Page 46 of Echoes of a Silent Song

“Hi.”He sounded froggy, so he cleared his throat and tried again.“Hi.You look ...incredible.”

“Thank you.”The delicate flush deepened.“You, uh ...you look like your headshot.”

He flashed what he hoped was a devil-may-care grin.“That a good thing or a bad thing?”

She paused, lips pursed in thought.“Yes.”

“Okay.”Joy’s voice was way perkier than it needed to be.“I just spied one of my bass players twerking, so I gotta go put a stop to that.You kids have fun.”She leaned in close to Blair and said something he couldn’t make out, then bustled across the commons.

He had an odd feeling that there was no actual twerking going on, but he wasn’t inclined to investigate that too closely.

“Wow, Ms.Em.Lookinggood.”Thalia swept by on the arm of Ryden, a junior bass from Mixed Chorus.

“Thank you.”Blair turned, then indicated Thalia’s dress, a frothy lavender creation festooned with flowers.“And oh my goodness, Thalia, that dress isamazing.You look just like Rapunzel.”

“That’s the goal.”Thalia chattered on, something about sewing on the flowers herself, but her words went in one ear and out the other, because he was still too focused on Blair.

After a moment, Thalia and Ryden departed, waving at someone across the room.

“Have fun tonight,” Blair called.

“Don’t be idiots,” Callum echoed, with what fragment of his brain remained a teacher.

Blair turned back to him, her eyes sparkling like diamonds.“I’m guessing you never had to do anything like this in Boston.”

“Wear this?”He indicated his tux.“Dozens of times.Wear it in a crowded commons full of hormone-crazed high schoolers?Shockingly, no.Not once.”

Blair chuckled, and the sound hit him square in the solar plexus.

“I, uh ...I didn’t know you had a tattoo,” he ventured.

“A moment of youthful abandon in college.My piano trio all got matching tattoos after a recital.”She glanced over his shoulder toward the refreshments table.“Have you tried the punch?Camilla was bragging about some secret recipe.”

He shrugged.“Meh.Tastes like one of those foil-packed juice boxes from grade school.”

“Mmm.Tempting.”She grinned at him.“I’ll probably wait until later, then.Savor the anticipation.”

“You actually liked those?”

Her grin widened.“Not even a little bit.”

Had she been trying to set him at ease?Well, whether that was her goal or not, she’d succeeded.He wasn’t relaxed—not with her right here, looking like that—but he could at least remember that beneath the bronze dress and the makeup and the piled-up curls, this was still his sometimes-prickly, always-exacting, frequently-annoying-yet-somehow-enchanting coworker.His ...well, his friend.They were friends now, right?

The song shifted to a much slower tempo, and before he could consider the wisdom of the idea, he’d opened his arms to Blair.“Care to dance?”

“Dance?”Long dark lashes blinked at his suggestion.

“It is, after all, a dance.”

“Which we are supposed to be chaperoning.”

“Exactly.”He smiled.“What better way to blend in and be unobtrusive?Besides, this way we can both have eyes on these little heathens.”

She nodded.“Yes.Great idea.For the kids.”

“For the kids.”

Then Blair stepped into his arms.His left hand found her right, her cheek grazed his, and she smelled like vanilla and cinnamon and everything else wonderful about fall.He wrapped his free hand around her waist.Too late, he realized her dress was basically backless, so half his fingers were grazing bare, silken skin.He should probably move his hand, but where could he move it so it wasn’t awkward—or worse,indecent?Clearly he was overthinking this, and he should relax and enjoy, but he couldn’t.Because right now he held Blair Emerson in his arms.Suddenly his world made all kinds of sense and no sense at all.