Page 80 of Echoes of a Silent Song

Callum glanced at her with some surprise, then turned back to Derek.“Nice meeting you.”

“Oh, the pleasure’s all mine,” Derek replied.“Could I get your contact info?”

“Google my name.My info is right there on my website.”Without waiting for another word, Callum turned away, hand in hand with Blair, and steered her toward the exit.

“Are you okay?”he asked.

“I am.”She stepped out of the lobby and breathed deep of the clean, crisp autumn air.“Better than I have been in a long time.”

This.Right here.This was where her hand belonged.This was why it hadn’t worked out with Derek.This was why she’d stayed so long in Peterson.

God had just been moving pieces into place.

Callum stood there beneath a streetlamp, people streaming past, the lights from a passing bus illuminating his jacket.He had never been more handsome.Things had never felt so right.

“What?”A slight frown creased dark brows.

She took both his hands in hers.“All these years I’ve wondered what would happen if I saw Derek again.I wondered what I’d feel, what he’d say, what I’d say ...but never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d feel absolutely nothing.”

Callum nodded slowly.“Nothing, huh?”

“Nope.Not a thing in the world.”

Cautious hope flickered in his eyes.“What do you think that means?”

She stroked the back of his hand with her thumb.“I think it means I’m truly over it and maybe, just maybe, ready to let someone else into my heart.”

A grin tugged at the corners of his lips.“Oh?Did you have someone in mind?”

In response, she stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him.

Unlike their first kiss, this one wasn’t the result of Sturm und Drang.This one was a welcome.A pair of gates opening wide to the exploration of what could be, what might be, what—God willing—would be.

When they parted, their mingled breaths puffed up in the chilly air around them.No need for words.Only music could fully capture this moment.Doubtless he had ideas swirling around his head and might need a quiet place where he could write them down.

“Want to go grab a slice of pie somewhere?”she said.“I know a place.”

“Lead the way.”

They made their way back to Callum’s car, and as he started the engine, Blair checked her phone for messages.

“Huh,” she said.“I’ve got a text from Vic.”

Callum glanced her way as he pulled away from the curb.“Vic?”

“Uh-huh.”Suspicion threaded through her as she opened the message.

Tell that reporter she can call off the dogs, Blair.I didn’t kill Iris.

She left a suicide note.

Chapter Thirty

March 1970

FOR THEfirst time in as long as I could remember, my brain was silent.

Not just quiet.Silent.