Encore
Newly unemployed concert pianist, Thomas Samuel has spent
most of his adult life escaping his upbringing. He’s become an expert at hiding
his feelings and remaining professional. But when he meets cellist Carissa
Kendal he’s faced with one emotion he can’t escape—love.
Carissa hadn’t expected her mother to take on the art of
matchmaking and she was convinced she wasn’t very good at it. Strong minded
Carissa had her work cut out for her with the emotionally scarred Thomas, but
love always wins in the end—or does it?
By the time Thomas realizes his past does not define the man
he has become it might be too late. Big venues and scenic places might just win
over the heart of Carissa and take her away from him—unless he hurries and
faces the man who ruined his career and convince Carissa that every
performance, even love, deserves an encore.
About Bernadette Marie:
Bernadette Marie has been an
avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook
with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into novel writing
started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old
typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back
porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22
years.
In 2007—after marriage, filling
her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children—Bernadette began to
write seriously with the goal of being published. That year she wrote 12 books.
In 2009 she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born.
In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing
house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released her own contemporary titles. She
also quickly began the process of taking on other authors in other genres.
In 2012 Bernadette Marie began
to find herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes and
Noble to name a few. Her office wall is lined with colorful PostIt notes with
the titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope
that they too will grace the bestsellers lists.
Bernadette spends most of her
free time driving her kids to their many events—usually hockey. She is also an
accomplished martial artist with a second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. An
avid reader, she enjoys contemporary romances with humor and happily ever
afters.
Author Contact Info:
@writesromance on Twitter
EXCERPT of Encore:
Chapter One
Her young student pulled the bow across the strings of the
violin, and the sound was pure evil. Carissa Kendal winced, then quickly
smiled. She’d get it in time. Eventually, they all got it if they stuck around.
The dropout rate of students was the one dark cloud over her
next venture, the Kendal School of Music. It had been her dream to teach music
in her own school, and she was about to dive into it. She’d hoped her mother
would want to be by her side more, but Sophia still had Hope to raise. Carissa
had accepted that, but to have her mother call up an old friend to help her
wasn’t settling.
Did Sophia not think she’d look him up? That she wouldn’t
find out who he was?
At the moment, he was nobody. Every musical endeavor he’d
pursued in the eight years since the renowned tenor Pablo DiAngelo’s ensemble
broke up had failed spectacularly.
Why was Sophia soft on him? Her mother’s name carried far
more influence than that of the failed pianist, and it would have given
Carissa’s music school all the prestige it needed.
The student pulled another evil note and snapped Carissa
from her thoughts.
“I’m never going to get this,” the young girl complained
with her nose wrinkled.
“You will. If you want to, you’ll get it.” She smiled
encouragingly, remembering when she’d been that young girl. “You need to
remember to practice the material I give you.” Carissa raised her eyebrows with
the subtle demand.
“Okay. I promise I’ll be better next time.”
“And if you practice, that will always be the case.”
As her student gathered her instrument, Carissa marked off
her lesson sheet and handed it to her.
They left the study of the old boardinghouse, where Carissa
lived with her grandmother, and stood by the door as her student’s mother
walked toward them. Carissa gave the girl a squeeze on her shoulder.
“She’s doing wonderfully. A little extra practice each day
will help,” she said. “Don’t forget your peppermint on your way out the door.”
The young girl fished in the bowl for the right piece of
candy as Carissa opened the front door. The violinist’s mother handed Carissa a
check for the lesson.
“Thank you, Carissa. She enjoys her lessons very much.”
“I’m pleased to hear that. We’ll see you both next week.”
As the woman and her daughter descended the front steps, a
man paid a cab on the street in front of the old house. He stood with his
suitcase in his hand and looked her way.
He was tall and too thin for her taste, but he looked almost
regal in the way he carried himself. He removed his sunglasses and stroked the
wisps of dirty blond hair from his eyes. She almost didn’t recognize the man
from the pictures she’d seen on the Internet.
He looked like a blond Jimmy Stewart, and her stomach did a
little flip.
“Hello,” he called as he neared the house. She smiled
despite her misgivings. He even walked like Jimmy Stewart.
Like most of Pablo’s ensemble, he’d always walked behind the
man with the million-dollar smile, never next to or in front of him, not like
her mother who had been paraded on Pablo’s arm. It was no wonder she hadn’t
recognized him.
She extended her hand to him, and as his fingers enclosed
hers, she gulped in air. He was strikingly handsome. She hadn’t expected that.
To have played for Pablo, as Sophia had, Thomas had to be
tremendously talented. Yet would the curse that hung over his career affect her
music school?
“You must be Thomas Samuel. I’m Sophia’s daughter, Carissa
Kendal. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
When Sophia Kendal had said her daughter would meet him at
the boardinghouse in Kansas City, he hadn’t expected she’d look like the woman
standing before him. The woman before him stood erect as a dancer. Her hair
fell to the middle of her back like an ebony waterfall, and her dark eyes were
soft. She wore a flowing, orange blouse and a long skirt of the same orange,
mixed with earthy browns that swirled around her calves when she moved.
She was mesmerizing.
“Please come in.” She stepped back through the door. Heat
rose on the back of his neck as he passed by her. “My mother says you’ll be
staying with us until you get settled.”
“Uh. Yes.” He felt like his tongue had swollen. “I’m sorry
if I seem out of sorts. I knew Sophia for so long that to think of her as your
mother, well, that’s a stretch for me.”
Carissa smiled at him again. “I was seventeen before she
adopted me, so I can understand. I’m sorry you couldn’t make it out for their
wedding.”
“Yes, so am I.” Had he made that wedding, he’d have made it
his business to become more familiar with the dark beauty who, with the most
subtle gesture of tucking her hair behind her ear, had his pulse climbing.
Guilt halted his thoughts. He should have been at the
wedding because he’d promised Sophia he would be. It was just another broken
promise, and he feared he would let her down again. And given his past, he had
no business fantasizing about Carissa—or any woman. It could end only in
heartache—or worse.
Bestselling
Author Bernadette Marie is known for building families readers want to be part
of. Her series The Keller Family has graced bestseller charts since its
release in 2011, along with her other series and single title books. The
married mother of five sons promises Happily Ever After always…and says
she can write it, because she lives it. 
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