[When no response comes after a minute or two, he's almost tempted to cough this up to a failed attempt at outreach and come back later. How many times had it taken him and Christy before they had finally found the right balance of personal and impersonal conversation that made being around each other not as awkward as either might have once thought? Too long, he sometimes thinks, though it probably would have been longer if not forJilly, Sophie, and Wendy. The situation with Raylene was something entirely different and maybe, just maybe, he was being naively optimistic in thinking they could ever be even acquaintences.

But there had been a response, even if it was just word. And this, the unnecessary kindness, is the sort of thing Jilly would want him to display towards her sister. It had been, he reminds himself not for the first time, an accident.]

It's not such a bad way to pass the time. [Said with a slight shrug in his voice, as if he understands that not everyone was as musically inclined as himself.] Playing for yourself or playing for others. You can choose from any number of intstruments and I don't think it'd be so far from the truth to say there are many here that'd be happy to take on a student.

Myself included.