Free Christopher and Jaime (Pianos and Promises #1) by Jennifer Peel Page A

worse, I devastated Jaimes. She won’t mention it, but her look at the auction said it all. What in the hell is wrong with me? Gran wanted her piano to go to Jaime, and there Jaimes sat to bid on it. She never had a chance. The first bid alone knocked her out of contention. She walked out without a word to me. It was like she knew. Why didn’t I give her the piano? It was mine to give. No, it was hers. She loved it and no one, not even Gran, played it so well. They belonged together.
    But where would she put it? She lives in a dive barely big enough for her.
    Bianca said the money we made from it will be better spent investing in our future. That doesn’t feel right. I don’t feel right. In an instant, I disappointed the two women who have been a constant, unfailing presence in my life. Neither would have ever acted so selfishly.
    I’ll make it up to Jaimes.
    I looked up from the book and dropped Christopher’s hand. Miss Allison had promised me the piano, but I didn’t say anything. I thought maybe she had changed her mind, because I knew if she had told Chris, he would have made sure it was given to me. My trust had been misplaced. How could he? He knew how much that piano meant to me. How much his grandmother meant to me.
    She wasn’t just a once-a-week teacher to me. Anytime I was there we sat at her piano, talking and playing. She gave me priceless advice like, don’t bother with pantyhose, the devil invented them. Or, if you eat a cookie while standing up and drinking a diet soda, you won’t feel the calories. Beyond her sage advice, we talked plenty about Chris. “You two were written in the stars,” she would say. It was on that bench I first saw Christopher.
    “Do you know my grandson?” Miss Allison had asked.
    I shook my head no. We went to different elementary schools. He went to the brand new one where all the well-to-do families went. I went to the one across the railroad tracks. My first glimpse of a gangly Chris gave me my earliest taste of butterflies in my stomach. He flashed a crooked smile at me as he tossed a soccer ball in the air, and that’s all it took—I was his. By the way Miss Allison smiled at me, I thought she knew from the very start that he had stolen my heart.
    After every lesson, she would say, “Why don’t you go find Chris?”
    He was always waiting for me with an adventure. Sometimes it was down by the river where he taught me how to catch a fish with my hands, or in the Foster’s orchard where we ate apples until we were sick to our stomachs. Or sometimes we just held hands on the back porch swing, not saying a word.
    That boy would have never sold his Gran’s piano.
    The dam broke, and tears streamed down my face as I watched Chris’s heart monitor and wondered where his heart truly lay. I was interrupted by Beck, who came by early.
    I wiped away the foreign water works from my face, but I wasn’t fooling anyone.
    There Beck stood, looking dashing. I could have had my own Prince William, but Beck deserved a woman who could give him all of her heart.
    “I don’t do emotional females,” he stated.
    I smiled and wiped more tears away.
    Beck was all talk, and before I knew it I was wrapped up in his arms and sobbing. Crying for what used to be, what could have been, and for all that I had lost.
    Beck patted my back. “It’s a good thing you’re gorgeous without makeup, or I would be sending you a bill for mucking up my suit. Now tell me what’s causing these tears?”
    I turned away from him and stared at Chris.
    “Him? He might be mucked up now, but he’ll pull through.”
    “It’s not that. I’m beginning to feel like I never knew him. I feel like a fool for marrying him and pining for him for over half my life. He’s never loved me.”
    “That’s bollocks.”
    I picked up the journal and handed it to Beck. He perused the cover. “So you’ve been prying.”
    I nodded with shame.
    He eyed me carefully. “You look peckish. Let’s go get something to