Humming a Different Tune

By Amy Rae Durreson

Sometimes help comes from unexpected places. When their dad is given weeks to live, Neil's sister Lucy cancels her dream wedding in favour of a quick ceremony before it's too late. Then a surprise offer of help from a stranger gives Neil a chance to save Lucy's wedding, bring his family joy in a dark time, and possibly even find love himself.

CW: bereavement, terminal illness, cancer

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy Rae Durreson
• Release date: Sep 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781999744625

Amy Rae Durreson

Amy Rae Durreson is a quiet Brit with a degree in early English literature, which she blames for her somewhat medieval approach to spelling, and at various times has been fluent in Latin, Old English, Ancient Greek, and Old Icelandic, though these days she mostly uses this knowledge to bore her students. Amy started her first novel a quarter of a century ago and has been scribbling away ever since. Despite these long years of experience, she has yet to master the arcane art of the semicolon. She was a winner in the 2017 Rainbow Awards.

Book preview

Humming a Different Tune

Amy Rae Durreson

Copyright Amy Rae Durreson 2019

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Table of Contents

Humming a Different Tune

About the Author

Other Books by Amy Rae Durreson

WE WERE managing to keep our upper lips stiff until Dad looked at Lucy and said wistfully, Reckon I’ll not be making it to your wedding, eh, love?

We all took a breath, so sharp and sudden it felt like someone had taken a knife to the air.

Lucy shot to her feet, knocking her chair over. I won’t get married without you! She swung on the consultant, who was watching with tired, well-practiced compassion, and demanded, How soon? When should I get married so my dad can be there?

I wouldn’t leave it more than three weeks, he said, very gently.

Mum’s shoulders sagged a little more. Dad went slightly greyer. I wanted to throw up, my stomach convulsing.

But my sister Lucy, who’d been planning her perfect wedding since she was five, lifted her chin and said, Then I’ll get married on Saturday.

It wasn’t quite so simple.

Mum stayed in the hospital with Dad, but Lucy wouldn’t let me go home alone. She swept me up in her wake, which is pretty much the story of our lives, and installed me in her living room with a cup of tea while she got on the phone.

I stared at it, watching the steam rise off the surface. The sound of Lucy berating someone down the phone was familiar enough to be almost comforting, but I couldn’t make sense of anything right then.

The tea went cold in my hands as Lucy paced in the kitchen, the pitch of her voice rising every time someone put her on hold.

She and Greg had a date set for next year and a deposit down on a posh hotel for the reception. She had recently dragged me around all the wedding-dress shops in Tilling until I lost my temper and informed her loudly that being gay did not automatically make me an expert on women’s fashions.

While the very lah-di-dah staff looked on with discreet disdain, Lucy had honked with laughter, clasped her hands to her heart, and trilled, But you’re my favourite brother, Neil!

I’m your only brother, you mare, I’d reminded her. I’ll be in the bookshop. Come and find me when you want a lift home.

Nice try, she’d said and hooked her hand over my arm. So tell me if you think these shoes are strong enough to dance in.

Now, staring at my congealing tea, it seemed a million years ago.

I heard the sound of a key in the lock and looked up to see Greg, Lucy’s fiancé, come in. He nodded to me. Neil. How did it go?

The cancer’s back, I said. Suddenly my hands began to shake, spilling cold tea all over my trousers. Lucky if he makes it to April, the doctor said.

Oh, shit, Greg said. He must have rushed out of work to be home this early, and I watched the news hit him. He and Lucy had been together