My Missing Puzzle Piece (Creekside Falls #1) (16 page)

Trevor’s phone rang, it was one of his guys saying a customer changed their mind about what they wanted done at their house, now the whole job had to be refigured, and they wanted to talk to Trevor. He had to go but didn’t want to. There he was again thinking more about being with her than about work, this was not like him. He looked up and saw Elle looking at him.

“Problem?” Elle asked.

“Yeah, customer changed their mind and now it’s hitting the fan. I’m sorry but I also won’t be here tomorrow because I have meetings all morning but I’ll be done in time for dinner,” he added with a whisper.

“Don’t be sorry. I don’t think I am going to be here tomorrow anyway. I have a lot that needs to be taken care of at my office.”

In a voice just over a whisper she said, “Speaking of tomorrow what should I bring red or white?”

“White should work. Unless you only drink red?” Trevor said, so serious like they weren’t just discussing which wine she was bringing.

“Actually I don’t like red too much, so white is perfect. Do you drink red?”

“No if I am having wine I drink white too, most reds are always to dry for me.”

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about this at work? You breaking your own rule?” Trevor teased.

“You started it.” She said flirting back; she playfully kicked him when he got close to her.

“You’re right I did. But I can’t help flirting with you, you’re so damn cute.” He added with a wink. “I have to go. If you need anything let me know.”

“Thanks and good luck with the ‘problem’ client.” She winked back at him.

He laughed and leaned down to kiss her on the cheek, he whispered in her ear, “See you tomorrow night for dinner.” And with that grabbed his phone and strode out of his office. Leaving her in anticipation for their dinner date.

After Trevor left, Elle heard back from Becky’s previous employer as to why she had left the company. Elle still had her suspicions so she thought it would be helpful to investigate the background and work history of the employees they suspected of sabotage, she even put Max’s name on the list too. Becky’s previous employer said Becky didn’t leave the company voluntarily; she was fired because she was on ‘the take’ for a few months before they noticed. She apparently had access to the payroll and bank accounts, and felt she needed an advance on her pay. She made the check out to cash and listed it as various expenses like office supplies, gas mileage reimbursements, etc. Elle came to the conclusion that either Trevor knew this already and gave Becky the benefit of the doubt or he had no clue. She did know he checked his books regularly and was the only one with access to the payroll and bank accounts. So Becky couldn’t be on the take here but she could easily be getting paid for sabotaging the schedules.

Elle left his office to use the employee restroom and to check the place out in general. She introduced herself to his small office staff and hung around the water cooler listening to small talk and getting a feel for how the staff operated. She had used the excuse of needing to refrigerate her yogurt earlier when she first got there to give herself access to the small employee kitchen. It was important she see how they interacted with each other and check to see if anyone seemed to have a grudge or any negative feelings toward the company or Trevor personally. From what she could glean in the short time she spent
with them everyone seemed very happy there, even Becky. She didn’t know what to make of her, she was definitely an enigma. Becky, for her part wasn’t overly friendly with Elle but maybe she had sensed there was something brewing between her and Trevor. Trevor mentioned in passing that he and Becky had dinner a couple of times, but he spoke of them more as business dinners. Elle couldn’t help but wonder if it meant more to Becky than Trevor realized. Men could be so dense sometimes when it came to women who liked them.

Tuesday Trevor left work by four thirty so he would have enough time to make dinner and clean up some before Elle got to his place. Plus, whenever he cooked in his kitchen it looked like a tornado hit it afterwards. He was excited for tonight as he walked out to the parking lot to get in his truck.

Elle’s goal was to leave work by five-thirty so she would have time to go home, change her clothes and grab the wine and dessert before she went to Trevor’s. But she was so distracted she was getting nothing done, so she decided to leave work at four so she could get ready and get some things done at home before heading over.

When Elle pulled in front of Trevor’s condo a few minutes early, she sat in her car a second to get her thoughts and nerves together because she still couldn’t believe this was all happening with them, despite everything it still seemed unreal. She looked out of her car window and saw the stone front of his condo with the lights shining through his windows. She even saw him run by the window towards
the kitchen; she caught herself laughing at the sight of him running around preparing for their date.

Trevor heard his doorbell ring at 7:28, his heart started to beat faster and his stomach did a flip in excitement. He opened the door and there was Elle looking gorgeous in jeans, boots and a low-cut shirt underneath her unzipped jacket. It wasn’t fancy but she looked amazing. He couldn’t help but let his gaze roll over her neck and cleavage.

When Trevor opened the door Elle stopped being nervous. He looked a little frazzled -- maybe from his run into the kitchen a few minutes earlier. He just had on jeans and a polo but looked down right sexy. She went up on her tippy toes to bring his head down so she could kiss him. She really liked kissing him. Her arms flung around his neck and his around her waist. They stayed like that a few minutes savoring each other before pulling back.

“Hey beautiful. Come on in.” Trevor smiled and said to her as he backed up to let her in.

“Hey. Mmmm…It smells amazing in here.” Elle said as she lifted the dessert and wine in a where-do-these-go gesture.

“Here let me take those.” He grabbed the wine and dessert from her. He couldn’t help himself from lifting the dessert to his nose and smelling. He knew the smell right away, lemon squares. He loved those!

When Trevor walked back in from the kitchen, he said, “Let me take your jacket. Come in and sit down.”

She gave him her jacket and then headed towards the kitchen. “Do you need help with anything?”

“Nope I’m good; it’s almost done in another fifteen minutes.” Trevor said as he grabbed the wine glasses he bought that afternoon on the way home, he never drank wine at his house and he didn’t want to serve her wine in a beer mug.

Trevor’s condo was painted in simple colors, white and light tans, with masculine dark gray but comfortable furniture. She remembered him saying he had two bedrooms upstairs. The downstairs had such a nice, open floor plan with a kitchen, eating area and a living room. She saw that he had the lights turned on outside under the arbor, the ambiance he had created for them was quite romantic.

Elle looked at the table and saw it wasn’t set yet but he had lit two candles and placed them on the table…very romantic, she thought to herself.

“Do you want me to set the table? I feel kind of useless just standing here.”

Bruiser came running down the stairs and over to Elle, she bent down to pet him for a few minutes, “Hey Bruiser.”

Trevor reluctantly handed her the plates, water glasses, napkins and silverware to put on the table. He didn’t want her to have to do anything tonight, but he had run a few minutes behind schedule when he had a mishap with the pasta he was making to go with the chicken. The pasta burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pot. Good thing Elle wasn’t here when that happened, she wouldn’t
have any faith in him to be in the kitchen again. Not that he had many cooking skills to begin with.

Bruiser was shadowing Elle’s every move, Trevor decided to give him a bone to chew near the back door of the kitchen, that should keep him busy for a while he thought. He knew Elle liked Bruiser but didn’t want him driving her crazy by being right on her heels all night.

“Okay, it’s ready.” Trevor said as he brought the food to the table and set it out. Then went back and grabbed their wine glasses.

They sat down and started to eat quietly, Elle was flattered he went to all the trouble to cook for her. He had a fresh salad, freshly cooked pasta and chicken parm. It was all really good! He did an amazing job.

“This is really good! Chicken parm is definitely your specialty.”

“You like it?” Trevor said with a nervous hint to his voice.

“Of course.”

“Thanks. I was hoping you would. How was your day?”

“Good, moved pretty slow, I even went home a little early today. What about yours?”

“Pretty much the same.”

Elle knew she probably should mention what she found out about Becky’s last job but didn’t want to ruin their evening, even if he got mad later that she kept it back from him for now.

They talked for most of dinner about how they grew up; swapped funny stories from their childhood and with every story, and every laugh it made each of them care so
much more about the other. When they were done with dinner and had cleared the table, they fell into a system of washing dishes. She washed, he dried and put away since he knew where everything went. They sat back down for dessert and more wine.

“Did you play sports when you were growing up?” Elle asked curiously.

“I played baseball and football all through school. I was with my brothers and our friends a lot, we would start pick-up games of just about anything on our street. My parents always joked that they saw me more when school was out than in because I was always busy with one sport or another. What about you?”

“That sounds fun though and it sounds like you had a good time. I guess I was more of a homebody, I wasn’t into a lot of clubs and sports, but I did run track when I was in high school, I tried softball in middle school but that didn’t last more than a year. I was usually with Taylor and my other friends hanging out at someone’s house.”

“Didn’t last?” Trevor asked amused.

‘Softball?”

Trevor nodded.

“Nope, it wasn’t that I was
bad
but I seemed to always help the other team out rather than my own. So the coach didn’t like me too much.” Elle made a silly face.

They both laughed at that.

“Did you like college? How did you handle moving away from home and all?” Trevor asked.

“At first I hated it. None of my friends went to the same school as me. Taylor’s went to Conridge University,
it was pretty far from where I was and neither of us could have cars on campus our first year. That was hard because she was my best friend and our high school friends drifted apart the summer between high school and college. Sometimes it’s hard to make new friends in college, especially once you move out. I lived in the dorm freshman year then moved into an apartment in town and commuted the rest of the time. I wasn’t as involved in campus life but it gave me a chance to get a part-time office job and then Taylor transferred and finished with me at Brownston University, so it ended up well. Did all of your friends go off to school or did any of them join the military like Jake?”

“Most of my other friends went to college out of state. Jake was all over the country and in Italy for a while after he joined the Air Force and there for a while it seemed like I was all alone. Then I became friends with some of the guys I worked with landscaping so that helped. But on holidays and in the summer my friends would be back home, like Sam and Drew. I was always worried about Jake when he was in the Air Force; he had two deployments in Iraq. But he’s back home and safe now and the four of us are still friends.”

He wanted to tell her more than anything that he was back in school and only had a few classes left and would be done in December; he knew she would be happy for him and maybe even proud of him, but something kept him from telling her.

After they finished dinner and dessert and were sitting on his couch, Trevor said, “Those lemon squares
were so good! They’re one of my favorites. My Grand-mom used to make them when we were younger and I haven’t had them in so long.” He smiled as he thought back to having to share them with his brothers and sister, and how they would fight over the corner pieces when they visited his grandparents.

“I love them too; well of course I like ‘em since I made ‘em. I’m glad you like them!”

They sat on the couch talking some more and cuddling until Trevor finally grabbed her head and leaned down to kiss her. They cuddled and kissed for what felt like a lifetime and neither one of them wanted to stop, it was as if they were each other’s lifelines for that moment.

Finally Elle pulled back and said, “I think I should get going.” She didn’t really want to go and felt a little like a tease because she wanted to stay but she wanted to wait for them to have sex. It’s not that she didn’t feel comfortable with him or trust him or even feel like she knew him well enough, she did feel all of those things but to be honest she wasn’t sure if she was ready to take that step right now. She knew they got close to it last week at her place but still was tentative.

“Okay. That’s fine.” Trevor said, he was such a gentleman. His eyes were still filled with lust and she had felt his arousal when they were kissing but knew he wouldn’t push her and she loved him for that.

Holy shit! Love, did she really just think that? Well damn, she didn’t expect that to come to mind this early on.

He grabbed her jacket from the coat closet by the door and helped her into it.

“Thank you for tonight. It was delicious, I had a really nice time.” Elle said as she smiled up at him with apology in her eyes.

He saw the apology in her eyes; she didn’t need to apologize for anything. He might need a cold shower to recover when she left but she definitely didn’t need to apologize for anything. He loved her and wanted whatever she wanted.

Whoa! He loved her? Well damn…maybe he did, he never felt like this about anyone before and didn’t want anyone but her in his life. Well hell’s bells he might just be in love. He hoped like hell she felt the same or would soon, because that would really suck if she didn’t.