Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (66 page)

“Well, that shouldn’t be hard. Mrs. Nelson watches everything that goes on from her window anyway. If you look out there right now you’ll see the curtain move and her fingers poke through.”

“She was old thirty years ago when I first started seeing your mother. There were a few occasions when she’d come out and yell at us for kissing in the moonlight.” He smiled, he couldn’t help himself. Those ten years Sophia disappeared from his life had all but been banished by the twenty-three years he’d had her as his wife.

“Back to them messing up my house.”

“Well, we plan to catch them in the act. They seem to move during the day. We see them enter and we call the police.”

“Dad, this sounds crazy. This isn’t going to work.”

“Let’s try.” He lifted his brows, and she nodded with a roll of her eyes. “Next, I went down to Hope’s this morning and set up surveillance cameras at the store. If we can detain her long enough, we can get the police to her too.”

“And charge her with what? Shopping in a gift store?”

“No, I think it will just be a matter of holding on to her for a few minutes until the police arrive. It’s just a hunch that the goons she has busting up people’s houses will squeal when in custody.”

“Goons? Squeal? You’ve been watching too many cop shows.”

“Maybe, but it’s worth a try.”

“I don’t really care about the money or the stocks. We could just give them back to her.”

David shook his head. “No. Donald Buchanan deserves the right to give them to his daughter if that’s what he wants to do.” It pained him to call Hope someone else’s daughter. He’d never thought of her as anything but his own. After all, the very moment she was born, they’d handed her to him. He’d watched her take her first breath and witnessed every first from there on out. Just recently, he’d watched her fall in love, and, he thought, it looked good on her.

David let out a breath. “I don’t think Donald has any ill will toward Mandy or Hope. After all, he sent Trevor to find her so he could meet her. I would assume he’d have her best interests at heart.”

“He sent Trevor?” Carissa shot back up on her feet. “He was following her, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, but—”

“But what? If she doesn’t know that Trevor has been part of this from the start, then she’s in more danger than we think. What is wrong with the two of you?”

Carissa headed to the phone on the wall and picked up the receiver. Thomas moved quickly and grabbed it from her hand. “What are you doing?”

“I think my baby sister needs to be warned she’s with some lying, sleazy private investigator who is going to deliver her to Delores Buchanan on a silver plate.”

“He’s not doing that.”

“You two are some piece of work. You let her go.” She turned her angry eyes back to David. “You knew about this. How will I ever forgive you if something happens to her?”

Hadn’t he lost sleep over that himself? If something happened to Hope, he’d never be able to live with himself. “Carissa, he isn’t going to hurt her. He only wants what’s best for her.”

“I think you’re crazy.”

“Maybe.” He stood and walked across the kitchen. “I can’t help but believe that he loves her. I saw it in his eyes when he told me.” He jammed his hands into his pockets. “Yes, Donald Buchanan hired him to find Mandy and to see if there was a child. Yes, he did his job. But in the meantime they fell in love.”

“Carissa.” Thomas’s voice had her turning toward her husband. “You can’t control when you fall in love, no matter how hard you fight not to.”

She pursed her lips and shook her head. “I guess you would know.”

“Exactly. Just trust us, okay? And trust that Trevor will do the right thing for Hope.”

Carissa nodded and turned back to David. “And Hope is okay with this?”

David ran his hand over his hair. “Well, she doesn’t know yet.”

Carissa’s eyes flew open and she yanked phone receiver back from Thomas’s hands and began to dial her sister’s number.

Thomas clamped his hand on the hook and cut off the call. “He’ll tell her. If he loves her, he’ll come clean. If she loves him, she’ll understand.” He took the phone from her hand and hung it back up. “Do you think so little of your sister?”

She scowled at him. “That’s not fair.”

“It’s not fair that you won’t give her a chance.” He gathered her hands in his. “Let’s do what we can from here. Let’s try to stop these people who are ruining everyone’s lives.”

“And what happens when it falls apart? What happens when your bait and tackle doesn’t work?”

“Then we offer back what they’re after,” David said. “Those pieces of paper mean nothing to us, and at least we know who’s after them.”

“If anything happens to her, I’m holding you two responsible.”

“Fair enough.”

“And the next time she calls, I’m asking her about Trevor. If he hasn’t come clean, I’m telling her.”

David didn’t like it but he agreed.

She moved back to the table and picked up Thomas’s notes. “Fine then. We need to find a place for the kids that they won’t be touched. We need to cancel classes for a few days. Just tell the parents there’s a water leak or something. And we need to get this over with and get her home.” She turned back toward both of them, her hair flying over her shoulder. She lifted an unsteady hand and pointed at them. “If this goes bad, know that I’m not above killing him.”

“Understood,” David said, fearing it wasn’t an idle threat.

“And I’ll kill the two of you too if he hurts her.”

“It won’t come to that,” he promised. God, let him be right.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The mixing of voices woke Hope, and she stirred under the blanket atop Trevor’s childhood bed. A calm filled her. He’d brought her home. She’d met his mother and his father.

She’d lain down for a few minutes and fallen asleep in the bed he’d fallen asleep in thousands of times.

The door creaked when it opened, and she turned her head to find Trevor standing there, the light at his back.

“Oh, good. You’re awake.” He moved into the room and sat on the edge of the bed next to her. He touched her cheek and ran his fingers back into her hair as she sat up to meet him. “I was right about dinner. Bryce and the redhead—”

“Her name is Patricia,” she added, and he nodded.

“Right, Patricia. They’re on their way over, and my sister and her family will be here in a half hour.”

Hope sucked in a breath and ran her own fingers through her hair. Trevor watched her and she smiled, trying not to let on that she was completely a wreck of nerves. He lowered his forehead to hers.

“You don’t have to be nervous around my family. My parents love you and the rest of them will too.”

She already knew she liked his parents, but she also knew her being there had to cause her own parents heartache. Her mother had covered it well, but Hope knew Sophia didn’t like the fact she still was on a quest to find out about her birth parents. And even though David encouraged them to take their trip earlier than planned, she couldn’t help but notice the slightest bit of tension between him and Trevor when he’d picked her up at her parent’s house. And then there was Carissa. Everything about Trevor unraveled her. What if his parents thought she was using him? What if his roommate and the redhead hated her for getting them caught in the crossfire of her desire to locate her birth father?

“I don’t know when I’ve been this nervous.” He pulled his head back and touched her cheek. “I love you. I’ve never felt about anyone else like I feel about you.” He kissed the top of her head. “Take a few minutes and come on out.”

Hope gave him a nod, and he walked out of the room.

The doorbell rang as Hope walked into the kitchen, where she found Trevor and his mother standing over a large pot at the stove. Violet held a glass of wine and Trevor a beer. She wondered what they were studying so closely.

“Hey, this guy brought a date. Did you tell him he could bring a date?” Brandon’s voice carried through the house, and when Trevor turned to answer his father he noticed her in the doorway.

Warmth flickered in his eyes as he smiled. He walked to her, laid a kiss gently on her lips, and held her gaze as Bryce and his redhead walked through the door.

“Jesus, do you have to make out in the kitchen?”

Trevor kept her gaze. “Yep.”

“Well at least let me get a look at her, man.”

Trevor took a step back and Hope looked up at Bryce, who looked like he could be Trevor’s brother. She decided that was a tribute to a long friendship.

He smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Bryce. I’m his better half.”

“I thought that was me,” she said coolly. “I’m Hope.”

“Witty one. I like you.” The woman to his side poked her elbow into his arm. “Oh, this is my roommate, Patricia.”

Hope extended her hand and smiled politely, trying not to conjure up past conversations about the big-chested redhead. “Patricia, it’s very nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” She turned her stare to Trevor. The air had grown thick. “Nice to see you again.”

The sound of children’s laughter pealed from the front door. A little boy ran into the kitchen and right to Violet’s leg. She scooped him up and planted noisy kisses on his face. Following him was a girl who looked about eight. Presumably this would be the girl he’d inquired about music lessons for.

A man entered next, his arms full of backpacks and in his hand a sippy cup, which he handed to the little boy in his grandmother’s arms.

Finally, a very pregnant woman who must be Trevor’s sister waddled into the crowded kitchen with their father following close behind. She rested her hands on her back and watched as the little boy squirmed out of Grandma’s arms and toward her.

“He hasn’t figured out I can’t pick him up anymore.” She tried to soothe him by patting his head, but in the end managed to squat down and pick him up.

“Taylor, you’re the size of a house,” Bryce blurted out, and both her husband and Brandon tried to conceal their snickers.

“And, Bryce, you’re still a horse’s ass.” Her retort had Hope laughing, and Taylor’s eyes shifted to her. “You must be Hope. I’ve heard so much about you.” She walked toward her, the little boy still in her arms, and extended her hand. “I’m so glad you’ve come to meet us.”

“Thank you. You have a beautiful family.”

“Thanks. Let me introduce you. This is Collin, the little one over there is Sarah, and this is my husband Tim.”

Tim stepped between them and shook Hope’s hand before taking Collin from Taylor.

She rubbed her stomach. “This one is lovingly referred to as Elmo by Collin. And I know my mother’s ears have perked up because she thinks I’ll slip and tell her what the sex of the baby is.”

“You are rotten,” Violet called from over the pot on the stove, “and I have half a mind not to let you have any of these ribs that your father grilled. Trevor, come here, please. I didn’t use quite enough…” She took his beer bottle and poured its contents into the pot.

The threat proved false, and soon Hope sat among the family she’d just met and felt at home. She figured this was how it was supposed to be if you were in love with someone. The entire family should be just as charming as the man who stole your heart away.

With his mouth full of ribs, Bryce said, “You’re coming in to the office tomorrow, aren’t you?”

Violet smacked him on the back of the head. “Not with your mouth full.”

Taylor laughed aloud and Hope thought it amusing how Bryce fit like a member of the family. That was how she and Carissa were. They were a patchwork quilt as far as families went, but what they shared made them closer than some families who all shared blood.

Bryce finished his bite and washed it down with beer. “So you comin’ or what? If you’re really moving your butt to Kansas City, then I want your desk and the window. And the clients,” he added, pointing his beer toward Trevor.

“Whatever you want, man.”

Taylor sat back in her chair and pushed away her plate. “I can’t believe you’re moving.”

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be.” He took Hope’s hand and interlaced their fingers. “How can you argue with love?”

“You can when you’re in labor,” Taylor joked. “You couldn’t pay me to move again.”

Hope shifted her head and watched Taylor rub her stomach. Hadn’t Trevor said she was moving? Hope and Thomas were both under the impression, as was her family, that his sister was moving to Kansas City too. Well, it must have been a miscommunication.

She washed up before bed and was slathering her skin with lotion when Trevor walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her and nibbled her arm.

“You smell so good.”

She only smiled.

“So.” He stepped to the side of her in the bathroom and took out his toothbrush. “Tomorrow I’m going into the city with Bryce to go through the office. Mom’s going in with us, so we’ll leave her car for you. Feel free to go shopping or look around. Don’t try to come into the city with the car though. We’ll go in for dinner tomorrow so you can see it.”

She nodded as he set his toothbrush down on the counter. He laid his hand gently on her arm and moved in closer to her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Sorry, just tired, I suppose.”

“Well maybe this will be a restful weekend for you.”

She wasn’t sure about that. Since Taylor’s comment about moving, she’d been replaying the past few weeks in her head. Who was the man she shared her bed with? She would have thought that being in New York, he would have mentioned something about her seeing Donald Buchanan or Ruth Marlow, but he hadn’t. In fact, nothing had been said about it at all.

“I was thinking.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. “I’ve never had a girl sleep in my room before. In fact, I’ve never had a girl in my room before.”

“You’re mother doesn’t seem like the kind of woman who would tolerate that.”

“You’ve figured Violet Jacobs out very quickly.” He traced a finger over her jaw. “You’ll be the first girl I got tangled in the sheets with in my own bedroom.”

Hope swallowed back the worry that was plaguing her and lifted a hand to Trevor’s chest. “Maybe we’ll try that some other time. The last thing I want is to upset your mother.”