Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (28 page)

He smiled. “Why would you do that?”

“C’mon, I think we’re on equal ground. Who’s to say one of us isn’t going to break the other’s heart? I’m a professional, and I thought you were, too. We’re going to work together, that’s a given.” He wished he could control the rapid pace of his heart when she laid her hands on his chest. “For the time being, we’re even going to live together.” Her eyebrows gave a playful rise. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been with a man I find not only as attractive as you, but that I’m completely comfortable around.” She pushed her body up against his, and he could feel the warmth radiate from her.

“You’re not going to back down, are you?” With her that close, he couldn’t help but reach his hands into her hair.

“No,” she said as she rose on her toes and took his mouth with hers.

The air around them grew colder, but the heat between them sizzled. He pulled her closer. Urgency burned through his core, and he knew he had to get her home before he ripped her clothes off right on the street.

They collected the car and started home. Now that it had started, he was having a hard time keeping his hands to himself. His lips wandered down her neck and over her ear as she drove.

“Thomas.” Her voice was airy, and he tugged on her ear with his teeth. “I can’t—concentrate this—way.”

“Then drive faster,” he said, and she laughed.

The moment they hit the driveway she killed the engine and flew into his arms. His hands tangled in her hair, pulling her closer as his tongue explored her mouth. His hands slipped through her jacket. He tugged her blouse loose, and his hands roamed over her warm skin. She moaned, which drove him mad.

When he cupped her breast and gave it a squeeze, she gasped. The soft sound sent his body into overdrive. He had to get her into the house, on a flat surface, against a wall, anywhere where there wasn’t the obstacle of the center console.

“We have to get inside.” He moaned against her lips.

“I don’t know if I can wait that long.” She worked the buttons on his shirt.

The glow of lights moved down the street.

“Wait. Wait.” He pulled back.

Sirens blared, approaching fast.

They adjusted themselves quickly and climbed from the car as a fire truck and an ambulance pulled up in front of the quiet house. Only a moment later, her parents’ car screeched to a stop behind the fire truck.

They both flew from their car.

“Oh, my God! What’s wrong?” Carissa was running to her father as Sophia ran through the front door of the house.

David grasped her shoulders and glanced over her disheveled appearance and then at Thomas’s before looking back at Carissa. “Katie. She fell.”

“Oh, God.” She covered her mouth and broke from her father’s grasp to run into the house.

Paramedics had Katie on the gurney by the time Thomas made it into the house. Carissa was already at her side.

“Oh, I should have been here. I should have stayed with you.” She cried as her mother put her arm around her.

“I’ll be fine,” Katie assured her as they moved her through the house.

The words were confident, but Thomas couldn’t help but notice how weak Katie’s voice sounded. Carissa collapsed against Sophia. “I should have stayed. I should have been here for her.”

“She would have been mad if you canceled your dinner. Besides, it could have happened with you here just as easily. She was in bed. She was getting up to go to the bathroom. You can’t blame yourself.”

“I need to go with her. I need to be with her.” Carissa pulled away and stumbled toward the door.

Thomas took a step toward Sophia and laid a gentle hand on her arm. He was in unfamiliar territory. Compassion wasn’t something he’d witnessed in his life too often. Watching the women comfort one another, he wished he could offer some. “Sophia, go with her. You can leave Hope with me. I’ll look after her.”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you,” Sophia patted his hand as she walked Carissa out of the house.

David carried in Hope, who was sound asleep. He laid her on the couch and draped an afghan over her. “Are you sure about this?”

“It’s the least I can do.” He looked at David, whose brows were creased. Thomas realized his shirt was still unbuttoned, and his hair was a mess. The feeling of being caught with Carissa was worse than he’d imagined when he’d seen David at the restaurant. “Katie will be all right, won’t she?”

David shrugged. “She’s tough. We’ll call you.”

Thomas nodded and watched as David left the house.

He sat quietly, watching the small girl on the couch breathe in and out. Her eyes darted beneath her eyelids as she dreamed. She reminded him of his own sister, so sweet, so innocent. The thought tugged at him uncomfortably. He missed his sister. Envy surged through him when he thought of the relationship Carissa had with Hope. He’d been a part of a relationship like that once. But those days were long gone.

Thomas turned on the television, and the glow filled the dark room. He turned the sound to a whisper so it wouldn’t disturb Hope. He watched for a few minutes, but his body refused to be still.

His fingers itched to move. He’d noticed the piano in the study, pushed against the wall. Obviously it was there more for the purpose of lessons than for decoration, but it was late, and he didn’t want to wake Hope. He longed to touch the keys, to make music now when he didn’t know what else to do.

He walked to the study and shut the door.

He rested his fingers on the keys and let them slide along them without a sound. The song he’d play wouldn’t be joyful or beautiful. It would be painful and mournful. That was how he felt.

Thomas walked to the kitchen and found a bowl and a cup in the sink. He washed them and set them on the counter to dry, then wiped down the already spotless counters to keep his hands occupied. Soon he moved from the kitchen to the hallway where he could see Katie’s bedroom. The light on the nightstand was still on. He entered the room cautiously and picked up the few items that had fallen to the floor with Katie. He arranged her slippers on the side of her bed and pulled the sheets and quilts up to tidy the space. Then he turned off the light and headed back toward the living room.

Hope was awake. She sat very still on her great-grandmother’s couch and looked at the television through sleep-hazed eyes. She wasn’t startled when Thomas entered the room. She looked up at him and then back at the television. “Do you understand them?”

“What?” He looked at the television and realized he’d been watching an Italian movie. He smiled. “Yes, I understand them.”

“What language are they speaking?” She pulled her legs under her and wrapped the blanket around her.

“It’s Italian.” He took his seat in the chair by the couch again. “That’s what they speak in Italy.”

“That’s where you came from?”

“That’s where I was living.”

He watched her as she watched the movie for a few more minutes.

“How come you can understand them, but I can’t?”

“I lived in Italy a very long time. You learn the language when you live somewhere long enough.”

“Will you teach me Italian?”

“Maybe I can teach you some words.”

Hope stood from her seat on the couch and walked toward him with the afghan dragging behind her. She stopped in front of him and made a move to sit on his lap. Thomas tensed, and Hope climbed up on him, laying her head on his shoulder and draping her feet over the side of the chair.

Thomas covered her with the afghan and did his best to settle into the chair with her.

Perhaps she needed comfort. Perhaps she was cold or scared. He wasn’t sure, but she seemed to trust him and he wasn’t going to break that trust.

“Is Grandma going to be okay?” Her voice was muffled against his shirt.

“I’m sure she will be. Your dad said he’d call.” He ran his hand over her soft, blonde hair, and she snuggled closer with a yawn.

“Grandma is very old.”

“Yes, she is.”

“Someday she’ll die.”

Thomas swallowed hard. Someday they all would die, he thought. Some would die from old age like Katie, some to disease like their Aunt Millie, and some by the hands of hateful others. “I don’t think that’ll be soon. You have to think positive thoughts,” he offered, and he heard her sniffle.

“Aunt Millie died.” The comment was simply stated. “Mandy died.”

“Who’s Mandy?” He ran his hand down her hair again. Though he was trying to soothe her, he also found comfort in it.

“My mother.”

Thomas felt his breath hitch. He wouldn’t ask. That wasn’t right. Yet that one sentence had so many things running through his head. Wishing Carissa were there, he closed his eyes and took a moment to enjoy the feeling of someone needing him for comfort the way Hope was. Who was this misplaced child that ended up in Sophia’s hands? What a gift, he thought. What a gift.

He felt her become heavy against him and realized she’d fallen asleep. He managed to pull the lever on the side of the chair and raise his feet. The movie on the television still played out in Italian, and he listened to the words that were as familiar to him as English. Soon he drifted to sleep.

It wasn’t until he heard the opening of the front door that Thomas’s eyes flew open. He quickly felt the numbness of his arms and realized Hope still slept on his lap. The television now played a French movie, which he understood as well as the Italian one. David’s weary face appeared in the shadows of the television light.

“Sorry to wake you,” he whispered.

“No.” Thomas tried to wake himself up to be more alert. “No problem.”

“I should have called, but Sophia and Carissa were a wreck. Trying to calm them kept me occupied.” He ran his hands over his face. “I hope she wasn’t any trouble.”

“Not at all.” He tried to make his body to move, but found it impossible after having held her for so long.

Hope stirred on his lap and woke up when she heard her father’s voice call her name softly. She smiled and slowly crawled off Thomas’s lap.

“C’mon, let’s get you home.” David tucked the afghan around her and held her to him as she gathered her bearings. “Carissa is going to stay at the house tonight. Will you be all right here alone?”

“Sure, I’ll be fine. Is Carissa okay now?”

“She’s fine. I think this shook her up. When Millie died, she’d fallen too and didn’t recover.”

“But Katie’s okay, right?” There was desperation in his voice as he tried to stand to talk to the man before him.

“She’ll be okay. They’re going to keep her for a few days. They thought she’d broken her hip, but it looks like she’s just banged up a little.”

Thomas nodded. That was good news, he decided. David offered a tired smile. “Thanks for watching her.”

“My pleasure.”

Thomas walked them to the door.

David opened the screen to let Hope out. She took a few stumbling steps, then stopped and turned back around. She wrapped her arms around Thomas’s legs and gave him a tight squeeze.

He watched them drive away and then closed the front door and fell to the floor behind it.

Hope would never know what her sincerity did to him.

He buried his face in his hands. Sarah had hugged him like that and trusted him to protect her. How could he have let her down?

CHAPTER FIVE

Thomas woke in a cold sweat. He sat straight up in bed. His heart was pounding in his chest and his breath was unsteady.

He ran his fingers through his wet hair and took a few deep cleansing breaths. The sun was peeking through the drawn curtains. The throbbing in his head felt like he’d indulged all night with a bottle of whisky, but he hadn’t. It took him a moment to remember he’d shared a beautiful evening with a beautiful woman and just how chaotic the night had become.

He rested his aching head in his hands. The night hadn’t quite ended as he’d thought it would have, even if he’d promised himself he wouldn’t go there. How had he gone from a wonderful dinner with Carissa to feeling her up in the car like a teenager to holding her baby sister all night?

The emotional shifts had him uneasy; he was tired and run down, and that had brought on the dreams.

He swallowed hard as he lay back on his pillow. His throat was sore. That meant he’d been yelling in his sleep. Thank God, Carissa had stayed at her parents’ house.

He pressed his fingers to his eyes. It was still so vivid in his head. Screaming, pain, and the dark places he’d hidden. His mother’s yelling, his father’s yelling, and his sister’s sudden silence made him nauseous. He kicked his feet over the side of the bed and headed to the bathroom to run water over his face. He needed coffee.

The throbbing in his head began to dull, and it was then he could hear the noises that filled the house. Carissa was home. She was playing her cello. From the sound of the music, she was in a miserable mood.

Thomas gave his teeth a quick brush, pulled on his pants, threw on a sweatshirt, and headed down the stairs. Barefooted, he stood just outside the study door. It was open, and her back was to him. She wore a pair of lounge pants and a tank top. Her hair was wet. How long had she been home? When had he had the worst of his nightmare? He ran his fingers through his hair again. It didn’t feel the same as it had for months when he’d needed a haircut. He realized everything in his life was changing, right down to his hair. He stood silently and listened to her play.

She wasn’t playing something soft and warm. No, she was playing the song he’d come to despise, even as he’d helped write the notes down on the paper. She was using the music to relieve the stress. He’d done it himself many times. Her body moved into the instrument. Her fingers pinched the strings, and her hand gripped tight to the bow. He slipped into the room and headed to the piano. His hands were still itching to play. He started in the middle of the piece, where she was playing, blending his notes with hers.

Her head shot up. Obviously she hadn’t heard him come into the room. He caught her eye, but never took his fingers off the keys. She put her bow back to the strings and played.