Hope's Discovery (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) Read Online Free

deep breath. “Mr. Jacobs, if I may ask, what is the first name of my daughter?”
    Trevor contemplated what he was asking and realized that Donald hadn’t asked for too much information. He too was keeping to the contract of what he’d asked Trevor to do. “Her name is Hope.”
    “Hope.” Donald sighed. “Thank you.”
    The line went dead.
    Trevor watched as the lights began to turn off in the apartment in the reverse order from how she’d turned them on. He also realized he’d stayed parked outside her apartment longer than he’d meant to. Donald Buchanan had asked him to find out about her family, he reminded himself. He ensured himself that was what he was doing. He’d follow her and see where she went. Maybe she’d lead him to her family.
    He was just doing his job.
    Then he saw her on her front stoop. She wore a short white dress. Her hair fell down her back in lazy curls. She locked the door to her apartment and hurried toward her car.
    The thudding of his heart was a surprise. The sweating of his palms and the drying of his mouth combined into a clash of discomfort. He watched her now without the interest of a private investigator, but that of a protector. But whom was he protecting her from? He’d just moved into a very strange role of stalker, though the feelings inside of him were much different.
    He needed to meet her again, and this time, get to know her—and stop following her like a voyeur. He drove away in the opposite direction, disgusted with himself for having sat on her street. He needed to justify himself again with a long hot shower and an ice-cold beer before he decided how he was going to approach Hope Kendal.
     
    Hope climbed into her car as quickly as she could and locked the door. The tingling in her hand had returned when she’d locked the door to her apartment. She looked around. She could feel him.
    She blew out a ragged breath as she started the car and turned onto the street. He was just in her mind that was all. By tomorrow, she would have forgotten all about him.
    She pulled up in front of the house where her great-grandmother and mother had grown up. Now her sister and her family lived in the house that almost a century earlier had been a boardinghouse.
    Hope’s nieces ran through the yard as she climbed out of her car.
    “Auntie Hope!” Becky jumped into her arms. “You’re going to let me help you open the book Mommy bought you, aren’t you?”
    “Becky!” Julie’s eyes were wide as she stared in disbelief at her little sister. At eight she’d learned the fine art of keeping a secret. “Mom is going to kill you for telling her.”
    “I’m sure you’re mother won’t kill her. But I won’t tell her I know.” Hope set Becky on the ground.
    “Tell me you know what?”
    Hope looked up to see her sister standing in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest.
    “That Becky told Auntie Hope what her present was,” Julie told her mother, her voice filled with disgust.
    Hope watched as a smile slid across her sister’s lips and a laugh then escaped her throat.
    Julie stomped her feet up the front steps to the house.
    “Why are you laughing? Isn’t she in trouble?”
    Hope cocked an eyebrow at her sister. “I’m not getting a book, am I?”
    Carissa stepped back so Hope and Becky could enter the house. “I knew someone would spill the beans. I guess you’ll all be surprised, won’t you?”
    “Mom, that’s not fair!” Becky protested.
    “Well, I guess I knew you couldn’t keep a secret,” Carissa said as she patted her daughter on the bottom and sent her off laughing. “Mom, Dad, and Thomas are in the kitchen.” She laced her arm with Hope’s.
    “You’ll be glad to know I was working too hard to remember to buy treats.”
    “Glad to hear it. But you were working on your birthday?”
    “Painting.”
    “Ah, you got inspired today?”
    Hope stopped.
    “I met a man today,” she said and noticed that Carissa’s eyes widened. “Right after