In Harmony(115)

Harman gave him a long look…and then nodded and announced our improvisation grade: an A. As Connor beamed, Harman gave me a different sort of nod. One of respect, and admission that he’d been wrong.



***



It was only when we climbed down off the stage and my body finally started to release some of its tension that I became aware of things. The ache in my shoulders from the relentless playing; the pain in my jaw from grinding my teeth. My legs felt like they might buckle under me at any moment. Connor seemed to sense it and slid an arm around my waist, holding me up even as he blinked and stumbled himself, walking half his usual speed. We were both in shock, unable to grasp that somehow, against all odds, we’d won.

Natasha hurled herself into me from one side in a body hug, and I would have gone sprawling if it wasn’t for Clarissa doing the same thing from the other side. Then Jasmine jumped on my front and only Connor’s arm let me maintain balance.

“That was incredible!” said Natasha. “You didn’t see Harman’s face when you did that fast bit at the end. His jaw was on the table.”

Neil and Darrell joined the crush. They also slapped Connor on the back, which would have knocked over a smaller man. And then my friends all moved back a little to make way for someone. I couldn’t see who it was at first, and then, as Jasmine’s auburn curls moved out of the way—

“Karen,” said my father. “That was…extraordinary.” He stopped and stared at Connor. “Both of you.”

And then he stepped closer to me, which almost made me laugh because if I hadn’t known him better I would have thought he was going to hug me. Then his arms were sliding around my back and—wait, what was he—

He hugged me, his head on my shoulder, my body enveloped in his warmth, and I felt hot tears flood my eyes.

When he eventually stepped back, something was different. Staring at him, I finally figured out what it was—it was the expression on his face as he looked at me. He was seeing me as an adult for the first time.

A tall man was standing beside him, and as I blinked my tears away it took a second for me to register who he was.

“Karen?” he said gently, his voice deep and melodious and not matching his gaunt appearance at all, “I’m Walter Koss, with the New York Philharmonic.”

So much had happened in my life that I swear part of my brain asked “The who?”

“That was some of the finest, tightest ensemble playing I’ve seen in a long time. How would you feel about a trial with us?”

I must have looked weirdly calm and collected for a few seconds, until my brain finally caught up. And then a decade and a half of preparation: every rehearsal, every performance, every hour of solo practice, slammed into me, reducing me to the gaping, spluttering mess he was expecting. “That…would be great,” I managed, before I lost the ability to speak altogether.

Connor pulled me to him and drew me into a long kiss—about the only thing that had the capability to unfreeze my brain. I let the room fade out and lost myself in the feeling of his lips, of his body under my hands. When we finally broke the kiss, there was a woman waiting patiently beside us, an amused expression on her face. The record label rep who’d sat with the judging panel.

“Rachel Liebermann,” she told us. “From TTX Records. That was quite something—not like anything I’ve heard before.”

“You want Connor to record a track?” I asked breathlessly.

She looked at the two of us closely. “Actually, I was hoping the two of you might want to do one together.”

Connor pulled me to him again, laughing, and suddenly I was laughing, too. I felt something settle into place, deep in my mind, warm and comforting and utterly right, and I knew that it wasn’t graduating, or the New York Phil, or a record deal. It was him, making me complete.





Chapter 36



One Month Later



“This is ridiculous,” said Jasmine. “This is meant to be the part where you have to move your stuff aside to make closet space for him. It’s symbolic. But you don’t have any stuff. You could move, like, five guys in here and they could have a drawer each.”

“Good to know, if I ever find myself in that kind of a relationship,” I told her. I moved a few more of my things aside. There. Connor now had a complete closet to himself, and a couple of drawers. I stared at the empty space. “You going to be okay on your own, at Connor’s place? It’s not a great neighborhood.”

“Better than my old one, though,” said Jasmine. “And rent free, up until the end of the month.” Connor had had to give a month’s notice when I’d asked him to move in with me a few days before, and we’d all agreed there was no point in an apartment going empty. “Seriously, Karen, with the money I’ve saved crashing on your couch and another month without rent, I’ll have enough for a deposit on a new place. I’ll be fine. Besides, no way am I sleeping on the couch of a newly-moved-in couple. I need some sleep.”