Page 8 of To Believe In You
“You need a ride somewhere?” Pete shifted his feet like he didn’t know what to do with his victory.
“I’d better talk to Dad first.”
Pete nodded, studying him with an unreadable expression. After a moment, he turned, leaving Matt to go inside and disappoint his dad one more time.
* * *
Lina had overdone it again.The jars of chicken and dumpling soup in the passenger seat clinked against each other as she pulled into the lot behind Key of Hope. If she weren’t alone in the world, her love of cooking and baking wouldn’t be so problematic.
But here in the Land of Instead, where she didn’t even have the prospect of a family? Her kitchen hobbies resulted in so much food that she had trouble finding enough people to share it with. Hopefully, as Key of Hope geared up for lessons, she’d get to know more families who would be grateful for a break from cooking.
She collected her purse and the shoebox packed with four jars and headed toward the building. Inside the back door, stairs leading to the second floor ascended to her right. The bathroom waited on the left. Thanks to the building’s age and wooden floors, the place smelled like the elementary school she’d attended, but the furnishings were more inviting.
She continued forward into the corridor between the small classrooms. Soundproof glass separated the three rooms. Sandwiched between an optometrist office and a used bookstore on Main Street, Key of Hope had no windows on the side walls, but thanks to the open interior, the ample windows up front allowed in plenty of natural light.
Past the classrooms, at the front of the building, the space opened into a waiting room and an office area, separated from each other by the arrangement of furniture. For students and parents, sleek leather couches and chairs sat on an area rug. Lina’s desk marked the edge of the office space. Plants added a touch of greenery, and the walls displayed a mix of art, old instruments, and lyrics that spoke of the power of music. Antique tin ceiling tiles hung over it all.
Adeline sat at the table that ran along the exposed brick wall, her glossy brown hair glinting in the Monday morning light. She waved hello without looking away from her laptop, then held up one finger, signaling she’d give a better greeting soon.
Lina set down her load to power on her laptop.
Adeline had set up the space and, with Tim’s help, much of the behind-the-scenes paperwork before Lina’s arrival in Wisconsin. Together, she and Adeline had been vetting and hiring teachers, and the first lessons were to begin next week. Lina still couldn’t piece together how a place associated with so much star power struggled to interest enough qualified bass guitar instructors. She’d have thought anyone with the skill to play would’ve put their name in the hat for the chance to rub shoulders with the band.
Yet, as she checked her email, she found no new applicants.
Adeline, a bass player herself, could fill the gap until she married Gannon mid-September. That would buy Lina a few more weeks to find an instructor. She’d broach the subject as soon as Adeline finished whatever she was typing.
She minimized her email program. Her desktop background featured a photo of her grandma’s summer home in Maine, dubbed The Captain’s Vista because it had originally belonged to a sea captain in the 1800s. Throughout her childhood, Lina had spent relaxing months there with her grandparents, exploring the harbor town, eating lobster, and finding herself loved, appreciated, and accepted for something other than her grades or extracurricular performance.
If only her life’s upheaval hadn’t kept her from visiting the place for two summers now.
With a sigh, she carried the soup to the corner, where they’d set up a coffee station on top of a mini-fridge. She was finagling space to stash the soup when the front door sounded its familiar complaint as it scraped open.
Tim stepped in, his hair windblown. He wore dress pants and a button-down—no tie, but still, he was pulled together enough for her to believe that he’d probably combed his hair before leaving the house.
He’d been divorced longer than his fourteen-year-old daughter had been alive. Did he, too, feel like he was living an unfortunate alternate life? And how did his daughter, Isabella, feel? The few times the fourteen-year-old had stopped by, she hadn’t seemed to enjoy the day camp he’d been sending her to while he worked this summer, but she did rave about the boarding school where she stayed the rest of the year. A nice meal could do them good.
She lifted a jar for Tim to see. “Chicken and dumpling?”
“Sure. Thanks.” He pulled up a chair by her desk.
Great. He must be planning an interrogation about her trip to see Matt.
She dawdled putting the soup in the fridge, then brewed a cup of coffee. As the machine gurgled, she glanced again at Tim, who worked on his phone while he waited. Dark smudges underscored his eyes. Could he have drunk enough at John’s wedding two days before to still show the effects?
Lina hadn’t been invited to the drummer’s tiny, beach-side ceremony, so she’d taken the day to drive down and see Matt instead. John’s photographer had, however, forwarded her two pictures for her to share on social media, one for John’s own account and one for Awestruck’s. The event looked fit for a storybook, the couple appearing as happy as Lina had been the day she’d gotten engaged.
She swallowed a serving of jealousy as plentiful as the batch of soup she’d made.
With a prayer for the newlyweds’ future, Lina swept her now-full coffee mug from below the spout, delivered a jar of soup to Tim, and settled at her desk. “How was the wedding?”
“Philip quit.” Timthunked the soup on the corner of her desk.
He liked to keep people guessing, and that suited her as long as his games delayed the conversation about her failure to recruit Matt.
She adjusted her ring. Along with The Captain’s Vista and funds that could finance a truly lavish lifestyle, she’d inherited her grandma’s jewelry. Lina left most of the fortune untouched, choosing to live off her salary from Awestruck and Key of Hope, but picking one of Grandma’s rings to wear each day had become an important part of her routine.
Centering today’s emerald on her finger helped to settle her resolve about Matt. She could’ve tried harder to recruit him, but she respected his decision to stand by a prior commitment.
