Chapter Three
“Wrists up,” Eleanor said. “Imagine there’s a water balloon just beneath your hands.”
Six-year-old Madison dutifully lifted her wrists and played through the time-honored favorite, “Sweetly Sings the Donkey.” The jangle of dissonant chords in the “hee haw” part made Eleanor cringe, but she covered it with a smile.
“You’re doing great, Maddie,” she said. “Let’s run through the Christmas carol you’ll be practicing over the next week.”
Madison nodded. “And then will you play something for me?”
“If your granddad says there’s time,” Eleanor said.
Madison got through “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,” and Eleanor went over her homework for the week, assigning some new note-naming worksheets to help Madison along.
Madison turned to her grandfather. “Can Miss Eleanor play a song for me?” she asked.
Mr. Rosenfeld nodded, and Madison jumped off the piano bench to make room for Eleanor. It wasn’t always easy coming up with a piece to play for her students. She didn’t want to show off or make them feel self-conscious about their own budding skills, but she also wanted to show them what was possible, if only they practiced and worked hard.
But as soon as Eleanor’s fingers touched the keys, she found the notes and began to play without consciously choosing a piece. “Bye Bye Blackbird.” Talking to Hayley at the grocery store yesterday had brought the jazz standard to Eleanor’s mind, and she’d been unable to get the melody out of her head since.
Madison and her grandfather listened, rapt, while Eleanor played. She kept it short because Mr. Rosenfeld was usually on a tight schedule. When she was finished, she stood up and her two audience members clapped.
“Thank you,” Madison said, hurrying over to wrap her thin arms around Eleanor’s waist. “I loved that song.”
“You’re welcome,” Eleanor said. “Maybe we can find an arrangement of that song for you to work on. Would you like that?”
“Yeah!”
As Eleanor watched Mr. Rosenfeld and Madison drive away from her house, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and glanced at the unfamiliar number on the screen. Telemarketer, or potential new student?
How had her life gotten so lonely that she never guessed that an unfamiliar number could be a friend?
She slid her finger across the screen to answer. “Hello?”
“Hi, Eleanor? This is Hayley Jaynes.”
She couldn’t seem to escape that woman. Her breath caught, and her side hurt. Appendicitis? Impossible—she’d already had her appendix out. “Hi, Hayley. What’s up?”
“I saw your phone number on the bulletin board outside the library. For piano lessons?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Eleanor said.
“Well, I’d like to schedule a lesson.”
“Oh!” That was unexpected. Hayley had never seemed interested before, but hey, a new student was a new student. If they saw each other regularly, it might be a battle to keep from thinking about Will, but it was a risk Eleanor would have to take. “Great. When are you available?”
Hayley made a hmm sound on the other end of the line. “Do you have anything on the weekends? Usually I could do a Saturday, but not this weekend.”
“I try to take Sundays off except for rescheduled lessons, but I could fit you in this Sunday afternoon,” Eleanor said, “as long as that’s not your regular lesson time, it’ll be fine.”
While Eleanor spoke, Fido came out from behind the couch—his favorite hiding spot during piano lessons. He twined around her ankles while she and Hayley hammered out details.
After Eleanor got off the phone, she slumped down onto her couch. A faint tonal sound echoed in her ear. What did that mean? She reached for her phone to ask Dr. Bridges, but Fido hopped into her lap, purring as he kneaded Eleanor’s sweater. Eleanor stroked him absently and sighed. “I think that was enough excitement for one day, don’t you?”
Her phone buzzed again, and it was the same number.
“Hi, Hayley,” she said.
“Hey, sorry, I’d forgotten my main reason for calling. The wedding.”
“The wedding?”
“Yeah, we’re kind of in a bind,” Hayley said. “It’s not a huge production, but Summer really wanted a pianist. And we had this guy from Lakewood, but he canceled last night…his sister lives in northern California and lost her house in the fires, so he’s staying down there to help her out.”
“And you want me to play for the wedding,” Eleanor guessed. “I give lessons on Saturdays.”
Fido glared at Eleanor until she resumed petting him.
“Can you cancel them?” Hayley asked. “Please? It’s for Jackson’s wedding. Jax has always loved you, Eleanor. He had a huge crush on you when he was in middle school, did you know that? And now he’s getting married.”
She could cancel or reschedule lessons. She could go to this wedding, help out in her own small way. And, what seemed a lifetime ago, she had been so close with the Jaynes family. In as casual a voice as possible, she said, “Did you say Will can’t be there?”
“I don’t know that I said can’t, but he’s a definite won’t,” Hayley said, her voice bitter. “Please do this for us. We’ll pay you, and it would mean so much to actually know the person playing. And we’d love for you to celebrate with us afterward.”
It would be easy enough to say no. To say her lessons couldn’t be rescheduled, to say that she would not help them out. But then she thought back to when her phone had first buzzed in her pocket and she’d seen the unknown number. And she’d guessed it would either be about telemarketing or work. Not an old friend or a family member trying to get in touch. After her parents had divorced, they’d both moved out of town for “fresh starts,” and most of Eleanor’s high school friends, Will included, had moved away.
This was her chance for something different. To not be alone. To reconnect with an old friend—and even better—without the danger of running into Will.
“I’ll do it,” Eleanor said.