He shifted, meeting her eyes for the barest of moments. “Did you talk him into it?”

“No.” Trying to be patient, she took him by the arms so that he had to face her. “Open your eyes, Nick. You saw the way he reacted when he heard you play. He was so proud of you he could barely talk. He wanted to give you something that would matter to you. He didn’t do it so you’d be obligated to him, but because he loves you. That’s what families do.”

“Your family.”

She gave him a quick shake. “And yours. Don’t try to con me with that bull about not being real brothers. You care just as much about him as he does about you. I know how much it meant to you to walk in there and see that piano. Mama had the same look on her face on Mother’s Day, but it was easier for her to show what she was feeling. You just need a little practice.”

Closing his eyes, he laid his brow against hers. “I don’t know what to say to him. How to act. Nobody’s ever… I’ve never had anybody. When I was a kid, I just wanted to hang around him. Then he took off.”

“I know. Try to remember he wasn’t much more than a kid himself when he did. He’s not going anywhere now.” Rachel kissed both his cheeks, as her mother might have done. “Why don’t you go back inside, Nick, and do what you do best?”

“What’s that?”

She smiled at him. “Play it by ear. Go on. He’s dying for you to try it out.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He took a step back. “You coming?”

“No, I’ve got some things to do.” Some things to think about, she thought, correcting herself. “Tell Zack I’ll see him later.”

But she waited after he’d gone in. Standing on the sidewalk, she watched the window. And after a while, very faintly, she heard the sound of music.

CHAPTER TEN

“Yo, Rachel.” Pete straightened on his stool and sucked in some of his comfortable stomach when he spotted Rachel swinging through the front door of the bar. “How ’bout I buy you a drink?”

“I might just let you do that.” But her smile was for Zack as she hung her coat on one of the hooks by the door. As she crossed the room, she shot a meaningful glance at the blonde who was seductively wrapped around a bar stool, purring an order for another drink while she walked her fingers up Zack’s arm. “Busy night?”

Lola juggled a tray as she passed. “That one’s on her third stinger,” she said to Rachel under her breath. “And those big blue eyes of hers have been crawling all over the boss for two hours.”

“That’s all she’ll do—unless she wants those eyes black-and-blue.”