Playing the Maestro by Aubrie Dionne Read Free Book Online

store manager of Toys-R-Us fumble with his keys for at least a minute before the doors opened.
    Normally, she’d just check in the hospital store downstairs for a balloon, but this time she wanted to bring Violet something she’d remember. She was going to be the Best. Aunt. Ever.
    Another car parked across the lot, and a mother with two toddlers got out. Melody decided she’d waited long enough and followed the family into Toys-R-Us.
    She hadn’t been there in ages. Never having enough time to shop, Melody bought all her gifts on Amazon, and they came neatly packaged and prewrapped in the mail. This whole walk-around-and-browse tactic was alien to her. What Toys-R-Us needed was a gigantic search engine where you could type in “big stuffed turtle” and the answer came up like magic: Aisle 4.
    She turned the corner and there they were, massive stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes. Their arms and legs poked through a white caged bin from the ceiling to the floor. She stepped forward and dug around until she saw the curve of a spotted shell. She yanked the shell out and a few teddy bears tumbled to her feet. The turtle had big, pretty eyes painted with blue eye shadow, a bow on its head, and a heart embroidered on the bottom of its shell.
    Perfection.
    Melody squeezed the turtle between her arm and waist and stuffed the teddy bears back in. She turned the corner to find the register and stopped in her tracks.
    Wolfgang Braun stood in the middle of the aisle, gazing at a display of sparkling wands as if it was a Monet painting.
    Was she hallucinating from lack of sleep? No. That was definitely him: the green polo hugging his broad chest, loose jeans hanging in just the right place, and flip-flops, which managed to look both sexy and easygoing at the same time.
    Melody backed up, hiding against a shelf of toddler toys. Her elbow knocked a red ball down, and she scrambled to catch it before it rolled into his aisle. He couldn’t see her like this—holding a gigantic stuffed turtle in her starry-sky pajamas. Why, why, why hadn’t she washed her jeans?
    There was only one way out: Beat him to the cash register and run to the car. By the looks of his pensive pondering, he’d be in the sparkling wand aisle for a while. Melody changed direction.
    She shuffled down a row of bicycles, ducked behind a display of talking Elmos, and got into line behind an older woman buying a box of Crayolas.
    Good. That wouldn’t take too long.
    Besides the fact that she looked twelve years old, she couldn’t face him after the dream she’d had. Somehow, the words you have to kiss me still made her blush. No, she needed time away, time to forget about how his hands felt under hers or how hot he looked in those Jane Austen clothes.
    A teen girl behind the cash register took a swig of her energy drink. The lower half of her head was buzz-cut. The upper half she’d spiked into a pink Mohawk. Her name tag read K-pazz . “Three ninety-nine.”
    “Oh.” The older woman brought out a paisley handbag. “I have the ninety-nine.”
    Melody stared at the teen as though she’d somehow insist the old woman give her another dollar bill, but the girl just popped a piece of bubble gum in her mouth and nodded.
    You’ve got to be kidding me.
    The old woman dug into a ruby-colored, leopard-skin change purse, pulling out nickels. “Five, ten, fifteen…”
    “I see you’ve found a little friend.”
    Melody whirled around. Wolf stood with three packs of sparkling wands in his hands. The top button of his polo was undone, showing bronze chest underneath.
    The strap of Melody’s tank top chose that horrific moment to fall, and she pushed it back up while balancing the turtle. This is why you don’t go out in public in your pajamas. “It’s not for me. It’s for my niece.”
    “Of course.” He smiled slyly, as if he’d caught her with her hand in the cookie jar, glancing at her pajama bottoms. “Your niece.”
    “Violet,” Melody insisted, as