Slowly, he made his way down the stairs. The house was quiet. How could four women be so silent when there was gossip?
He turned the corner to the kitchen and saw her there. She stood in front of the window, a cup of coffee in her hand, looking out over the yard. She was alone.
David slid up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Leaning into him, she rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes.
He brushed his lips against her neck, pausing between kisses to ask, “Did you run everyone off?”
“No one was here. And it’s only seven forty-five.”
“Where did they all go?”
She turned in his arms and looked up at him, her expression mystified. “I don’t know. There wasn’t a soul around.”
“Carissa?”
“Not here, and neither is your car.”
“She didn’t say anything this morning when I saw her.” The words slipped through his lips, and he frowned when he realized he hadn’t intended to tell her about that.
“You saw her?” The worry on her face had him wishing he could bite back his words.
“Yes. Ran right into her as I left your room. I tell you, I haven’t felt that little since I was a child.”
“Oh, God.” She walked away from him. “She heard us, didn’t she? She knows what we were doing.”
Sophia sat down at the table and buried her face in her hands.
“She didn’t hear us. But, yes, I think she has a pretty good idea of what was going on. She’s seventeen. We’ve talked about sex.” He sat down next to her and took her hand in his as she lifted her head. “She loves you. She called me and texted me the whole time I was gone. She loved every moment with you. You’re the first mother figure she’s had around that seems to have made a good impact on her life.
He kissed her fingers.
“I told you, she’s a good kid. She’s very smart, and I promise you, had she heard us or been bothered by my making love to you last night, I surely would have heard about it. You may have noticed Carissa holds no punches.”
Sophia took her free hand and ran it through his hair, then rested it on his cheek.
“I love you.”
“And I love you.” He kissed the palm of her hand.
“I love your daughter, too.”
“You know, she’s still young enough to adopt.” He smiled, but Sophia’s lips pursed. “Sophie, I didn’t mean to…”
“David…about last night…about what you said.”
“No. Don’t go there now.” He stood and paced the kitchen. “It’s there. You know how I feel, and you know what I want. When you’re ready to commit or ready to run, let me know. But for now, I have you for seven more days. Carissa has her audition Wednesday. We go through the new house on Thursday and approve everything before closing. Saturday is the party for the women, and Sunday, before you fly away from me, I’m going to make love to you for hours. Then you can tell me your answers to all the crazy things I have asked and will ask.”
She nodded, but worry filled her eyes, and he hated that part.
“Okay, now I’m starving. We don’t have a car, but the sun is shining and it’s a beautiful August morning. What do you say we hit an old favorite and walk down to The Spot for breakfast?”
“They’re still in business?”
“Sure are. Even expanded to ten tables. And, of course, they still have Betsy serving at the counter.”
“Wouldn’t be The Spot without her.”
David offered her his hand, and she stood. He gathered her into his arms and pulled her close.
“You know, maybe they left us here alone on purpose. Maybe they want us to make love all day without being interrupted.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively, and she laughed.
“We’d better get breakfast. Besides as soon as that little girl of yours gets home, we have to practice.”
“Damn.” He gave her bottom a playful smack. “I’ll always be second to that cello, won’t I?”
The diner was just as she’d remembered with its metal siding and neon lights. The only change was the tables around the walls. David escorted her to a corner booth where they could be alone.
Betsy had tears in her eyes when she pulled Sophia from the booth and wrapped her large arms round her.
“I thought you’d never come back. I missed you, kiddo.”
“I missed you, too.” They chatted for a minute before Betsy returned to her duties. Everyone had missed Sophia, and it warmed her heart.
David spread jelly on his toast.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“You’d think I would have worked up an appetite, but…”
“Ah, after-sex breakfast just isn’t the same ten years later?”
“David!” She looked around to see that no one heard him, but he was laughing. “I just have a lot on my mind, I guess.”
She pushed around the eggs on her plate.
“So, tell me about your new house,” she finally said, lifting a forkful of eggs to her mouth.
“Well, it’s nice, but I’m having second thoughts about moving into it.”
“Really?” She set down her fork. “Why?”
“When we decided to build it, Carissa was only a sophomore. We toyed with the idea, found the area, picked out the layout, and by the time they broke land, she was a junior. It took longer than I thought.” He sipped his coffee. “She’d been having some problems at school. I told you about the counselor.” Sophia nodded. “Well, that same counselor moved from the middle school to the high school and was continuing to give her problems, so the initial thought was it was best to move and change schools. The new house is thirty minutes from your grandmother’s.
“Then as soon as we broke ground, that counselor changed schools again. Now, if Carissa stays at the school she’s at, she’ll be commuting an hour a day. With the opportunities coming at her with orchestra and her being elected to the student council, I just can’t see pulling her out and moving her. But I don’t want her commuting either. Then there’s the fact that I’m still gone eight to ten days out of the month. I don’t know why it didn’t cross our minds when we picked out the house. Desperate to move on, I guess.”
Sophia’s head spun. He was adding more things to the mix that she was being forced to think about. Suddenly the house they were building didn’t seem to be a problem. If she bought the house on Cherry Street, they could live together as a family.
Family. Did she really understand the meaning of the word? She’d been a little girl when she lost her family. Her grandparents had been her only family. Carissa had never really had that storybook family, and David…well, he was the only one with a real grasp on that. His mother and father lived only a few states away, lapping up the sun in the Gulf of Mexico in their dream retirement home.
She remembered the comment he’d made about adopting Carissa. Would Carissa really want that?
Every word she’d said about having and wanting a relationship with a mother was flooding through Sophia’s head.
They had a theme to paint their toenails OPI colors and watch movies. If she moved back, they could have it all. They could be a family. Carissa could still go to school and have a mother. She could be Carissa’s mother! David could keep traveling, and Carissa would have someone at home to take care of her.
She could still play. Her career as a professional cellist didn’t have to end. She’d traveled the world. Maybe it was time to settle down and play for the symphony or even a local orchestra. Maybe she could teach.
And she and David could finally be together.
Sophia dropped her fork to her plate, snapping her from her trance.
“Are you okay?” David reached for her hand.
She nodded. After all the years of heartache, it seemed too good to be true. She couldn’t tell him. Not yet. “I think I should get back and practice before we go to Mary Alice and Jeremy’s for dinner.”
They began their walk back to the house, hand in hand
. Their route took them past Cherry Street, and Sophia knew David had guided her that direction on purpose.
When he headed toward the block with the house they had shared, she stopped on the corner.
“Don’t do this,” she pleaded.
“Do what?” David gathered her in his arms and pulled her close to him.
“My head is spinning with all the things going on in it. Do we really need to walk down memory lane? Literally?”
“I didn’t realize it would bother you.” His eyes were sad. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. But she’d barely had a chance to get used to the idea that they might be a family again. What if she was wrong? She didn’t want to build up his hopes for nothing.
“I’m sorry.” She took his hands in hers and took a cleansing breath. “I’ve already been down this street twice. It’s hard enough to see it, but to know it’s empty and…”
“What do you mean it’s empty?”
Her eyes shifted to his. He didn’t know.
“The house…it’s empty and for sale.”
The darkness in his eyes deepened. He’d said it himself—he wasn’t sure about the house they were building. Sophia knew the moment he had the thought that they could move back to Cherry Street.
“Let’s just go home.” She laced her arm though his.
“Yeah. Let’s go home.”
The word home echoed in the silence between them.
The moment they walked through the door of her grandmother’s house, Sophia went straight for the study while David raced up the stairs to his room two at a time.
She dug through her purse and searched for Sally’s card. She was sure she’d tucked it in there just in case she decided she might want to look at the house again.
Finally, she dumped the contents on the desk and frantically pawed through the items. She found the card tucked between the pages of her date book. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed.
“Good morning. This is Sally Foster.” The cheerful voice on the other end sent a bolt of panic racing through Sophia.
“Sally, this is Sophia Burkhalter, I met—”
“Sophia! Oh, my husband was so impressed when I told him I showed you a house the other day.”
“Well, thank you, but—”
“So, what did you think? It’s lovely, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes, and I—”
“It’s very popular, too.”
“It is?” Sophia’s voice dipped.
“Well, yes. The people who looked at it the same day as you and your daughter…” Sophia bit back the correction. “They’ve been back twice, and I think they’ll make an offer. And I just got off the phone with another gentleman who says he’d like to see the house for him and his daughter. He’s lived in the neighborhood and would like to move back.” Sally’s voice was too chipper, and Sophia knew for sure that man was David.
“You’re showing him the house then?”
“Yes. I’m on my way over there right now, in fact. He seemed very anxious.”
“I’ll bet he did.” Sophia heard the front door slam. Her heart pounded in her chest. But what if David wasn’t the man Sally had spoken to? What if someone else bought that house…bought her and David’s home?
“Sally, I’ll be staying in the Kansas City area, and I’d like to buy the house.”
CHAPTER TEN
David stood outside the house he and Sophia had shared. The rose bushes he’d planted in front of the porch still held the blooms on them in the late summer heat. He smiled. He’d planted them on the anniversary of having the house for a year. Sophia had had a tree planted in the yard to honor her parents. It was much larger now, and in another ten years, it could hold a tree house. Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if together they could make it their home again, but this time with a family.
Carissa was young yet. She needed a family. She needed her father, and dammit, she needed a mother. Sophia was only thirty-six. She could still have children. The children she’d desperately wanted. They could adopt an entire houseful if she wanted. God, he wanted to give it all to her. He wanted to give the world to both of them.
A car pulled up behind him. Must be the real estate agent, he thought. He turned and waited for the driver to exit, but the warm smile that he’d held on his lips faded when Mandy slid out of the car. The muscles in the back of his neck knotted.
“What in the hell are you doing here?”
“I followed you from that old lady’s house.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Heat was rising in his cheeks, and his heart was racing. Just looking at the woman made him want to break something. He shoved his hands into his pockets and clenched them into fists.
Mandy stood silently for a moment behind the car door. She raised her chin.
David looked at her more closely. She’d cleaned up. He could see that she was clean and sober, but not healthy. Her blonde hair, pulled back in a ponytail, was dull. Her skin was pale, and her blue eyes were sunken. She looked sick, fragile, and old, but, for the first time, not strung out.
“Mandy, I asked you, what the hell…”
“David, I want to see my daughter.”
“My daughter. You gave her up,” he reminded her fiercely.
“I want to make sure she’s okay.”
“She’s fine.” His retort was short and quick. “What the hell—”
“I need you.” Her voice trembled.
“You left. You don’t need me. I don’t have anything to offer…”
She moved from behind the car door, revealing her swollen belly, and he felt his jaw drop open.
“Yes, I’m pregnant.” She ran her hands over her stomach.
He stood silently for a moment, trying to breathe through his anger. “Congratulations?” The word was snide and dripping in disdain for the woman before him.
“I need your help.”
“I’m not some stupid, twenty-two-year-old fool you can con with a baby. Go tell your story to whoever knocked you up this time.” He turned from her, hoping she’d get back in her car and drive away.
“David.” She reached for his arm. “I’m eight months pregnant. I’m much too far along for an abortion, and that wasn’t what I wanted anyway.”
“Oh, you wanted this baby because the father would support all your habits?”
“Dammit, David, listen! I’m dying. Having this baby will probably kill me.”
“Oh, and after all the stellar things you’ve done to me and Carissa, I’m supposed to believe you?”
“Yes.” She laid her hand on his chest.
“Mandy, I have things I need to do.” He watched as another car pulled up behind Mandy’s, and a professionally dressed blonde stepped from the car and headed his way.
“Mr. Kendal?” She reached out her hand.
“Yes.”
“I’m Sally Foster, and you must be Mr. Kendal’s fiancée?” She extended her hand and shook Mandy’s. “Oh, congratulations on your baby. This will be the perfect house for the two of you. Let’s go in, shall we?” She started up the steps.
David’s gaze darted to Mandy, whose eyes had widened.
“C’mon, darling, let’s go.” She seized David’s arm and followed Sally up the steps.
He clenched his jaw and shoved his other hand deeper in his pocket.
Sally walked them through the house, giving details as she’d been trained to do. Neither David nor Mandy told her they had lived in the house together years earlier.
“Now this room will be of interest to you both.” Sally smiled her glossy smile as she walked them to the nursery. David felt his heart slam into his chest. The pink walls and fairy murals made sweat surface on his brow. Sally talked around them, but David didn’t hear her.
“Well, I’ll let the two of you look around. I’ll wait for you out front.” She flashed her smile and left the room.
“Oh, David, the house is still so cute,” Mandy gushed. “I always did like this house. I never could see why you sold
it. We should have...”
“What the hell, I repeat, what the hell are you doing here?” He spun toward her, looking her square in the eye.
“Why did she think I was your fiancée? She said that like she knew you had one, like she was expecting her to be here with you.”
“Mandy, it’s no business of yours.”
“It is…” she paused and crossed her arms atop her belly, “because I need to know all about it if you’re going to raise this baby!”
His eyes were wide as he looked at her in disbelief. He scrubbed his hands over his face and paced the room before finding the calm he needed in order to look at her again.
“I’m sure I didn’t hear you correctly. Did you say I was going to raise that baby?”
“That’s why I’m here.” She moved toward him, but stopped when he backed away from her. “David, I have a heart condition. They said that giving birth to this baby will kill me.”
“Women with heart conditions give birth all the time.”
“David, I’m different.” She ran her hand over her swollen belly. “I’m clean. I swear I’m clean, but all the years...well, my past is killing me. I couldn’t abort this baby. I didn’t want to. But I won’t live to see her.”
“Her?”
“Yes, it’s a little girl.” She smiled, but David turned from her, unable to look at her.
“Where’s her father?” He looked out the window at the familiar backyard he’d spent many weekends caring for.
“He doesn’t know about her. David, he was a married man that I had a brief affair with. I’m not proud, but now I’m going to have a baby that won’t have anyone when I die.”
David swallowed hard. “Why me? Why not give her up for adoption?”
“Because she’s half of Carissa, too.” The words were carefully chosen to pierce David’s heart, and they did just that. “Please, David, you’ve been such a wonderful father to Carissa. This baby needs a father.” She reached out to him and touched his arm. “I won’t be in the way. I’ll be dead.”
Matchmakers, no. 1 Page 11
