Page 90 of To Believe In You
Scowling, Tim pulled himself off the couch and disappeared into the control room.
The basses glimmered, opportunity ripe for the picking.
He hadn’t been asked to leave. Miracle of miracles. Yet as he chose an instrument, fit the strap over his shoulder, and settled the bass across his body, his stomach crawled with the suspicion that he should’ve been. That he hadn’t earned his place here and never would.
* * *
Lina twisted her ring,a blue sapphire. Chris had arrived early for his lesson and immediately asked after Matt.
Since their conversation in her driveway, he hadn’t spent an extra minute at Key of Hope. At least, not while Lina worked, though she frequently found evidence that he’d stopped in. A coffee cup in a waste basket she’d emptied. A light left on.
Chris spent twenty-five minutes playing on his phone and shooting longing glances at the door, waiting for his hero to arrive. At his scheduled start time, the boy put his phone away and started kicking his feet.
Matt was two minutes late. He was still coming, right?
Of all his students, Chris was the most enthusiastic, and that made him the one she least wanted to disappoint.
When Matt hadn’t told her she needed to find a sub for today, she’d assumed he wouldn’t miss his sessions, despite the Awestruck audition. Had he expected her to find someone to fill in for him?
She reached for her phone. It was too late to ask anyone to cover for Chris’s lesson, but she might be able to line up someone else for the later ones. Adeline hadn’t been in much since returning from her honeymoon, but maybe she could spare a couple of hours.
A shadow moved on the glass, the front door swished open, and Matt stepped in. He wore jeans, a black T-shirt, and a light jacket, much the same as what he wore every day, now that he didn’t have other jobs to dress for, but he looked different. Stronger, better.
He offered Chris a ready smile.
The first day of the audition must’ve gone well. A longing to hear about it, to celebrate the win with him, stirred in her chest. Unfulfilled, the desire prowled like a wounded animal looking for shelter.
As Matt and Chris began their handshake, the pressure built to somehow connect with Matt. She longed to be close to him, to hear the latest about Nadia, to update him with the one tiny piece of news Dad had given her, that Shane’s ticket had been round trip. He’d had a way back home two days after the wedding. Unfortunately, Dad hadn’t seen him in New York since, so he couldn’t say whether he’d left.
At the end of the handshake, Matt shrugged out of his coat and followed Chris to their usual room. As he shut the door behind them, he smiled absently.
She’d known he’d move on from a breakup more easily than she would, but the gap seemed so wide. Why couldn’t she will herself past this? Why did she feel so lost and alone?
The moisture in her eyes betrayed her will to retain composure. She jolted up from her desk. She didn’t dare look straight at Matt, but his worn tennies paused in the middle of turning from the door.
She clenched her jaw, prayed her face wasn’t red, and trained her eyes on the end of the hall as if this trip to the bathroom had nothing to do with him, as if all was right in her world.
She shut herself in to the small, dim space and braced her hands on either side of the porcelain sink. The face staring back from the mirror couldn’t have fooled anyone, eyes a desperate pink, bottom lip trembling, cheeks ashen.
Matt had his reasons for breaking things off between them, but she missed him. And though she knew he had issues of his own, insidious thoughts taunted her, saying perhaps if she’d said and done the right things, he wouldn’t have cut her out of his life.
* * *
By Wednesday,Matt was dying to break the silence with Lina. She’d focused on her computer, students, or business calls any time he’d been in the office, a little furrow between her brows, mouth a joyless line. He rarely saw her banter with the other teachers. Superior Dogs, the local food truck, had probably experienced an uptick in business because Lina hadn’t brought in food for the Key of Hope staff all week.
Since cooking comforted her and she was clearly upset, her choice to forgo the hobby worried him most.
Had he upset her this much? Or had something happened with her family?
But how could he help when he was barely keeping up with his responsibilities as it was? Awestruck—jamming with the guys and working on his own to ensure he wasreadyto jam with the guys—had packed all the time he’d freed up by quitting some of his jobs.
In the middle of his last lesson, Tim entered the waiting area. Lina gathered her purse, phone, and jacket and headed out with the manager.
Matt’s student played a riff of wrong notes.
Right. He was here to do a job—for another week or two at least.
Earlier that day, Gannon had asked how quickly Lina could find a replacement for him.
