ENCORE PERFORMANCE (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) (19 page)

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,” David 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.
“Good night, 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?” Carissa 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 know 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 know
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.

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 to
forgive and 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 super hero.”
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 as 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.
He’d missed long talks with Sarah, and though he
realized she and Madison were very different, it still gave
him solace to remember the joy in it. He’d forgotten that
family could be a comfort.
Madison sat quietly and watched him with her big blue
eyes as though studying him.
“Do you know how to play chess?”
The change in conversation had him laughing aloud.
“Yes. I know how to play chess.”
“Want to go in and play? We have a chess set made
out of Disney characters.” Her eyes were wide and she was
already on her feet, holding out her hand for him to take.
He looked at her open hand and felt a rush of emotion
that he couldn’t pin down. He’d fought for his father’s
acceptance and he’d fought for Pablo’s and the ensemble’s
as well. Suddenly acceptance was all around him and he
didn’t know that he could trust it. How could he trust that
Madison would want him in her life as her brother, or his
mother would want the man as her son and not the boy?
And Carissa, how could he accept the possibility that she
was in love with him?
Life didn’t work like this. Not for him, anyway. There
had to be long periods of proving yourself before you were
accepted and taken in. Then again, what if they all decided
they didn’t want him, like Pablo had? What if they all
wanted him out of their lives when they realized he was no
good for them?
It would be easier to just run away from it all again and
start new. Why he’d thought taking Sophia’s offer was
plausible he didn’t know. Hurt came only from those who
knew you best, and she’d known him better than most.
Now he looked up into the eyes of his young sister and she
held out her hand to accept him. He swallowed hard. It was
just a game of chess he was committing to. It was just
another day he could spend and feel it all out.
He reached for her hand and gave her a nod.
“Well, who could pass that up?”