“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 ou
t 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.
“I’ve never woken with anyone before. I’m afraid to leave this bed.”
“I was thinking last night that I don’t ever want to wake in a bed with another person but you again.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Do you believe in fate?”
“Fate? Yeah,” she said on a sigh. “I believe in fate.”
“I believe it was fate that sent me to you. And I know we haven’t physically known each other for too long, but in my soul I’ve known you for a very long time.”
“My grandmother has always come to me in my dreams,” she said shifting so that she faced him and propped herself up on her elbow as he was. His arm lay lazily over her hip and his fingers drew small circles on her skin. “She told me you would come.”
He smiled. “She did, huh?”
“Don’t laugh. But yeah, she told me you’d come looking for me.”
His dark lashes fluttered as he smiled before he moved in and gently kissed her. “What else did she say?”
“Your touch would be intense and I would fall in love with you.”
“I’d say our touches were intense,” he said, running his hand down her arm.
“And I’d say I’ve fallen in love with you.”
His brows knit. The slightest fear crept into her.
“Hope, don’t say things like that unless you mean them.”
“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. I have fallen in love with you.”
The fear left her when he smiled, and the smile was knowing and loving. “Hope, your grandmother never came to me and said I’d fall in love with you. But I believe in fate.” He took a deep breath. “About two years ago I began to have dreams. I had dreams about this fair-skinned, blue-eyed blonde,” he said, tunneling his fingers though her hair. “And the moment I saw you, I knew it was you. I knew I’d been steered in your direction.”
“Really?” Her voice was light.
“Yes.” He moved so that she was on her back and he looked down on her. “Hope, I was in love with you before I met you. Now that I have you wrapped in my arms, I never want to wake without you. I love you.”
Tears wanted to break through, but she fought them. He pressed his lips to hers and moved on top of her, making love to her again in the sunlight of a new day.
Much later, Hope moved about her kitchen. A smile permeated her lips as she looked out the window over the sink. She sipped at her coffee, listening to the sounds of another person in her apartment getting ready for the day. The scent of shaving cream lingered in the air. It felt comfortable having Trevor near.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” he said as he moved up behind her, wrapping his arms around her.
“Good morning.” She turned her head and kissed him softly. “Trevor, I could get used to this.”
“Good. Do you have to go in today?”
“Yes. What about you?” She raised her eyebrows.
“I’m calling banks.”
“Then I guess you’re working too. I suppose you could make those calls from my shop.”
A fleeting shadow darkened his eyes, so fast she might have imagined it. Then he kissed the top of her head. “Now, that would be a benefit, wouldn’t it? You do your job, I do mine, and I can kiss you in between.”
They eased into the morning of work. Trevor had set himself up at the table in the back room and began plotting out banks in the area and checking them off the list. He kept his files in the trunk of the car to keep Hope from finding them.
On Wednesdays, Hope spent most of the day ordering supplies and placing orders for new items for her shop. She did her bookwork and she’d mentioned to Trevor that she was glad she only had one slow day a week.
Likewise, Thomas and Carissa’s school was quiet. Hope told him they saved Wednesday mornings for helping at the kids’ school. Their own students wouldn’t arrive until the afternoon.
So, the atmosphere was quiet.
Trevor dove into his work. He’d found five banks in a two-mile radius of David and Sophia’s home. There were another sixty-seven lying within a thirty-mile radius. Once he had his list, he began to whittle it down by the year that the bank location opened. Twenty-three years was a long time for a bank location to stay open. The list shrank, but not by much.
He walked out of the back room, moving his neck from side to side to work the kink from it.
“We only have twenty-seven phone calls to make.”
Hope blew out a breath and scowled. “Bring me the list.”
Trevor smiled. “How about something to eat first?”
“Take
n care of. My mother is bringing us lunch.”
Though he tried, he couldn’t help the surprise he knew crept over his face. Trevor walked to her side and gathered her hands in his, kissing the tips of her fingers. “Does she know what we’re doing?”
“No, and we aren’t going to tell her either.”
Trevor nodded. He didn’t like getting involved with someone and keeping secrets from her parents, though this time it seemed necessary.
“Maybe I should pick up my papers and put them in my car until she leaves.”
Hope considered it. “Maybe you’re right.”
Trevor kissed her on the cheek and retreated back to the back room to gather his paperwork and laptop.
As he closed the trunk to his car, Sophia pulled up in front of Hope’s store. Trevor put on his happy face and tried his best to calm his nerves.
“Hello, Sophia.” He crossed the street as she climbed from her car.
“Hello, Trevor. Did you just get here?”
“No. I came in with Hope. I’m using her back room as an office for the day. Just trying to catch up on some paperwork.”
Sophia opened the door to the passenger side of the car and pulled out a basket. Trevor walked up behind her.
“Let me help you.”
“Thank you,” she said handing him the basket and gathering another bag. “I’ll bet she loves the company.”
“Well, I don’t think I’ve been too social. I’ve been making phone calls and she’s been doing her ordering all day.” He opened the door to the store for her. “In fact, I don’t think we talked for three hours.”
They laughed easily as they walked through the store.
Hope was in the back room adding a folding chair to her small table. When her mother walked through the door, she kissed her on the cheek and took the bag from her hand.
“You went all out, didn’t you?” she asked, peeking at what her mother had packed.
“Your father is meeting us here, and Carissa and Thomas were going to go into the school early so they’re dropping by too.”
Trevor swallowed hard. After the morning of trying to discover the secrets of Hope’s other parents, he wasn’t sure a full family reunion in a crowded room was what he wanted. Unease filled him. Would they all know what he was doing?
Hope's Discovery (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) Page 10