Page 44 of Kneeling for Them

Shaking his head, he says, “Not at the moment, no.But thanks.”

“Let me know if it changes.”I squeeze his hand.

“Thanks.”

“How’d you know to find me here?”I have the afternoon off, but I hadn’t shared that with Sebastian yet.

“Kingston told me you’d be here.He’s on his way.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.We wanted to talk to you about something.”

A squiggly, uncomfortable feeling lodges in my gut.

“Nothing bad,” Sebastian rushes to say.“Only good things, princess.”

I can only nod.

“Come sit down.”He takes my hand in his and leads me to the piano bench, where he sits next to me and starts picking out the tune to “Please Don’t Behave.”

“You could hear me out in the hall?”I ask.

He nods.“Faintly.I guess you’re a little more familiar with my music now?”

I feel myself blushing.“I’m sorry about that,” I say.

“It was before your time.”He shoots me a sly grin.“How could you be expected to know the music of an aging rockstar?”

“Oh, hush, you’re not that old,” I say, knocking into his shoulder.

He reaches the chorus, so I accompany him with my left hand and we sing it together.Damn, this guy is good.I think I could come just by listening to his voice, singing these words to me.

After we’ve gone through the chorus a couple of times, he changes the melody around and starts singing lyrics I’ve never heard before.

I said we don’t keep secrets

As I dove into your sweetness.

There’s always a risk,

Always a risk,

But baby, this fight was fixed.

“That’s amazing,” I whisper.

“It’s a work in progress.Hey, last night, I thought I saw your brother.”

Wow, that was a rapid subject change.But I can’t ignore what he said.

“Where?”I ask.

“In Bellefleur.I’m not entirely sure it was him, though.I tried to chase after him, but lost him right away.”

“I’m glad for the maybe-sighting,” I say, “but I’m still worried.”

Sebastian squeezes my hand and runs his callused fingertips over my knuckles.“Sorry, princess.Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up.”