Page 40 of Echoes of a Silent Song

But it wasn’t my pencil.My lead was intact.

Victor’s wasn’t, though.The pencil was broken in two.Snapped in half.In anger?Frustration?

“Victor?”I sought his gaze.“Are you okay?”

He looked up, his eyes like twin flames.Despite their heat, a chill shot through me.

“Victor?”

“I’m fine.”And as quickly as it had appeared, the anger vanished.His eyes became placid again, like the lake behind my grandparents’ farmhouse.

“Theory going okay?”

“Yes, until I got distracted.”

His gaze was pointed, and I blinked.“Distracted?”

“You were humming,” he replied.“And I don’t think it was from our theory assignment.”

“It wasn’t.”A smile pushed at my cheeks.“I got a new idea.One I thinkmight actually be something.I’m setting a text from Song of Songs.I am my beloved’s, and—”

“But you distracted me.”His voice cut like a knife, and my joy tumbled back down into my heart.

“I’m sorry, Victor.”I reached for his hand, balled up in a white-knuckled fist.“I’m so sorry.I didn’t mean to.I had no idea I was even humming anything.”

He placed his other hand on top of mine.“It’s all right ...beloved.”Color bloomed in his cheeks, and his smile carved a deep parenthesis in the left side of his mouth.

Beloved.He called mebeloved.

Was that an accident?

No.It was on purpose.I could tell by the look in his eyes.I’d never seen that expression before, not from anyone, but it left no mystery.He’d used the word on purpose.He’d received my message.And from the way he leaned across the table toward me, it seemed like he intended to send one of his own.

Time slowed to a near crawl.A good thing, because I needed to remember this moment.In a couple of seconds, Victor’s lips would be on mine, and I would know what it was like to be kissed.And kissed by him.

I was thrilled.Scared.Self-conscious.

And most of all, deeply aware that this moment would define the rest of my life.This moment would tear the curtain between before and after.

Because this, right now, was the last moment before my first kiss with Victor.

His lips brushed mine.Soft at first.Tentative, as though asking permission.But when I granted it, he pressed his mouth more firmly against mine.His hands slipped behind my neck and into my hair.I tilted my head to the right.Was that what I was supposed to do?It must have been.And moving my lips against his ...that must’ve been the right thing to do too.

A full choir burst into song in the center of my chest.

I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.

And ...I needed to write it down.Now.In the magic of this moment, before I forgot this wonderful sparkly, soaring feeling.

I pulled back.

Victor frowned.“Did I do something wrong?”

“No.Quite the opposite.”I beamed at him and picked up my pencil.“You inspired me.”

“I did?”

“Yes.”The pencil raced across my paper.Sopranos here ...altos here ...yes.This was exactly it.Exactly right.Exactly what I heard.What I felt.What my heart wanted to say.