Symphony in Blue Read Free Page A

to push himself upward and tried to latch on to the sill with his free hand. Again, his shoes slipped and he missed the wood. One of his shoes fell onto the flagstones below and made a tapping sound as it hit.
    By now, the muscles in his right arm were protesting and his fingers were numb. Pain lanced from his forearm to his shoulder, sharp and deep. He couldn’t hold on much longer—even having his toes freed to shore up his foothold wasn’t enough to support him. He reached for the window frame with his other hand and began to haul himself up.
    He ignored the splinters that dug into his hands and arms as he took a deep breath and swung first one leg over the sill, then the other. He landed unceremoniously on the floor of one of the guest bedrooms. For a moment he just sat there, trying to catch his breath. His heart pounded against his ribs. Sweat dripped into his eyes and stung. He wiped his face with the back of his hand.
    David. He needed to let David know he was fine. It took him a full minute to get to his feet. His legs ached and his only thought as he flexed the muscles in his hands was to be thankful he hadn’t broken anything. He wobbled over to the window. “I’m okay,” he said as he peered outside a moment later.
    David looked up at him, stone-faced. Alex knew that look. It was the look David reserved for temperamental artists in the middle of a meltdown or taxi drivers who tried to gouge him. Alex had never been on the receiving end of David’s “icy stare of doom,” as Rachel liked to put it.
    Two minutes later he unbolted the front door and met David outside. “Sorry about that,” he said, hoping to head off the lecture he was pretty sure was on the tip of David’s tongue.
    For a moment David just stared at him. Then, without warning, David grabbed him around the shoulders and pulled him tight against his body. When David spoke, his voice was barely a whisper. “Please don’t ever do that to me again. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you.”
    Alex returned the embrace and sighed. “I won’t,” he said. “I promise.”

Second Movement:
The Littlest Things
     
     
    The present
     
    “Y OUR TURN ,” Antonio said with a wink in Cary’s direction after he’d finished speaking.
    What else could Cary add to Antonio’s thanks for a healthy baby and a wonderful family? He chewed his lower lip as Antonio nodded his encouragement. “Does ‘ditto’ work here?” he finally managed to ask.
    “Don’t think so, man,” Aiden put in with a laugh.
    Cary relaxed a bit. “Okay.” He took a deep breath, then continued, “I’m thankful for so many things. My family, my friends. A healthy baby. Antonio. Massi. But those are all easy. I’m thankful for them every day. I’m damn lucky.” He grinned at Antonio, who took his hand and squeezed it.
    “But I guess this is about more than everyday things. Some things you don’t realize you should be thankful for until you really think about them. And sometimes they’re the most important. The little things. Things you take for granted. Things I didn’t know I knew.” Cary looked at Massi and added, “Things people can teach me.”
     
     
    Two weeks before
     
    “S HE WANTS her papà,” Antonio said as he handed Graziella to Cary the day she was born.
    His baby. Flesh and blood. Graziella Michaela Redding. He’d told Francesca they didn’t need to use his last name, but she, Marissa, and Antonio had all agreed. “Without you,” Francesca had told him after the ultrasound when he’d seen his daughter for the first time, “she wouldn’t be here.”
    He knew Francesca meant that in more than just the technical sense. Ever since Massimo was born, Francesca had tried to convince Antonio they should have a second child together, but Antonio hadn’t felt ready.
    “So will you be the papà this time?” Massimo’s question of two years before echoed in Cary’s mind as he held his newborn daughter. Massimo had been seven