Lost In Rewind (Audio Fools #3) (39 page)

I can’t help but mimic her happiness before I’m reminded that I don’t have any idea where I am, but perhaps, Juliet knows where we are and who’s in charge.

“Where are we?” I question in a conspiring whisper.

“We’re on a boat, silly. It’s called ‘La Vie en Rose.’ This is Eric and Rose’s boat—they are my cousins. I think I’m going to marry Eric when he grows up,” the little girl declares, employing a remarkable French accent while naming an Édith Piaf song. Maybe I’ve been captured by some strange cousin-marrying cult.

“How old is your cousin, Eric?” It’s all too bizarre; I may simply be in a mental institution.

“Eric is five and Rose is ten,” she affirms with a smirk.

I’ve been abducted on a luxury yacht owned by children, it seems. Perhaps Peter Pan will come to visit me soon, too
.

“Where are your parents?” I ask, needing something to add up and make sense in my head. But the way the light in her eyes just dimmed, I regret asking her anything.

“My mommy left to a place called heaven. It’s nice there; I don’t think she’s coming back. My brother doesn’t believe the red robin that comes to visit me every morning in my window is her coming back to see if I’m okay.” The sad little child, who reminds me of myself, continues to break my heart. “Mommy said that Daddy will find a guardian angel named Sarah to help us after she leaves for heaven. Are you an angel?” the sweet girl asks me.

I look at her, at a total loss for words. I see his features materialize on her face one by one, as if a puzzle revealing and displaying a whole picture right before my eyes. I can feel his gaze on me—peering into my essence. I know whose child she is; there’s no denying it. I have an overwhelming urge to give this little person a hug and promise her that all will be well one day. I don’t know how I know, but I just do.

“Can you play for me?” I circle back to a safe topic. “You know this violin is very old. It is over one hundred years old and it’s been around the world like a well-traveled gypsy.” She smiles at my description of my inanimate best friend, and the light that was extinguished earlier returns, illuminating her steel-blue eyes.

She nods her head while I restring the loose cord on my beloved violin. I quickly tune and hand the instrument back to Juliet as I watch her expertly place it on her left shoulder. She then takes the bow, positioning her delicate fingers elegantly, ready to begin her solo concert.

She stops to think and then adds, “My brother usually accompanies me on the piano, but he’s sleeping and we don’t have a piano here, so just pretend you can hear a piano.” She waits for my reaction.

I nod; I can’t wait to hear my violin come to life at her command. “What song will you play for me, maestro?” I inquire before she starts.

“It was my mommy’s favorite song. Jacob and I were preparing it for her birthday, but she had to go to heaven before she heard it. Daddy says she can hear it from heaven and that she’s yelling bravo.” She swallows hard before continuing to kill me with her words. “It’s called ‘Where Do I Begin’ or Daddy sometimes just calls it ‘Love Story.’”

The child begins to play a melody that I myself have played hundreds of times. My maman, too, used to love and play this song when she would teach me to play the violin, when I was a child not much older than Juliet. I lie down and close my eyes as the lovely, smooth sound brings back thousands of long-forgotten memories. I can hear my maman’s voice sing the lyrics in my head as I drift back home. This is a dream—a beautiful, sad, vivid dream.

“What are you doing here?”

I open my eyes and sit up at once to a woman standing over my bed, directing her question at Juliet.

Juliet smiles, gets off the bed, and goes to stand next to the woman, who to my delight is an adult and may have a reasonable explanation for all this. Juliet hugs the woman, who upon closer inspection could be her mother; they do look a bit alike. Maybe I just imagined she was his daughter.

“Sara, this is also Sarah. I’m teaching her how to play the violin. I think she’s our guardian angel, too.”

We both smirk at Juliet’s introduction. When she mentioned knowing another Sara, I thought she was referring to a friend her own age, not an adult.

“You should be in bed and not bothering anybody this late, your father will be mad if he finds you here.” Her other friend Sara reprimands her more like a mother than a friend.

“She’s no bother. It was a treat to hear her play,” I offer in defense of my new little violin teacher.

The woman lifts her gaze and smiles my way while hugging Juliet to her side. It’s impossible to be mad at this sweet little giggling person with two front teeth missing.

“Hello, sorry for this. I’m Sara Klein by the way. No!—I mean Knight, my name is Sara Knight. I am the one who found your violin at the crypt when you dropped it yesterday. My girlfriend and I ran after you, but we couldn’t find you outside the church.”

This must be the tall American girl I overheard speaking about him. I begin to power blink, because her last name sounds familiar, and she could be, she may be … oh God she is.

“Juliet, please go back to bed quietly and let me talk to your new friend.”

The little girl nods, waves goodbye my way, and then leaves me alone with Sara Klein or Knight or whatever her name is. I’ve made the connection—I know exactly who she is.

“Eddie Klein’s little sister,” I say out loud before my brain can censor my mouth.

“Yeah, Eddie is my brother. Liam and I found you on the beach last night. We tried waking you but you seemed disoriented. The way Jeffery described you, I knew it was you immediately. I saw your bright scarf a mile away. When we couldn’t wake you, we called Jeff, and he made sure we didn’t leave you on that cold beach alone. It honestly wasn’t safe for you to be sleeping there with the herds of people congregating, and in your condition, so we brought you here, where a doctor was waiting to examine you. This is my friend, Emily, and her husband, Louis’, yacht,” the attractive woman explains, shining light on how I got to my surroundings and alleviating the overwhelmed expression on my face.

I recall him talking to someone named Emily on the phone, which at the time, I thought might have been Eddie’s little sister, but this is Eddie’s little sister—the woman he loves. I still don’t understand what they’re doing here in France in the first place. She could’ve just left the violin at the church. They didn’t need to go through all this trouble for me.

“Was that Jeff’s daughter?” I question, but I already know the answer.

“Yes, she looks just like him, doesn’t she?” Her eyes brighten up.

I nod and continue firing questions in an attempt to understand. “Why did you bring me here?” It still makes no sense.

“Jeffery has been looking for you. We’re all here to help him find you,” she answers as if it should be obvious.

“Why? He wasn’t looking for me before.” It’s the truth. He never called me back. He clearly wanted nothing to do with me. Once he unburdened himself to me with Joella’s words, our business together was over.

“You’ll have to ask him that, but we’re here to support him,” she says sternly, in no rush to give me too much information.

I know this is none of my business, but I’m going to ask her anyway, because I’m on a yacht that I didn’t ask to be on with people I’ve never met. “Are you the girl he loves? He told me about having a relationship with you before and maybe after he got married.” I look right into her eyes, and what I really ought to be asking is if she and Jeffery are now together.

“What Jeffery and I share is complicated. We’ve known each other for a very long time. We will forever be a part of each other’s life because of the choices we’ve made, which neither of us regret. He told me about your grandmother—the fortuneteller, and the reading she gave him back in college. And he also hasn’t been able to stop talking about you. If you’re worried about us being together, don’t. We’re not meant to be together. We’ve never been good for each other. I knew a long time ago that he and I weren’t destined for a happily ever after the way we envisioned in our youth, but it wasn’t until he met you that he accepted that reality as well. You can’t force a love that isn’t intended. I’m now married to a man who has put all my past relationships into perspective, and perhaps, that’s what your interaction did for Jeffery. Believe me … he’s not the bad guy. He makes himself out to be, but he’s not. He made choices as best he could based on his circumstances.”

“So you’re not together?” I ask, still confused because maybe I missed something. My heart is beating way past what I’m sure is considered normal, and I can’t decide how I feel about this woman or the things she’s telling me.

“Right. I also have a feeling that you still don’t know about a very important aspect of his life, which I’m sure he would like to be the one to tell you about. But you should know that I will always love him and the kids, and I plan to be around to watch and help them grow. He is the man who has navigated me—good or bad—to where I am today, and for that, I will always be thankful.”

I nod and continue to power blink, absorbing all the farfetched information this woman is sharing with me. She clearly cares about him and his children, which is odd being that she said she’s married to someone else. I want to yell with frustration and simultaneously hide at the prospect of inevitably coming face to face with the eyes I see every single minute in my mind. I stop pretending to understand and be okay with my current situation, and close my eyes to try and calm myself down from the storm heading toward my heart.

“I’ll let Jeffery know you’re awake, and I’ll go make sure Juliet is in bed. It’s nice to finally meet you … Sarah,” I hear Sara Knight say. “You should know that in all the years we’ve been together, he never once came after me—trying to find me. Only true love refuses to be stopped by obstacles—distance, reason and logic.”

By the time I open my eyes to look at her, she has already left the room. I’m alone on Emily and Louis’s, or whatever their names are, boat. I quietly recap my crazy situation in my head. I just met his daughter and his ex-girlfriend and I have my most precious possession back in my arms—unharmed—but perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned so far is that Jeff Rossi came halfway around the world to look for me,
me!
And he brought his friends and family along with him.

“
Glory of Love
” by Peter Cetera

“W
hy are you still not sleeping?” I proceed to tuck my little hooligan princess in. Jacob is passed out on his stomach, blissfully snoring, while his sister is a ball of energy ready to bounce off the walls. I’m staying in the kids’ room tonight, since I have Sarah situated and resting in my room.

“Daddy, I don’t want to sleep. I’m not tired. I just met a really, really, really, nice girl, and she said I could teach her to play the violin. Her name is also Sarah, and I know that I was the one that found her and not you, but I still think she could be our angel, just like Mommy said.”

I can hardly swallow after hearing her words.

“You met Sarah, the girl sleeping in my room?” I query with trepidation.

She nods with more excitement than I’ve seen in a long time. I sigh, taking a deep breath. Things never happen the way we envision. Juliet wasn’t supposed to see Sarah before I had a chance to explain everything. I smile, trying to picture their encounter. I wish I could’ve been there when she ambushed Sarah. I need to tuck this little menace in and go see my daughter’s new friend. She must be dazed and confused, and if Juliet got to her, she may be overwhelmed as well.

“Will you try and go to sleep while I go and talk to your new friend? I’ll let you know if she’s our angel or not.” But I already know she is.

She lunges herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck, and kisses my cheek with little pecks over and over. I hug my little baby as close to me as I can. She is the sum of everything I love—she’s my soul. She lets go of me and gets under the covers next to her brother and pretends she’s fast asleep.
Silly girl, I love them both so much.

I leave the twins and walk in the direction of my cabin. I see Sara leave the room and walk toward me in the hall.
Great!
It seems that all the people I love have already met my angel.