Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (67 page)

Disappointment slid over his face as he took a step back from her, his hands resting on her hips. “I didn’t think being turned down would hurt. But ouch.” He moved in and brushed a kiss over her lips. “Well then, I think I’ll let you settle into bed and get some sleep. I, on the other hand, am going to sneak down to the kitchen and try to find those cookies my mother hides from the rest of the family.”

Hope watched as he shut the door behind him. Trevor was hiding something, and that wasn’t settling well with her. But he’d be at his office with Bryce and his mother all day tomorrow. That meant she’d have a car and a day. She had names and a smart head on her shoulders. She could find Donald Buchanan and Ruth Marlow. If Trevor wasn’t going to give her answers, she’d get them herself.

The next morning Trevor kissed her goodbye before she’d even considered getting out of bed, but the moment the family walked out of the house she was wide awake. She climbed out of bed and went straight to her laptop and began looking for Ruth Marlow.

She jotted down the address and then called hospitals until she found the one that had Donald Buchanan as a patient. With a hand-drawn map and driving instructions, she set out to find some answers to settle her heart.

Hope wiped her hands on the sides of her jeans as she walked toward the front door of Ruth Marlow’s house. Just knowing about the woman should have provided closure to her. It should have been enough to know that she was nasty to Carissa, but she couldn’t help but want to see her and just be near her for even a moment.

She lifted her finger to the doorbell, but didn’t push it.

Trevor had said Ruth Marlow wasn’t such a bad woman. But this was Mandy Marlow’s mother. Mandy Marlow, who’d abandoned her children, lied, cheated, and stole to get what she wanted.

Hope took her finger from the button and dropped her arm to her side.

This was a mistake. She was happy. David Kendal was her father and loved her very much. Sophia Kendal had sacrificed her career and everything she’d ever wanted to have her for her daughter. Carissa was her blood sister. Ruth Marlow and Donald Buchanan weren’t going to change that.

She turned and started back down the steps.

“Can I help you with something?” The woman’s voice came from behind her and she stopped walking. She stopped breathing.

Very slowly she turned around. Their eyes met. Shock slackened the woman’s face. Hope would have known the woman just walking past her on the street. Looking at her, she would have sworn she’d known her her entire life.

Ruth raised her fingers to her lips, and tears instantly formed in her eyes. Hope stood at the base of the steps to the house and watched as Ruth Marlow stared at her.

“You’re her. You’re Mandy’s daughter.”

Hope stood paralyzed. No, she was David and Sophia’s daughter. She needed to keep that in mind as much for herself as she needed Ruth Marlow to understand it too, but she couldn’t speak.

Ruth started down the steps toward her. “You look just like her.” She reached her hand out to touch Hope’s face, but Hope flinched back. Pain flashed in Ruth’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said retracting her hand. “I just… well, seeing you… I’m sorry.” She held her hand out to Hope. “I’m Ruth.”

Hope shook her hand. “Hope.”

“I wondered if I would get the chance to meet you. I told that man I didn’t want to, but now that you’re here I can’t tell you how glad I am that you stopped by.”

“Mrs. Marlow, I just want to know more about my birth parents. I have a very happy life. I want you to know that. But there is just that need to know.”

Ruth nodded. “Did your sister come with you?”

“No.”

“Well, when you do speak to her, please apologize on my behalf. Having you stand here makes me miss my daughter. The daughter I knew once.” She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “I wasn’t very nice to your sister when she called years and years ago. I suppose I should have been nicer.”

“She understands.”

“Please, will you come in?”

“Thank you.”

As she followed Ruth back into her house, a wall of unexpected emotion. Hope sucked it back. She wasn’t going to cry or get attached. This was a journey she’d almost walked away from. A few moments with the woman wasn’t going to hurt. She would be gracious and then leave. Suddenly she was missing Kansas City terribly.

“I have some iced tea,” Ruth offered.

“That would be wonderful.” Hope followed her through the well-decorated home to the kitchen, where her refrigerator was covered in old school pictures of Mandy that resembled her own. There were drawings in crayon, signed by Mandy, and more pictures of her with a boy a few years older. A grocery list hung with the old mementos, reminding Hope that Ruth lived day to day among her memories. How could Mandy, the woman Hope knew to hop beds, do drugs, and live in run-down motels have grown up in such a normal place? “You have a lovely home.”

“Mandy never thought so.” Ruth pursed her lips and let out a slow breath. “I’m sorry. I should just let you ask questions and keep opinions and comments to myself.” She handed Hope a glass and gestured to the table for her to sit.

“I don’t know what to ask. I mean I’ve had a million questions and now suddenly I’ve drawn a blank.”

Ruth sat down across from Hope and wrapped her hands around the tall glass of tea she’d poured for herself. “Well, let me tell you that Mandy wasn’t always the person you probably know her to be. The little girl I raised loved to paint. She loved to dance and swim. She was a good student.” Ruth shook her head. “She had a brother she was very close to. He was only two years older than she was. The world—her world—revolved around him.” Her brows knit and she chewed on her lip before taking a sip of her tea. “He was killed when she was fourteen. From the moment we told her he was gone, she snapped, she changed.”

“I’m sorry for your loss. I didn’t know.” She couldn’t imagine if she’d lost Carissa. Her life revolved around her sister. What would that have done to her? Obviously it was a life-changing event for Mandy.

“It was such a long time ago. I thought it was a phase. The drugs, the shoplifting, the older men.” She sipped her drink again, and her hand shook. “I lost my son, and then a few years later my daughter’s grief took her from me too.”

Ruth stood and dumped her tea into the sink and set her glass on the counter. “Tell me about you,” she said, her hands gripping the edge of the counter. “Tell me who you are.”

“Well.” Hope collected her thoughts. First and foremost, sitting in the very home that Mandy grew up in, she realized she was most proud to be David and Sophia Kendal’s daughter. “I’m an artist. I paint, using all mediums. I like photography too.” She stood and held tight to the back of her chair. “I own a small store and sell my art and small gifts. I can’t play an instrument, but my sister—now, she’s an amazing musician.” She smiled, thinking of her sister. Carissa had helped to shape her into the very person she was. “My parents made sure I was a Girl Scout, that I played sports, and I went to church almost every Sunday. My sister made sure I understood how much they all wanted and loved me, and she’s always taken extra special care of me.”

Pride was swelling in her heart and in her voice. She was just getting started. “My mother is a cellist. My father a retired pilot. I have two nephews and two nieces who are my life.” Why she needed to be in Ruth’s kitchen to understand the perfect life she had, she wasn’t sure.

Ruth turned toward her. “You sound happy.”

“I was. I mean I am.” Hope reached for her purse next to her chair. “I should go.”

“Hope, I’m glad Mandy gave you to your family. She couldn’t have given you a life like you had. It makes me happy to know my granddaughters were taken care of. Your father is an amazing man.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you for stopping by and meeting me. I feel like I might have closure now.”

Hope watched Ruth’s face soften. She needed to walk out of the house and keep walking. She needed to say goodbye to Ruth Marlow and leave it at that.

But she didn’t. “Would you like to meet Carissa and her children? Your great-grandchildren.”

Ruth’s lips tightened as she warded off tears Hope could see already welling in her eyes.

“I’m sure you don’t need me in your life. Your sister has been long removed from Mandy’s neglect.”

“You’re not Mandy’s neglect. You obviously were a victim of her neglect too. I am your granddaughter. You should have had the pleasure of having your family back. I’m offering that to you. If you want it, that is.”

Ruth brushed her tears away from her cheeks. “It’s been a very long time since I had any family. I would love to get to know you and your sister.”

Hope smiled as part of that hole she’d needed to mend began to heal. Mandy had hurt too many people, and now they could heal each other.

Having not walked away from Ruth Marlow, Hope drove to the hospital, realizing she had to meet Donald Buchanan. She’d come that far, and she had to follow through.

Her knees shook as she stepped off the floor to the ICU. She waited by the desk for someone to guide her to the right area.

A nurse with a sweet smile and a blonde ponytail that swung when she walked spotted her first.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Donald Buchanan.”

The nurse tightened her lips. “Only family. I’m sorry.”

Hope nodded and sucked in a deep breath. “I’m his daughter.” The words were out, but they felt foul.

“Oh.” The nurse’s eyes widened and she smiled. “I met your brothers last week. Handsome.”

A lump formed in her throat. Hope swallowed it and managed a smile. Brothers. That was a lot to take in.

“He’s right back here if you want to follow me.” Hope fell in next to the nurse. “His wife hasn’t been in to see him all week. Your brothers said she’s a nasty thing. I understand that. I have a stepmother too.” Then as though she’d said something wrong, the nurse snapped her head toward Hope with horror in her eyes. “Oh, dear. His wife isn’t your mother, is she?”

“No.”

“Thank goodness. I have a tendency to talk too much.” She pushed back a curtain. “Here you go. He’s in and out of consciousness. So he might not be too responsive.”

“Thank you,” Hope said, trying to keep her voice even so the woman wouldn’t know this was the first time she’d laid eyes on the man.

“You holler if you need anything.”

“I will.”

The nurse slid out of the small room and Hope stood at the door and stared. He was old. Old and very frail. His hair was snow white and his skin pale, almost transparent. Monitors to his side kept his stats and a tube of oxygen in his nose gave him breath.

This was not her father, and upon looking at him, she felt that surge through her like a spike of electricity. She needed to turn away, call David, and apologize for making the journey.

“Mandy.” The sound was weak and airy, but she realized it came from the frail man in the bed. “Mandy.”

Hope’s lips trembled, and her heart rate kicked up when she noticed the man was staring up at her. She willed her feet to move her closer, and his shaking hand reached for her.

“Mandy, you came back.” He even managed a smile and it broke Hope’s heart. She took his outreached hand in her own.

“My name is Hope.”

“Hope.” A tear slid from his eye and a sliver of a smile crossed his dry, cracked lips. “Our daughter.”

That shook Hope down to her core. He knew who she was.

“You know me?”

He gave the very slightest nod.

“I thought you didn’t know who I was.” Now the tears threatened her eyes. “I thought she hid me from you.”

“She did,” he said weakly. “That man found you for me.”

“That man? You had someone find me?”

He closed his eyes. When he opened them, Hope was sure she saw clarity in them. It was almost as if her holding his hand was giving him strength.

“I only found out about you.” He was quiet a moment as he drew in an extra breath, then continued. “I couldn’t let my wife find out.”

“Why?” She wiped at the tears that now fell freely.

“I gave Mandy what was hers.” He paused again. “She deserved what her father had left her.”

“The stocks?”

He only nodded.

“She didn’t tell you she had your child?”

He shook his head and there was a sadness that filled his drawn face. “I was married. But I was in love with Mandy.”

In all her life, she’d never heard someone speak as fondly of Mandy as Donald Buchanan did.

“So you found me?” Hope sniffed back tears, trying to compose herself.

Donald nodded weakly again. “Jacobs.”

Hope’s mouth dropped open and her racing heart plunged into her stomach. “You sent Trevor Jacobs to find me?”

He nodded.

“You paid him to find me for you?”

“It wasn’t cheap, but it was worth it.” He smiled up at her and she tried to keep her calm, but it was fading fast. She’d never felt so betrayed in all of her life. Her knees wobbled beneath her and her free hand clenched at her side.

She had been sure that the journey to New York was going to prove that Mandy Marlow was a liar, a thief, and a cheat, and then she’d be able to put the woman behind her and move on with her life. She never would have guessed the man she’d given her heart too fit the bill as well.

Hope felt sick.

The curtain opened and the nurse stepped in. “Ma’am, I’m afraid you’ll have to go. Visitors can only stay for a few minutes.”

Hope looked down at her biological father. His eyes were filled with love. Did he see her or Mandy?

“Come back again,” he said softly.

She couldn’t say anything. She bent down, kissed his cold cheek, and left him, unsure whether she’d ever see him again.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The churning in Hope’s stomach only worsened when she heard Trevor’s voice.

“Hope! Hope, where are you?”

Violet’s voice was softer. “She’s packing.”

“She’s what?” He burst through the bedroom door. “There you are.”