiped under my eye with his thumb. “Nah, it’s a ruinous piece. Super emo.”
“You’reso good. Way too good for me.”
His eyes narrowed. “Fuck that. No… are you serious? Jane, come on. Is that what this is about?”
“I’m a minimum-wage domestic. So is my dad. So was my mom. I’m the Help.”
“Who cares?”
“I do. Because I realized tonight that Mad Dog did sleep with my mom, okay?”
He blinked at me.
I exhaled a hard breath. “I’m not even that upset about it. In the end, it doesn’t change anything. My dad is my dad. He raised me and loves me. Mad Dog is…” I searched for the right word.
“A chiller version ofmydad?”
“They’re the same,” I agreed. “Your dad didn’t just kick you out, did he? You wanted to leave.”
“I couldn’t stay in that house a minute longer with him,” he said, running his fingertips around my hairline as he studied my face. “If I didn’t have my aunts, I don’t know where I’d be.”
But he did. And that was the difference between us. He had a support system. People who cared about him. A car. A roof over his head. A job. A mother who would do anything for him. And he also had an incredible talent.
“You aren’t the bad seed,” I told him. “That’s what Eddie told me about you, but it was just another lie. You are actually the golden boy.”
His fingers stilled at my temple. “Um…?”
“I’m not at your level. You should be dating… someone from Juilliard or something.”
“You’ve really lost it. I can’t even respond to that.”
“Fen—”
A strange look came over him. “Holy shit.”
“What?”
He scrunched up eyes, then his shoulders relaxed as he gazed down at me, smiling softly. “You just implied that we’re dating.”
I sagged. “Oh God.”
“Are we?” he asked. “Because if we are…”
