Matchmakers Box Set: Matchmakers, Encore, Finding Hope (38 page)

She aimed the card toward the door, her lips still wandering a path against his neck. She slid it into the reader and sighed when the light turned green. She reached for the knob and twisted as Thomas kicked the door open with his foot.

“Ha! King-size bed. I knew you’d never sleep in a separate bed.” With an approving nod, he laid her gently on the bed and lowered himself to her.

“What about the suitcases?” She was breathless beneath him as he lingered kisses on her neck.

“I’ll get them when I’m done.”

“Done with what?”

“You.” He began to unbutton her blouse and started a trail of kisses down her body.

CHAPTER TEN

Carissa felt the chill off the lake blow through the buildings of Chicago as they walked out of the restaurant. Her head still spun from Thomas’s kisses and touches from that afternoon, and they’d followed their lovemaking with pizza. She couldn’t think of a better day.

“Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever been so full in my life.” She rested her gloved hands on her stomach and grunted.

“You had four slices of pizza. Chicago-style pizza isn’t exactly a small meal.”

“I’m happy. I’m so very happy.” She wrapped herself around his arm as they walked toward the car. “Is it pretty here in the summer?”

“Yeah, it is. The lake is particularly nice with all the boats and people.”

“I’d like to see it.”

“Maybe this summer we can come back and go out on it.” He opened the passenger door for her.

“Go out on the lake? Really?”

“Yeah. I still have a friend or two in the area. Roberto owns three sailboats. He’d be happy to let me borrow one, I’m sure.”

“You can sail?” Her eyes were open wide with the information. He was opening up.

“Yeah, I can sail.” He smiled down at her as he shut the door and walked around the car, opened his door, and climbed in behind the wheel. “So, now what do you want to do?”

Carissa turned fully to him in the darkness of the car. “I want to go back to the motel and do what we did all afternoon.”

Thomas rested his head against hers. His eyes closed, and she felt him breathe her in. “You’re not tired of making love to me?”

“I don’t see that ever happening.”

He only nodded as he started the car. Well, he wasn’t sure about all that. Sooner or later things were bound to go awry. He’d yet to see a relationship withstand the word love. Even Sophia and David had thrown in the towel at one point. Carissa deserved to be in love with someone who wasn’t as pessimistic as he was. He wanted be with her. She was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman, but what he had to offer emotionally was nothing. If it were possible to have learned to give himself to someone, he thought he would have by now. Until she decided he wasn’t worth the time to love, he’d keep her close. He enjoyed the feeling of being wanted and desired, even if it wasn’t going to last. He enjoyed everything about Carissa.

Carissa woke as the sun edged in through the motel’s dark curtains. She squinted against its glare and turned toward Thomas. He was up and out of bed already. She let out a sigh.

She ran her hand over the sheets. They were cold. She listened but didn’t hear him moving about the room. The realization that she was completely alone in the hotel room had her sitting straight up in bed. He’d left her. Oh God, he’d left her alone in Chicago. She’d thought he was opening up and beginning to love her, but instead he’d run.

She jumped from the bed and fell over the pile of clothes they’d tossed on the floor in their mad rage to get into the bed the night before. She pulled the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around her. The beating of her heart pounded in her ears.

When the door opened behind her, she caught her breath as Thomas entered the room. Her heart raced at a frightening pace and her lips quivered.

Thomas’s eyes opened wide when he looked at her. “Are you okay?” He dropped the bag he carried and set a cardboard tray of coffee on the small table before reaching for her.

“I thought you left. I thought you’d run from me. I thought…”

“I told you. No more running.” His hand was holding the base of her neck, and he’d wrapped the other around her. “Honey, I’m here.”

“But maybe you’d had another nightmare and run out of the room. Maybe, just maybe, you didn’t want to be with me. Maybe you’d realized I’m more trouble than you thought. Anywhere is better than with me.” She fell against his chest, and he ran his hand over her hair.

“I’m sorry I scared you. I would never just abandon you.” He held her tighter. “I did leave a note,” he offered, and she pulled her head back to look up at him.

“I’m sorry. I panicked. I didn’t even look for a note.”

“It’s all right. I just walked across the parking lot to the doughnut shop and got us some sweets for breakfast and some coffee.”

“Thank you.” She watched him pick up the bag he’d dropped and set it on the table.

“Carissa, tell me, why would you think I would go?”

“Everyone I ever loved left me. You’re next. You’re going to figure it out, Thomas. You’re going to decide that your life is better off without me in it.”

“I can’t think of anything further from the truth. My life is certainly not better without you. Trust me.”

She swallowed the sob that had rushed to her throat. “I’m just going to get some clothes on.”

“Do you have to? I rather enjoy dining with you naked.” He raised his eyebrows playfully, and she mustered a smile.

“Later.” She turned to the suitcase, pulled out an outfit, and locked herself in the bathroom. She lowered the toilet cover and sat down. The sob that had caught in her throat turned into tears stinging her eyes.

Love. It wasn’t an emotion she’d ever felt for anyone before. She raised her hand to her chest. Her heart still pounded.

She let out a breath and slowly got dressed. They had to meet with the instrument company, and then he’d asked her to go with him to the cemetery. If the morning was starting out as emotional as it was, it was bound to get even worse.

They arrived at their meeting at exactly eleven. The man that waited inside for them had almost fallen over himself when he realized that Thomas was indeed
the
Thomas Samuel.

“I’m a great admirer of your work. I cannot tell you how pleased I am to meet you.” He continued to shake his hand.

“I really appreciate that.” Thomas gave a nod toward Carissa. “And if you’re familiar with my work, I’m sure you know of Carissa’s mother.”

The man turned to her. “Kendal?”

“I toured with her mother for years with Pablo DiAngelo. Sophia Burkhalter? She married a Kendal.”

“You are Sophia Burkhalter's daughter?” The man’s eyes lit up.

Carissa smiled. “Yes.”

He clasped his hands together.

Carissa watched Thomas work magic. She’d fully intended to carry the meeting on her own, but the man was infatuated with Thomas and she was no fool to see that Thomas knew how to work him. By the time they were done, they had all the instruments Carissa had hoped to purchase and a library of theory books that Thomas had insisted on—all for less than she’d budgeted to spend.

Trying to be all business, she kept her excitement bottled until they pulled away from the store. “I can’t believe you were able to get him to drop the prices.”

“All I did was ask.” Thomas grinned as he steered onto the street.

“Well, thank goodness you did. You saved us…”

“Two thousand and fifty-three dollars,” he said, and she laughed at his precise number.

“Yeah, that.” She lifted her hand to his, which lingered on the gearshift column between them. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” Then his face hardened, and he turned his attention back to the road, turning into a parking lot of a small floral shop whose displays filled the window. “I’m going to stop and buy some flowers.”

Carissa nodded. She climbed out of the car and took his hand. She could feel his fingers tremble against hers. She gave his hand a squeeze to let him know she supported him.

Thomas appreciated the silence of the drive to the cemetery. He didn’t know what to say if Carissa began to ask questions. He slowed the car as they approached the front gate. He pulled up to the information building and left the vehicle. Carissa didn’t follow, and he returned only a moment later, handing her a slip of paper.

“Avenue A, plot 218?”

“The location of her plot. I told you, I’ve never been here. In fact, I didn’t know if she was here for sure. This is where my grandparents are buried, my mother’s parents. So I just assumed.” He slid on his sunglasses and tried to blink back the tears that were already forming in his eyes. His mouth had gone dry, and his palms were wet. Being back in Chicago was hard enough. This might prove impossible.

He maneuvered through the cemetery as if he were looking for a house in a small town. She pointed out the sign that marked Avenue A, and he started down the narrow, tree-lined road.

Thomas pulled the car to the side of the road, cut the engine, and sat quietly looking out over the sea of headstones. One of them was his sister’s. The image of the last time he’d seen her flashed through his mind. The happy moments they’d had sitting at the piano laughing blurred with the memory of his father chasing his sister and the fear in her eyes.

There was a pain in his chest. His first thought was to retreat, but then that was what he’d done when he’d left the hospital and run from his family. He watched as Carissa’s hand moved from her lap and reached for him. He took a deep breath and kissed her fingers. “Let’s go.”

“Are you sure?”

This time he only nodded as he opened the door and stepped out onto the cold gravel road.

Her grave marker was small. It seemed appropriate. She was small. A mere child when she’d died.

Thomas brushed a tear from his cheek. Why hadn’t he been there before? He’d always been there for his sister. Not only had he run from his life, but he’d run from her. He laid the flowers he’d brought for her just above her name. His stomach clutched. Carissa gave his hand a squeeze, and it reminded him he wasn’t alone.

“Thomas?” A woman’s soft voice carried on the cold breeze that blew through cemetery.

He stiffened, pursed his lips, and looked forward. Beside him, Carissa turned to look at the woman who had called to him. Two sets of footsteps approached behind him.

Carissa looked back at Thomas as the woman called out to him again. Finally, he turned. A woman walked toward him, a young girl at her side, their hands held together. The woman began to sob.

“Oh, Thomas.” She released the young girl’s hand and started toward him again, but stopped just short of wrapping her arms around him. “Thomas…”

“Mom,” he said, but his voice broke.

Carissa’s gaze wandered between mother and son. She could see the resemblance, and the trepidation, between them. It was painful. Again, she squeezed Thomas’s hand, and he looked down at her. There was fear in his eyes.

“You’ve come to see your sister?” The woman who stood before them seemed to be searching for words. She had to be searching for a connection with the son she’d lost on the night she lost her daughter.

“I’ve never been here,” he admitted.

“Oh, Thomas, I have missed you.” Tears streamed down the woman’s face, and Carissa could see her wanting to gather her son in her arms and hold him tight.

Carissa nudged him closer, but at that same moment, the girl who had been walking with his mother moved next to her and took her hand.

“I’m okay, honey. I’m okay.” She patted the young girl’s hand.

The girl, who Carissa supposed was about eleven, looked up at Thomas. She felt him shift his weight. She knew he’d seen the resemblance. The girl’s eyes matched Thomas’s and his mother’s.

“Thomas, this is Madison.” She shifted her eyes back to his. “She’s your sister.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Thomas felt the breath rush out of his lungs. He’d known she was his sister from the moment he had seen her. Eerily, she was the spitting image of Sarah.

“Dad…” was all he could mutter.

“I divorced him while he was in prison. He committed suicide the year after you left.”

He needed to sit down, but there was no seat.

His mother wiped at her tears. “I couldn’t be with a man who cost me both of my children. Oh, Thomas, why did you leave me? How could you have left me?” Her body shook with her words.

He watched. He ached. He wanted to run. Instead, he reached for his mother and gathered her in his arms. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He held her against his chest.

Her tears soaked into his jacket. He breathed in her scent and whisked back to when she’d hold him and his tears would soak into her blouse. He remembered the night Sarah had died. His blood soaked into her blouse as well.

They stood in the cemetery. The air had cooled around them, but they held tight to one another.

When she could, Jane pushed back. Her eyes settled on the young woman visiting Sarah’s grave with her son. A tightening in her chest made her force a smile. Was this his wife? Had he married without telling her? Did he have a family? Was she a grandmother? Oh, it wasn’t fair that he’d left her out of his life.

Thomas reached for the woman’s hand, and she walked toward them. “Mom, this is Carissa.” Carissa held out her hand. “Carissa, this is my mother, Jane…”

He paused, his eyes seeking hers for confirmation.

“Jane Bennett,” she provided.

Carissa shook her hand, but Jane could feel it twitch with nerves in hers.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Ms. Bennett.”

“Jane, please.” She studied the woman who was obviously nervous in her presence. Thomas’s eyes shifted between them as though he wanted her to accept the woman as someone he cherished. Trying hard to understand everything she was taking in, she smiled and asked, “Are you Thomas’s wife?”