The Accidental Encore Page 10

  Yep, definitely unsettled.

  Chapter 15

  Leah tiptoed past her dad’s closed bedroom door and tried not to wince when she heard voices from inside. They’d been back for three days and she dreaded every morning when she woke up and Carolyn was still there.

  She didn’t hate her stepmom, not exactly, but she sure didn’t like having to share her dad and her home with another woman. And Carolyn was changing everything. Normally, Leah would come home from school, grab a yummy snack, and do her homework at the kitchen table. Yesterday when she got home, Carolyn had a healthy snack prepared for her and expected her to eat it and talk about her day.

  Carolyn didn’t know any of Leah’s friends. She’d never been to her school or to her lacrosse games. How was Leah supposed to tell her about the things that happened during the day when Carolyn didn’t know anything about her? Leah was forced to do her homework in her room because Carolyn always had the television on. She’d asked Leah if she wanted her to turn it off, but Leah knew the silence would be worse than listening to the news, and she sure didn’t want Carolyn hovering as she tried to do her homework.

  Leah had just poured Frosted Flakes into a bowl when Carolyn came into the kitchen with a fuzzy pink bathrobe wrapped around her tiny waist. “Good morning, Leah,” she said and poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot she’d set to brew the night before. “Would you prefer eggs?”

  “No. I’m fine with cereal.”

  “I can make some waffles or pancakes if you’d like.”

  Leah tried not to roll her eyes. If she wanted pancakes or waffles, she’d have made them herself. She wasn’t a baby and she didn’t need Carolyn treating her like one. “I’m fine.”

  Carolyn turned on the news and sat at the table with Leah. “Do you have anything after school today?”

  “Lacrosse and piano.”

  “I’ve enjoyed listening to you practice. When’s the recital?”

  “In a couple of weeks. Dad has the schedule.”

  Her father breezed into the kitchen, so handsome in his suit and tie. “Here are my two favorite girls.” He kissed Carolyn on the cheek and ruffled Leah’s hair on his way to the coffee pot. “What do you girls have on tap for today?”

  “Well, Leah’s got school, and I’m going to try and make a dent on moving my stuff in the house from the garage. I won’t have much of a chance next week when I start my new job.”

  “Just leave the heavy boxes and I’ll bring them in tonight.”

  “I’m not a weakling, Mark,” Carolyn said with a flirty tone in her voice.

  “I know you’re not, sweetheart, but it’ll make me feel strong and useful.”

  Leah got up and dumped the rest of her cereal down the sink before she threw up. God, this was even harder than she thought. “You picking me up from lacrosse tonight, Dad?”

  He looked at Carolyn with his brows raised in plea. “Honey, would you mind? I’m swamped at the office, and if you pick her up, I could be home in time for dinner.”

  Carolyn forced a smile at Leah. “I’d be happy to. Where do I pick you up?”

  “At the school,” Mark answered and winked at Leah. “Five o’clock. She hates it if you’re late.”

  “Then I won’t be,” Carolyn said.

  “Have a good day at school,” Mark called to Leah as she bolted up the stairs.

  Leah could hear her dad and Carolyn kissing and giggling in the kitchen before she shut her door and flung herself on the bed. She didn’t want Carolyn picking her up from lacrosse. She didn’t want Carolyn making her breakfast, or leaving her snacks, or preparing dinner. She wanted Carolyn to move out of her house and back to Chicago where she belonged.

  Leah crawled over her bed and picked up the picture of her mother from her nightstand. “Why did you have to die?” she asked the smiling Becca. “Why did you have to leave us?” Leah ran a finger over her mother’s deep brown hair. “I don’t want a new mom,” she said to the picture before setting it down and staring up at the ceiling. Truth was, she didn’t want anything but her dad back all to herself. Just the way it was before.

  ***

  Allie rushed up the walk to Mark’s house and took a deep breath and straightened her scarf before ringing the bell. She wanted to make a good impression on Mark’s new wife, and being on time for Leah’s lesson was the best way to start off on the right foot. She wasn’t late, but Timothy Beven’s mom liked to talk, and leaving their sprawling home on the other side of town and maneuvering through traffic had taken a while.

  A pretty woman with shiny black hair and honest brown eyes opened the door and greeted Allie with a haggard smile. “Hi. You must be Allison.”

  “Allie. And you must be Carolyn.”

  “Must be,” she said and stepped back so Allie could enter. After closing the door, Carolyn stuck her hand out for Allie to shake in an oddly formal manner. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Allie. Leah is very fond of you and Mark can’t say enough.”

  “Well, they’re very special, but I don’t have to tell you that.”

  “No,” she said on a sigh. “You don’t.” Carolyn moved to the base of the stairs. “Leah? Ms. Allie’s here.”

  Carolyn turned back around and wiped her hands on her jeans. “I’m sorry about my appearance. I’ve been moving stuff in all day.”

  “I imagine you’ve had lots to keep you busy.” Allie looked up the stairwell, surprised that Leah hadn’t come down. The girl was usually eager for their lesson to begin.

  “I have. Mark told me you usually stay for dinner after Leah’s Tuesday lesson, but I haven’t had a chance to prepare anything.”

  “That’s okay, Carolyn. I wasn’t expecting to stay, and you don’t have to feed me every week.”

  “Well, it sounds like a tradition, and I don’t know anyone in Atlanta. If you don’t mind staying, I’d love for you to join us next week after things are more settled.”

  “If it works out for you next week, I’d be delighted,” she said as Leah moseyed down the stairs. “Ready?” she asked the girl.

  “Yep.”

  “I’ll be in the garage if you need me,” Carolyn said before disappearing around the corner.

  Allie followed Leah into the den. When they were both settled in their places, Allie asked Leah to start with her recital song. Leah nodded and began the song at a tempo much faster than she’d learned. “Whoa, slow it down, Leah.” Allie tapped her leg in rhythm to the beat. “Start over and watch the pace.”

  Leah started again, but she kept messing up at the chorus of the song she’d had down for weeks. “Arrrrh,” she grunted. “I can’t do it.”

  Allie placed her hand on the girl’s arm. “Yes, you can. You can do this in your sleep. Start over from the top and relax. You’re all tense. Your fingers won’t cooperate if you try to push it.”

  “My fingers won’t cooperate anyway.” Leah slammed her hands on the keys and bolted from the bench.

  Allie sat in stunned silence as Leah ran upstairs and slammed the door. Uh oh. Leah was upset about more than her piano lesson and Allie had a good idea why. She thought about getting Carolyn, but quickly disregarded that idea. If Allie wanted Carolyn, she would have run to the garage and not her room. With a quick look around the corner to the closed garage door, Allie followed Leah up the stairs and quietly knocked on her door. “Leah?”

  “I can’t do it, Ms. Allie. I can’t do anything.”

  “May I come in, please?”

  After a muffled, “Yeah,” Allie pushed open the door and frowned at Leah, her face buried in the pillows on her bed.

  Allie closed the door and sat down at the foot of the bed on Leah’s aqua blue blanket. “Leah, what’s wrong?”

  “Everything.” Leah flipped over and stared at Allie with red-rimmed eyes. “I don’t like her at all!”

  Just as Allie feared, Leah was upset about her stepmom, not her piano playing. “Sweetie, you have to give it some time.”

  “Time’s not helping. I like her
less and less every day.”

  “More time. It’s still too new.”

  She sat up and rubbed the heel of her hands over her face. “Everything is different. She’s changing everything. Her stuff is all over the house. It doesn’t even feel like my home anymore.”

  Allie remembered what it felt like when her dad and Suzanne moved into their new home. They’d combined their belongings and her dad had gotten rid of a lot of his furniture—her furniture—to make room for Suzanne’s things. The worst were the pictures of the two of them she scattered all over the house. “I know this is hard, but you need to think about Carolyn for just a minute. She moved half way across the country into your house. You can’t expect her to throw all of her stuff away.”

  “Why can’t she leave it in her room?”

  “You mean their room?” Allie pointed out.

  “Whatever. I didn’t marry her, so why should I have to live with her things?” Leah crawled off the bed and grabbed a framed photo from her dresser. “She moved the picture of us—my mom, dad, and me—from the mantle to in here and put a snapshot from the wedding in its place. She’s getting rid of my mom already.”

  Tread lightly, Allie warned herself as she tried to think of a way to pacify Leah without making it seem like she was taking Carolyn’s side. “Leah, I don’t think she was trying to get rid of your mom. She probably thought she was doing a nice thing by moving the picture in here, but the only way to know for sure is to ask her. You need to talk to Carolyn about this and give her a chance to explain.” Allie stood up and faced Leah. “You two are probably experiencing some of the same emotions. I know it’s hard, but I really want you to try and talk to her.”

  “I can’t, Ms. Allie.” Leah kneaded her elbow with her hand as if it hurt, but Allie knew she was just about to crawl out of her skin with anxiety. “If I tell her what I’m feeling and thinking, I’m going to get in trouble. My dad always said if you don’t have anything nice to say, then say nothing at all.”

  “Usually that’s true,” Allie countered. “But in this case, the longer you keep your thoughts bottled up, the more likely they’ll eventually explode and, trust me, you’ll be in bigger trouble then.” Allie stepped closer and patted Leah’s arm. “Talk to your dad. Ask him to help you talk to Carolyn. The three of you can work this out, I know you can.”

  “He’ll take her side.”

  The girl was intent on being right. Of course, Allie remembered how being twelve and feeling totally displaced felt. “There aren’t sides here, Leah. The three of you have to figure out how to get along, and when you do, I think you’ll find you might just be happier than before.”

  Leah snorted. “That’s not going to happen. It didn’t happen with you.”

  “I didn’t have to resolve anything because I could always run to my mom.” Not that she did anything other than fan Allie’s already burning flames. “My parents hated each other, and neither one of them was capable of putting their differences aside for my benefit. Your dad loves you, and Carolyn is feeling like an outsider. Everyone here wants you to be happy.”

  “I wish I had some place to escape.”

  Allie wrapped her arm around Leah’s shoulder. “You do. You can lose yourself in your music.”

  “Is that what you did?”

  The piano had saved her even before the divorce. She’d play for hours to block out the sound of her parents arguing. Before she knew what had happened, the music, her ability to control the song, fed a hunger where nothing else could. “Yes, that’s exactly what I did.”

  Chapter 16

  Allie couldn’t help but speculate as to Craig’s motive for wanting her to come over. She’d been surprised when, after her lesson with Zoe Thomas, she had two missed calls and a text message from Craig. Come to my house ASAP, he’d texted. So like him not to ask, but to order.

  She’d thought of him since Saturday. She couldn’t help but think of him. A widower. A man with a beautiful, empty home and a lonely heart. She’d felt a connection with him over pizza and conversation. He’s the one who said she wanted to be heard, and damn him and his listening skills. He was unpredictable and funny and he kept her on her toes. So why did she feel so uncertain about him calling her? Was he interested in seeing her on a personal level, and if so, what would she do?

  She liked him, despite his unconventional attitude about women and pretty much everything. She’d never met a man who didn’t play games or mask his true feelings. As strange as it seemed, they were friends. Allie had never dated a friend.

  He met her at the door with a scowl on his face and his dog at his heels. “You’ve really done it now, Blondie.”

  “Excuse me?” she asked.

  Instead of inviting her in, he stepped onto the porch with her and shut the door behind him, leaving Blackjack inside. He hadn’t changed from work and he smelled like sawdust and sweat. “Leah’s here.”

  She lifted her brows and stared at him, waiting for further explanation.

  “I found her here when I got home.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “She was alone and upset.” He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and glared at her. “Apparently someone told her it would help to have a place to escape when she was feeling bad about Carolyn.”

  Uh oh. Allie hadn’t said that. Not really. “I never told her that.”

  “That’s not what she said.”

  “I told her my situation with my stepmom didn’t get better because I didn’t have to face it every day like she does. I was trying to make her realize she had to be honest with Carolyn and Mark.”

  “Well, you misfired. She took off and didn’t even leave a note. Not to mention the fact that she walked here alone in the dark.”

  “Do Carolyn and Mark know she’s here?”

  “They do now, and I look like the bad guy.”

  “Can I talk to her?” Allie asked. She knew Craig blamed her for what Leah had done, and while she knew this wasn’t what Allie had told Leah to do, she did feel responsible.

  He grabbed her arm as she tried to walk past him. “You need to fix this, Allie. She can’t run away from her problems.”

  When Allie turned to face him, they were practically nose-to-nose. Absurdly, she felt a tingling in her belly at being so physically close to him, even though he looked as if he wanted to spit on her. “I’ll try. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  He opened the door for her and followed her inside. “Where is she?” Allie asked.

  Craig pointed up the curving staircase. “First door on the left.”

  Allie tiptoed up the hardwood stairs, the tapping of her heels echoing off the empty walls. She spun around midway when she heard Leah say, “I’m in here,” from somewhere down the stairs. Craig stared at her with a bitter look of accusation on his face before nodding with his head into the den. Great. No matter what she did, no matter what she said, he was going to blame her for Leah’s actions.

  “I thought I asked you to wait upstairs,” Craig said to Leah where she sat huddled in the corner of the couch. Blackjack nestled against her and set his head in her lap.

  Leah shrugged. “I didn’t want you talking about me.”

  “Well, what did you think Allie and I were going to talk about? The weather?”

  “Look, I’m sorry,” Leah said. “Obviously, I shouldn’t have come here.” She stood up, but made no attempt to leave. “I thought you’d help me.”

  “You thought wrong.” He walked to stand over her and peered down at her tear-streaked face. The man was tough as nails if the trembling of her lip didn’t sway him. “You scared your dad and Carolyn half to death. They didn’t know where you were or what in the world was wrong to make you leave like you did. I don’t know what Allie told you, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t to run away when things got tough.”

  “He’s right,” Allie said, figuring she had a better chance of getting out of this unscathed as Craig’s wingman. “You have to talk to your dad and stepmom. I never tol
d you to run away.”

  “I tried to talk to them, I really did,” Leah whispered through tears. “But they don’t care about me. All they care about is each other.”

  “That’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard,” Craig said, not even trying to hide the disgust in his voice. “Do you have any idea how many times and how many ways your dad has bent over backwards for you? The only reason you don’t know Carolyn right now is because your dad was trying to protect you in case their relationship didn’t work out. He’s always put you first, and it’s about time you started to show him the respect he deserves.” Craig stared at his niece as a vein in his neck pulsed menacingly. “He’s in love, Leah, and he’s happy. He found a woman who makes him feel good about life again. After your mom died, I didn’t think he’d ever feel good about anything ever again. He loves Carolyn and he loves you and you’re breaking his heart by being such a brat.”

  Allie walked closer when she worried Craig’s honesty might make Leah burst into tears. To her credit, Leah stood her ground, although Allie could tell by the flush of her cheeks that he’d hit a sore spot dead center. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” she yelled back.

  “Oh no?” Craig slapped his hands on his hips. “Who do you think was there after your mom died? Who do you think watched him work his fingers to the bone being both mother and father to you? Who do you think listened to him worry for two years about whether to ask Carolyn to marry him because he didn’t want you to think he was rushing into something?”

  “I love my dad. I want him to be happy.”

  “Then you’d better grow up and act like it. Carolyn’s here. She’s his wife and she’s your stepmom. You don’t have to love her, Leah, but you damn sure better treat her with respect.”

  “Craig’s right,” Allie said. “You won’t get anywhere with either one of them if you disregard the rules and are mean to her. Your dad loves you both, and it’s not fair of you to make him take sides. You have to be willing to get to know Carolyn and try to forge your own relationship. It’s not up to your dad or your uncle to do it for you.”