Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (47 page)

The aromas of Thomas’s signature spaghetti sauce filled the house and had Hope’s stomach growling. It was only then she realized she hadn’t eaten anything since her bagel that morning before heading to the cemetery. Her mind had been too occupied to think of food.

Her father was the first to cross to her.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart.” He kissed her on the cheek a smiled down at her.

David Kendal, father of the year, every year, in her book. She knew she’d only be happy when she found a man like her father.

He’d been a pilot up until the beginning of the year when he’d retired. Hope wasn’t sure when he’d had time to work. He and her mother had been going nonstop since they’d cleaned up the retirement party.

They had traveled Europe and spent a month in Australia. They spent time in Italy with her former boss Pablo DiAngelo and his partner Pierre before returning home and planting the biggest garden in the city and taken on the role of babysitter for Carissa’s children. Happiness was truly theirs.

He wore his sixty-three years handsomely. His hair was pure silver, but as he always said, “It let go of the color but at least it didn’t let go.”

Well-deserved lines peeked from the corners of his eyes. There had been a lot of world seen through them.

“Thank you, Daddy.” She fell into his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her.

“Stop hogging her.” Sophia Kendal wiped her hands on a towel and crossed the kitchen to hug her. “Happy birthday, darling.”

Her mother kissed her on the cheek and beamed at her. Hope couldn’t imagine that a child born into a family could be more loved than she was. Luck had been on her side when her birth mother had given her to them. They hadn’t chosen her, but they had taken her, and loved her.

“There’s my girl!” Thomas put down his spoon and turned from the stove to envelop Hope in another hug. “I got your favorite almost finished. Why don’t you get the kids to wash up and sit down?”

“I can do that much.” Hope smiled at her brother-in-law. Carissa was a lucky woman. Sophia had set her sister and Thomas up to fall in love, just as her grandma Katie had done for Sophia and David years ago. Matchmaking. It seemed to be a family trait that lead to happiness. Hope could only assume they hadn’t found the right man yet, or she’d have fallen willing victim to their skills as well.

As they gathered around the table Hope sat, as she often did, in awe of the commotion that ensued. Over the years, as each member of the family was added, she’d come accustomed to the changes at the table. Certain people sat in certain chairs. Some would eat their peas. Others would tuck them under other items on their plate to hide them.

Her sister never actually sat down, and her meal wasn’t touched until her four beautiful children bounded from the table to find something better to do.

Thomas could carry on a conversation with every person at the table simultaneously. Her mother had taken on her great-grandmother’s art of gossip. Never did Sophia say a harsh word though. She enjoyed sharing the happenings of those she knew.

Her father, as usual, was more reserved. He kept his words, she always mused, until he was ready to use them, and then he’d use them all.

Dinnertime at Carissa’s was noisy, and messy, and always the one thing Hope looked forward to being a part of.

Thomas left the table and returned a moment later with a bottle of champagne. “I have something special for tonight. In honor of the birthday girl.”

Hope smiled wide. “Oh, you shouldn’t have.”

“Can I have some?” Becky asked.

“You can have a little taste,” Thomas promised, though Hope knew he wouldn’t have his own. He didn’t drink. She’d never seen him drink. She’d been told that he drank plenty once. It had been enough to nearly kill him.

Thomas opened the bottle and sniffed it.

“I don’t think you’ll like it, Becky.”

“Oh, it’s an adult thing,” she said with her face already scrunched up. Hope’s heart went out to her. She’d been that girl not so long ago. With Carissa being seventeen years older than she was, she’d shared the table with adults her entire life and wanted to always be just like them.

Hope wrapped her arm around her niece’s shoulders.

“Well, if you’d rather not have the bubbly stuff, then I think you should have a bigger piece of cake.”

“Really, Auntie Hope? I can have a bigger piece of cake?”

“That is, if there is cake.” She looked around at the others at the table.

Sophia crossed her arms over her chest and shot her chin up. “Have I ever missed baking you a birthday cake?”

“Not once.” Hope reached across the table and placed her hand on her mother’s.

Sophia Kendal, what an amazing woman. What woman took on the responsibility of another person’s child and loved her like Sophia had loved her?

Hope sat back and sipped her champagne, listening to the chaos, and thinking. She’d battled with the thought for years. Had Mandy had a change of heart and given her to David because she actually loved her? Or was she hoping to punish him by dumping a baby on him and then dying? They’d all told her what he was willing to sacrifice to keep her, and she wasn’t even his blood. He could have lost Sophia altogether, but he wanted to give Hope a home and he wanted her with her sister. Not a day had gone by in her life that she hadn’t thanked God that David had decided to keep her and that Sophia had fallen in love with her.

Sophia carried the cake from the kitchen and set it in front of Hope. Precisely placed on the cake were twenty-three candles.

Becky snuggled in next to her aunt. “I counted them and put them on the cake.”

“I think you put too many.”

“Nope. Mama said to put two whole boxes on and then take one off.”

“Well now that is one smart mama.” Hope touched her head to her niece’s as she watched Thomas light the candles on her cake.

This family, her real family, was all the family she would ever need.

CHAPTER TWO

He’d paced the floor of his hotel room all night. Can you spend more time there getting to know about them? I would like to know who they are and what they are like before I approach her. Donald Buchanan’s words had rung in his ears.

Now standing outside of the Kendal/Samuel School of Music, he heard them again and verified to himself that he was standing there at Donald Buchanan’s request. He’d watched Thomas Samuel, co-owner of the school and brother-in-law to Hope, unlock the door an hour earlier. The first set of students had walked in. He’d counted eight of them. They walked back out forty-five minutes later. Not one had an instrument; they carried only notebooks.

Trevor left the comforts of his rental car and walked across the street to the school. He stopped briefly outside Hope’s shop. It was still dark. According to the sign on the door, it would be open in the next hour. He gazed into the window past the collectibles neatly arranged on the shelves. The artwork covering the walls commanded his attention, specifically a picture of a hummingbird, which he was sure his mother had a small print of in her office.

“Well, Ms. Kendal, you certainly are talented,” he muttered to himself.

He knew he’d be entering the store within that next hour. He wondered if Hope would open it or if she had employees. He’d never seen anyone else close up the store, but he wondered. Again, he felt the tingle in his palm and he rubbed it against the leg of his pants. Was he ready to see her again?

The bell above the door rang as Trevor entered the school. The room was welcoming. A coffeepot sat full, freshly brewed, and magazines lay out. A waiting room for the parents of students, he assumed.

“Hello. How can I help you?” Thomas appeared from the back.

“Hi. Well.” He gave some thought as to what he was doing there. Every time he’d faced someone for information it was like a game. This time it felt dirty. “I’m looking for information on your school. I have a niece looking for music lessons and I told my sister I’d see what was available.” Not a lie, though his sister lived in New York and would probably be able to find a closer school.

“Wonderful. I’m Thomas Samuel,” he said, shaking Trevor’s hand. “My wife and I own the school. Let me show you around.”

Trevor followed Thomas back down a hallway.

“This is our piano room. I teach the piano lessons. Across the hall, we have two more rooms where we teach all instruments. My wife is a cellist and so is her mother.” He waited for Trevor’s nod acknowledging the “news” before moving on. “This is our theory study room. Before any lessons start, we have a week study course on theory. Then as the student advances, we hold advanced theory classes. My last class just finished.”

That would be why none of the students had instruments when they’d entered and left the school.

“Back here we hold bigger classes,” he said as Trevor walked through the door of the biggest room so far. “We have quite a few homeschooled students. They have their own band and their own orchestra as well. This is where we practice with them.”

“Does the store next door mind all the noise?”

Thomas laughed. “No. Hope grew up around the students and was one herself once. She’s my sister-in-law,” he added with congenial love in his eyes. “She was my very first student, but her talents lie in art, not in music.”

“She doesn’t play?”

“Oh, she can, but let’s just say she’s a better artist.” Thomas laughed again as he walked back through the school. “What does your niece play?”

Trevor followed him to the waiting room, racking his brain. “I think the piano. I’m just doing some footwork for her. They live in New York now.” He left it at that and knew Thomas would assume they’d be moving to Kansas City.

“Let me get you a pamphlet on the school and you can send it to her. When are they moving to the area?”

“I don’t know the time frame,” he said as he cleared his throat, knowing it was never. “But I know if I can give her some information, that’ll help Sarah settle into a new place.”

“Your niece is Sarah?” Thomas’s eyes widened, and a smile pushed at his cheeks.

Trevor nodded.

“I had a sister named Sarah.” Thomas’s voice softened. “Well, I look forward to meeting your family. I’m sorry, I don’t think I got your name.”

“Trevor. Trevor Jacobs.” As they shook hands again, he heard the distant slam of a door.

Thomas smiled. “Sounds like Hope is at work. She’ll have the store open early today. That was the sound of my arms are too full and I’ve kicked shut the door.”

It was obvious the man knew her well.

Trevor would have known she was close even without Thomas’s confirmation. She was within a few feet of him and his entire body had begun to tingle. “Mr. Samuel, thank you for the tour and the information.”

“My pleasure, have a nice day.”

She was making her second trip to the car. Why did she think it was so important to have fresh coffee and flowers displayed for her guests? Guests, she laughed to herself. Most stores called them customers. Hope thought of those who took the time to enter her shop as guests.

She tucked the fresh flowers into the crook of her arm, balanced the brown paper bag of plastic cups and individual sugar packets in the other arm. With her fingers tangled around her keys, she hit the button on her key fob and set the alarm. She turned back toward the shop when the door to the school opened up.

From the corner of her eye she saw a man, but it was the feeling that flooded her that made her think of the man that had encompassed her every thought for the past day. As she reached the door, the hand that came in front of her reaching for the handle wasn’t hers. She looked up and froze.

Words stuck in her throat and the mere thank-you that should have flowed out was strangling her.

“Let me get that for you.” His voice rang in her ears as he pushed open the door to the store and she stumbled through it. He reached quickly and grabbed the bag from her arms. His fingers brushed hers, and again there was that electricity that she’d felt the day before.

He was laughing. Words wouldn’t come to her mind, but she could seriously wonder if something had smeared across her face.

“I guess we have something electric between us, don’t we?” He was joking with her.

All Hope could do was nod. Trevor. His name came to her and she took a breath. “Trevor, right?”

“Yes, and you were Hope?”

She nodded and then forced herself to close her mouth. He was there. Fate had stepped in and brought him to her. In her dreams her great-grandma Katie had said a man would come and take her breath away. The words repeated in her head. He was standing before her, in her shop, and her breath had been taken away. Now, she thought, he was a guest. She needed to offer him something. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“Maybe after you tell me where would you like me to put this?” he asked, hefting the bag held in his hands.

“Oh. Sorry. Follow me.”

She started toward the back of the store. The room wasn’t big, but it was big enough for her to paint her creations and make a pot of coffee.

“So this is where you work? I was admiring your paintings from the window this morning.”

“Yeah,” was all she could manage.

“You’re very talented.”

“Thank you.”

“I was most taken by the sunset near the front. Did you paint that?”

“Yes.” She began busying herself with unpacking the bags and putting the flowers in a vase. “It was my first painting we made prints of. I sold a few copies.”

“And one of them hangs in my mother’s office.”

“Really?” Her head came up and met his eyes, and once again her breath was sucked from her lungs. “Were you visiting the music school?”

“Getting information for my niece.”

“I highly recommend it.”

“I’ll bet.” He laughed. “Your brother-in-law said you were his first student.”

Trevor’s laugh fluttered in her chest, and she laughed too at the thought then went back to arranging the flowers. “Well if you can call me that. Trust me, I’m a better artist.”