Trevor swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the ball of dread stuck in his throat.
“I have some soda. Can I get you some?”
“No, I’m fine,” Carissa said, her voice unthreatening. He took that as a positive sign. “She really did a nice job on your portrait.”
“She really did. My mom is going to love it.”
Carissa nodded. “She sure is. Your mom is in New York?”
He nodded back to her. More examining the boyfriend of the little sister; he’d known this was coming.
“She tells me she has you helping her find out about Mandy.”
If nothing else, she was quick to the point of the tension between them. “Yes. She asked me to find out about her. Hope is interested in finding out who her biological father is.”
Carissa walked to the seat that Hope would have occupied had they ever had the chance to start lunch. She sat, rubbed her hands on her skirt, and looked up at him. “I don’t want her hurt.”
“I know. I have no intention of hurting her.” He gripped the back of the vacant chair, hoping to keep his calm as Carissa looked him over. Could she see that he was keeping things from Hope? From all of them?
“Ruth Marlow. Have you already found her?”
“Mandy’s mother.” He walked around the chair and sat down. The mere fact that Carissa had mentioned Mandy’s mother meant she was giving up information whether she’d wanted to or not.
Carissa laced her fingers together and set them in her lap. “I contacted her when I was fifteen.” Her voice was shaky. “The woman wasn’t too cooperative in helping me build a better picture of my mother. She asked me not to contact her again. As far as she was concerned, Mandy Marlow was dead to her when she walked out the door after begging for money.”
Ruth Marlow hadn’t been a wealth of information to him either.
She sat quietly for a moment. Her knuckles were white, and Trevor watched her shoulders tighten before she shifted her eyes to him. “That is the one and only time I’ve ever admitted that I sought out Mandy’s family. Please promise me you’ll never, ever mention it.”
“Not a word,” he promised, realizing it was a big moment between him and Carissa. She trusted him, and he wasn’t going to disappoint her.
“Thank you.” The wavering in her voice filled the small room with the tension of her disapproval over what Hope might discover. “I don’t know why she has to do this. It really pisses me off.”
“She just feels like it’s a piece that’s missing in her life.” The worst part was that he agreed with Carissa, but he had to support Hope.
“I suppose I understand that, but you’re encouraging her?”
He shook his head. “No. As a matter of fact, I told her that she wouldn’t be finding out anything good. Things don’t usually end well when children go in search of their birth parents.” He was speaking the words, but he already knew no matter what kind of picture they painted of Mandy Marlow, Donald Buchanan was waiting in the wings and he would be meeting Hope.
“So you think she should stop?”
He shrugged. “I want her to be happy. If this makes her happy, I want to help her with it.” And protect her in the process, he thought.
Carissa leaned back in her chair and considered him. It wasn’t comfortable having her dark eyes scan over him as they were. “You really care for her?”
“I really do.”
“You just met her.”
“But I feel like I’ve known her for years.” He shook his head and moved in closer to her. “This is going to sound crazy, but I’ve had dreams about her.”
Carissa’s eyes widened. “Dreams?”
“I told you it seemed silly.”
“Not so silly,” she said as they heard the chime on the door, and he knew Hope would be back in a moment to join them. “If you really care about her, protect her. I don’t know who Mandy became after she left the care of my father, but I can’t imagine she was an ideal citizen. But I got Hope. And that was what I wanted. Keep her safe,” she finished just as Hope walked through the door.
“Eighty-five dollars later,” she said, smiling radiantly.
“Good for you.” Carissa stood. “I have group lessons in fifteen minutes. I’d better get back. Trevor, it was nice to see you.”
“Likewise.”
“And you, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She kissed her sister on the cheek and left through the store.
“Are you finally bonding?” Hope took her seat and pulled a slice of pizza out of the box.
“I suppose you could call it that.” He poured soda in her cup, sat back, and watched as she ate. “She doesn’t want you hurt by looking into your birth parents.”
“Don’t care,” she said taking another bite. “I’m into it already. If you stop helping me, I’ll keep digging on my own.”
He kept his eyes on her as she angrily attacked the piece of pizza. He realized he was in a unique position. Because Mandy had died and Trevor hadn’t yet shown a photo of Hope to her birth father, he was the only person in the world who could look at Hope Kendal and see both Donald Buchanan and Mandy Marlow in her. There were certain features that each contributed. How either of them could have made a creature as beautiful as Hope, he’d never know. What she lacked was Mandy’s hardness and Donald’s directness. What she had was Sophia’s kindness and David’s patience. No one but him could look at her and know about the Buchanan-Marlow connection. To the world she was a Kendal through and though.
Hope shifted her attention from her pizza to him. With her mouth full she asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Not a thing.”
“You’re staring at me.”
“I do that a lot.” He laid his hand on her knee. “Hope, I’m not going to stop helping you look for your answers. I’ll use it as an excuse to keep seeing you every day if I have to.”
Hope set down the pizza, took a sip of her drink, and moved in closer to him. “You don’t need an excuse to see me every day. I would be heartbroken now if I didn’t see you every day.”
“I never believed in love at first sight,” he said inching closer to her. “When I first laid eyes on you I was a goner.”
“Last night you said something about maybe settling down in Kansas City. Did you mean that? Would you really relocate here?”
“Do you have cars here?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have houses?”
“Yes.”
“Jewelry, ex-husbands, boats, and farms?”
She laughed, her eyes still locked on his. “Yes, what does that all mean?”
“It means that I could still work here. In my field, that’s all I need.”
Hope let her shoulders drop and her head tilted to the side. “I can’t believe you walked into my life.”
He couldn’t believe it either. Now he just had to keep working on earning and keeping her trust so that when she learned the truth about his work for Buchanan she wouldn’t turn around and walk out of his life.
They’d gone to dinner and went back to her place. They’d rented a movie, but they never saw any of it. They’d sat on the couch and made out like a couple of fifteen-year-olds. He chuckled to himself. That had been great.
It had taken everything he had to walk out and go back to his hotel, but he’d done it. She might have gone to bed cursing him, but in the end, he’d be a hero for it. At least that’s what he kept telling himself, since he wanted to tangle himself in her sheets, wrapped in her arms at that very moment.
Trevor pulled a beer from the mini fridge in the corner and twisted off the cap. He’d have to decide what course he was going to take, as he couldn’t live in a hotel indefinitely. Smiling to himself, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called his mother. If anyone could help him make his decision, it was his mother.
Violet Jacobs filled her son’s ear with new accounts she’d landed, her recent tennis match wins, and of course, a barrage of questions about the case he was working on. But when he
filled her in on Hope her underlying tone was one of happiness. He didn’t have to tell her he was thinking of relocating to Kansas City; she announced it while he was still drawing the breath to say it himself. Just as she accepted that Hope was the woman of his dreams, and she understood his heart was quickly being lost to her, she knew he had to move on.
His next call would need to be to his roommate.
“Trev, you said you’d be back in three days. Where are you?”
“I’m still in Kansas City.”
“Sorry to hear they don’t have phones!” He was yelling into the phone and that had Trevor laughing. “You know that redhead on the fourth floor has been asking about you.”
“Really.” He grinned. “Well, maybe you’d better console her for me.”
“Dang!” He heard the sigh on the other end of the line. “You fell in love while you were there.”
“I didn’t say that,” he said on a laugh.
“Didn’t have to. I’ve known you since we were what, eleven? You don’t turn down a redhead built like that, unless you gave up on all other women. That’s just what you’ve done, huh?”
Trevor pulled from his beer and thought about the way even thinking about Hope made his heart beat harder. Yeah, that’s what he’d done.
“I have a special person here.”
“Special person? Did you give her a ring or something?”
“If I did?”
“Really?”
“No.” He was laughing now. “I didn’t give her a ring.”
“You’re thinking about it. What am I going to do?”
Trevor laughed again. That was Bryce tried and true. Instead of finding the good in Trevor finding love, he’d decided something bad was going to happen for him.
“Maybe you should see if the redhead wants to room with you. Split the rent. Maybe you could make my room an office.”
“Your room an office? Where would she sleep?” Trevor didn’t answer right away. “Oh… oh! I get it,” Bryce finally answered and laughed. “Yeah, that would be nice.”
“I’ll be home in two weeks for my mom’s birthday. I’ll bring my woman to see you.”
“Yeah, you’d better.”
“Then we can talk about the apartment.”
“You’re moving out.”
“Yeah, I guess I am.” He smiled to himself realizing he’d better start looking for his own place.
“Well I guess it’s time. I knew you wouldn’t want to bachelor with me forever.”
“Sorry, friend. Hey, I’ll call you and let you know what the definite plans are for our visit.”
“Sure you will. Just like you said you’d be home in three days.”
“Love ya, man.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Trevor made almost every phone call he figured he should, except for one. It was past midnight so the call to Donald Buchanan would have to wait until the morning. He’d also need to get to work on figuring out how he was going to lead Hope to her answers.
How much deeper in could he get?
CHAPTER SIX
Hope secured the canvas into the frame she had
chosen for Trevor’s portrait. She spread a protective cloth on the table so she could turn the painting over and finish the back.
Tuesday mornings were among her busiest times. Thomas and Carissa hosted new parents meetings, and afterward those parents would wander into her shop and spend their money. That was exactly what had happened that morning, which had given her day a fabulous start.
As she finished the back of the frame, her cell phone rang in her pocket.
“Hello.”
“Hello, beautiful.”
“Ah, the voice I was just thinking of,” she said as she turned over the painting and examined it. His dark eyes looked up at her. “What are you up to, handsome?”
“Making phone calls. Printing out paperwork. Looking for an apartment.”
She put down the frame.
“Trevor, did you just say you were looking for an apartment?”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice light. “Sounds like my roommate is going to put the moves on the redhead upstairs.”
“Oh. I thought…” She let it go. She didn’t want to think about him moving back to New York, even if it was inevitable.
“Yeah, what did you think?”
“I guess I thought you were going to move here.”
“I am.”
Her breath caught in her lungs. “Really?”
“Hope, I want to be here. I’d really like to see if things could work out between us. Don’t you?”
“Yes, of course. I just… well, I was just ready…” She blew out a ragged breath. “I just was so prepared for you to go back. I want you here.”
“Good. I’m going to get in a full day of work, call a client, and see a few places. Then when you get off work, I’m coming over.”
“Trevor.” She raised her hand to her chest and felt the rapid beat of her heart. “Bring a bag. You’re not going home tonight.”
He was silent for a moment. “You’ve just committed to that, you know.”
“I committed to it the first time I asked you to stay with me. This time I’m just holding you to it.”
When she hung up the phone, she held her hand to her stomach. Flutters of anticipation and fear stirred inside her. The anticipation was overwhelming. Was she woman enough to keep him forever?
Trevor sat in his hotel surrounded by piles of papers all with Mandy Marlow’s name on them. He searched each of them trying to pull together another package to give to Hope. This time he decided he wanted to try and piece something together that would give her a little hope that the blood that ran through her wasn’t completely bad.
Guilt weighed him down. The first set of papers he’d given her he’d done his best to paint the ugliest picture so she’d drop the idea of searching. It hadn’t worked, and he wasn’t finding much to help his new cause of building Mandy into a nicer person.
Still, he wanted to get in touch with Donald Buchanan and move things forward. He’d had Hope Kendal in his grasp for over a week and the man had paid him to get close to her. Though he hadn’t needed Donald’s money to get closer to her. He’d gone and fallen completely in love with her on his own.
What didn’t make sense was why Donald Buchanan hadn’t come forward to meet Hope. This was what he’d wanted, after all. It wasn’t as if Trevor had approached him on the subject. No, Donald Buchanan had walked into his office on that fine July morning, laid down the money to have his lover found, and find the truth behind a child he assumed he had.
Trevor picked up the phone and dialed the cell number Buchanan had given him.
“Hello.” Again, the crisp voice on the other end was a woman.
Trevor looked down at the number on the piece of paper in his hand. He’d been instructed not to call the office or his home, so the woman’s voice came as a surprise. “I am looking for Donald Buchanan.”
“He’s not available.”
“Do you know when he will be available?”
“There is no need for you to call back,” she said, and the line went dead.
Something wasn’t playing out right. Donald Buchanan had disappeared in the past few days. Trevor could only assume the hard-assed woman who answered the phone was his wife. He shook his head. Why had Donald warned him about her and then disappeared?
A knot tightened in the pit of his stomach. If Donald Buchanan didn’t come forward before he and Hope made their trip to New York for his mother’s birthday, he’d come clean with what he knew. He’d protect his client, but Hope was his client too. Above being his client she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He wanted to insure that was going to be a long and prosperous one for both of them.
“Clock is ticking, Buchanan. Either you come out of hiding or you miss your opportunity to meet your daughter.”
He didn’t want Hope to think he was planning to take advantage of her when he
showed up at her house with a haircut, new shirt, cologne splashed on, a duffle bag full of clothes, and his toothbrush. He’d picked up a dozen roses, in a vase, so he didn’t seem cheap.
He’d have brought her a bottle of wine too, but his hands were full.
Trevor rang the doorbell, hid behind the arrangement, and waited for the woman he adored to answer.
He waited and waited. Finally, he looked around the arrangement to make sure he had the right apartment number.
“You know, handsome, you’re as good looking from the back as you are from the front.”
Trevor turned to see her standing on the walk looking up at him.
“How long have you been there?”
“Long enough to enjoy the view.” She walked toward him with her arms full of groceries. “Thought I’d better get enough food for breakfast since I’m keeping you and not letting you go tonight.”
She nipped his lip with a kiss.
“Are you still sure you want to do that?”
“When I open this door and put this bag down, I’ll explain why I’m not worried about quick romances.”
She unlocked the door and pushed it open so they could both walk through.
Trevor closed it behind them and followed her into the kitchen. She set the bags down on the counter and turned to him.
“These are for you.” He held out the vase.
“That is the most beautiful arrangement I’ve ever seen.”
“I thought it reflected its recipient.”
“Thank you,” she said as she set it in the middle of the table. “You look nervous.”
“Why? I shouldn’t be. I’ve already met the man who will kill me if I hurt his daughter. Having an intimate evening with her shouldn’t make me nervous.”
She moved in closer again and brushed his lip with hers. “I guess he’ll have to get used to the thought.”
Trevor could only nod.
“But right now I’m hungry. So I’m going to make you a meal you’ll never forget. One that will have you wanting to marry me and never leave.” She laughed, but he couldn’t.
Hope's Discovery (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) Page 9
