Chapter 5
five
. . .
He should have stayed at the table and faced his problems the way Harry was steering him to.
Nikky was sure of that as he strode across the short empty space to stand by the side of the piano where the intensely focused boy was playing.
Something about being around Harry made him feel almost safe enough to do what friends and social workers had been urging him to do since he was five and talk about his feelings.
He wasn’t ready. There was something about Harry that drew him in, but he would still rather hide in the man than confide in him.
As he stopped next to the piano, he noticed a woman holding up a phone to record the boy, probably his mother.
For all of two seconds, she looked livid that some random stranger would step in and ruin her video.
Then her eyes went wide and she glanced from her phone screen to Nikky directly as she recognized who he was.
She sent an eager glance to another woman standing nearby who was also recording on her phone and mouthed Nikky’s name.
Nikky ignored them, especially when the kid stopped playing once he realized something was out of the ordinary.
“Hi,” Nikky said with a broad smile.
“Hi.” The kid screwed up his face and studied Nikky like he maybe, kinda recognized him but wasn’t so sure. “My mum’s trying to record a viral video,” he said, possibly to get Nikky to go away.
“It’s okay, bubs, really,” the mom said breathlessly, gesturing for her son to keep going.
The kid looked up at Nikky again just as Nikky said, “I’m Nikky. What’s your name?”
“Jonas,” the boy said.
“Want to play a duet, Jonas?” Nikky said, gesturing to the piano bench.
Jonas glanced to his mom again. She was still recording with a look of pure excitement. “Yes, go ahead. Whatever you want to play.”
Jonas shrugged slightly and shifted over on the piano bench so Nikky could sit next to him.
“Do you know ‘The Entertainer’ by Scott Joplin?” Nikky asked.
Jonas’s face lit up. “I just learned that.”
“Cool. Why don’t you play the left hand and I’ll play the right,” Nikky suggested.
The kid loved the idea, and within seconds, the two of them started pinging out the notes of the bouncy, catchy song. Playing took a bit of adjusting and getting used to, but Jonas had real talent, and since the piano had been Nikky’s first love, he caught on within the first few bars.
In no time at all, a small crowd had gathered.
Jonas’s mom and the other woman weren’t the only ones filming.
A whole slew of phones ended up pointed at the two of them as they jammed out on classic ragtime.
Usually, Nikky would mind being filmed or having his picture taken without permission, but he was having so much fun with Jonas that he hardly noticed.
For those few seconds, music was fun again.
It belonged to him and Jonas and no one else.
Harry had finished cleaning up their lunch and came to stand next to the piano. He watched the duet unfold from so close to Nikky’s side that Nikky swore he could smell the man’s cologne.
There was probably something really wrong and perverse about it, but for those few minutes, all Nikky wanted in the entire world was Harry’s approval and praise.
The feeling went deep into his very core, to the part of him that knew he had to be good and sweet and accommodating if he wanted a home and people who would be as close to parents as he could get.
And while he definitely didn’t think of Harry as a potential father, far from it, he wanted to make the man proud all the same.
When he and Jonas finished the duet to mad applause from the crowd that had gathered around to watch, Jonas glanced immediately to his mom for approval, and Nikky found himself looking up at Harry with the same hopeful expectation in his smile. Better still, Harry winked at him.
It was like every Christmas morning that he’d dreamed of and never gotten when he was Jonas’s age.
“That was amazing,” Harry said, turning his smile from Nikky to Jonas. “You’re a natural, kid.”
“Thanks,” Jonas said, pleased enough with his performance that he was open to talking to another stranger. “I just learned that one,” he repeated what he’d told Nikky earlier.
“Well, you did a great job,” Harry said. “How long have you been making music?”
Jonas glanced to his mom, who was still recording. She nodded and gestured for him to answer as she continued to stare into her phone. The excitement in her expression told Nikky she knew who Harry was as well.
“I’ve been playing the piano since I was three,” Jonas said. “I’m nine and a half now.”
“Amazing,” Harry said. “Is this what you want to do when you grow up?”
“I want to do it now,” Jonas said as Harry moved around the piano and crouched slightly to be closer to Jonas’s level. “Mum is trying to get me to go viral so I can be on a talent show and get a recording contract.”
Harry laughed. The sound was light and warm, not snide or dismissive. His entire countenance changed as he talked to Jonas, and Nikky was captivated. Gone was the gruff, slightly bitter Harry. In his place was an open, friendly, and charming Harry.
Nikky’s heart slammed against his ribs and blood threatened to rush to all the wrong places for a public space in the middle of lunch break.
“Well, you’ve got real talent,” Harry went on, saying the sort of thing Nikky would have loved to have someone of his caliber say when he was Jonas’s age. “Do you practice every day?”
“Yep,” Jonas said.
“And do you keep up with your schoolwork?” Harry asked on.
“I try to.”
“Good.” Harry nodded. “Keeping up with your studies is very important. You’ve got the makings of a great musician, but it’s just as important to be a smart musician as a talented one.”
“Really?” Jonas looked at Harry like he was a superhero.
Nikky watched him with the same sense of awe and amazement.
“Really,” Harry said with a nod, pushing up to stand tall and glancing to Jonas’s mom. “You have an amazing kid on your hands,” he said. “Make sure you surround him with the right people.”
It was a simple sentence, but it settled heavily in the air. Jonas’s mom said, “Don’t I know it,” but Nikky felt the importance of those words, too.
He wasn’t convinced he’d surrounded himself with the right people.
Harry had picked up on that already. But of course he would.
Harry had been in the entertainment industry for far longer than he had.
He’d recognized that Nikky shouldn’t have been sent off into the wilds of London to record an album without a team to accompany him. He knew that Nikky shouldn’t be alone.
Glancing up at Harry from the piano bench, Nikky absolutely did not want to be alone.
It didn’t make logical sense because the two of them didn’t really know each other, but he wanted to be with Harry as much as he possibly could.
Harry knew things. He could tell Nikky what to do, and Nikky would trust him enough to just do them without question.
“We need to be getting on,” Jonas’s mom said, no longer holding up her phone. “Would you mind giving Jonas an autograph before we leave?”
“I wouldn’t mind at all,” Nikky said, shaking himself out of thoughts that had grown increasingly dangerous to give Jonas a brotherly smile.
The next five minutes were spent posing for pictures and signing some sheet music Jonas happened to have with him. Nikky signed his name right under Harry’s at the top of the page. His heart jolted to see their names so close together in black and white.
“He’s a cute kid,” Harry commented once they’d managed to get away from the arcade, as they made their way back to the studio. “He might just have a serious career in front of him.”
“I don’t know if I would wish that on him,” Nikky said, thrusting his hands in his pockets and studying the pavement as they walked.
“You wouldn’t?” Harry sounded genuinely surprised.
Nikky shrugged and racked his brains to come up with something to say that didn’t make him sound like a hypocrite. He settled on, “Making music is a wonderful thing. So is acting. Doing anything creative adds so much to the planet.”
“But?” Harry asked in a way that called him out.
“But a lot of things come with the job that are—” Scary. He wanted to say scary. “Challenging,” he said instead.
Harry huffed. “Tell me about it.” He thrust his hands into the pockets of his jacket like he needed to contain his fists or he would punch something. “But it’s better than being stuck at a desk all day or driving a train or a bus or something.”
“I wouldn’t mind driving a train,” Nikky said with a half-smile.
“You’d hate it,” Harry replied, surprising him. “Cooped up in a box all day? Driving the same track all the time? No one to talk to?”
“At least you know where the tracks are going,” Nikky said, hoping he didn’t sound too ungrateful.
Harry surprised him by reaching an arm around his shoulders as they walked and pulling him close for what might have been a hug if they’d been stationary. “You’d hate it,” he said. “You’re like me. You need to create to be happy.”
A dozen different emotions blossomed in Nikky’s chest and gut. Harry thought the two of them were alike. Harry wanted him to be happy.
Harry was touching him.
Nikky did not expect the subject change that Harry bombarded him with two seconds after he let go and thrust his hand into his jacket pocket again.
“What do you want from your life, Nikky Smith?” he asked.
The question was so big and so urgent that Nikky stopped several feet before they reached the crossing, where the light was already green. “I—I don’t know,” he said, panic welling up inside of him.
Harry stopped and turned back to him. “Are you sure?” he asked, a wicked little smile pulling at his alluring mouth and glittering in his dark eyes.
Butterflies filled Nikky’s stomach. Was it appropriate to say that he wanted to be horizontal in Harry’s bed while the idol of his younger years railed him into the mattress? Probably not. Especially on a crowded London street at midday.