Matchmakers, no. 1

by Bernadette Marie

  He let the thought go. When Sophia left, she had broadened her horizons. Would she have traveled to Paris and Rome otherwise? Would she have met the queen if she’d stayed as his wife? Would she really have been happy as the mother of his daughter?

  He bowed his head. Mandy had brought Carissa into his life, but he hadn’t cared when Mandy left them. Losing Sophia had destroyed him.

  The cab stopped in front of the house, and David walked slowly to the waiting car. His work would take him away from home for four days. That would give Sophia and him either time to cool down or time to grow angrier. Either way, she’d only have one week left in Kansas City when he returned. He’d decide while he was gone whether he wanted to pursue a relationship—friendship or otherwise—or let her walk out of his life again.

  Carissa paced through the kitchen as the sun began to peek through the window. She’d started a pot of coffee and pulled out a pan for some eggs. She wasn’t the least bit hungry, but her nerves were making her jumpy.

  “What are you doing up? It’s only six thirty.” Millie shuffled into the kitchen. Carissa met her with a smile and a kiss on the cheek.

  “I couldn’t sleep.” She poured her great-aunt a cup of coffee as Millie sat in her chair at the table.

  “Are you taking over kitchen duty this morning?” Katie smiled at her as she, too, entered the kitchen. Carissa kissed her as well and poured her a cup of coffee as she sat down.

  “Yes, I guess I am. How do you like your eggs?”

  “Very runny with toast.”

  “So, what kept you up?” Millie asked.

  Carissa wasn’t sure how much to say, but she knew they would understand better than anyone would. Instead of making breakfast for the women, she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down across from them.

  “Dad and Sophia had an argument last night.” She felt the muscles in her neck tense and the ache in her chest when she thought about the pain on her father’s face and the anger in Sophia’s.

  “That would explain the slamming doors.” Millie laughed.

  “Well, it looks like maybe we’ve failed our mission,” Katie said as she stirred sugar into her coffee.

  Carissa lifted her chin and watched the women exchange glances.

  “Mission?”

  “Katie and I were trying to get those two back together,” Millie admitted. “It worked once, and we thought maybe it would work again.”

  “But she hates my dad, and he can’t forgive her for leaving.” But what if they worked it out somehow? Carissa rubbed her mug between her hands like you’d rub a genie’s lamp.

  “Oh, I don’t think she hates him. She’s very guarded,” Katie defended her granddaughter.

  “Tell me about her. She said something to him about scars. I didn’t see any, but what was she talking about?” Carissa inched over the table to focus in on Katie.

  “When she was a little girl, she was in a car accident with her parents. They both died.”

  Carissa gasped. “That’s terrible.”

  “Her father was my only child.” Katie took a deep breath, and Millie laid her hand over Katie’s.

  Katie told her about the accident and the injuries that Sophia sustained that day. Carissa bit her lip to keep it from quivering. What if her own dreams of having a family were one day stripped from her as Sophia’s had been? She’d be guarded, too.

  “She wanted children of her own?”

  “Yes, and your father did too. That’s why she wouldn’t marry him,” Millie chimed in. “She didn’t want him to give up his own chance of having children, but he loved her and that’s all that mattered. As long as he could have her, he’d have everything he needed.”

  “But your father had never told her about you, and that was what hurt her.”

  “How could he tell her?” Carissa’s eyes widened. “He didn’t know I even existed.” She twisted her fingers through her hair.

  Carissa thought of the day she’d knocked on his door in desperation. She’d hated her mother for what she was and hated him, too, for deserting her. But when he saw her, he dropped to his knees and pulled her to him.

  Her life changed in a moment. There was an instant bond, and she fell in love with him. She didn’t want to love him, but she did.

  “My mom said he’d left us. She said that maybe when I was all grown up I could find him.”

  “You did.”

  “Only because she was so strung out she almost killed us both. He saved us. He took care of both of us. He didn’t have to do that, but he did.”

  “Because he loved you, and was so happy to have you in his life,” Millie confirmed.

  “But he lost Sophia over it. She left him because she thought he lied.”

  The women nodded, and Carissa sat back in her chair. She wiped her eyes. She loved her father. The feelings she had for him were so different from the ones she’d had for her mother.

  Her mother was anything but a compassionate woman; one who never should have had children. Carissa didn’t remember her life before David too well, but she remembered there were others around always. She remembered women with long, stringy hair and missing teeth cooing over her and taking care of her. Many “uncles” stayed wherever she was. They rushed her to bed so the adults could talk and have adult time without her. She’d only been seven when she’d knocked on David’s door. Seven, she realized, was so young.

  With a deep, cleansing breath, she looked at the women who’d taken her into their home and their lives. Her father deserved more than what he’d been given. He deserved happiness in his life with a woman—a woman he loved. With Sophia.

  “Okay, I’m in. I’ll help you set them up.” Carissa stood up and dumped out her mug. “I haven’t been very nice to her, so I don’t know if I’ll be much help. But let’s make them fall in love. They both deserve this.”

  The older women laughed.

  “Well, I guess we’d better make a plan,” Katie said. “We have four days to make Sophia start missing your daddy and want to run into his arms when he returns.”

  Carissa kissed her cheek, ready to make it all happen—again.

  By the time Sophia made it downstairs, only her grandmother remained in the kitchen.

  “Well, you are still here. I thought maybe you’d left us.” She smiled as Sophia kissed her soft cheek.

  “I had a rough night.” Sophia poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down next to her grandmother.

  She’d dressed in a pink sundress and adorned her neck with enough strands of pearls that she would sink to the bottom of the ocean if pushed in.

  “How was your dinner?”

  “Awful. That man and I can’t have a conversation without it ending in an argument. I just need to steer clear of him for the next week, and I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, that should be easy enough. He’s gone for the next four days,” Katie offered.

  “Four days?” Elation and disappointment filled Sophia. She wasn’t sure which one was less appropriate.

  “Yes. He swapped shifts around so he could be here for the party. He’s going to have to turn most of the planning over to you though.”

  “Right.” She was drowning in her own feelings. “Really, we only have the food left. We thought we’d go light.”

  “Sounds wonderful. Anything you chose will be perfect.” She patted Sophia’s hand. “He left his car for you. The keys are on the rack by the door.”

  “Great.” She sipped her coffee.

  “Can I make you something to eat?”

  “No. I’m not very hungry.”

  Sophia walked to the sink and rinsed out her cup just as a familiar sound touched her ears. She turned around and listened more.

  “Is that Carissa?” she asked. The closed doors of the study muffled the cello’s hum.

  “Yes. School starts in a few weeks, and she’s been practicing hard. She really wants that first chair.”

  “Of course,” Sophia said, as though it was what everyone wanted. She lis
tened longer. “She’s too soft. She needs to pull her bow longer.” The notes fell into a familiar pattern. “That’s one of Pablo’s pieces.”

  “She’s only just started that one. She’s a little weak on it, but she’ll improve.”

  Sophia walked from the kitchen and stood just beyond the glass doors to the study. It had once been her music room as well.

  She watched Carissa play the instrument she loved, and the sound filled her with longing for what might have been. She had real talent, Sophia thought. There was potential in the girl who seemed to despise her so much.

  Sophia closed her eyes and listened to the piece. She knew it so well. Her eyes would squeeze tight if the note missed a bit, but for the most part, it was perfect.

  Then the music stopped, and Sophia opened her eyes to see the young girl looking right at her.

  Cautiously, Sophia opened the French doors. “You play so nicely. I just, well, I had to stop and listen.” She rambled on, bracing herself against the string of curses that would surely be flung her way.

  “I’m struggling with this piece. It’s my audition piece for first chair.”

  “I thought it sounded wonderful.” Her opinion was genuine.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, you’re very talented.” She slowly moved into the study. “Pablo doesn’t like that piece very much. He wrote it after a lover left him, but it’s so popular.” Nerves rolled in her stomach, and she rested her hand there to ease them.

  “It’s a beautiful piece. I’ve heard him sing it a lot. I don’t understand Italian, but music is universal.”

  “That it is.” Sophia was next to Carissa now, and she noticed her heavily darkened eyes were not bitter as they had been the day before.

  “Would you help me while you’re here?”

  “Help you with the piece?” Her voice lifted with the shock of the request.

  “I’m sure you have other things to do.” Carissa slumped. “I’d understand…”

  “I’d love to.” Anticipation took over any bad feelings. She wasn’t certain what had prompted the abrupt change in Carissa’s attitude, but she welcomed the second chance to bond with David’s daughter. “I have to be at the caterer’s at one. We could start now if you’d like.”

  “I’d love that.” Carissa grinned. “Dad left the car for you so you could run your errands. I’d be happy to go with you if you’d like. I don’t have to be to work until six.”

  “That would be nice.”

  “Let me go get my cello, and we can play together,” Sophia offered.

  Sophia returned only a few minutes later and set up her instrument next to Carissa. The girl’s eyes were wide, and it was at that moment Sophia realized Carissa had been guarding herself against her. Perhaps she had finally realized that she wasn’t a threat to her. They might not be friends once she returned to Seattle or Rome, but while she was here, perhaps they could be cordial.

  “Let’s start here.” She touched the sheet of music. “This is the hardest part of the piece. It’s a decrescendo so that the voice can crescendo. You have to play it right or the mix throws off the dynamics. Now, even though you aren’t playing with a voice mix, it’s appropriate. If your teacher knows the piece, he’ll know you paid attention to detail.”

  Carissa nodded with understanding. She aligned her bow on the strings, duplicating Sophia’s posture. They pulled the note at the same time.

  Millie and Katie sat in the living room, where they had grown old together, and listened to the cello duet. Sophia had won over Carissa and vice versa. They needed each other. They were bonding over music.

  The phone rang, and Millie picked it up before it could disturb their private concert.

  “I just wanted to check in with Carissa,” David said. “I’d promised I’d call her.”

  “I’ll let her know you called.”

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s practicing her cello.”

  “Well, she can take a break for a moment,” he said sternly.

  “Oh no,” Millie retorted. “She’s playing with Sophie, and they’ve been at it for an hour already. This house is filled with beautiful music.”

  She could feel a joy in her voice that hadn’t been present in years.

  David harrumphed. “I won’t be able to call back until tomorrow morning.”

  “Okay then, call back. I simply can’t interrupt them. Oh, David, they’re playing beautifully and laughing like old friends. You should see this. You should hear this!”

  She held the phone toward the music for a few seconds.

  David chuckled. “I can. I love you, Auntie. Please tell her I called, and I’ll call her in the morning.”

  “Goodbye, David.”

  Millie hung up the phone and turned to Katie, who beamed like she was wearing high-voltage dentures. “This is going to work. I swear this time they’ll make it to that altar.”

  “Millie, you are a hopeless romantic.”

  “Well, hell, what else do I have? My time on this earth is limited. I know that. Before I die, I want to see that man happy with the only woman he’s ever loved. And that girl deserves a mother who would love her.” She snorted. “Besides, you’re more hopeless than I am.”

  Katie patted her friend’s hand. “Well, we’ve done our part. Now let’s see what the man upstairs decides to do.”

  “Sophia, that was wonderful. Thank you for playing with me. Old Brown-Britches will have to give me first seat if I play this well.” Carissa wiped down her instrument, caressing the smooth wood that seemed to transform into a living, breathing thing when she played it.

  “Brown-Britches? Do you mean to tell me Professor Braunstiches is still teaching music at the high school? He was well over a hundred years old when I went to school there, and that was a long time ago.”

  “Well, he’s still there and a bitter, mean, old man.”

  “Well, I see things haven’t changed.”

  Carissa watched her move with elegance and grace as she stored the instrument as carefully as a mother would secure her child into a carrier.

  “I wasn’t very nice to you,” Carissa softly said, and Sophia stopped moving. “I’m very sorry for the way I treated you.”

  “Carissa, there are no apologies needed. You do not know me.”

  “There’s no reason I should have acted like that to you either,” she continued as Sophia stood to meet her at eye level. “My father has been miserable since you left.”

  “Now, I don’t believe…”

  “Well, you should. I was a little girl with dreams of finally meeting my father and making him and my mother fall in love. I wanted that storybook family.” She stored her bow in the case. “I didn’t know they never loved each other, and that it wasn’t going to happen.”

  “Carissa, you don’t have to share this with me.”

  “I want to,” she countered quickly. “My father never stopped loving you. I hated you for it.”

  Carissa slid her cello into its case.

  “I wanted a mother who would take me to Girl Scouts and ballet. I wanted a mother who would teach me to cook, and we could have tea parties and matching dresses. What I got was a cocaine addict who got knocked up by some airline pilot.” As the words flew from her lips, Sophia gasped and then her eyes widened. “You left him for no reason.”

  “Oh, Carissa, I had my reasons.”

  “I know. I heard them.” Sophia’s eyes narrowed on her. “I heard you argue with Dad last night. I was on the porch,” she admitted with a quiver in her voice.

  “I see. And you think my reasons were wrong?”

  “I know they were.” Carissa carried the instrument case to the corner of the room and set it there before returning to the stand full of music. “My father didn’t know about me.”

  “I find that hard to believe. I saw the way he looked at you.”

  “It’s true. I don’t know anything about their relationship, but I do know that they didn’t love each other and that my m
other only used him for drug money. She told him she had a baby and that I died at birth.”

  “Oh, Carissa.” Sophia sat down in her chair again, clutching her cello case.

  “I’d come to the house that day to find him. My mom crashed the car on our way there. We were only a mile away. I think she was so nervous. I’d found out who he was and where he was, and I made her take me to meet him. Actually, I had a few choice words for him.” She laughed a nervous laugh.

  Carissa sat in the chair across from Sophia. Her palms began to sweat, and she rubbed her hands on the knees of her jeans.

  “She took too many pills. She passed out. He ran back with me, and by the time we got to her, the ambulance and police were there. He was blindsided. But he wrapped his arms around me and never let go.”

  Tears stung Carissa’s eyes. “He loved me, and I could see that. He loved me from the moment you opened the door and found me standing on your front porch. He didn’t know I existed, but he understood who I was.”

  Carissa stood and carried the music stand to the corner of the room where her cello stood. She looked out the window over the lawn where she’d seen the rawness of Sophia’s pain. “They wouldn’t let him take me home with him. They had no proof that I was his daughter, and my mother was unconscious. The police were going to take me away.” She stopped there. Anything else would make Sophia only think less of her.

  “When he finally returned home, you had gone. And I was glad.” Carissa let out a sigh. “I didn’t even know who you were, but you were in my way. You were in the way of my fairy-tale life. When Dad finally realized you were gone, and not just ignoring his calls, we were too much into his life for him to turn us away. Mom needed help, and he needed me. I was happy with that.”

  “I went to the hospital,” Sophia said softly. “They called her his wife, and a kind of pain I’d never known shifted through me. Then I saw him with you on his lap. He was stroking your hair. I think you’d fallen asleep. He kissed you, and I decided I had to go.”