Hope's Discovery (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) (14 page)

He’d have brought her a bottle of wine too, but his hands were full.

Trevor rang the doorbell, hid behind the arrangement, and waited for the woman he adored to answer.

He waited and waited. Finally, he looked around the arrangement to make sure he had the right apartment number.

“You know, handsome, you’re as good looking from the back as you are from the front.”

Trevor turned to see her standing on the walk looking up at him.

“How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to enjoy the view.” She walked toward him with her arms full of groceries. “Thought I’d better get enough food for breakfast since I’m keeping you and not letting you go tonight.”

She nipped his lip with a kiss.

“Are you still sure you want to do that?”

“When I open this door and put this bag down, I’ll explain why I’m not worried about quick romances.”

She unlocked the door and pushed it open so they could both walk through.

Trevor closed it behind them and followed her into the kitchen. She set the bags down on the counter and turned to him.

“These are for you.” He held out the vase.

“That is the most beautiful arrangement I’ve ever seen.”

“I thought it reflected its recipient.”

“Thank you,” she said as she set it in the middle of the table. “You look nervous.”

“Why? I shouldn’t be. I’ve already met the man who will kill me if I hurt his daughter. Having an intimate evening with her shouldn’t make me nervous.”

She moved in closer again and brushed his lip with hers. “I guess he’ll have to get used to the thought.”

Trevor could only nod.

“But right now I’m hungry. So I’m going to make you a meal you’ll never forget. One that will have you wanting to marry me and never leave.” She laughed, but he couldn’t.

“I don’t need a meal to know that already,” he said, his voice steady and sure.

Her eyes opened wide and she let out a breath. “Trevor, I was kidding. I’m not working on making you marry me.”

He nodded. Maybe she didn’t feel the same way he did. He definitely was going to find out, but for tonight, he was going to enjoy a meal and the company of a beautiful woman.

Hope went about putting away the groceries. “Why don’t you open the wine I have chilling in the fridge. Glasses are…”

“Right over here,” he said reaching around her, brushing his body against hers, and pulling the glasses from the cupboard before turning and setting them on the table.

“I forgot. You’ve dined here before.”

“Corkscrew?” he asked as he pulled the wine from the refrigerator.

“Drawer next to you.” She pointed and he turned to open the drawer.

“So what are you making to seduce me?”

“Please tell me you like scallops.”

“I like scallops.”

“Spinach salad?”

“Sounds good so far.” He poured wine into each glass and handed her one. “You have more. Continue.” He moved closer to her until she’d backed against the counter.

“Um, asparagus and for dessert baked pears.”

He backed up and looked down into her deep blue eyes. “Pears?”

“You don’t like pears?”

He shrugged. “Pears yes. Baked pears, never tried them.”

A sexy smile slid across her mouth and she raised her glass to her lips. “I think you’ll enjoy them.”

“I think it will only be the start of dessert,” he said as he moved into her and kissed her hard on the mouth.

He felt her body go soft against his. Her arm encircled his neck and her mouth opened to his. There was a chance he’d misread her. Perhaps she did want all the things he was already sure he wanted.

When he eased back, she stood before him a satisfied look on her face, her eyes still closed. Her sexy smile told him she was ready for him to touch her more, taste her more, and to give her everything he had to offer.

They ate and drank wine while they made small talk over dinner. He told her about growing up in New York and she reciprocated with stories of a quiet life in Kansas City under the watchful eye of her mother and older sister.

After dessert Trevor leaned back in his chair and patted his stomach. “Well, I now know I like baked pears.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“Where did you learn to cook?”

“My mother mostly. Once I was born, she stopped touring and took on a lot of different rolls. She was a teacher at Carissa’s school. Room mother in my classrooms. She took care of my great-grandma Katie and”—she motioned to the plates—“she perfected cooking.”

“She sounds well rounded.”

“Yes she does,” she said lifting her wine glass to her lips.

“Did she ever miss touring?”

“Oh I don’t think so. She wanted nothing more than to be a mother and that’s what she was. A full-time, completely attentive mother.” She smiled again, but he noticed it vanished quickly and her brows knit.

“There’s something about your mother, something that’s bothering you.” He slid his hand across the table and covered hers.

“She found out about me asking you for help in finding out about Mandy and my birthfather.”

Trevor adjusted in his chair. “Found out? You didn’t tell her?”

Hope shook her head. “No. I was telling my father and she overheard. I was going to tell her. Honestly I was. But it just happened.” She let out a breath. “I broke her heart.”

“So you’re giving up? You don’t want to pursue this?”

“No. I’m not giving up.”

That wasn’t what he’d wanted to hear, but he let her continue.

“I want it over as quickly as possible.”

He could feel the evening taking a drastic turn. On one hand he could end it right there. He could tell her about Donald Buchanan and it would all be over. Then again, it wasn’t how it worked. He’d been asked to wait. He would wait.

Hope reached for his hand and ran her thumb gently over his knuckles. “What can I do to help out? What would you usually ask a client if they were looking for someone?”

“Well,” he considered. “I’d ask about name, place of birth, last time they were seen.” He sipped his wine and set the glass back down. “Then I’d ask if they had anything that belonged to the person.”

“Like personal belongings?”

“Yeah, anything is helpful.”

“Like a purse? Or at least items that would have been in someone’s purse.”

“I suppose that would do.” He looked her over as she chewed on her lip. “Do you have something that personally belonged to Mandy?”

Hope sat quietly for a moment then rose from the table. She returned with a box and set it on the table. “This is all that was left,” she said. “She sold everything she had before she found my dad and Carissa. She didn’t want there to be anything left.” She shrugged.

“May I?”

“Of course.” She pushed the box closer to him.

He opened it and looked inside. As Hope had said, the box was filled with what would have been, he assumed, the contents of Mandy’s purse and the final documents that closed out her existence. He lifted her wallet and opened it.

“There are still thirty dollars in here.”

She shrugged again. “It wasn’t mine to take.”

A warmth filled him. Only someone as sweet as Hope would still consider that someone else’s. He looked at her driver’s license and pulled it from the windowed pocket in the wallet. “Your dad never married her but she had his last name?”

Hope nodded. “He said she changed it so that it would match his. It made everything easier when I was born. They had the same last name. No questions were asked.”

“You don’t keep her death certificate in a safer place than this?” He pulled it from the box.

“It’s just a copy.”

Trevor replaced the certificate. “These are her keys?” he asked as he pulled them from the box.

“Yes. I don’t know what they went to. Dad said she had a car and they sold it to cover her burial. But she didn’t have a house or anything else. She was staying in some motel before I was born.”

He lifted each of the four keys on the ring and then he stopped.

“Do you know what this is?” He held up one of the keys on the ring.

Hope shook her head.

“It’s a safety deposit box key.”

“Why would she have a key to a safety deposit box?”

“Why not?” He lifted everything out of the box and laid it out on the table.

Hope picked up the dishes and carried them to the sink to make more room, then sat back down.

“None of this paperwork has anything to do with a bank account,” he said.

“Don’t you think my father would have looked into that?”

Trevor nodded. “Yeah, he seems like a pretty thorough man.”

“He is,” she said warmly.

Trevor went through the wallet again and this time pulled out each item. He looked at every business card, her driver’s license, and credit cards. Nothing out of the ordinary. He sat back in his seat.

They didn’t speak. She was letting him process the information he had just acquired. He didn’t tell her the information he had in his own mind, but it wouldn’t have mattered. There wasn’t much that was new… except the key.

He ran his fingers through each of the slots. He started in the change compartment and then the bill compartment. He checked the credit card slots, one by one. The wallet was empty. Only then did he notice a small hole in the coin area. He pulled it back slightly and grinned.

Hope’s eyes opened wide. “What is it?”

“Probably nothing,” he said as he pulled out a thin shred of paper with a number written on it. “It could be a phone number.”

He handed the paper to her and she looked at it. “It doesn’t have a KC area code.”

“Where was she born?” he asked even though he had the answer to that.

“New York.”

“Doesn’t match any New York area codes either.” He looked it over and then lifted his eyes to her. He picked up the keys. “Hope, do you think this is the account number to the safe-deposit box?”

Her eyes grew wider. “I don’t know. How would we find out?”

“This is when I do my job. Can I take these?”

“Of course. What are you going to do?”

“We’re going to start by mapping out the area around where you were born. “Do you know which motel she was staying in?”

“No.”

“Do you think you could find out?” He tilted his head and he knew she understood his thought.

She blew out a breath and knit her brows. “Yeah, I suppose I could ask.”

Trevor moved toward her and kissed her on the lips gently. “At this point it can’t hurt, right?”

“Right,” she said uneasily.

“In the meantime, this is what I’ll do. I’ll pinpoint the motels in the area nearest your parents’ house. She would have wanted to be close to your father and the hospital. So chances are she was somewhere in between. Then we’ll do a map of the banks in the radius that were open twenty-three years ago.” He smiled. He loved that there was something new to a case that he’d thought he had all the information to. “Then you’ll have to step up and do some calling. Your father has the power of attorney, I assume?”

“I would think so.”

“We may have to work with him for you to get it.”

“I don’t like involving them.”

“Hope, why would she have the box? She needed something kept safe. You are the rightful owner of whatever it is.”

He watched her process what he’d said. She filled her wine glass, chewed her lip, and finally stood and leaned against the cabinet.

“I don’t want to hurt them.”

“I know.”

“What do I do?”

Trevor stood and walked to her. He placed his hands on her waist and pulled her close to him. “Walk away, then.”

“I can’t.”

“Then you have to ask.” He raised his brows to her and she sighed.

“You’re right. Okay. I’ll ask.”

“Now.” He took her wine glass and set it to the side. “As much as I adore talking business with a client, I’m sure this wasn’t what you’d planned to do tonight.”

Hope lifted her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers. “You’re right.”

The sun filled the room with warmth as it filtered in through the curtains. Hope breathed him in, afraid to move, afraid to wake him. She’d never awoken in a bed with a man and she realized she never wanted to wake in one again without him.

Trevor stirred, his eyes opening slowly. A smile slid across his lips and her heart began to race at the mere thought that he was happy to be there still wrapped in her arms.

“Good morning,” he said softly.

“Good morning,” she returned, but her voice shook.

He lifted his head and propped himself up on his elbow. “Everything okay?” he asked as he traced his finger over her jaw.