Symphony in Blue

by M. J. Duncan

  “So, what do you have on tap for the rest of the day?” Dana asked, looking over at Gwen as Whalers Village came into view.

  Gwen shrugged and tightened the sleeves of her windbreaker wrapped around her waist. “I honestly haven’t planned it all out. I’ll probably just sit on my balcony and read.”

  “Boring," Dana teased in a sing-song voice, stressing each syllable for effect. "Come on, Gwen. You’re in Maui! You gotta do something fun. Go for a swim. Play some golf. Hell, go skydiving! Even laying-out is at least doing something vacation-y.”

  “Reading is fun,” Gwen countered with a grin. “Besides”—she waved her right hand at her left arm—“I burn too easily to even think of laying out. Even a SPF eighty isn’t enough to save me.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s probably because everything over a thirty is basically the same thing.”

  “Seriously?”

  Dana nodded. “Pretty much. The difference in what they do isn't that much. Like that eighty you were talking about provides something like less than two percent better protection than a thirty.”

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “Nope.” Dana chuckled. She hiked a brow in playful challenge and added, “I spend a lot of time outside, so I know these things. You can look it up if you don’t believe me.”

  Gwen shook her head. “I really don’t care that much, honestly. I’ve long since accepted the fact that the sun and I are not friends. So, what about you? What do you have planned for the rest of the day?”

  “Besides having breakfast with you?” Dana stretched her arms up over her head and yawned. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe take a nap or something. Lord knows I’m going to be up way past my bedtime tonight.”

  “What time do you usually go to bed?”

  Dana shrugged. “Like eight. I have to be at work by five in the morning, so…”

  Gwen gaped at her. “Oh my god, why?”

  “I’m a swim coach,” Dana explained, laughing at the look of horror on Gwen’s face. “Morning practice starts early.”

  “That’s not right.”

  Dana smiled and tilted her head in a small, noncommittal nod that seemed to say, It is what it is. “I take it you’re not a morning person.”

  “Not at all. Which is one of the perks of being a musician.”

  “What are the other perks? Groupies?”

  “At the symphony?” Gwen chuckled. “Can you imagine?”

  “Why not?” Dana challenged, bumping Gwen with her arm. She laughed at the look of absolute disbelief Gwen gave her in return. “Okay, fine. So maybe classical musicians don’t have the biggest party rep out there…”

  “Which is astounding, really, because quite a few of my colleagues could drink any frat boy under the table.”

  “You’re kidding…”

  Gwen shook her head. “Nope.” She grinned at Dana’s obvious surprise and added, “Just because classical music has a reputation for being stuffy and pretentious, that doesn't mean the musicians who play it are.”

  “Huh. Learn something new every day,” Dana mused. She smirked and added, “So, Gwen Harrison, how many frat boys have you drank under the table?”

  “Me? None,” Gwen admitted with a small shake of her head. “I’m halfway to dreamland after three glasses of wine.”

  “Weakling,” Dana teased. She looped an arm over Gwen’s shoulders and pulled her into her side. “I’m kidding,” she chuckled, giving Gwen’s shoulder a light squeeze before letting her arm drop back to her side. “I’m the same way. Although, Waterman keeps trying her best to up my tolerance.”

  Gwen took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it go. “You know, that really doesn’t surprise me.”

  “Right? I think she put down a half-dozen shots last night.” Dana’s forehead wrinkled thoughtfully for a moment and then smoothed out as she shrugged. “Though it could have been more. She was telling everybody she was getting married today, so people just kept sending drinks over. Her and her other two bridesmaids were kind of splitting the drinks amongst themselves and I wasn’t paying too much attention.”

  “Because it was up to you to make sure she got home in one piece?”

  “Yeah. She so damn antsy that she needed to cut loose a bit, but I knew that she didn’t want to do anything too crazy, so when she started talking about dancing on the bar I dragged her ass out to the car and brought her back to the hotel.”

  Gwen nodded. It wasn’t hard at all for her to envision the woman she had met in the elevator the night before kicking up her heels on a bar somewhere. “Aww, you’re a good friend.”

  “Well thank you.” Dana smiled and ran a hand through her hair. The short strands fluttered in the breeze as they cleared her fingers, dancing back and forth for a few heartbeats before settling back into place, cascading haphazardly over her forehead and tickling the frame of her sunglasses.

  Though Dana didn’t seem to notice the way people stared at her as she passed, Gwen did, and while it was disconcerting, she couldn’t blame them for looking. Dana was stunning with her sun-bronzed skin and chiseled physique, but what Gwen found even more striking was how oblivious she seemed to be to the effect her body had on everyone around them. Gwen was painfully aware of the way people stared at them as they walked by, but Dana didn't even seem to notice that heads turned whenever she walked by.

  “They’re staring at my leg,” Dana said, breaking the easy silence that had fallen between them.

  Gwen blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry. What?”

  “It’s the prosthetic. People always stare at it.” Dana sighed. “You get used to it after a while.”

  Gwen shook her head. She was willing to bet that everybody was staring at Dana because of her physique—not her prosthetic—but she was not going to point that out. “How annoying.”

  Dana shrugged. “It is what it is. What are you reading?”

  Gwen smiled. “It’s the latest from Maeve Dylan.”

  “Seriously?” When Gwen nodded, Dana enthused, “I love her! I got to meet her last year at a signing in Westwood.”

  “You're from LA?” Gwen asked, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. When Dana nodded, she murmured, “Huh. Small world.”

  “It usually is,” Dana agreed with a wink. “So I'm guessing you’re from LA too?”

  Gwen nodded. "So, tell me about meeting Maeve Dylan."

  “She was so cool. Super-nice and friendly. Just a really neat lady.”

  “I’m so jealous you got to meet her. Those kind of events are always at night so I never get to go.”

  “Ah, see, that’s a perk of having to wake up super-early—I can go do stuff at night.”

  “Yeah, yeah, rub it in, why don’t you,” Gwen chuckled as their hotel came into view.

  “I even got my picture taken with her.”

  “See, now that’s just being mean. I didn’t mean you should actually rub it in.”

  Dana laughed. “Sorry.”

  “No you’re not.”

  “Yeah. I’m really not,” Dana admitted with a grin.

  Gwen laughed and elbowed Dana in the side. “Rude!”

  Dana grabbed her side and grimaced dramatically. “Ow! Good god, woman! Do you sharpen those things?”

  “Nope. I’m just naturally dangerous,” Gwen sassed.

  Dana’s smile softened and she nodded. “Yeah, you are.”

  Gwen cleared her throat and looked away as the butterflies she thought she had vanquished earlier sprung back to life. “You’re crazy.”

  “Not the first time I’ve been told that,” Dana assured her with a wink.

  “Ryan!” a familiar voice bellowed.

  “Fuck,” Dana groaned. “I’ve been spotted.”

  “And Gwen Harrison!” Gwen looked up to see Regan Waterman bounding toward them in the flimsiest of red bikinis, her breasts threatening to break free of the tiny triangles covering them with every step.

  Dana chuckled and bumped Gwen’s arm with her hand. “You ha
ve, too.”

  “Oh god.”

  Dana nodded. “You have no idea.”

  THREE

  The raised stage that the hotel had erected in front of the windows of its largest ballroom was far too big for a soloist, but Gwen was grateful for the space it gave her as it kept the wedding guests at a distance. She was used to playing for large audiences, but as she was alone in a room full of strangers, she appreciated the feeling of security that separation provided. The room itself was pretty standard fare as far as such things went, though the windows behind her provided a stunning view of the hotel’s lush grounds and a picturesque waterfall that was lit from both around and beneath the water. The pieces that the Chang family had requested she play for the reception that was going on around her were pretentious and unimaginative, and the only benefit of the utterly boring setlist was that she didn’t have to concentrate too hard on what she was doing. She had mastered every single one of their selected pieces before she was twelve, and even had the majority of them committed to memory by this point.

  There were a handful of people sitting near her who seemed to appreciate her playing, but the majority of the room was ignoring her completely. There was a part of her that was insulted by the lack of respect the wedding guests were showing as they chatted quietly amongst themselves, but she also knew that this was part of the deal. She was performing, yes, but these people had no idea who she was, nor did they care. To them, she was nothing more than a live version of canned background music, and as she let her eyes drift over the room, she was reminded of why she usually turned down requests for these kinds of events.

  But, she figured, being all but ignored for a few hours while she played was a more than acceptable trade-off for an all-expenses paid, forty-eight hour vacation that she was also collecting a more than generous salary for.

  She took a deep breath as she transitioned into the last piece she would play before a too-brief twenty-minute break, and was just about to close her eyes to block out the indifferent crowd when the double doors at the back of the ballroom opened and a familiar figure stepped inside.

  She smiled and shook her head ever so slightly as she locked eyes with Dana Ryan, who was quite dashing in her tux with the top button of her shirt open and her black bow tie undone so that it draped casually over her collarbones. Her hair was artfully tousled, her smile mischievous, and her eyes twinkled with laughter as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the back wall. She was the most welcome sight Gwen had laid eyes since she sat down to play Mendelssohn's march two and a half hours earlier, and she bit her lip as she looked down at her cello to both refocus her attention on her music and hide the light blush she could feel creeping up her throat and over her cheeks.

  Gwen tried to ignore the weight of Dana’s gaze as she paid more attention to Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 than she had the last five pieces she had played combined. She wanted to make sure that the distraction of knowing Dana was watching her didn’t cause her to make a stupid mistake, and there was a part of her that wanted to show off. It was foolish and immature, but she had honestly not expected to see Dana again after she said goodbye to her and Regan after brunch that morning, and she wanted to give her a show. Wanted to play something that would be worth remembering. She doubted any of the wedding guests would remember her name after that night, but she hoped Dana would—and she wanted to play in a way that would leave a positive memory in Dana’s mind if she ever thought of her after tonight.

  She took a deep breath as she lifted her bow from the strings at the end of the piece, and looked out over the room. The back wall where Dana had been standing was empty, and her stomach sank as she nodded at the crowd and got to her feet. “I’ll be back after a short break,” she announced, and was rewarded with a few kind smiles and a light smattering of applause.

  Though she would never seriously consider having a drink while performing, the idea of knocking one back was rather tempting given the fact that she had all but been ignored for the last hour and the one person who could have made the dreadful evening moderately tolerable, if only for a few minutes, had disappeared just as quickly and silently as she had appeared.

  She nodded her thanks for the random compliments she received as she wound her way through the tables to the bar at the back of the room. “Could I get a glass of water, please?” she asked the bartender.

  The bartender nodded and filled a small plastic cup with water from the soda gun.

  “Wouldn’t you rather have a shot of tequila or something?” a familiar voice purred against her ear as she took her drink from the bartender. “This party’s dead.”

  Gwen closed her eyes against the flutter of surprise that filled her chest, and smiled as she opened them again and turned to look at Dana. “Hello, again.”

  “Hey.” Dana smirked and gave Gwen a slow once-over. “I like your dress.”

  Though the fitted, sleeveless black A-Line she wore was far from flashy with its conservative neckline and modest hemline that just tickled the top of her knees, there was no mistaking the clear appreciation that burned in Dana’s gaze. Gwen tried to hide the blush that tinted her cheeks at the compliment by taking a long, slow sip of water, but judging by the way Dana’s smirk only grew wider and more mischievous, she knew the tactic had failed miserably.

  “Thank you.” Gwen tipped her head toward Dana and added, “Regan was right. You do look great in a tux.”

  Dana held her arms out and looked down at herself. “You think so?”

  Gwen took another sip of her water and nodded. “What are you doing here?” she asked as she led them away from the bar and toward the doors that led to the hallway. She needed to stretch her legs for a bit before she sat down to play again, as the second half of her solo concert was going to take just under two hours to perform.

  “Watching you play.” Dana pushed one of the swinging doors open and motioned for Gwen to go ahead of her. She smiled sheepishly. “Is that okay? I was just curious…”

  “It’s perfectly okay,” Gwen assured her. “I’m just surprised to see you. Does Regan know you’ve gone AWOL?”

  “Not really,” Dana confessed as she joined Gwen in the hall. “But I don’t think she’ll notice. She and Brooke were dancing, and they kinda get lost in each other whenever they do that.”

  Gwen eyed Dana thoughtfully. “You don’t dance?”

  “Oh, I do.” Dana shoved her hands into the front pockets of her slacks. “But there wasn’t anyone there that I really wanted to dance with, so I thought I’d just….” She shrugged. “I don’t know anything about the kind of music you were playing in there, but you were incredible.”

  Gwen tipped her head in a small bow. “Thank you.”

  “What was it? That last song?”

  “Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1.”

  “Ah. Right. Bach. Of course.”

  Gwen laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, the family who hired me to play the event weren’t keen on the idea of me doing classical covers of modern songs. They wanted a more ‘refined’”—she framed the word in air-quotes—“playlist. And, well, Number 1 is among the most well-known pieces for the cello.”

  “So you play real music too?”

  “All music is real music,” Gwen pointed out with a grin. “But yes, I can play covers of what you would hear on the radio.”

  “I didn’t mean—” Dana started to apologize.

  “I know,” Gwen interrupted, reaching out and giving Dana’s wrist a light squeeze. “It’s fine. Believe me, I’ve heard worse.” She checked the time on her watch and sighed. She had about another ten minutes before she would have to start playing again. “So, how was Regan’s wedding?”

  “It was really nice. Regan looked beautiful, of course, and she was the most adorable blubbery mess when she finally saw Brooke.”

  “Really? That’s sweet.”

  “It was. And Brooke was the same way, so it was just a really great celebration of them, you know?”

&n
bsp; “Sounds like it,” Gwen murmured. “Tell her I say congratulations when you go back?”

  “Why don’t you come on down when you’re done here and tell her yourself? She did invite you to to the wedding and everything last night…”

  Gwen shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know…”

  “Come on. Just think about it? It’s a hell of a lot better party than what’s happening back there.” Dana hiked her thumb toward the ballroom at the end of the hall behind them.

  “I’ve been to funerals that were livelier than what’s happening in there.” Gwen grinned when Dana laughed and nodded in agreement, her gaze searching and hopeful as she waited for an answer to her question. Gwen sighed, unwilling to do anything that would dim the sparkle in Dana’s eyes. “But sure. I’ll think about it.”

  “You will?” Dana asked, her wide-eyed smile sending a flutter through Gwen’s chest.

  Gwen nodded. “I’ve got another two hours here, and I’ll see how I’m feeling when I’m done performing.”

  “Okay. Great. So hopefully I’ll see you in a little bit, then.” Dana smiled and tipped her head in the direction of the beach, where Gwen knew from talking with Regan that morning over breakfast that the other reception was being held. “I should, uh, probably get back there…you know, before Waterman notices I’ve gone missing and stuff. I still need to do my best man speech and everything.”

  “Do you not like talking in front of crowds?”

  “I used to hate it, but I’m cool with it now.” Dana ran a hand through her hair and shrugged. She tilted her head to the side as she stared at Gwen for a long moment, her gaze imploring and her smile so damned enchanting that any vestige of resistance Gwen might have held about the idea of meeting her later crumbled to dust. “Come find us on the beach when you’re done here. It’ll be fun. I promise.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.”

  “By all means, please do.” After a beat, Dana asked, “So…I’ll see you in a little while?”

  Gwen huffed a laugh at Dana’s persistence and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll see you in a little while.”