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‘It’s where it started, yes.’
He reached for two coasters and put his tea down on one. Sophie followed his lead.
‘Right, let’s warm up.’
Sophie stood, and Liam came to stand in front of her. He lifted both of his hands and put them close to her shoulders.
‘Do you mind?’ he asked, his eyes never breaking from hers.
She shook her head, and he rested his hands gently on her shoulders, pushing them back slightly so that her posture improved.
‘Make sure your feet are wide so that you have a firm base and a strong core,’ he added, pressing his hand on her abdomen. When he released her and sat back at the piano, she could still feel the warm imprint of his hands all over her body.
‘Is this OK?’ she asked.
Liam looked at her and nodded. ‘Perfect. Let’s start with breathing and enunciation.’
They spent the next ten minutes with Sophie singing scales while making ridiculous animal sounds. She felt stupid, but it didn’t take long for her to relax. There was something about Liam that made her feel calm, especially when he was in his element like this. It was the same trust she’d put in a professional, like a doctor.
‘Why don’t you sit while we talk through what I’d like to do with the song?’ Liam offered, gesturing to the other half of the piano stool.
Sophie looked from the stool, looked at Liam and looked again at the stool, before sitting down next to him. It was tiny, and she found herself close to him, their arms and thighs touching. She breathed in his scent – a little too heavy almost, she thought, but it was so very masculine and something flipped inside her stomach again.
‘Let’s go from here,’ Liam said, pointing to a bar on the sheet music. ‘We can just sing it roughly through.’
‘OK.’ Sophie swallowed nervously. She hugged her arms across her chest.
‘Don’t forget you’ll need the space in your lungs to sing.’
She uncrossed her arms and sat on her hands instead.
Liam smiled and started playing.
Sophie opened her mouth to sing, but her voice wobbled, even though she persevered through to the end of the song.
‘What’s wrong?’ Liam asked after she had finished and he’d stopped playing.
‘What do you mean?’ Sophie said, her voice still cracking when she spoke.
‘You don’t sound like yourself.’
‘I’m just a bit worried about doing this solo, I think,’ Sophie said. A nervous laugh came from nowhere.
‘You don’t need to be anxious about it.’
‘I can’t help it,’ Sophie said. ‘Every time you play, my throat gets tight and my mouth goes dry and it’s a miracle that anything comes out at all.’ She sighed and let her chest fall. She looked at her shoes, her hands clasped tightly together on her lap.
‘If what I heard at your audition is how you sing when you’ve got all that going on, I’d love to hear you when you’re feeling relaxed.’
Sophie looked at him and smiled. He angled himself to face her and at this range she could finally see his face close up. The hazel eyes that had popped into her thoughts so often over the past few days were flecked with light gold and dark brown and his face was etched with age, but they were the kind of wrinkles that suggested a lifetime of laughter and smiles, despite what he’d been through.
‘You don’t need to be nervous.’
Sophie didn’t know what he was talking about now. She guessed it was probably her impending performance at the concert, but they were so close that if either of them moved just a little closer, they would be close enough to …
Liam shifted on the stool and moved forward slightly, but Sophie turned to face the piano and cleared her throat. She couldn’t do this. This was a parent who she’d already attempted to date. She knew she had nothing in common with him. But then Liam was so far removed from her memory of the hideous balloon date, she had to keep reminding herself he was the same guy.
‘Let’s sing it again,’ Sophie said, turning the score back to the start. She stood, partly to improve her lung capacity and partly to break the spell of the moment. The piano stool was simply too small for them to share comfortably and risk-free.
