Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (41 page)

“Me?” Her voice shook with the absurdity of the conversation. “But my school. What about…”

“You come.” Pablo stood. “Bella, you will take over the school until she returns. I want her with me.”

Sophia smiled with a nod, batting away what Carissa knew were tears of pride, but she wondered if they were tears of pain as well.

Sophia had wanted to play the Vatican. She’d spent ten years playing with Pablo DiAngelo, trying to earn that coveted invitation. It had never come until Sophia had given her heart to David and Carissa. Pablo had come back for Sophia, and she’d gone. Had they played the venue, which had then been canceled, everything in Carissa’s life might have been different.

Carissa felt the pang of guilt pierce her. She’d thanked God for taking away Sophia’s chance to play at the Vatican because it had sent her home and they had become a family. And now, unselfishly, Sophia was giving the opportunity to her to live out. He’d offered the position to Sophia, and she’d refused it.

The pang of guilt pierced further into her before she noticed the look in Sophia’s eyes. It was the look of love—love that she had for Carissa. Just as a mother would, she’d give up her dreams for her daughter and hand them to her to fulfill.

Carissa swallowed hard and fought the tears that stung her eyes. Not only was it a chance to do something new and exciting, a chance to leave Kansas City and the thoughts of Thomas and what might have been, it was a chance to fulfill Sophia’s dream for her.

Still, she wasn’t sure she could do it. She’d never left home before, or the people she loved. Hope needed her, and so did her parents. What about Katie? Katie was her responsibility. And what if Thomas came back?

She sucked in a breath. They’d all be there when she got back, wouldn’t they?

They agreed he’d come to the house for dinner and they would discuss everything, but Carissa found that there wasn’t much discussion with Pablo DiAngelo. Either you agreed with him, or you simply didn’t speak to the man again.

Pablo filled the dinner discussion with plans he had to carry out the performance.

David reached his hand to Carissa’s and gave it a squeeze as she processed what was being said. “Carissa, you do what you want,” he interjected.

Carissa could feel her forehead tighten as she drew her brows together sharply. She knew what she wanted to do. She just wasn’t sure she could.

David watched her closely. She knew he could read her thoughts. That’s what fathers did. That’s what her father did.

On a sigh, with a tilt of his head, he said, “But think about the opportunity. It is the one venue your mother always wanted, and it’s being offered to you. The school will be here when you return. And it wouldn’t look too bad for the credentials of the teacher to have played the Vatican.”

Carissa sat silently for a moment and contemplated what they’d all said. She’d never played a big venue like Sophia had once been used to. Could she even compete with the talent that would build his ensemble?

Her heartbeat settled when she realized Pablo wasn’t the kind of man to ask her to join him if he didn’t think her talent was good enough.

The school wasn’t open. She had no man in her life and her family supported the opportunity. She would be a fool to not take it.

Carissa lifted her head and sucked in a breath. “Pablo, exactly how long would I be in Italy?”

Pablo lifted his wine glass in a salute. “Ah! She comes to her senses. We leave in the morning and rehearse for two weeks. Then we give the concert.”

“Why now?” Sophia asked. “Why did they relent after all these years and ask you back?”

A pained expression flickered in his eyes. “New pope.”

Sophia walked Pablo to the limo that waited for him. Only Pablo DiAngelo would think he’d need a limousine in Kansas City when a rental car would have done, she thought. The sun had set, and the temperature had taken a dive. She held tight to his arm and rested her head against his shoulder as they walked.

“I’ve missed you,” she said softly.

“Ah, bella, I’ve missed you, too. Pierre misses you as well.” He turned to her as they reached the car and gathered her hands in his. “Are you sure you won’t come, too?”

“I can’t. I shouldn’t have gone the last time you came for me. I’m needed here, Pablo. I hope you understand.”

“Of course I do. Love is an amazing thing.”

“It is.” When he pulled her to him, she let herself fall against him. “Who will you use in your ensemble?”

“I have a couple others in Rome. It won’t be the same,” he said with a painful sigh. “But it will be good. To have Carissa will be amazing. To tell all that this is Sophia’s daughter…well, that alone will be brilliant marketing.” He laughed.

“Why not Pierre? You said he couldn’t play?”

Pablo shook his head violently. “I don’t speak of it. He was hurt. He’s not in the best shape, bella.”

“I didn’t know.” She gently touched Pablo’s cheek.

“Well, then you live under a rock.” His statement was angry, and Sophia knew better than to ask about it.

“What about Thomas? He was the best and—”

Pablo’s hand came up between them, and even in the dark of the night, she saw his eyes grow black in fury. “That name is dead to me.”

“Pablo…” Her eyes opened wide as she gasped his name.

“Goodnight, bella.” The driver opened the door, and Pablo climbed into the car and shut the door without another word. The driver tipped his hat to Sophia, and they drove away.

Sophia stood on the sidewalk, watching the taillights of Pablo’s car disappear. She needed more time with him. Something had transpired between those she loved, and she didn’t know anything about it.

Carissa walked down the front steps and to her mother. “Are you okay?” She rested her hands on Sophia’s shoulders.

“I’m fine.” She turned and saw Carissa had her jacket on and her purse on her shoulder. “Are you leaving?”

“Yes. I guess I have a lot of packing to do before tomorrow.” She smiled, but Sophia saw through it.

“Are you sure you want to go?”

“I have to go. I have to leave and see that I can survive the one thing I’ve always been afraid of.” She wiped away the tears that rolled down her cheeks “I have to accept that Thomas is gone and he’s not coming back, and that I can go on. That you’ll all be here when I get back. I have to prove to myself that I can survive.”

“Is this the way to do it?” Sophia laid a gentle hand on her daughter’s shoulder. She felt her shake as she fought back emotions that Sophia knew she struggled with.

“I’m going. I have to do this. I told him I loved him, and he ran. He’s not coming back. We made a mistake, Mom. Thomas Samuel wasn’t the man for the job.”

Sophia shook her head. She didn’t believe that.

“Carissa, don’t give up on him yet. You don’t know what he’s going through.”

“What I know is he’s not here to celebrate this moment with me.” She tossed back her head, and her hair fell back behind her shoulders. “All I know is he’s not in my house, his room is empty, and he couldn’t even tell his mother I was more than just the daughter of an old friend.”

Sophia cringed and pulled her hand back. “Oh, Carissa, I’m so sorry.” She was so much more than that to Thomas, and Sophia knew it. It pained her that he’d have chosen his words so that Carissa would hurt so badly.

“No, no. I don’t want to be sorry for myself anymore. I’ll be back in a few weeks. I’ll have lived a wonderful dream. How many people can say they played at the Vatican? I’ll be able to say that. I will be able to hold my head high, come home, and teach those who want to learn how to make music. And I can do it without a man. I can do it without Thomas.”

Carissa huffed out a breath. “I’m a warrior, right?”

Sophia nodded, remembering the bond they had made eight years ago when each of them had shared their physical scars with the other.

Carissa pulled at the Saint Nicholas medal that hung from her neck and held it in her hand. Sophia felt the twisting of her heart when she watched her daughter hold tight to the medal her own mother had given her to protect her. Carissa cherished it as she had.

Carissa squeezed her eyes tight then looked at Sophia. “This is just another scar to bear. Right?”

Sophia took her into her arms and held her.

She’d said she could do it without a man, but was that really what her daughter wanted? Sophia didn’t think so. All signs led to Carissa being miserable without Thomas, and if she knew Thomas, he was miserable without Carissa.

As the matchmaker, she had learned, the pain felt by the pair was felt by the one who put them together.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Thomas woke in his childhood bed for the third time, and yet he’d still not swallowed the fact he was in his mother’s home. A nightmare had crept in the first night he slumbered under her roof. She’d heard him, and so had her husband. They had come to him, held him, and comforted him.

“I have them, too,” his mother confided in him. “I’ve been through therapy. I’ve been on medications. I’ve had people sit by my side on suicide watch.” Thomas’s eyes flew open at the mention of suicide. “I had nothing, Thomas. I lost my husband. I lost my daughter. I lost my son.”

Thomas dipped his head like a small child who was in trouble, but his mother lifted the face of the man with her finger and kissed his cheek. “But he’s home now, and I’m going to take care of him.”

“I don’t know how to accept any of this.”

“First things first. You know you are welcome in our home. We are your family. You have a sister who wants to know you.” She took a breath. “Next you’re going to go back to Kansas City and help that beautiful woman get her school open.”

Thomas shook his head. “She isn’t going to want me.”

“Then,” she continued, “you’re going to learn how to forgive and how to ask for forgiveness yourself. You love her.”

“I didn’t tell her that.”

“No, but you do. You love her very much.”

He nodded. He did love Carissa. His heart wouldn’t ache so badly if he hadn’t fallen completely in love with her. Now he’d walked away. He’d left just as he’d promised he wouldn’t. How was he going to go back and expect her to understand when he had done to her just what she feared he would?

Thomas sat on the front porch and soaked in the sounds. Back in Kansas City, if he were sitting on the porch of the house Katie grew up in and Carissa now lived in, he’d hear music. Cellos, violins, piano, and even one little girl who tried her hardest to hold onto to her tuba would be making music. Chicago, however, was silent, void of all of those sounds he’d become accustomed to.

“I brought you some hot chocolate,” a small voice in the doorway said.

Thomas turned to see Madison standing there in her pajamas, slippers, and heavy winter coat, holding two cups with marshmallows dancing on top. The smile that spread over his lips was genuine. “Thank you.”

“It’s really cold out here,” she said, handing him one mug.

“It is. I didn’t realize just how cold until you brought me this.” He held the hot drink between his hands. It warmed him almost as much as the gesture from his sister had.

“Mom says she liked lots of marshmallows in her hot chocolate.” Madison inched closer. “Sarah, that is. Mom said she really liked sweets.”

He nodded. “She did. Her favorite was chocolate Easter bunnies.”

“I love chocolate Easter bunnies, too.” She moved to the chair next to him and sat down. “I have a picture of the two of you in my room. Would you like to see it sometime?”

“I would.”

“Mom said it was taken on Halloween before she died.”

His breath hitched. Thinking about Hope dressing up for Halloween and the beautiful gypsy that Carissa had transformed into, he swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat.

“She was Cinderella,” he reminisced. “I was Prince Charming.”

Madison nodded. “I’m always a superhero.”

He laughed. “Which one?”

“Oh, last year I was Wonder Woman. My dad picked her because she was his favorite. Do you know which one she is?” Her eyes had opened wider, and her voice lightened.

“I do. My favorite was always the Incredible Hulk. He’s really strong.”

“Yeah, but he’s green.”

“But he’s strong.”

“Did you dress up for Halloween this year?”

He shook his head. “No, I was the candy passer-outer.”

“At your house?”

Thomas finally took a sip of the hot chocolate she’d brought him. He was glad it was hot enough to scald his mouth, giving him another moment to contemplate that he had indeed left her and their house and their school.

“Yes, where I lived in Kansas City.”

The air was getting colder and the smell of snow began to fill the air, yet he didn’t want to go back into the warmth of the house. Sitting with his sister on the porch seemed to be warming him enough.

Madison took a sip of her hot chocolate and slurped up a marshmallow. She chewed on it then licked the chocolate from her lips.

“Did you live with that woman?”

Thomas shifted his eyes to the girl sitting beside him. Her hair was spun gold, just like Sarah’s, but cut shorter. She had small hoops in her ears, something his father would never allow Sarah to do. It was hard for him to remember that this was Madison and not Sarah. They were uniquely different, and that was wonderful.

“I lived in her house. It was a boarding house once. Do you know what that is?” Madison nodded. “Her grandmother lived there from the time she was a little girl until a few weeks back. Now Carissa lives there.”

“And so do you?”

“Well…” He didn’t have an answer for her so he sipped the hot chocolate again.

“Will you bring her back again to meet my dad?” Her eyes settled on him with a gentleness that made him want to gather her up and hold her tight to protect her from the world beyond her front door.

“Do you think he’d like to meet her?”

She nodded. “I think she’s pretty.”

“I think she’s pretty, too.”

“Are you going to marry her?”

He’d forgotten how inquisitive an eleven-year-old could be. “Things are very complicated between us.” She sat close enough to him now that he could smell the fruity fragrance of her shampoo when the breeze caught it. It squeezed at his heart, just as it had when Hope had looked up to Carissa.