Tabitha Ch. 09

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Tabitha walked into the living room and stopped short. Wes was sitting on a dining chair beside a young man in another chair. Alton was strumming an acoustic guitar.

"Sorry," she said when they both looked up at her. "The front door was open. Is there are there any workers in the kitchen? I can hang out there until you're done."

"No, no," said Wes, "Come in and sit. I actually wanted to play something for you. Alton, you don't mind, do you?"

Alton shrugged. Tabitha took the chair that Wes vacated to go to the piano bench. His long fingers scuttled across the keys, slowly at first. Tabitha watched him in awe. The sounds he eased out of the instrument were nothing like the awkward pings and bangs she made whenever she tinkered on the piano at Dion's house. The music picked up tempo and she grinned. She knew that song. Tabitha tried to hide her laugh with a hand over her mouth, but Wes picked it up and looked at her.

His voice was strong and clear when he began to sing They Can't Take that Away from Me. He sounded almost as good as Fred Astaire. Tabitha laughed out loud again when he finished the line, "The way you sing off key." Wes winked at her and stilled his hands over the keys.

Alton watched her from behind his hair but she didn't care. She laughed and clapped and blushed when Alton chuckled.

"Why don't you hang out a while?" Wes asked after she stood up and gave him a hug. "Alton's mom will be here in a few minutes."

"Okay, I'll go get us all something to drink." Tabitha went into the kitchen and Wes fell back into his chair. He lifted an eyebrow at Alton who laughed.

"Dude, I guess you're right. Girls are into music like that."

"I told you. Don't pay attention to those guys. You could be the next Synyster Gates...then they won't have anything to say. So you miss a couple trips to the mall and you take band instead of Auto Shop. I took band and home ec."

Alton laughed. "You must have gotten ragged on like crazy."

"A guy said something once...I swelled his lip so big, he couldn't get his helmet on for football practice. Nobody said anything after that."

"Cool."

"Not that I'm telling you to fight. You won't be able to practice if you bust your knuckles."

Alton smiled. "Thanks, Wes."

"No problem."

He winked at Tabitha again when she came back into the room with three cans of soda. The picture she made, still in her office clothes, hair loose, in his newly renovated living room was almost too good to be true. It was even harder to believe that he was looking forward to picking out furniture with her.