I smacked the magazine against his chest. “This.”
The door closed slowly as Gregory stared between me and Opera News.
“Page ten.” I paced back and forth across the window, resisting the urge to throw something.
A few seconds in, Gregory looked up. “Your parents are divorced?” he whispered. I hadn’t told him.
I nodded. “That’s not why I’m here. Read on.”
Within the span of sixty seconds, his jaw dropped and his eyes shot to me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I shouted as I snatched the magazine out of his hand.
“What are you talking about?”
“That you were all apparently bribed to let me into the conservatory.”
Gregory’s nostrils flared as he took a rough breath. “First of all, Savannah, I’ve never been bribed in my life. I’d never participate in such a thing. And if that’s what you came in here to accuse me of, then you can leave and come back when you have your head on.”
“Explain it, then. Explain who would say something like that.”
“Have you talked to your mother? Seems she should be the one you smack with that magazine.”
“So she did it, then?” My head was spinning as I thought of that day. The day I received my acceptance letter. Everything I’d spent my life working toward was wrapped up in one word: Congratulations. Now, it was about to be destroyed by one word: Donation.
“I have no way of knowing who gave what money to where. Nor do I care.”
“I care,” I snapped as I walked toward him, meeting him toe-to-toe as my vision blurred with tears. “I care, Gregory. I care that everything I worked for means shit if this is true. You were at my audition. Just tell me. Did you even score me or was it already determined that I was a shoo-in because of this? Is that why you were such a dick to me when I had you in class? Because I was the spoiled brat whose mother bought her way into the conservatory?” I was speaking so fast I had to stop and catch my breath, just as Gregory caught my shoulders.
“Listen.” He leaned down slightly so we were eye-to-eye. “I wasn’t a dick to you, Savannah. And, if I was, it was unconscious because I was trying to avoid dealing with my feelings for you. I’m sorry for that. I’ve been sorry for that. That aside, you’re not a spoiled brat and you were not a shoo-in. Any time I’ve heard rumors of things like that happening have been after we’ve already declined someone’s admission. You were in before you walked off the stage, but not because of some bribe.”
“What?” I wiped under my eyes but didn’t try to pull away. His grip on my shoulders calmed me.
His voice softened significantly. “Until that point it had been years since I’d heard a high school student of any instrument play with such skill. You were in before the last note from your flute silenced in the auditorium that day. I didn’t care what the others had to say. And, I had no idea who your mother was. I didn’t know if you had the money to come, but I was prepared to do anything to make sure that you got into that school. Because of your talent, Savannah. Because you deserved it. Because you earned it.”
My lip involuntarily quivered as I took in the sincerity of his eyes. The truth. I opened my mouth to say something, but he stopped me.
“Why didn’t you tell me about your parents?”
“It’s not important. It’s not part of the deal here, Gregory. We don’t … share things like that.” I’d wanted to tell him. Badly. But relying on him for emotional support seemed risky given the rest of the summer was likely to fly by and I’d be left with open wounds he was unable to tend to.
“Sit,” Gregory commanded as he led me to the bed. I silently obeyed. He took my hands in his and continued. “It is important. You’re important. I know our time together is limited, but your thoughts and feelings still matter. They happen, and they matter. I want to know what’s going on with you.”
I sighed, and with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I looked him in the eyes. “You understand, though, why I might not want to discuss my parents’ marriage breaking up because of an affair?”
His lips parted but he had no words. What could he say? He just nodded and swallowed hard.
I grazed my thumb across his knuckles and tried to change the subject. “Who would say that stuff about me, then? Even if my mom did try to get me in, and believe me, we’ll have the discussion, who would say something to the magazine?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “But I can try to find out. I have my suspicions.”
“You’d do that for me?” I looked away from his strong hands and met his eyes. I knew there was no way he’d be able to find out, but his allegiance to me meant more. But then my mind ran to the question of his suspicions. Did he think Karin had something to do with this? And why hadn’t he talked about what happened when she flew out?
“Savannah,” he sighed, stroking his fingers down the side of my face. “You know I’d do absolutely anything for you. I’m so madly in l–”
“Don’t.” I stopped him by putting my finger over his lips. “Don’t say it.”
His lips opened again and, for a second, I thought he was going to argue with me. To say that he loved me. I would have come apart then. Demanded things I had no business demanding. Instead he closed them again around the tip of my finger and quickly traced it with the tip of his tongue. His eyes closed as he moaned softly.
I caught my breath at the intensity of the swift movement and brought my hand to his chest as I rested my forehead against his. His lips searched for mine immediately, as if whenever they were an inch apart they had to be together. Gregory’s bottom lip skimmed the hyperaware skin of my top lip. Normally I’d playfully tease him. Turn my head to the side or duck my chin in the cat-and-mouse game our mouths liked to play.