Chapter Forty-Seven

A Test of Us for the Rest of Us

Yessi eyed me accusingly. “You didn’t practice.”

“Yes, I did.” I pressed down on what I now knew as “middle C.”

“How much?”

I drew in a deep breath. “Fifteen minutes a day?”

“Bullshit,” Yessi said, waving her hands in front of her. “But I’m not going to harp on you too much today; I know you’re sad.”

“I’m okay,” I lied.

“You told a guy you loved him last night, and it didn’t work out.”

“I told a guy I loved him and told him it couldn’t work out. There’s a difference.” Though try telling my heart that.

“Still.” She closed my beginner’s piano book. “Seriously, how are you doing?”

I patted her knee and stood from the bench. “I’m not exactly fine. But I think I will be.” I stretched.

Joanne, who had been sleeping in the other room, started barking.

“What is it? A squirrel?” It was usually a squirrel.

But no, this wasn’t her squirrel bark, and it wasn’t her STRANGER DANGER APPROACHING bark. It was more like her “I see one of my favorite people on the horizon” yelp.

“Um…Annie?” Yessi pointed to the bay window in the living room.

Dax was coming up the steps. My pulsed quickened.

“He’s probably coming to see Joanne.” I shrugged, brushing it off like it was nothing. “I told him that was fine.”

“Sure.” Yessi’s eyes narrowed.

I went to the door and opened it. Joanne immediately, as best she could, flung herself at Dax.

“Hey, girl.” His voice wobbled. He crouched down next to her and hugged her neck.

“I’ll…get out of your hair,” Yessi said. “Good to see you, Dax.”

He glanced up. “You, too, Yessi.”

When Yessi left, Dax stood, hands in pockets, and faced me.

“You came to see Joanne?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“Dax…” I tilted my head.

He looked right at me, jaw tight. “I decided I’m not okay.”

“You’re not.”

“No. You said you’re okay with the two of us not being together, but I’m not.”

A weight of longing settled in my chest, and I motioned for him to follow me into the living room. I wasn’t sure what this visit was about, but I feared it would only make his leaving harder on us. He took one end of the couch, and I made sure to take the other. I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions if we got too close.

“You think we’re going to end up resenting each other if I go on tour and you stay here, but I disagree.” His brow furrowed. “We both love each other.”

“That’s not enough.” My eyes stung.

“I think it is.”

I turned to face him, pulling my legs up under me on the couch. “We talked about this.”

“No, you talked about it,” he said. “You came to me last night making a bold statement about love and sacrifice, and now I’m doing the same to you. This is the grand gesture, right? Now we forgive, forget, and make up.”

I grinned at him. “That’s what happens in a rom-com, Dax. This is real life.”

He frowned. “I want it to be a rom-com.”

I reached for his hand, my chest tight. “Me too.”

“So we’re in agreement then.”

“But everything I said last night is still true. You weren’t wrong about me being unhappy. I need to be happy, and you need to be successful. And I’m not sure both can happen with us together.”

He scooted toward me. “So what if we just see what happens and go from there? What if we stop thinking and worrying and jump right to the ‘happily ever after?’ Like, what would happen if we were Jennifer Garner and Ryan Reynolds at the end of a movie?” His fingers grazed my cheek. “All the problems have been solved. Everything is wonderful. You’ve just admitted you love me. I love you…”

“I suppose we’d kiss,” I said, grinning despite my aching heart, “but there’d also be clapping, because we’d be, like, in a ballroom on the last day of a big corporate retreat.”

“Would you settle for the sounds of Joanne over in the corner cleaning herself?” he asked.

I laughed. “I guess that would do.”

He scooted even closer, cupped my face in his hands, and kissed me slowly and tenderly, trailing the end of the kiss over to my ear, and my heart went wild. “We’ve done the kiss. Then what?”

I pulled away slightly, looking him right in the eye. “You know, most rom-coms don’t usually show the next part. Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant kiss…but then what? I think we all know what happens.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Bow chicka wow wow.”

He laughed. “They never let us see what kind of sex those folks are having. Is it just regular vanilla, or are they throwing in all kinds of toppings?”

I nodded knowingly. “You can bet Sandra and Hugh are going for the full rocky road—nuts, marshmallows, chocolate with a cherry on top—sex.”

He took my hand. “Do you want to show me what that looks like?”

“Yes,” I said, leaning toward him, “but no. Because this isn’t a rom-com, and you’re leaving—”

“Tomorrow.”

That knocked the wind out of me. I knew he was leaving soon, but I hadn’t considered the timeline. Not that I assumed we’d still be competing together, but he was leaving before the end of the trivia tournament. Tomorrow he’d be gone and Dorothy would be without her Tin Man. “Leaving tomorrow for a big, long tour.”

He scooted closer and kissed my neck. I melted into him. “Okay, so I’m leaving on tour. And you’re focusing on you. So just say you’ll come visit me,” he said. “We’ll start there, and no promises other than that. You can send me pics of Joanne, and I’ll update you on the tour. Once in a while. No timelines. No other expectations. Just you coming to one stop on the tour.”

“I don’t know, Dax.” I closed my eyes as waves of pleasure pulsed through me. “What if I show up and you regret ever inviting me?”

“I won’t.” He nibbled my earlobe. “But okay, let’s say something happens and I’m busy or things don’t go as swimmingly between us as we’d like. You’d still get a few days away in an exciting city like Minsk.”

I chuckled. “Mmm…hot.”

“Or…maybe not Minsk.” His lips made their way down my collarbone. “I think we’ll be in Prague at Christmas.”

“Maybe.” He worked his way back up to my ear, and I moaned. “I’m bringing in a partner to the practice—”

He held me at arm’s length. “What? Really?”

“Really.” I widened my eyes to show him just how serious I was about this. “I’m relaxing my responsibilities at work so I can focus on other things—like taking care of Joanne and learning the piano.”

His hand cupped my cheek.

“And I’m sure Yessi and Polly would watch Joanne, so maybe I really could take a trip.” A trip was what Gayle would do. It’d be something to look forward to, and, like Dax said, it could mean nothing more than the two of us being in the same place at the same time for a few days. No pressure.

I shifted our positions so I now straddled him on the couch. My mind whirled with a million thoughts of what could go wrong—everything from the plane crashing to him meeting someone new in the meantime and me showing up in Prague to find him engaged to his pregnant fiancée. I pushed all of that out of my head and said, “Okay, Prague. Let’s do it. I will plan on being there for Christmas.”

He pulled me in close, and I leaned down so he could whisper in my ear. “We’ll always have Prague.” He paused. “Now, rocky road sex? Once? For old time’s sake?”

I stood, offering him my hand. He took it, and I pulled him off the couch.

“I prefer cookies and cream,” I told him as I led him toward the stairs.

“I have no idea where this metaphor’s going,” he said, “but I love it, and I can’t wait to find out more.”