Read Imperfect Harmony for Free Online

him panting, tongue lolling out. Rhys picked it up and threw it for her to chase.
    They played that game for a while, until a small ball of white fur on legs came charging out of the woods and over to Starry, yapping with excitement. Starry growled at first, defending her stick, but then decided the newcomer was interesting enough to drop the stick so she could have a good sniff. The dogs circled each other, warily at first, although their tails were wagging.
    A figure emerged from the trees, hurrying over to where Rhys stood watching the dogs. As he got closer, Rhys recognised John, his cheeks pink from the cold and his breath puffing out in clouds of vapour.
    “Billy!” He called sharply, and the little white dog—Billy, presumably—had the grace to look sheepish for a moment before going back to sniffing Starry’s bum.
    “Sorry,” John panted. “Is he behaving? The little blighter ran off.” His face broke into a shy smile of recognition. “Oh, hi, Rhys. Sorry I didn’t recognise you at first. I was too focused on catching up with Billy.”
    “The hat probably threw you.” Rhys smiled back. “It’s covering my main distinguishing feature. Hello. And yes, they’re fine. Looks like they’re making friends.”
    The dogs had finished checking each other out and were playing chase now.
    “Phew. Billy belongs to Maggie. I’m walking him for her while she’s out of action. I’d hate it if he got into trouble on my watch.”
    The dogs had run to the far end of the playing field, so Rhys and John fell into step together, walking in that direction. Rhys had been planning on walking through the woods, but Starry appeared to have other ideas now that she’d found a friend.
    “It’s a nice morning, isn’t it?” Rhys said and immediately cursed himself for the weak conversation starter. He felt oddly awkward about this unexpected meeting. When they’d interacted at choir, Rhys was in his role of choir leader. He wore that role like armour, confident and in control. Here, with the pale winter sky above them and the grass beneath their feet, they were just two men who were still almost strangers. But Rhys didn’t want them to be strangers.
    “It’s lovely,” John replied.
    The attempt at conversation ground to an awkward halt, but their feet kept moving in rhythm.
    “Maggie said you—” “So, how did you—?” They both started talking at once, then stopped.
    John chuckled, and that broke the tension.
    “You first,” Rhys said.
    “What made you want to run the choir?”
    “My mum talked me into applying when they advertised for a leader. To be fair, I don’t think they got any other applicants. I ran a couple of sessions for them, and they asked me to stay.”
    “You’re really good at it.”
    “Thanks.” Rhys felt a warm glow of satisfaction. “I’d never done anything like that before, so I had to learn on the job. I love doing it, though.”
    “I can tell. It’s obvious, watching you. You’re so focused; it’s like the rest of the world stops existing. Only the song matters.”
    Rhys flushed at the idea of John paying that much attention to him. But John was right. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s exactly how it feels.”
    “Do you run any other choirs?”
    “No, just this one. I do other music-related stuff, instrumental as well as vocal work. I run some school groups—lunchtime clubs and after school mainly—and sometimes schools hire me to do specialist sessions with gifted students.”
    “Sounds interesting.”
    “Yeah, it’s pretty rewarding.” Rhys could bang on for hours about how much he enjoyed his work. It was all the more satisfying because he was his own boss and had built up his business himself. He loved what he did. It kept him sane and gave him a purpose in life after he’d lost his way for a while.
    They’d caught up with the dogs now, who were still having a marvellous time chasing each other and rolling around on the grass.
    A metal bench faced out over the field.