Player(74)

When the song ended, my throat tightened. Matias smiled at me.

“Love is music. It’s learning when to be loud and when to be soft. It’s riding the scales up and down. Learning the curves and strings to play the song of your heart. You have to know when to lead and when to follow. When you’re wrong and when you’re right. Love is music, hijo mío. It is the greatest music there is.” He absently fiddled the strings, a brilliant melody exhaling into the room. “I won’t scare you like my grandsons. I won’t tell you not to love her. I’ll only tell you to love her well. Love her like you love music, and she is yours. Love her any less than that, and she is lost. Love her with all of you, or leave her to love someone else.”

My lips parted to speak, but the words caught in my throat. So I nodded just as the women entered the room again with glasses, oranges, smiles, and a bottle of vermouth.

He held my eyes and nodded back before picking up his melody. I followed him in, working only to complement him, feeling the warmth of her hand on my shoulder and the warmth of my heart in my chest.

Love. The word of a thousand sonnets. The word whispered across a thousand years. A word I’d never considered outside of my family. A word I’d never sought.

A word that brushed against my heart like fingertips.

Love is music.

The simple profundity of those three words struck me deep. And when I looked up into her smiling face, I felt the notes in my soul.





27





Believer





Sam

The room was a chorus of noise once more as we pulled on our coats and said goodbye. Abuela kissed both my cheeks and told me to be a good boy. Victoria smiled as brightly as Val and sent me off with a container of paella for lunch the next day. Sean shook my hand with a nod and a smile of approval, and Matias tipped his fedora from where he sat.

The four horsemen scowled at me from the back of the room, and I touched my finger to my forehead in salute. Dante jerked his chin in acknowledgment.

We said our farewells all the way down the stairs, waving once more before the door closed.

Elm leaves crunched under our feet as we left the brownstone behind us.

All the way to the theater, we chatted, though my mind was occupied, processing the last few hours, the last few days. I didn’t know how I’d gotten here, how I’d found this place. How my world had tilted just a little, just enough to change how I saw things.

No, I didn’t know how I’d gotten here, but it was the only place I wanted to be.

The theater was bustling when we walked in, the pit already dark. Musicians played disjointed bits and bobs, the sounds floating over each other in streams, filling the air with anticipation of showtime.

I walked Val to her chair, spent a minute trying to make her laugh. And when I’d achieved my goal and gave her a long, searing, mildly-inappropriate-for-a-workplace kiss, I headed toward the back of the pit where my instrument waited for me.

Unfortunately, that was not the only thing waiting for me.

Ian was leaning against the wall, arms folded, ankles crossed, lips smiling.

Everything about him felt like a lie.

“Well, well, well. Look at what the Spitshine dragged in.”

I ignored the insult to Val, contrary to what I wanted to do, which was put his head through a wall.

But that wouldn’t help matters. So I smiled.

“How’s it going?” I asked without giving a single shit.

“Fine. I didn’t see you at the club last night, but I figured you had a date. I’ve gotta admit, Sammy—I didn’t think it’d be Val.”

“Well, I’m just full of surprises.”

A laugh. “You’re telling me. Imagine my shock that you were with her when the bet was done. I’d ask you what the story was, but after that kiss? Pretty sure the whole orchestra knows. You finally fucked Susie Spitshine.”

Every muscle in my body tensed in unison. “Don’t fucking call her that. And it’s none of your goddamn business. Not anymore. Bet’s up. Game over.”

“Sure, sure. But what’s your angle? To be honest, I’m floored you waited this long to nail her. Think you’ll have her out of your system by the weekend? There’s a pack of new chicks at the club, just aching to be taught a lesson.”

“Guess you’ll have them all to yourself. I’m staying put for a while.”

One eyebrow rose with the corner of his mouth. “Good one, Sammy.”

I shrugged and picked up my bass. He watched me tune it in silence.

“You’re serious,” he said after a minute.

“You’re the one with a penchant for elaborate jokes, not me.”

“You”—incredulous chuckling—“and Susie Spitshine. Dating. For real.”

“Yes. And if you fucking call her that again, I’ll break your nose,” I said with the seriousness of a cardio surgeon elbow deep in a rib cage.

Another laugh, amused and a little too loud. “Come on. You’re fucking with me, right?”

“Do I look like I’m fucking with you?”

“Not really, which is tripping me out. I mean, you can’t actually mean to date her.”

“Why not?”

He ticked off his fingers. “Because you’re a player. Because you don’t know shit about women’s emotions. Because you don’t know how.”