I jumped when the doorbell rang. I shook off the flickers of fear that threatened to take residence in my spirit. It would be so easy to succumb to it, to the memories of the trauma of that day.

But I…

I wanted to live.

Every day. Every moment.

I didn’t want to be afraid.

Too much time was wasted on regret.

“Coming,” I called as I crossed the floor. I hoisted up onto my toes to peer out the peephole.

A shocked gasp blew from my lungs, and I stumbled back, blinking as I tried to process what anxiously waited for me on the other side. Wondering if I was hallucinating.

My heart rate kicked when it rang again.

Quickly, I worked through the lock, both eager and wary as I opened the door. “What’s going on?”

A hand came out to push against my door.

“Alexis, just the girl we wanted to see,” Shea said as she walked in as if she’d been there a million times. Kallie’s hand was wound in hers, the little girl bouncing in excitement as they stepped inside.

I stepped back. Confused and stunned and fighting the thrill that began to whip through my spirit.

Tamar strode in behind her, wearing a pair of super high red heels and the tightest black leather pants I’d ever seen. She shot me a playful wink as she passed, a garment bag slung over a shoulder and her baby girl hitched to her opposite hip.

“What…?” I couldn’t find the words to even finish the question.

Edie angled by carrying Sadie, her face almost full of an apology as she dipped her head, though she was wearing the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

“Hi,” she whispered.

Willow touched my arm as she entered, sympathy in her expression and compassion in her eyes. “We’re sorry for just barging in…we wouldn’t do it under normal circumstances.”

Normal circumstances? If it weren’t for the mischief and excitement playing in their eyes, I would have already sunken to my knees in dread, thinking something terrible had to have happened for them to knock on my door.

Instead, I was latching onto their vibe, teeth hooking into my bottom lip as my heart beat faster and faster.

“Someone tell me what’s going on,” I finally managed.

Jumping in place, Kallie flapped her arms. “You have to get ready. We’re going to make you so, so pretty!”

Amused, Shea grinned at her daughter. “I think she’s already so pretty.”

She turned back to me, eyeing me as if she were gauging my reaction. “We’re just going to put her in an extra special dress, aren’t we?”

My gaze frantically jumped over the women standing in my living room.

Women who I’d considered friends. Women I’d hazarded daydreaming could one day be family. Women I’d thought I’d never see again.

Now they were staring back at me in both sympathy and anticipation.

My fingers trembled, and I wrung them together. “Someone please tell me what’s happening.”

Shea nudged Kallie, and Kallie grinned at her before she bounced forward, drawing attention to the card in her hand.

“This is for you,” she whispered as if it were a secret.

My chest squeezed, so tightly I rasped in a breath.

“Thank you,” I said quietly as I warily accepted it, my hands shaking as I read my name scrawled in masculine script across the envelope.

I swallowed around the lump that grew prominent at the base of my throat.

My heart throbbing and my breaths shallow.

Fingers fumbling, I turned it over and broke the seal, pulling out the flat card inside.

I scanned what was printed on the front.

My pulse jumped into a frantic thunder, an overpowering drum I could feel beating in my ears and strumming through my veins.

It was a print of a constellation.

Lyra.

The Harp.

Beauty and music.

Stamped below it was the name of a music hall downtown and the time indicated 9:00 pm.

Love bounded around me. Memories of the boy and his beauty as he’d sat at the piano. This man who’d captured me with every brilliant part of his mind and the sacrifice in his soul.

“Zee,” I whispered. A question. A statement.

Taking a step forward, Shea gave one slow nod. “He would be honored if you would attend his first piano concert in seven years.”

I gasped around the magnitude of it, struck by relief and belief.

But that self-preservation I could rarely find was right there, whispering the pain he’d left behind.

“I don’t…” The words trembled free. Reservations and doubt.

Shea blinked knowingly. “Most of us rarely do, Alexis. We don’t know and we can never be sure. We only have the chances we’re given.”

“I think you should at least go and listen. You might like what he has to say,” Willow urged, words laden with encouragement.

“I—” I gulped, a shiver racing through my being, the feeling at odds with the hope that spiked in my spirit.

Tamar smiled at me, soft for a girl who seemed so utterly hard. “Love’s a gamble, Alexis. The question is, are you willing to take the risk?”

No fear. Just life.

I bit down on my bottom lip that quivered, fighting the well of moisture that threatened my eyes. A smile pulled to my mouth. “Let’s see that dress.”