Free How Do I Love Thee by Lurlene McDaniel

with some sort of information about my tests. After that, I'm coming home.”
    “Sorry I couldn't hang here today. Dad made me go to school.”
    “It would have been totally boring,” Steve said. “Nothing but blood work and an MRI and a whole lot of waiting in between. I'll bet they took a hundred shots of my brain.”
    “You have one?” Bobby deadpanned.
    “Not the size of yours.” Steve grinned, then turned his attention to Dana. “What did Bobby promise to make you come see me? Dinner at McDonald's?”
    She cleared her throat. “I wanted to come, I wanted to see how you're doing … wish you luck.”
    “Very nice of you.”
    She heard a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
    “You ever get those SAT scores back?” Steve returned his attention to his brother. “I know you have a lot riding on them.”
    “Not yet. Probably in a few months.”
    “You'll do well on the test. Better than I did, for sure.”
    “Not that it'll be noticed like if I played football.”
    Steve groaned. “Give it up. Brains always wins over brawn. Don't you think so, Dana?”
    She started, not having expected Steve to talk to her, much less put her on the spot. “Talent is talent,” she said after a pause. “The area doesn't matter, only drive and determination.”
    Bobby winked at her.
    Steve said, “You know, there's a piano in die rec room downstairs, I'd like to hear you play, Dana.”
    She felt her face redden. Why didn't Steve back off and stop baiting her? She stood. “Sure. I can do that.”
    Bobby sprang up beside her. “You're really going to be impressed, Stevie.”
    “I'll leave a note for Mom and Dad.” Steve scribbled a message on a piece of paper and propped it on his pillow.
    The three of them went down the hall, took the elevator, and found their way to a spacious recreation room. Dana was seething, but she stared straight ahead, refusing to meet Steve's eyes even while Bobby told him about her goal of attending the Juilliard School after she graduated.
He already knows
, she thought, wishing Bobby would drop her as a topic of conversation.
    In the rec room, several patients were reading. Two others were playing a game of cards.
    “Would any of you object to some piano music?” Steve asked boldly.
    They all nodded consent and Dana sat at the piano, determined to focus on the music and not her anger. She ran the scales and was surprised to hear that the instrument was tuned. “Any requests?” she asked, looking Steve in the face for the first time that evening.
    “How about the
Moonlight
Sonata?”
    She stiffened. That was the piece she wasplaying when he'd first met her at Hilton Head. “Beethoven called it
Sonata quasi una fantasia,”
Dana said “He wrote it in 1801 when he first learned he might be going deaf. Is that the piece you mean?”
    “She knows everything,” Bobby whispered to Steve, obviously pleased by Dana's quick response and thorough knowledge of classical music.
    “That's die piece,” Steve said.
    “You shock me, Steve. I thought you only listened to heavy metal and rock,” Bobby kidded.
    “I developed a taste for classical a few summers ago. I just never told you.”
    Dana struck die keys, pulling the melody out of her mind and fingers and pouring it into the old piano. Instantly the music filled the room, swept the air with its haunting notes. Soon she forgot everything except the magic of Beethoven's wonderful melody. She played it start to finish, and when die final notes faded into silence, she heard the sound of applause behind her. She turned and was shocked to see that a small crowd had gathered.
    “Heavenly,” a nurse said. “I was just walking down the hall, and I had to come inside and see who could make this old thing produce such music.”
    An elderly man wiped his cheeks.
    “What a gift you have,” said another man.
    “Thank you,” Steve said softly, simply. “It was beautiful.”
    Dana felt self-conscious.
    “Her name's Dana Tafoya,” Bobby announced to the