Oxygen (Romance, Completed)

Chapter 18

"Left a bit. A bit more. Stop!" Bradley spoke into a walkie-talkie as my new Fazioli swung in mid-air above the roof terrace on Saturday morning.

I forced myself to unclench my teeth and said a silent prayer the crane driver knew what he was doing. Was it supposed to tilt like that?

I breathed a sigh of relief as the wheels touched down into the waiting cradle, and a team of specialist movers sprang forward to manoeuvre the piano into its new home in the living room. A piano tuner hovered on the periphery, waiting to make any adjustments.

"Thanks so much for sorting this out," I said to Bradley as he brushed a piece of imaginary dirt off his epaulettes. He'd gone for the army look today, although the only place he'd be camouflaged was in a flock of flamingos. And not many four-star generals tended to accessorise with sparkly purple boots either.

"No problem, chicky. I wasn't planning on leaving you to organise this crew yourself. They already tried to delay the delivery twice."

"Are you staying for dinner?"

"No can do. Emmy's having a wardrobe crisis, and I have to fly to Paris and sort it out."

Given that Emmy would happily live in jeans if she could get away with it, I suspected it was actually Bradley who was having the crisis on her behalf.

"It was lovely to see you."

"I'm glad you're smiling. We were all worried about you moving here by yourself."

"I'm making friends."

"Super. And you..." He turned to Sofia. "It's fabulous to see you again. I'll get Emmy's housekeeper to send those recipes over."

When I'd walked in on them chatting in the kitchen earlier, Sofia had mentioned something about ice cream, and I recalled the freezer full of delights at Emmy's house. Bradley had volunteered Sofia to have a go at recreating some of them.

With me bouncing Hisashi on my hip, we all walked to the door to wave Bradley off, skirting around the huge pile of gifts he'd brought with him. It had taken the driver four trips to carry them upstairs, and by the end, he'd been muttering about hiring another crane.

"It's finally here. I can't believe it," I said when we walked back into the living room.

The shiny wood felt cool under my fingertips, and I sat down with Hisashi on my lap and played a few notes. Not Brahms or Schubert. Jansen had tainted those. I chose Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, at least until Hisashi joined in, pushing his little fingers on the keys.

Sofia stopped to listen. "Wow, you're good. Awesome to finally have your own piano, right?"

"I'm so relieved it's arrived."

"Does this mean you'll come home earlier in the evenings?"

"I'll have to do some practice for the recitals with Jude and Jansen, but I'm going to try and get home early three days a week." Of course, I hadn't told Jansen that yet, and I couldn't see him giving in without a fight. But when I'd started spending time with Linc, he'd allowed me to find a strength hidden away inside myself that I didn't know existed, and I was determined to stand up to Jansen for the sake of my son.

"That's great. And Bradley's right—it's good to see you smiling. I get the feeling that isn't all down to the piano, though?"

Sofia had gone out for a late bowling session with friends as soon as I got back last night, so we hadn't had a chance to catch up since my near-disaster of a date. "You're right. Linc's also helped with that."

"So tell me the juicy details."

I cringed a little bit inside, unused to spilling my private life. But this was what girls were supposed to do, right?