Maddie was still glancing at her every few seconds, clearly waiting for an explanation, and Ryann scrambled for a new topic.

“So, you like classical music?”

Maddie squinted, looking suspicious, then turned her eyes back to the road. “When I’m driving. Keeps me calm. How ’bout you? You want to listen to something else?”

“No. Classical is nice. I used to play, you know, in high school. So did Stuart.”

“Oh yeah? How funny. So did me and Jai. Wait! Let me guess. You played…viola. And he played cello.”

Ryann laughed. “Close. He played viola, and I played cello.”

“Really? That’s…” Maddie gave her a wry smile.

“What?”

She turned her way, lips curled impishly. “Hot. I’ve always thought lady cellists were sexy.”

Ryann looked away, cheeks warm. Maddie laughed. They drove in silence another minute or two, Ryann desperate for a comeback but not thinking of one. She was usually smooth, a flirt, at least when she wanted to be, but the whole situation had thrown her off. Further, she didn’t know if she wanted to be flirting. Was this Maddie’s usual banter, or did she mean something by it?

“We were bass and piano,” Maddie suddenly said. “I played the bass, Jai the piano. We were in the full band and in the orchestra pit for musicals, too.”

Ryann was relieved to be back on safer ground, and she tried to make herself relax. “Wow. The bass is really heavy. Did you have one at home so you didn’t have to lug it back and forth?”

“Unfortunately, no—my parents couldn’t afford it. But I had the Bronco then, too, and a special dolly. It wasn’t too bad if I got places on time. Jai helped a lot.”

Ryann glanced in the back of the cabin again, picturing it. She could see a young Jai and Maddie stuffing the big instrument back there together, both in bad late-nineties fashion with terrible teenage haircuts. Maybe they shared a cigarette or two before heading home, like she had with Stuart.

She and Stuart would sit on the hood of her car blowing smoke rings, trying to outdo each other before she drove him home. Sometimes she’d stay over at his place for a night or two. Neither set of their parents had cared. In fact, she was pretty sure Stuart’s parents had been hoping the two of them were up to something together in his bedroom those first couple of times she met them at breakfast. The less-than-subtle winks and smiles were a dead giveaway. His parents must have known he was gay long before he came out, but they seemed to have hoped for other news. And her parents had simply never kept track of where she was, even before she came out.

Maddie pulled into the parking lot in front of a small building with a canvas Loveland Chamber of Commerce Volunteers sign above the door.