Maybe Next Time - Softcover

WINNER of the 2003 Lambda Literary Award for BEST ROMANCE, Karin Kallmaker's searing novel of innocent first love and dangerous seduction joins an unparalleled string of critically acclaimed bestsellers that have left readers worldwide pleading for more.

The violin slipped under her chin and her bow arm flexed as she snapped out the fingers on her left hand. If they laughed she would be humiliated. But she couldn't have stopped if she had wanted to. The violin had her now.

Carefully, heart pounding, she let the first line of the melody soar out. There could be nothing tentative about it. For Jorie, her favorite song, "Stairway to Heaven." After the first recitation of the striking melody line she bridged to the Fantasia in F-minor, and strove to bring out the classical patterns that progressed just as the modern piece did. When the music began to dance and climb toward its climax she forgot about the rink, and the grownups, and the kids. It was just the violin. The violin let her head fill with Jorie and from there she could weave any dream. From the Fantasia back to the rock melody, slowing finally, and fading away.

Applause, she had learned, was hard to gauge. The adults clapped enthusiastically, but she could have played "Happy Birthday" and they would have done the same. The other kids--they didn't know anything about music, only what they liked. They had no idea why they liked it, that Led Zeppelin wrote their music on the shoulders of giants.

But it still hurt, it still felt like a knife when she heard Cici say to Jorie, "Way to ruin a good song."

Jorie came around from behind the table. Remembering the moment it seemed to Bree that the world took a deep breath right along with her.

Maybe, after all these years, she--and the world--had never exhaled.

Jorie said, "Thank you, Bree. That was great."

And kissed her.

A sweet kiss on her cheek, that's all it was. A sweet kiss...