“Not at all.” I opened the door to his suite. Evan was there. I smiled at him and looked back at Chris. “I’m ready.”

Wordlessly, we walked upstairs to my daughter’s room—Gabe’s room—and he opened the door. Juleen’s smile was wide. She looked so happy and innocent that I felt my eyes getting teary. Her face fell. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, kharagosh.” I hugged and kissed her. Held her in my arms with an unusual ferocity. “Nothing at all.”

Chris cleared his throat. We both looked at him. “What do you two lovely ladies want for lunch?”

“Curry and rice,” Juleen said.

“You should vary your diet,” Chris preached.

“What’s wrong with curry and rice?” I said.

“She has it every day.”

“You eat the same thing every day. Bring her what she wants.”

He exhaled. “Okay. What do you want?”

“Nothing.”

“Some rice maybe?”

“I’m not hungry now.”

“You should eat.”

“And I will when I’m hungry.”

Chris bit his bottom lip but said nothing. He was turning to leave when Juleen called out to him. He turned around and she said, “I’ve been practicing the Halvorsen piece a lot. I mean, just the first couple of variations. Wanna hear?”

Hungering for his approval.

Chris looked at his watch and then he looked at me. I said, “Are you busy?”

“No, I’m fine.” He sat down on the piano bench. To Juleen he said, “Go ahead.”

She took out her violin and he played a middle A from the piano to tune her instrument. He gave her a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on each string, depending on whether the note was sharp or flat. Gabe had inherited his perfect pitch. When she was all tuned up, she raised the instrument to her chin, then brought it back down. “I’m a little nervous.”

“Want to know a secret?” Chris said. “Your brother gets nervous every time he gives a concert. He paces in his dressing room. But once he’s onstage, he’s fine. Just go for it.”

She took a deep breath, let it out, and played. It didn’t sound like a piece for beginning students. There were lots of double stops and some rapid passages, but she seemed up for the challenge. When she stopped, Chris nodded. “Pretty good.”

Her smile was radiant. “Really?”

“Still some room for improvement, but I can tell you’ve been practicing. If you keep it up, we can play the duet next week for those variations.”

“You’ll play with me?”

“Unless you know another cellist around here.” He stood up and checked his watch again. “I’ll have Evan drop off your lunch.”

He left and she was still smiling. “It did sound okay, right?”

“It sounded beautiful.”

“I don’t know if I’d go that far.”