Sunny

Chapter 4

Otto blew the horn three times, and that had been a week ago. Which meant an entire week of skulking around her own house while doing her best not to be seen or heard by Eli or his entourage. Granted, there weren't all that many of them, but there were a few, and if she had understood Phoebe correctly there were more on their way. Including Mason Stevens and his wife, Cassandra Stevens, who was helping to co-write the soundtrack for the movie in which she and Mason were starring.

Mason's arrival would mean that she would have to be twice as careful because Mason had a knack for finding out the impossible. Although, even with the possibility of Mason outing her, Rhea was eager to meet his wife, she couldn't picture the fun-loving Mason married. There was no doubt that she would have to be an amazing woman to hold Mason's attention because not much did.

The same day that Eli had arrived so had a piano tuner, and the baby grand had never sounded so good. She could now hear him from the kitchen as his music filled every corner of the house. It was becoming more and more impossible to pretend that he wasn't there.

Rhea was making pastry for pie shells, and she was doing her best to stay focused so she didn't over work the dough.

She had been lucky that Phoebe had actually kept her promise and was helping around the inn. There hadn't been many guests scheduled, there never were in the late fall, and Eli had booked the entire hotel for the next three months. Every room sold out. Phoebe had been right, he had brought them much needed income, and she had finally been able to pay off some bills and squirrel the rest away in an account her parents didn't know about. But it was only a matter of time before they put two and two together and demanded the rest of the money.

Rhea looked over her shoulder at the clock, she only had half of an hour before she had to catch the mid-day ferry so that she could put a few hours in at the restaurant, balancing the books. She was wrapping the last of the dough to place in the fridge when she heard it, his voice. She hadn't heard it in person in over five years, and she froze, closing her eyes at the sound.

He was playing Georgia's state song, 'Georgia on My Mind', and the slow bluesy sound suited his gravelly voice. He had played that for her as a joke the day he had learned she was from Georgia, and he had done it without any sheet music.

She closed the door to the fridge and wandered out of the kitchen into the hallway, a little bit closer, she just wanted to hear his voice a little bit better. She crept slowly down the hall and past the massive center staircase. She stopped with her back against the wall at the edge of the door, just out of sight. The mirror in the hall reflected his down bent head as he looked down at his hands as the stroked the keys of the piano. There was the edge of a smile across his lips. It was the first time she had seen him, and he looked...wonderful. His hair was longer than it had been, and he had some scruff on his jaw, but otherwise he appeared unchanged.

She closed her eyes as she let the music wash over her, her knees a bit wobbly, her heart beating erratically. Time had not made a difference to her feelings for the man. She was pulled back into the memory of a hot summer's evening, a night spent under the stars, the one and only night that she had ever spent in Eli's arms. It had been a dream come true.

The song slowly ended and it took a few seconds to come back to earth, and she did so with a bump because when she opened her eyes she saw Eli looking at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes locked with his and she was once again frozen in place. Neither one of them said a word as they stared at each other. His eyes searched her face for something, she want sure what.

"Are you a ghost or a mirage?" he asked softly.

Rhea realized she hadn't been breathing, and she forced herself to take a deep shaky breath which sound outrageously loud in the tense silence that surrounded them.