Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (36 page)

She held up her hand. “That’s not what bothered me.” Walking toward the back of the school, she pulled the belt off her hips and set it on a folding chair.

“Carissa, I never meant to upset you. It’s too much to take in. I understand that. It’s not like I want you to worry about my past. You have a school to build and…”

Carissa watched his eyes shift as he looked around the room.

He’d noticed the covered piano in the corner. “You got the piano?”

“Yeah, Mom talked the school into donating it. Imagine that.” She wiped the back of her hand over her brow then looked up at him. “Go ahead.”

“Really?” His lips broke into a thin smile.

“Yeah.”

Before she could even help him, he had the cover off, the stool down, and he’d started to play. She could see him wince once in a while when a note wasn’t just right, but she knew he’d fix that. He’d have the thing tuned in no time. That would be good, she decided. It would give him something else to think about.

He’d perfected his art, and she now understood why. He’d channeled his life into his music. Every beating he ever took, every harsh word ever spoken to him, the life that his father took away from in front of him, filtered through his fingertips and into the music that flowed from the instrument. She was envious. She could make music, even make other’s feel the song, but she couldn’t put herself into a piece or even randomly string notes together to play the melody that was in her heart.

David walked back through the school and handed her a bottle of water. She thanked him with her eyes as they both sat and listened to the musician play.

Whatever was in his head were the notes that he played, not something he’d written or any piece she’d ever heard. It was what was in him. She almost felt a pang of guilt trickle through her. She’d stolen him to teach music, and he should be giving the world his talent.

A bit of envy flowed with the guilt. She’d never be good enough to play as he did. Her mother was, but not her. It had never mattered. She liked what she did, but she did envy raw talent like the one Thomas Samuel had.

It hit her at that moment that she would give anything to play with someone like Pablo DiAngelo just once. Just once to know what kind of power surged through a person to be with others so talented.

Then the guilt and envy settled, and determination washed through her. There had to be a way to make him learn to love. He deserved to love, and dammit, he deserved to love her.

When he stopped, it took her and David a minute to stop staring at him, mesmerized.

“I got a bit carried away,” he said, pushing his fingers through his hair. “I tend to do that.”

David stood and handed him a bottle of water. “Sophia used to do that, too. So does this one,” he said, putting his hand on Carissa’s shoulder and giving her a squeeze.

Thomas nodded. “Well, I didn’t come here to play. I came to work. What do we need to do?”

“How do you feel about taping seams?”

Thomas’s brows knit in confusion, and David put his arm around his shoulders and herded him toward the truck.

Thomas heard the whir of the drill as Carissa and David anchored more wallboards to the beams. David had given Thomas the specific job of taping the seams of the walls they had finished, but he struggled to grasp the concept of his new skill.

There wasn’t a lot of chatter between them. At two thirty, Carissa said she’d better get home and get ready for her students.

“I’ll bring Thomas home in a little while,” David said. “If we can just finish that last wall, we’ll be ahead of the game.”

“Okay, that will be fine. Can I have the keys to my car?” She held out her hand, and Thomas produced them from his pocket. “Thank you.” Their fingers touched, and finally, she looked him in the eye. Her cheeks were tear streaked, and her eyes were misty.

His heart slammed into his chest. Had she been crying all day?

“Dinner when you’re done?” He lingered his fingers a moment more.

“I’m pretty tired.”

“I’ll have dinner ready for you then, when you’re done.”

She nodded, kissed David on the cheek, and left the two men in awkward silence.

David gave him the courtesy to have fifteen minutes of manly grunts and the scraping sound of drywall knives against the boards as they mudded the seams before he asked, “So what did the two of you fight about?”

Thomas was glad his feet were on solid ground and his work up on the ladder was finished. He wouldn’t have wanted to fall from the highest rung of a ladder to his ass when David confronted him. “Just seems like we see things differently, that’s all.”

“Yeah, her mother and I did that for a while, too.”

Thomas nodded and continued following David’s lead, spreading drywall compound.

“What did you do? I mean while she was gone for so long?” He was curious how a man waited ten years for the woman he loved.

“I didn’t think about it, really. Autopilot, excuse the pun.” He smiled and Thomas, who still seemed to be in his own world, only nodded. “I had Carissa to raise, and when she came to live with me, she was a handful. I sometimes wonder if Sophia had stayed, if that would have driven her away anyway.”

“Carissa was that bad?” He couldn’t imagine.

“Not in her heart.” David found his bottle of water and finished it off. He threw it into the trash can and settled his hand on the tool belt, adjusting it on his hips. “She’s always been a good kid, but she tested her boundaries. She wanted to make sure finding me wasn’t a mistake. She was seven years old and had been tossed around by her mother. Finally she found me, and she needed to know if I was just going to toss her out, too. As far as she knew, I’d already kicked her to the curb.”

Thomas was bound to figure out what was wrong with Carissa if he could just ask the right questions. But he’d best tread lightly. “Why didn’t you see her before she was seven? If her mother was so bad, why didn’t you have custody of her?”

David laughed. “Sure as hell would have, had I known she existed.”

And there was her issue with trust.

David continued, “Her mother told me she was pregnant with her when she was five months along. Right about the time she told me she was seventeen.” He blew out a breath and shook his head in disgust. “Talk about thinking with your dick.”

Thomas sucked in a fast breath, but David just laughed. “I was never that stupid again, I can guarantee you.” He leaned against one of the walls. “She thought I’d marry her on the spot, but that wasn’t what I wanted. If I was going to be someone’s father, fine. I’d take that responsibility. I played and now I pay, ya know?” he asked as though he were testing Thomas.

Thomas nodded and hoped it was enough for David.

“Well, then she told me she lost the baby. She told me she had many medical bills, and I was more than willing to help with that. After all, I was the one who did it to her, as she kept reminding me.” He took off the belt and hung it over a rung of the ladder. “After a few years, I got wise. Figured she’d had enough medical bills, and I went on my way. My aunt knew this girl.” His eyes lit up, and he smiled. “The first time I saw Sophia, I fell in love.”

Then he laughed. “Well, it was the second time, but my heart flipped in my chest.”

David pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and ran it over his face. “I met her at Jeremy’s wedding. She was cute, but young. Four years later, I was a pilot, and she was the most amazing musician I’d ever heard. She’d just auditioned for the symphony. I proposed to her three weeks after we met. She said no for three years.”

“Three years?”

“She couldn’t have her own children. She didn’t want me to give that up. She felt like it was selfish to burden me with that.”

“You didn’t feel that way?”

“Hell no. Sure, I’d like to have had my own child. Who doesn’t? But it didn’t matter. There were thousands of children looking for homes. We could give a couple of them a family.”

“She didn’t want Carissa when you found out about her?”

“I’m sure you know Sophia well enough to know she’s a little on the stubborn side.”

“Yeah,” he let out and then wanted to retract it, but David had nodded in agreement

“She left. She thought I’d lied to her about having a child. Truth is, she never stayed around long enough to ask about her. She didn’t know I’d had no idea Carissa existed. So, for ten years I raised my daughter and pined for Sophia.”

“What about her mother?”

“I took her in with Carissa. She needed more help than Carissa did, and Sophia had fled. I didn’t take her back in a romantic way, but I took her in. When Carissa was ten, Mandy finally left. She’d wanted me to marry her, and I refused. She wanted me to get her a place of her own. I refused. Then she tried to commit suicide by slitting her wrists. Made a damn mess.”

“And then she left?”

“More or less. She told Carissa that she’d hated her since she’d been born, and she was glad she had me to be a pain in the ass for. Then she left.”

“No,” Thomas breathed. And there was another piece. She had been told by a parent that she wasn’t wanted. A parent who had done nothing but hurt her.

Heat rose in his cheeks. It was hard for her to trust because she hadn’t had that early in life. It was hard for her to think anyone would ever stick around because those she’d loved, or those who should have loved her, had left. First her father and then her own mother had walked out. And the scar! Oh, the bicycle accident had scarred her, but he thought back to her expression when he’d first seen it. No one believed her. He knew it.

“Carissa’s scar…”

“She wrecked on her bike, but anyone who knew she had spent the few years with her mother thought she’d tried to commit suicide. A counselor at school nearly decided to have her locked up.”

“But she crashed?”

“Yep. Hid those scars until Sophia came around. I think they said they were warriors, and they uncovered them.”

“The school”—he was digging for information now—“this is what she wants? This is what she’s always wanted?”

David shrugged. “She’s talked about this since she finished college. She’s a certified music teacher.” There was pride in his smile. “But she wanted to take care of Aunt Millie and Katie. I think she felt she owed it to them to be with them.”

“Millie died shortly after you were married?”

“Her cancer came back. She was with us for two more years. It hurt Carissa for a long time. Then she began hovering over Katie, who doesn’t like it as much as Millie did.”

“She’s afraid she’ll leave her, too,” he whispered as if it was an epiphany. “Didn’t she ever want to play professionally?”

“Maybe once, but I think she was afraid to leave. Afraid…well, I don’t know what she was afraid of. I would always have been here when she got back.”

“Are we almost done?” Thomas unbuckled his tool belt and looked around the school. No longer was it an open space. It was taking form into small rooms just as Carissa had envisioned.

He could identify the walls he’d taped and mudded. They weren’t as neatly done as those David had done. But he hadn’t stopped him, so he must have thought he could work around his unhandy work.

“Sure. Let me get my things.”

Thomas nodded anxiously.

David threw his things into the car and started the engine. “She sure fell for you hard and fast.”

“What?”

“My daughter isn’t an easy sell. But in just over a week, you’ve won her heart. She’s so in love with you it makes me giddy.”

Thomas let out a deep, long breath. How could two people have come from such messed-up lives and still think they could be good for each other? Neither one of them trusted anyone fully. How were they going to make it work between them if they couldn’t trust each other?

There just seemed something so right about them. He and Carissa really did need each other. But he’d seen the look in her eyes. He’d belittled her experiences by dwelling on his own. It was selfish, but he’d fought it his entire life. How could he possibly think he could love someone? And now he wondered how she could possibly love him back.

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?”

“If I remember clearly, the last time we tried for a candlelit dinner, we didn’t eat at all.” 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.