“No way in hell.” She shakes her head from side-to-side. “He’s crazy about you.”
I don’t have a sibling, so I have no idea if they can sense things about each other. If they can, her sense is way off. “He told me that he had a new focus.”
“The music school?”
I lean back in my chair. This is a hell of a first meeting at my new job. “What music school?”
Her eyes search mine for understanding. “Oh my God. I think I know what’s going on here.”
I wait for her to say something, anything that will help me understand.
“Alex must have assumed you were moving to London.” She pushes to stand. “He was hurt by a woman who moved for a job. She chose it over him. It didn’t end well.”
I’m not responsible for his past choices. I’m also not that woman who hurt him. “He should have asked me about London.”
“You should have told him you were up for a job there,” she counters as any good sister would.
I smile. “I was undecided. I would never have said yes without speaking to him about it. Once I realized I was falling in love with him, I knew I couldn’t make the move.”
“Tell him this, Olivia.” She gestures toward my office door. “I’ll take you to him now, and you can explain all of this.”
I wave her back down with my hand. “I can’t, Phoebe.”
“Why not?”
I glance down at the watch on my wrist. “We made assumptions about each other. We didn’t trust what we were feeling. Maybe that’s a sign…”
“No,” she interrupts me. “It’s bad communication. It happens to Monte and me all the time.”
I listen in silence.
“Talk to my brother,” she implores. “Tell him what you feel.”
Exposing myself in that way isn’t going to happen. I can’t do it.
“I can’t.”
She nods. “I understand. I won’t push, but please know that I’ve known Alex my entire life and I’ve never seen him this broken up before. He loves you, Olivia. He loves you with all of his heart.”
I bite back an onslaught of emotion. “Maybe that’s not enough.”
Chapter 47
Alexander
You’d think that my last performance as the guest conductor of the Philharmonic would be bittersweet.
It wasn’t.
I was thrilled to exit the stage and change into a pair of jeans and a black sweater. I was in a rush to head here, to the theatre I purchased where the next chapters of my life will take place.
“Are you ready?” I bend down to look Alvin in the eye.
“I’m scared,” he confesses. “What if I mess this up?”
“You wont,” I reassure him with a pat on his back. “You’ve practiced for hours. You know each note by heart. You’re going to own this, Alvin.”
He nods. “I believe you.”