Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (18 page)

Sophia paused, her hands full of expensive clothes she’d purchased in Europe. “Do you think she’ll hate me?”

“She is seventeen.”

Sophia knew her grandmother well enough that she understood her grandmother didn’t want her to go, but would never stop her either.

“I’ll be back.”

“When?” Katie shot back.

“I don’t know.”

“What about David? You’re going to marry him, aren’t you?”

“We have a lot to work out. He’s done some things...”

“And you’re walking away again,” Katie reminded her.

“For something I’ve always wanted.” She dropped a dress into her suitcase.

“What if he changes his mind?”

“Maybe I’ve already changed mine.” She shut the suitcase and zipped it closed.

“You’ve had
another
fight?”

“Yes, yes we did.” The answer was as matter-of-fact as it could be. “There are just some things we can’t see eye to eye on.”

“I see.”

Sophia stopped and took a deep breath. She turned to Katie and took her hands. “I love you, Grandma. I’m coming back. I promise. Whether I become Mrs. David Kendal or not, I’ll be here. I already have my things in Seattle being shipped to me. I’ve looked at a house, and who knows, maybe someday I’ll teach music.” The thought appealed to her more than ever. “I want to be here to see Carissa become an adult, even if she doesn’t become my daughter. My life is here.”

“But, for now, you have to go?”

“Yes.”

Katie nodded. “What do I tell David and Carissa?”

“That I’ll be back very soon.” She saw the trepidation on her grandmother’s face. She’d run away from her fears once, and she wouldn’t do it again. “And this time I promise.”

As David and Carissa walked through the door, Katie set the last serving dish on the table.

David surveyed the room. He looked at the table and noted the four plates.

Carissa set her purse on the counter and hugged Millie.

“Oh, this looks good. I’m so hungry.”

“Good.” Millie’s voice broke.

“Where is she?” His voice was already shaky.

“Gone,” Katie said as she sat down to the table.

“Gone? Gone where?” He hadn’t taken another step into the room.

“David, sit,” Millie instructed, and his eyes darted to hers. “Sit.”

The pain in his chest was back. She hadn’t gotten over their fight. Damn! She was the most stubborn, most pigheaded, most...

“Pablo came for her today.” Katie sat with her hands in her lap and her head lowered to pray.

Carissa’s eyes darted to his, and he tightened his jaw.

Again, Millie instructed, “Sit!”

David sat. He bowed his head. He listened to the prayer, and then he shot back up to his feet.

“I can’t believe this!”

“Dad, calm down.” Carissa shot up next to him. “Maybe there’s a good explanation.”

“No.” He turned to Millie and Katie. “What happened?”

“They got their invitation to the Vatican.” Katie’s voice was soft, but there was an edge to it. David caught it.

“You just let her go?”

“Don’t be disrespectful, Davie,” Millie intervened, as if he was a child.

“I didn’t have a choice.” Katie began to serve herself dinner. “This is what she wanted. It’s what she’s always wanted. She said she’d be back soon.”

David raked his fingers through his hair and spun on his heels. He needed air. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. She’d called him six times while he was in Todd’s office and with Mandy.

Shit! She’d tried to call him and tell him, and he wasn’t there. What he’d been doing now felt deceitful, and his insides twisted until he was sick.

Carissa followed him to the back porch.

“It would have been nice. Wouldn’t it have?” She sat on the steps to the porch, pulled her long, dark hair over her shoulder, and wrapped it around her fingers. “I thought she’d stay. I thought she’d be my mother.”

Tears welled in her eyes. David wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the top of the head, blinking back the moisture in his own eyes.

“We’re making assumptions.” He tried to remain optimistic. “We haven’t talked to her. So, she’s not here. She’ll miss the party.” That alone had a bad taste in his mouth. Katie deserved more than what Sophia had offered.

“She’ll miss my audition,” Carissa added, and that set David’s teeth to grinding. Another promise broken.

“But she helped you. Do your best, and get that seat.” It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a demand, and she nodded. “She’ll call. Even if she’s mad at me, she’ll call you.” He was sure of it.

“Do you think she’ll come back?” She looked up at him, tears streaking her cheeks.

He wiped his thumb over her tears and rested his head against his daughter’s. His entire body ached with missing Sophia. “I don’t know.”

By the time she returned, he’d be a father again. He couldn’t even begin to convince his daughter Sophia would stay.

During the first three hours on the plane, Sophia drank four cups of coffee, excused herself to the bathroom six times, and broke down in tears more than once. She was a wreck.

“My Bella, I thought you’d be happy to come home with me.” Pablo took her hand in his and interlaced their fingers, stopping her from wringing his prized possessions. He gently lifted her hand to his lips and kissed each finger. “Why are you so sad?”

“I love him, Pablo. Dear God, I love him. I shouldn’t have left.” Tears welled in her eyes, but she fought them back.

“I thought you were over him. I thought you’d moved on in your life.” His voice resonated with anger, and she couldn’t blame him.

“I thought I had, but I was wrong.” She turned in her seat to look him in the eye. “Oh, Pablo! He still loves me. I was so wrong about everything, and I ran away without asking questions or trying to find out what was what. I was a fool. I love him.”

“I can have them turn the plane around if you’d like.” His eyes softened, and he even smiled.

“Oh, shut up.” She laughed a weak laugh and laid her head on his shoulder. “I love you.”

“And I love you, Bella.” He rested his head to hers and she closed her eyes, hoping she hadn’t sacrificed the people she loved most to play at the Vatican.

David paced the floor through the night and into the morning. Sophia hadn’t even called. He was furious.

He held the box that the glassblower had given him in his hand. He hadn’t had an opportunity to give her the gift he’d brought back from Hawaii. On his dresser now lay the picture of her and her parents that he’d taken from her apartment. He thought she should have it with her.

No matter what time her flight had been, she’d surely have landed in Rome by now and should have called. He’d had enough waiting. Dammit, he’d call her.

He opened his cell phone. The digital clock on the phone read 3:00 a.m. He hit her name on his speed dial. He heard it ring. He heard it again. Then he heard a tap on his door.

Quickly, he flung it open with hopes that somehow she’d be there.

Carissa stood in the doorway in her pajamas. Her eyes were red and swollen. In her hand was Sophia’s phone.

“It was on her bed.” She clutched the phone to her chest. “Do you think she’ll come back?”

He gathered his daughter in his arms and held her tight. He didn’t have an answer for her this time.

Sophia had meant to call home, but there had been no time. The moment they’d stepped off the plane, the paparazzi were there. She’d never get used to the press as Pablo had.

He wrapped his arm protectively around her, and Pierre walked a few steps behind them. She’d been Pablo’s front for so many years, but she’d never realized it until they walked through the airport in Rome. She thought of all the pictures her grandmother had hanging in the hallway of her house. It was no wonder David had assumed Pablo was her lover.

Pablo had them driven straight to his rehearsal hall, and they began putting together their program. He threw out songs to them, they played, and he sang.

“Bella! What have you been doing?” he screamed. “You’re flat!

“I most certainly am not.” She was edgy from lack of sleep and disappointment from not telling David goodbye. Pablo hadn’t even given her the time to call him again.

“Get it right.”

“Bite me,” she huffed out under her breath, but he heard it.

“Oh, Americans!”

“Oh, stubborn Italians!”

The sliver of a smile creased his lips, and Thomas stifled a laugh at the piano.

“She’s home!” He tapped his hand on his heart. “She’s home.”

“Pablo, let’s break for dinner.” Pierre laid his hand on Pablo’s shoulder, kneading it gently. “We’ve all been up too long, and rehearsal is going nowhere.”

Pablo took his hand in his and kissed it.

“Okay, my love. Dinner.”

They packed up their belongings and, again, huddled together as camera flashes pursued them to their car.

“I hate them all!” Pablo let go of Sophia’s hand and grasped Pierre’s in his own just as soon as they left the rest of the world outside the limousine. “Since the moment that
woman
left our ensemble, they have been like vultures. They will rue the day they came up against Pablo DiAngelo.”

Pierre wiped a lock of hair from Pablo’s forehead. “Soon, my love. Soon it will all be over, and we will have nothing to hide. And they can take all the pictures they want at our ceremony.”

Pablo kissed Pierre’s fingers.

“Speaking of weddings.” Pablo lifted Sophia’s hand and raised an eyebrow. “This?”

“Yes, this.” She tilted her hand to examine the ring that had adorned her finger a decade earlier. Thomas shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and Pierre shook his head and patted her knee.

“Oh, Sophia, why did you come?”

“Pablo asked me to.”

“He’s mine, not yours. I’ll take care of him.”

“Oh, I meant no disrespect.” She bit her lip and turned her body toward Pierre.

“I know, but he’s pigheaded!” Pierre held his hand up in defense to stop Pablo from speaking. “He thinks he needs your image to guide him through this life. But he’s wrong. I love him, and that should be enough.”

Sophia suddenly realized the conversation wasn’t for her. It was for Pablo, who took Pierre’s face in his hands and kissed him full on the mouth.

When they pulled apart, he murmured, “
Ti amo.
”

“Then act like it. When we step out of this car, hold my hand, not hers.”

“I can’t do that.” He dropped his head.

“You’re a coward!” Pierre crossed his arms over his chest and one leg over the other, bouncing his foot in defiance.

“Yes, I am. But as we leave the Vatican, I will hold your hand.”

“I quit,” Sophia piped up, and all the men stared at her.

Pablo turned to face her. “I beg your pardon.”

“I mean when it’s all over, I quit.” Saying the words filled her with optimism.

“Now, Sophia, just because I’m fighting with him doesn’t…”

She shook her head. Everything seemed clearer now. Brighter.

“No, no. It’s not that. I just realized that I love David more than this now. I want to marry him and have children with him. Carissa!”

“Carissa?” Pierre snorted a laugh. “What’s a Carissa?”

“She’ll be my daughter!” She was giddy inside. Her stomach fluttered, and her heart raced wildly. “Oh, I’ll be a mother! And he wants to adopt more children!” Her voice had laughter in it, and Pierre smiled even though Pablo was frowning. Thomas had turned his head and stared out into the lights of Rome. She reached for her purse. “I have to call them.”

Sophia searched through her things. She couldn’t find her cell phone in its usual compartment and began tossing items from her purse onto the floor. But her phone wasn’t there.

“Damn!”

“Bella, we will be done in a few days. Enough of this silliness.” Pablo crossed his arms over his massive chest and looked straight ahead.

She knew he was right. David wasn’t going anywhere. He’d be home when she got there. It might be rough for a few days, but he’d accept her apology. But damn! She wanted to talk to Sally Foster. She’d told her she had a good chance at the house. She hadn’t thought about leaving town and losing it all together. She had to get to a phone.

Thomas handed her his phone just as the car came to a stop.

“Thank you.” She smiled at the young pianist, who warmly returned the gesture.

She began to dial as she was pulled from the car. Chaos ensued, and she was forced to slip the phone into her purse and forgo the call. There were photographers and people everywhere, all waiting to get a peek at Sophia and Pablo. Pierre and Thomas were their regular two steps behind them when Pablo waved to his admirers and took her hand in his. Sophia lowered her head to get through the crowd.

She’d always hated living the public life, and Pablo had always embraced it. A reporter yelled from the crowd.

“Sophia! What’s the scar on your neck from?”

Instinctively her hand shot up to her bare neck. No one had ever seen her without her trademark scarves or pearls. Warrior! Warrior! Damn! She wanted to cry. Then another question flew from the crowd.

“Beautiful ring! Are you two getting married soon?”

God! They thought Pablo was really her fiancé.

Another yelled out, “Pablo, what about your affair with Pierre?”

Pierre’s face flushed red, and he lunged after the reporter.

Sophia couldn’t tell who hit whom first, but a moment later, she was on the ground next to Pablo, armed guards surrounding them.

Pierre lay unconscious, blood trickling from his mouth.

Carissa was filling the house with a Pablo DiAngelo song, and David could smash the cello into a million pieces, the way he was feeling.

He’d just picked up this morning’s newspaper when his cell phone rang. He flipped it open. He’d given up on it being Sophia.

“Mr. Kendal, I’m with the title company. We need to set up a time for your closing on Thursday.”

Right. David had to move on with his life.

He scheduled the closing.

His coffee had gone cold. As he opened the paper, everything went bitter.