Page 125 of You Found Me

“Yeah, if the strings don’t break or my voice doesn’t crack or?—”

“Mason…just sing.” Della gave him an encouraging nod. “And if you screw up…just keep singing. Nobody will know if you don’t stop.”

He shrugged and propped his foot on a nearby box.

The first notes were soft and sweet and hesitant. Then he found his confidence.

She swayed back and forth, lost in his spell. If that girl didn’t snatch him up after this, Della had a feeling a dozen others would happily take her place.

When he reached the end, she couldn’t stop the happy sigh. “You have a real gift, Mason. It’s a great song. Really. Great.”

He dipped his chin. “Thanks. I feel like the end’s a little flat, somehow, but I’m not sure what to do about it.”

She considered that, running through the notes in her head. “Try bumping that final verse up a half step through the first part, then up another at the end. It’ll give it momentum.”

He flashed her a doubtful look. “That’ll take it minor. Wouldn’t that be more ominous?”

She smiled. “Only if you want it to be. Try it. Start at the bridge.”

Mason did as she asked. When he got to the final verse, she joined in with harmony to show him exactly what she meant.

They finished on a high note that put a smile on both their faces.

“Hey, you’re right. That’s what it was missing.” He got a crafty look. “Why don’t you sing it with me tomorrow?”

She patted his arm and shook her head. “Oh no. This one’s all you. Besides, you don’t need me. You just focus on Emily and ignore everything else.”

A scuffling sound caught her attention. She turned her head, thinking someone was coming to get supplies. The door was slightly open, but nobody was there. “Did someone try to come in earlier?”

Mason packed his guitar away. “I didn’t notice.”

She could have sworn she’d closed that door. She got up to check the hallway, unease making her tummy flutter. She caught sight of Ken turning the corner at the end of the hall.

He’d probably just come from the bathroom.

Maybe he’d heard the music and took a peek. She would have.

Had he heard her singing?

Maybe he hadn’t noticed. His focus was on his phone, and it was pretty noisy back here with the radio blasting in the kitchen and the TVs shouting highlights in the dining room.

She reassured herself that even if hehadheard them, he certainly didn’t think it was someone famous in there.

Still. She should tell Ward. She knew she should. If anyone recognized her, anyone at all, she was screwed. She knew exactly how Ward would react.

He’d relocate her immediately. No goodbyes. No festival. No more Lucy Carmichael.

Her heart ached at giving all this up. At not hearing Mason sing to his girl. Of going back to the way things had been at the beginning with Ward. So cold. So distant.

Surely, this wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just a few seconds. All Ken would have heard was Mason and Lucy playing around with a song. And Lucy had kept her voice soft and low. She’dbeen background, and nobody paid attention to the background. Piper had certainly told her that often enough.

There was no need to tell Ward. Nothing had happened. Not really.

She ignored the uneasy twitch in her belly and the distant warning bell going off in her head. She was just being paranoid.

She softly patted the panic button pendant and went back to work.

Chapter Twenty