ENCORE PERFORMANCE (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) (15 page)

As he’d promised, dinner was on the table for her
when her last student left. She smiled as she walked
through the door to the kitchen. She was sure she could get
used to having him cook for her every day.

He pulled out her chair and she sat down.
“Candles?” Her eyes shifted up to his and let a
seductive grin cross her lips. “Are we going to be eating
like this every night?”

He kissed her atop her head and she nodded.
“No, I guess we never did get around to it, did we?”
“I hope you like tilapia. It’s got a nice lemon pepper

zing.”
“It smells great.” She waited for him to sit down and
then picked up her fork. “I wasn’t very nice to you today.
I’m sorry.”
“I dumped a lot on you last night. You needed time to
process it and so did I.”
“I don’t think any less of you. I want you to know
that.”
“I know,” he said, reaching his hand out to cover hers.
“I learned a few things today. I’m afraid of becoming my
father, yet you’re nothing like your mother.”
“Oh, I don’t know. We’re both a little anal retentive
when it comes to our music. We both hover over Katie and
Hope too much and . . .”
“Not Sophia,” he interrupted.
“Oh.” She laid her fork down and gathered her napkin
in her lap. “My dad was talking, huh?”
“He didn’t tell me anything he wouldn’t have thought
you would. I’m not sure he likes me that much.”
“He likes you just fine.” She lifted her hands out of her
lap and took a bite of her dinner. “This is fabulous.”
“Thank you.”
“Another skill you learned in Italy?” She filled her
mouth again, hoping to keep from talking about Mandy.
“Grandmother, actually. I was still pretty young when
she died, but she taught me a few things.”
“I’m glad she did.”
She kept the conversation moving around in circles,
avoiding anything that would lead to a conversation about
her birth mother.
After dinner, they made hot chocolate and walked out
to the covered porch. They wrapped themselves in a
blanket and held each other close. It was romantic and
peaceful, Carissa thought, until he began to ask questions.
“Tell me about your mother.” She tensed in his arms.
He was calling Mandy her mother and she didn’t consider
her that.
“You know my mother.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Why? Sophia is the only mother I’ll claim.” Her tone
was defensive.
“Listen.” He turned her so they would face each other.
“You landed some heavy words on me. I wasn’t looking for
love when I came here. I have never in my life considered
getting married or having a family.” Her jaw clenched
when he spoke. “Until I met you.”
“You’re just saying that because I was stupid enough
to tell you I loved you.”
“I’m telling you that because it’s the truth. We said
we’d each give a little. Now I’m asking you for a little. I
want to know about your mother.”
She gave a little grunt and sipped on her hot chocolate.
“What do you already know?”
He told her what Sophia had told him. Then what
David had told him. Carissa decided they hadn't left out too
much except . . . “Both of them neglected to tell you she
was a coke addict?”
She heard him let out a breath. “Yes, I guess they did.”
“She used my dad, lied to him and to me. She bounced
me around for seven years telling me
he’d
left us.” She
snorted out a laugh. “Then when I find him she moves her
happy ass in.” She shook her head. “That stupid stunt she
tried about slitting her wrists just messed up my life, not
hers.”
He stroked his fingers through her hair. “You said once
the only good thing she did for you and your father was
give you hope. What did that mean?”
She realized he hadn’t understood the statement at all.
“As in Hope Kendal, my sister.”
“
She
gave you Hope?”
“Yes.” She twisted so that her head lay against his
chest.
“That’s why you look alike. In the face, that is.
Otherwise, you’re strikingly different. You’re dark and
exotic and she’s fair and soft.”
“Exotic?”
“Oh, God, that hair, those eyes, the lips . . .” He laid a
kiss on her neck. “Have you never looked in a mirror?”
“Thank you.” She let out an easy, light sigh. She
sipped her cocoa and led into her story. “She came back
when I was seventeen. The same year Sophia returned to
us. In two weeks I fell in love with her, wanted her for my
mother. She and my father mended ten years apart and fell
in love again. And then Mandy showed up.” She felt him
shift. “Mandy, my birth mother.”
“Right.”
“She was knocked up by some married man she’d had
an affair with. She’d changed her name to Kendal and used
the smooth line that she wanted her daughters to be
together because she was dying. It worked on me like a
charm and it worked on Dad too. He figured it was what he
had to do. He told me once he was afraid that if he didn’t, I
would take off with the baby.”
“Would you have?”
“I don’t know. I never had to make that decision. He
decided she deserved a home. He decided that at the risk of
losing Sophia.”
“She didn’t want the baby.”
“Please . . .” she laughed. “She’d left with Pablo and
we figured she’d never come back. But if she did, Dad
would already have Hope by then. What kind of woman is
met with the story
hey my ex-lover had a kid. I’m going to
raise it. Wanna be the mother?
and decides to stay?”
“Sophia, obviously.”
“Well, she showed up just as Mandy went into labor.
The look on her face when she heard him tell the paramedic
that the baby was his . . .” She couldn’t even explain. She
took the Saint Nicholas medal that lay on her chest always
and pulled it back and forth on its chain.
“Your birth mother . . .”
“Died in labor. She never saw Hope. Everything went
as planned. She had Dad’s name. He was named in her will
as the person to get Hope. He was there, and his name is on
her birth certificate. She
is
his daughter.”
“And she’s Sophia’s daughter.”
“Completely.” She smiled. “She adopted us both on
the same day. I was three weeks shy of eighteen when she
legally became my mother. It was one my proudest
moments.”
“How long were they married before she legally
became your mother?” His breath was soft in her ear.
“Three months.”
“She’s happy.”
“I don’t know if she’d ever have been happier.” She
continued sliding the medal back and forth on the chain
across her neck.
“What is this?” He lifted the necklace with his fingers.
“It was
my
engagement gift.”
“Engagement?”
“Sophia asked me to be her daughter before she and
Dad agreed to get married. Her mother gave it to her.”
“That’s precious.”
“I would like to think I’d give it to my child, but I plan
to have at least four of them. So who would get it? I think
I’ll give it to Hope when she turns ten. He’s the patron saint
of children. He’ll keep her safe.”
Thomas cleared his throat and shifted in the chair.
“You want four children?”
“I do.”
Carissa was fully aware of the awkward silence that
fell between them. Marriage and children weren’t even a
subject he could be a part of.
She couldn’t take away the pain and anger he felt from
his childhood. She couldn’t replace old memories or make
them go away. Suddenly she wondered if she could ever
love him enough to make him feel worthy. If she tried, she
may have to give up her own dreams. Was that worth the
price of love?

They slept in one another’s arms. Things were in the
open, though still touchy. They knew things about each
other.

The school was coming together. They applied texture
to the walls and installed the windows and doors. Carpet
and tile were next and then they would paint.

Carissa took on ten more students. Thomas started a
theory class right in the study. Even Sophia found she had
three homeschooled students that wanted to learn cello,
violin, and viola all at the same time. They made it work. It
seemed like everything was coming together.

Halloween afternoon Carissa had freed all her students
to come another day. Thomas’s only student was Hope and
then as promised, her sister would take her trick-or-treating.

“Hope, go up to my room and get your costume on,”
Carissa called from the kitchen after she’d heard Thomas
finish his lesson with her. “We’ll eat and then we’ll go.”

“Okay.” She bounded up the stairs and Thomas walked
into the kitchen.
The aroma surrounded him as he wrapped his arms
around Carissa’s waist and buried his face in her hair.
“Fajitas? Can’t say I’ve ever had that at home.”
“Hmmm, one of
my
specialties.” She pecked him on
the cheek.
They’d become comfortable. She refused to bring up
the fact, again, that she’d fallen completely in love with
him and he’d never reciprocated the words, but the feelings
were there. She thought perhaps once the school was up
and running he’d ease up a bit. But for now she’d settle for
comfortable.

After dinner Princess Hope stood at the door, her
orange, plastic pumpkin primed with the four pieces of
candy she’d already taken from Carissa’s bowl.

Thomas walked around the corner. “She’s taking forever.”
“What is she doing?”
“Changing.”
“Changing?”
“Yeah, into her costume.”
“Oh.” He hadn’t realized she’d be dressing up.

Suddenly fantasies of Super Girl or Wonder Woman filled
his head. He’d seen many costumes at the store. There had
been that little French maid outfit and the devil. He felt his
cheeks warm with his thoughts.

“Go get her,” Hope whined, and he laughed.
“Okay.”
Thomas hurried up the stairs and tapped on her door

Any fantasy of Wonder Woman was gone when he
looked at her.
“Gypsy?”
“Every year I’m a gypsy and Hope is a princess.”
“This is a sister thing, huh?” He moved behind her and
moved the mass of black curls from her neck. Hidden under
them were large silver earrings. “I like your hair like this.”
“Do you?”
He pressed himself closer to her and she let her body
lean against his, feeling his intentions, and she smiled.
“Thomas, I have to go beg neighbors for candy now.” She
turned to him, the bangles on her arms clinking as she rose
them behind his head. “Meet me at my parents’ house in
two hours. Be nice to the kids too.”
“You’re going to make me give out all that candy,
aren’t you?”
“Yes, and don’t leave any. I open the bag one hour
before people start knocking on the door so I don’t eat it
all.”
“Maybe I’ll throw the bowl into the bag of the first kid
and call it quits.”
“That isn’t going to get me home and into bed with
you any faster.” She turned from him and grabbed up a
shawl.
Thomas snagged her around the waist with his arm and
pulled her to him. “Just tell me you won’t change out of
this outfit. I’d really like to have my palm read.”
“I can tell you already what it says.” She smiled wide.
“You’re trouble.”
“I won’t be any trouble at all if you let me take that
outfit off of you myself.”
She lifted up on her toes, gave him a gentle kiss, and
went on her way.

The next morning Carissa zipped up her suitcase and
carried it down the hall. Passing Thomas’s room she
noticed him sitting on his bed, his hands clasped in his lap.
It was no secret. The trip to Chicago was weighing heavy
on his mind. She wondered if perhaps she should go alone
to purchase the school’s instruments.

She stopped at the door and looked in. “Are you all
right?”
“I’ll be fine.” He blew out a breath. “You’re all ready
to go?”
“Yeah, I’ll just get this in the car and we can leave
whenever you’re ready.” She inched into his room. “If you
don’t want to go . . .”
“No. You didn’t run away when I told you my story. I
won’t dismiss your trip. I just haven’t been back to Chicago
since I was sixteen.” He let out a little laugh. “In fact the
only time Pablo performed there while I was with him, I
faked a sickness so serious he took me to the hospital. By
the time I got there I was so worked up they kept me.”
Carissa felt sick to her stomach that she could hurt him
by just making him go with her.
“I don’t want to cause you pain.”
“Carissa.” He looked up into her eyes. “I need to go,
but I have a favor to ask.”
“Okay.” She stepped fully into the room and took his
hands. “What?”
“I’ve never been to Sarah’s grave. Will you go with
me?”
Her heart slammed in her chest. She knew just how big
a step he was taking. They’d been living comfortably and
his request moved them beyond that comfort zone and into
a trust zone that hadn’t yet existed. “I’d be honored.” She
smiled and pulled him to his feet. “C’mon. I’m hankering
for Chicago pizza for dinner. If we get out of here in the
next hour, we can have it.”
He nodded, gathered his things, and they headed to
Chicago.

Lunchtime found them at a truck stop in Des Moines.
Thomas pushed his Dottie’s Special Pot Roast around the
plate with his fork. Carissa all but licked the ketchup from
her plate once the fries were gone and the hamburger she’d
chosen were history.

“It looks like I’m going to get that pizza for dinner
after all,” she said with a rise of her eyebrows, but
Thomas’s eyes never shifted. “I’d also like to go to the
American Girl store and get something special for Hope
tomorrow.”

He only nodded.
Her heart ached for him. She felt she was dragging him
along a painful journey, but she had to remind herself that
he’d asked to go. After all, she’d offered him an out.
“Thomas.” She waited for his eyes to shift to hers.
“Really, we can find you a place to stay and I can go on by
myself.”
“I have to do this. I have to face it, Carissa. I cowered
and I ran.” He pushed his full plate out of his way and
gathered her hands in his. “I don’t know what happened to
my father or my mother after Sarah died.” He brushed his
fingers through his hair and then settled them back onto
Carissa’s hand. “She tried to call me once. My mother, that
is. I was in Paris.”
Thomas squeezed his eyes tight. “Pierre was in the
hospital there when she called. Pablo told her I didn’t want
to talk to her ever.”
“How long ago was that?”
“About eighteen months ago, I guess.”
“Thomas, she was reaching out to you.”
“I know. I didn’t tell Pablo to end the call. He was . . .
he was angry with me and that was his way of letting me
know.”
“We should find her. You could—”
“No.” He shook his head. “I let that part of my life go.
I need to move on.”
When his eyes lifted to hers, she saw something and
wished she could have captured it. His eyes sparkled.
They’d actually sparkled as if to tell her he was going to
move on with his life and include her in it. She could have
sworn the sparkle said
I love you.
Heat rose in her cheeks and she kept the smile that
surfaced. Inside her heart flipped, her stomach clenched,
and her mind buzzed. He loved her. It wouldn’t be long
before he told her so.