Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (68 page)

There was an enormous grin on his face and he waved a sheaf of papers at her. It was as if he didn’t understand the implications of what she was doing.

“Your father is a genius. A dammed genius.”

“Not news to me, pal.” She moved past him and tucked clothes into the suitcase, which lay open on the bed.

“He caught Delores Buchanan.”

Those words stopped her. She turned, and he held up the papers in his hand.

“She’s been arrested and so has her merry band of thieves.” He pulled her to him. “Your father, sister, and Thomas pulled her in, and she fell into their trap. Genius!”

“What are you talking about?” She deliberately took a step away from him.

“They set her up. They knew she’d go after Carissa next. She knew you’d been to the bank and had the stocks. So Thomas and Carissa set up their house to be hit, and sure enough she had one of her people hit it. He was arrested while in the house and in order to lessen the charges he spilled. Oh, how spilled.” He laughed. “I think your dad said he sang like a canary.”

“Too many movies.”

“Either way. She went to your shop looking for you like they thought she would, and that’s where they took her down. She’s out of your life and out of the way.”

“Fine.” She turned back to the suitcase and threw in another blouse.

“What are you doing?”

“Leaving.”

“What?” He grabbed her hand as she picked up another shirt. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Why don’t you tell me, you lying snake?”

Trevor stood before her, his eyes wide, his expression hurt.

“Oh, you’re good aren’t you? You play all the parts so well.” She pulled her hand from his grasp and threw in another blouse before turning toward him and dropping her hands in anger. “I met Donald Buchanan today.”

Trevor tipped his head back as if she’d slapped him in the face.

Hope pursed her lips. That was all she needed. “He paid you to find me. So you did. Wormed your way right into my heart and into my bed. What an idiot I am.”

“Hope.” He touched her shoulder, but she shook off his hand.

“You made me think I was hiring you to find him, but all along I was the prize. He sent you to find me.” She stopped and wiped at her eyes. He wasn’t worth the tears. “You lied to me from the minute I met you.”

“It’s not like that, Hope.”

“Liar!” She slammed closed the suitcase and zipped it up. “Did you know I have two brothers? Did you know that?”

“Well…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Did you talk to the blonde nurse?”

“Ye-e-e-es,” she said.

“Yeah, that would have been me and Bryce. Don’t worry.” He held up his hands. “We are not your brothers. We just needed to gain access to Buchanan.”

Hope shook her head. “You’re in so deep you can’t even tell the truth.”

She pulled the suitcase from the bed and it thudded to the floor. Fighting with the handle, she managed to pull it up and roll the case it to the door, but Trevor was faster.

“Listen, I deserve a moment to have you hear me out.”

“You don’t deserve shit.” She tried for the door, but he blocked her.

“Don’t walk out on me. I love you.”

“It doesn’t work anymore, Mr. Jacobs. You can’t lie your way into my heart and expect me to pool at your feet. I might be young and I might have been naive, but I’m not anymore. Get out of my way.”

Trevor moved closer to her with his head hung low. “Stay. Please Stay.”

There was a tapping on the door. “Hope’s taxi is here,” Violet softly said from the other side.

Hope reached for the door, and Trevor gently touched her hand. “He did hire me.”

It was enough truth to make Hope release the door, but she wouldn’t lift her eyes to look into his. She’d give him two minutes, but it wasn’t going to change anything.

Trevor shoved the paper he carried into his back pocket. “I was hired by Donald Buchanan to find Mandy Marlow. I did that. I found her in a cemetery in Kansas City. He was looking for her because he came into the knowledge that he had a daughter. You, Hope.”

She kept her eyes focused on the back of the door, but he continued.

“When you were born, Ruth got a letter from your great-grandmother Katie, telling her that Mandy had died and there was a baby. She thought it was a scam for money so she didn’t think much about it. Recently Delores Buchanan must have found out that Mandy died and she was looking for the payoff money she’d given her to disappear with the baby. Buchanan found out about you, but Delores has always known.”

“So what’s the payoff, Trevor? Do you get a cut? I’m worth what to you?”

“Hope, what happened between us is real. Yes, I was sent to find you and get to know you.”

Her head snapped up. He was making it worse than she could have imagined. “Get to know me. Well you certainly did, didn’t you?”

“Stay. Let me keep you safe until I know everything is behind us.”

“Right. Stay with the man who stalked me. Get out of my way, Trevor.”

She pushed past him and opened the door. Violet stood just a few feet away.

“Thank you for letting me stay, Mrs. Jacobs.” She walked past her and out the front door. The driver threw her suitcase into the trunk and she looked back only once to see Violet holding her son by the arm on the front porch.

Hope sank into the seat. She loved him and that hurt most of all. He lied to her and now she had to move on without him.

Trevor hit brick walls when he tried to contact Hope the week after she’d fled. Damn caller ID. She wouldn’t answer his calls at her shop. When he had Bryce call from his cell phone, she hung up on him as soon as she realized who he was.

There was no luck reaching her through Carissa or Thomas, and he absolutely feared talking to David. Sophia had had kind words, though she wouldn’t let him talk to Hope.

Violet set the mail on the counter and rested a large package against the cupboard as she walked in the kitchen. Her high heel shoes clicked on the tile floor.

“I figured I’d find you here,” she said, leaning against the counter and scanning a look over her son. “Have you sat here all day with your cell phone in your hand?”

“I’ve tried six times to get her to talk to me. I left six messages and she refuses to talk to me.” He dropped the phone and rested his elbows on the table. He tangled his fingers into his hair and held his head. “It’s been a week.”

“You were an ass.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Really, how did you think this was going to end?”

“I didn’t expect to fall in love with her.”

Violet let out a sigh, walked to her son, and ran her hand over his hair, forcing him to drop his hands. “That’s when it always happens.”

She walked back to the package she’d set on the floor. “This came for you today.” She picked it up and looked at it. “It’s from Kansas City. That’s a positive sign, isn’t it?”

“No.” He huffed out a breath as he stood up and took it from her. “Sit down.”

Violet released her hold and sat down at the table.

“This was supposed to be for your birthday.”

“My birthday isn’t for a few weeks.”

“Exactly. We’d planned to bring it with us, but we decided to ship it.”

“We?” Violet raised her eyebrows.

“Hope and I.” He handed her the package and she held it upright on her lap. “I wanted this to be so much more. She should be here.” He waited for her to open it so he could see her expression.

“Oh, Trevor.” Her shoulders dropped, her eyes went soft, and her fingers pressed against her trembling lips.

She was touched, just as he knew she would be.

“You like it?”

“Love it. Love it!” She wiped a tear that rolled down her cheek. “Hope did this?”

“Yes.”

“I’m a good mother, you know. I did my homework and looked into her. Her record is clean.”

He let out a weak laugh. “I know.”

“But she does some very nice work. This, however…” She studied the painting closer. “This is beyond anything she shows on her website.”

“She painted it after I met her. From memory.” He sat down in the chair across the table. “When I walked through her shop the first time, it was there. It was only a drawing, but it was me.”

“She’s captured your very spirit in this painting. The light in your eyes, the subtle pout of your lips. She’s in love with you.” Her eyes shifted to his and calmed him just as his mother could always do.

“She might have been.”

“Still is. That’s why she won’t talk to you. You’re too embedded in her heart.”

“I miss her.”

“Things will come around. If it’s meant to be, it will all work out.”

He nodded, hoping she was right, and really, when wasn’t she? But it hurt. He’d never had pain that squeezed his heart and threatened to choke him like the pain of losing Hope did.

Bryce had managed to put the office back together after the break in. And with them both assuming Trevor wasn’t returning, he’d taken the bigger desk.

Trevor didn’t mind. Bryce’s desk looked out over the busy streets of New York, and it took his mind off the serenity of Kansas City.

He’d followed up on a few cases he’d left unfinished, but Bryce had been fairly efficient while he’d been gone.

He made a few phone calls to find out the status of Delores Buchanan’s arrest and holding. She wouldn’t be bothering Hope or her family ever again.

A smile crept across his lips. David and Thomas had never struck him as the PI type, but they just might come in handy someday. Well, that would be if he were to have cases in Kansas City again.

He tipped back in his chair and kicked his feet up on the desk. The lunch crowds were making their way into the streets and the hot dog cart on the corner already had a line.

“Hey.” Bryce broke the silence of the office. He stood in the doorway, both hands braced on the jambs. A look of worry curtained his expression.

Trevor dropped his feet and stood. “What’s up? You look spooked.”

Bryce sucked in a breath as he took a step inside the office. He dropped his shoulders, bit his lip, and shifted his eyes back to Trevor. “I thought you should know. Donald Buchanan passed away last night.”

Trevor felt his legs give out and he sat in the chair beneath him. He felt his throat closing up with tears. They weren’t for the man who had passed, but for the girl who had only just met him.

Bryce set a folded piece of paper on the desk. “His service is on Friday.”

“I’ll be there.” He picked up the announcement and read it over.

“Hey, pal, I’m really sorry it worked out this way. I’ve got your back. Whatever you need.”

“Thanks. I’ll be okay.” The words were out, but they didn’t ring true in his heart.

His mother offered to go to the funeral with him; even his father had offered, hesitantly. But he thought it best to go alone. He was hopeful that Hope would be there. Though he didn’t expect her to be alone, he wanted a moment to talk to her.

When he walked across the grass to the plot where Donald Buchanan would be laid to rest, he felt a pang of sadness. There was only a small gathering of people, and no one sat in the family seats.

The service went quickly and Trevor kept his eyes roaming, looking for Hope to arrive, but she didn’t.

Once the service was over a gentle gloved hand touched his arm. He turned to see Ruth Marlow, her eyes shielded by large, round sunglasses, standing beside him.

She was dressed in black and had even donned a black hat. He hadn’t seen her among the crowd. Then again he hadn’t been looking for her.

“Mrs. Marlow, it’s nice to see you.”

“You too, Mr. Jacobs.” She patted his arm. “I was sorry to hear that he passed.” She looked at the grave. “He’d have liked to have the chance to get to know her better.”

“I thought she’d be here.”

Ruth nodded. “She was with him when he died.”

He staggered backward. She’d been in New York and hadn’t called or dropped by. She’d avoided him. He swiped the back of his hand over his brow. The heat was getting to him. “Hope was here? In New York?”

“She came in with her mother and father.” Ruth shifted. “It’s hot. Why don’t we sit?”

Trevor agreed and moved toward the chairs. “Did you see her while she was here?”

Ruth sat straighter and held tight to her little shiny black purse. “Yes. She called to let me know they were coming. The hospital had contacted her when he’d started to fail. They flew right out.”

“I would have thought she’d call me.”

“She’s upset. You understand.”

He nodded and he despised himself for it. “You met her parents, then?”

Ruth smiled brightly. “Yes. They came to the house and we had dinner. David was as nice as I remembered, and Sophia, well, she’s just a genuinely wonderful woman. My Mandy did well when she gave Hope to them. They love her so much.”

“You didn’t meet Carissa?”

“No. But I’ll be there for Thanksgiving. Sophia invited me herself.”

At least Donald Buchanan’s search for his daughter had netted Ruth Marlow some peace. She had a family again.

Ruth took a handkerchief from her purse and dabbed her eyes under her large glasses. “She brought me a painting.”

Trevor lifted his head. “Did she?”

“A beautiful sunset. Just like the one my Mandy painted.” She let out a sigh and took a deep breath. Then she took her hand and laid it on Trevor’s. “She misses you.”

He felt the quiver of hope run through him and it threatened to turn to tears, but he wasn’t going to shed them.

Ruth replaced the handkerchief into her purse. “Give her some time. She has a lot going on in that beautiful head of hers right now. But my granddaughter is a smart one. She’ll do what’s right. Besides”—she stood next to him and looked down—“Donald liked you. He’d be happy to know you were together again.”

She said her goodbye, and the small crowd that had lingered at the grave dispersed. Trevor sat alone, the casket of Donald Buchanan still only a few feet away.

“I promise, if she forgives me, I will forever take care of her.”

A breeze blew through the tent and the scent of lilacs carried on it. Trevor closed his eyes and breathed it in. It was familiar, but not for any reason he could think of.