Unfinished Business(31)
“She has every reason to hate me.”
“You’re too hard on yourself, Loretta, and I won’t have it.”
She merely shook her head as she balled the handkerchief in her hand. “Oh, the choices we make in this life, Ham. And the mistakes. I’d give anything in the world to have another chance with her.”
“Time’s all you need to give.” He tilted her chin up and kissed her. “Just give her time.”
Vanessa listened to the monotonous plunk of the keys as Annie ground out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” She might have good hands, but so far Vanessa hadn’t seen her put them to good use.
She was a skinny girl with pale flyaway hair, a sulky disposition and knobby knees. But her twelve-year old hands were wide-palmed. Her fingers weren’t elegant, but they were as sturdy as little trees.
Potential, Vanessa thought as she tried to smile her encouragement. Surely there was some potential buried there somewhere.
“How many hours a week do you practice, Annie?” Vanessa asked when the child had mercifully finished.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you do your finger exercises every day?”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa gritted her teeth. She had already learned this was Annie’s standard answer for all questions. “You’ve been taking lessons regularly for nearly a year.”#p#分页标题#e#
“I don’t—”
Vanessa put up a hand. “Why don’t we make this easy? What do you know?”
Annie just shrugged and swung her feet.
Giving up, Vanessa sat beside her on the stool. “Annie—and give me a real answer—do you want to take piano lessons?”
Annie knocked the heels of her orange sneakers together. “I guess.”
“Is it because your mother wants you to?”
“I asked if I could.” She stared sulkily down at the keys. “I thought I would like it.”
“But you don’t.”
“I kinda do. Sometimes. But I just get to play baby songs.”
“Mmm.” Sympathetic, Vanessa stroked her hair. “And what do you want to play?”
“Stuff like Madonna sings. You know, good stuff. Stuff like you hear on the radio.” She slanted Vanessa a look. “My other teacher said that’s not real music.”
“All music is real music. We could make a deal.”
Suspicion lighted in Annie’s pale eyes. “What kind of deal?”
“You practice an hour every day on your finger exercises and the lesson I give you.” She ignored Annie’s moan. “And I’ll buy some sheet music. One of Madonna’s songs. I’ll teach you to play it.”
Annie’s sulky mouth fell open. “For real?”
“For real. But only if you practice every day, so that when you come next week I see an improvement.”
“All right!” For the first time in nearly an hour, she grinned, nearly blinding Vanessa with her braces. “Wait till I tell Mary Ellen. She’s my best friend.”
“You’ve got another fifteen minutes before you can tell her.” Vanessa rose, inordinately pleased with herself. “Now, why don’t you try that number again?”
Her face screwed up with concentration, Annie began to play. A little incentive, Vanessa thought with a lifted brow, went a long way.
An hour later, she was still congratulating herself. Tutoring the girl might be fun after all. And she could indulge her own affection for popular music.
Later in her room, Vanessa ran a finger down the Limoges box her mother had given her. Things were changing for her, faster than she had expected. Her mother wasn’t the woman she had thought she would find. She was much more human. Her home was still her home. Her friends still her friends.
And Brady was still Brady.
She wanted to be with him, to have her name linked with his as it once had been. At sixteen she had been so sure. Now, as a woman she was afraid, afraid of making a mistake, of being hurt, of losing.
People couldn’t just pick up where they had left off. And she could hardly start a new beginning when she had yet to resolve the past.
She took her time dressing for the family dinner. It was to be a festive occasion, and she was determined to be a part of it. Her deep blue dress was cut slimly, with a splash of multicolored beadwork along one shoulder. She left her hair loose, and added braided earrings studded with sapphires.
Before she closed her jewelry box, she took out a ring with a tiny emerald. Unable to resist, she slipped it on. It still fit, she thought, and smiled at the way it looked on her finger. With a shake of her head, she pulled it off again. That was just the sort of sentiment she had to learn to avoid. Particularly if she was going to get through an evening in Brady’s company.