Chapter 14

14

The crooning of Bing Crosby filled the cabin as Tahlia helped the Nelson family decorate their new tree. It was given a place of honor at the front window and filled the space nicely, not too big nor too tall. Of course, the crooked point left height as a non-issue, nonetheless the tree really was perfect.

Tahlia and the twins put the string lights on together, running around the tree in a race to see who got to the end first. All three were dizzy by the time Jed pointed out all the lights were stuck in the middle of the tree. They had to untangle and restring, but the kids were delighted all the same.

“Matt,” Ophelia waltzed in from the kitchen with a tray of snacks in her hands. Her son followed her out, a cup of coffee in his hands and his phone to his ear. “Will you do something for me?”

“I’m taking a call, mom,” he rumbled, glancing around guiltily. Ophelia placed her overflowing tray on the coffee table before nimbly reaching up and plucking the cellphone from her son’s hand.

“It’s not even gone through,” she said. Matt squawked out a protest when she ended the call. “Why don’t you play the piano for us, dear? I noticed the upright over there.” She nodded to a shiny oak rectangle along the opposite wall that Tahlia had assumed was a strange chest. Which she would never admit to a living soul even if her lack of knowledge about pianos wasn’t her fault. Culture wasn’t a big focus in her foster home. Especially the last one. After that, life had gotten chaotic and busy

“You can play the piano?” Tahlia turned to Matt with a surprised smile.

He appeared embarrassed, if the red hue to his cheeks was any indication. “A little.”

“A little!” Ophelia exclaimed. “You were one of the top teenage pianists in the country!”

“Really?” Tahlia’s mouth dropped open and, quite charmingly, the color on his cheeks deepened. She imagined it traveled up to his ears but they were covered, as usual, by his hair.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “But it’s ancient history.”

“When was the last time you played?” Tahlia asked, taking an ornament proffered by Maddy and hanging it on the tree. Jed lifted Kaiden up to reach the top with another ornament.

He grunted. “Going to get too big for that soon, kid.”

Matt ran a hand through his hair, what he did with his nervous energy. Fluffy hair was an unintended consequence. “Years ago,” he admitted. “I barely remember anything.”

“Grandma,” Maddy called, “we can’t find the tinsel.”

Ophelia clicked her tongue and walked over to the boxes of decorations she’d had delivered from Haven to help her granddaughter find the glittery strands. In the meantime, Tahlia paused from decoration duties and meandered over to what she now knew was a piano.

“I’ve always wanted to learn an instrument,” she murmured and lifted the piano’s lid to run her fingers over the keys. Tahlia felt more than saw Nelson appear at her side, his presence weighty but not unwelcome. She watched his fingers spread over the piano keys; they stretched and curled between the white and the black as if the instrument itself was giving them life.

“I could teach you.” Tahlia met his gaze. The flames from the fireplace were reflected back at her, performing a mesmerizing dance in his dark eyes. “Join me?”

Matt gestured to the bench under the piano, but Tahlia didn’t budge.

“I thought you said you barely remember how to play,” she pointed out in a tease. “How can you teach me?”

He shrugged and sidled closer until his arm was touching hers. “Maybe we can find out how much I remember together?”

Maybe it was the warmth in the room, the sound of the kids laughing as they threw tinsel around the tree with Jed and Ophelia, or Christmas magic, but for some reason sitting down with him at that piano sounded like the most natural thing in the world. As if being at his side was…right.

One second, they were standing and the next sitting side by side, Matt guiding her right hand to the keys. Tahlia held her breath when he laid his hand over hers and directed it onto the smooth panels.

“These three,” he tapped three of his fingers against hers, his voice soft, “that’s a chord. C Major.”

“C Major,” Tahlia repeated in a whisper, unable to be any louder. He was leaning in, chin almost on her shoulder, his other arm looped loosely around her, his hand resting on the edge of the bench.

“Now press down with just those fingers…” He put the slightest pressure on her hand. Tahlia did as she was told, but she was so flustered that her middle finger slipped and tapped the wrong key.

“Oh, sorry.” Did she squeak?

“It’s alright,” he said in the same gentle tone. “Try again.”

“Why don’t, um,” she pulled her hand out from his with an embarrassed smile, “why don’t you show me? Play something so I can see? Please?”

Matt peered at where Tahlia’s hand had been for a few seconds before he straightened up. “Uh, yeah, of course. Erm…what do you want me to play?”

“Anything.” Tahlia wasn’t able to speak above a whisper. Matt had turned to her and now his face was inches from hers. For a moment, no more than a second, it seemed as if everything and everyone else disappeared from the room, the music, the kids, the piano, until the only thing she was aware of was him.

From the way he froze, she wondered if the same thing was happening to him. As if the two of them had been pulled into a pocket of the universe. Only his eyes moved, traveling over her face, searching for something, in the same manner he had done in the kitchen, but Tahlia was certainly not imagining it. An intense urge to shift just a centimeter closer, to tilt her head in just the right way, came over her and she was in danger of surrendering.

“Play Jingle Bells , Daddy!”

Kaiden’s request rent the illusion apart and Tahlia was on her feet the next second, heading toward the kitchen. Behind her, the kids were begging their father to play; not long after she heard the smooth sounds of Matt playing Jingle Bells .

In the kitchen, Tahlia leaned over the sink and took deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She’d almost kissed her boss. In front of his family. First that tense moment on the mountain and now this. What was going on with her?

Was it her breakup? Maybe she wasn’t totally over it yet and the crush on Matt was the result of a subconscious desire for affection or…or something. He was different from Dale. Very different. Matt cared deeply about his family. She tried to remind herself he had his faults; he was a chronic workaholic with an intense superiority complex, but that didn’t make her forget about the way he made her feel safe and warm and…wanted.

She was in deep, deep trouble.