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.
“Will I see you tomorrow?” Elle asked him as she stood with him by his front door.
“Are you coming into the office?” Trevor wondered.
“In the morning, I wanted to try and talk to your employees if that’s okay. The three we think it could possibly be and a few others just to mix it up. If you’re okay with that?”
“That’s fine with me. The sooner were done with this, the sooner I can move on and we can stop hiding.” He pulled her in for a hug. “Plus I have meetings and a few jobs I have got to check on mid-morning and afternoon but I’ll be there early when you get there and everyone else should be too, because we have weekly Wednesday meetings.”
“I think we should put Jake in the mix since you guys are close and people know it, it will throw them off a little. Can you ask him about it, make sure he’s okay with it?”
“That’s a good idea. Yeah I’ll call him after you leave and let him know the plan.”
“Bye Bruiser,” she called out towards the kitchen and he gave a small bark around his bone back to her. They both laughed at Bruiser’s goodbye.
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then. Thanks again for tonight.” She said with a smile before she stretched up to give him a quick kiss that turned into her gently sucking and tugging on Trevor’s lips until she finally pulled back and winked, “To remember me by,” she said before she opened the door. He just groaned and walked her out to her car. He stood in the middle of the street and watched as she drove away.
ednesday morning when Elle got to Trevor’s office he was busy with his weekly meeting and trying to figure out schedules so they barely had time to talk; which was okay since she had to conduct interviews with their suspects and some other employees to get their perspective about what was going on. The people interviewed about the sabotage were Jack, Jake and Becky. They chose those three since Jack and Becky had been with Trevor since the beginning, and Jake, since he had information that could shed light on the situation. The rest were asked different questions to throw them off. She kept their questions more generic; what was it like working for a small company, how they liked working for Trevor, and how they liked working in landscaping. Then she broached the real questions causally and sprinkled them in, in a more conversational way. She asked them about what was occurring at C & C like: Have you noticed anything different or unusual around here recently, is anyone unhappy with the schedules or jobs they get and do you know anyone who would want to change things, including what teams get which jobs or what teams they were assigned to.
The first person she sat down with was Jake. She was afraid it would be awkward with him and knew she had to start by clearing the air. She knew before she even went to the bar that night, it wasn’t him and she wasn’t sure if Trevor had told him she suspected him at one point, but she wanted to clear the air either way. She also wanted to talk to him and see what he had heard while on jobs with the guys since Trevor couldn’t always be at every job site.
“Thanks for coming in and talking with me,” Elle gestured for him to sit down.
“Did I have a choice?” Jake said looking serious but sounding like he wanted to laugh.
Elle didn’t know what to say…did he laugh? So she just stared at him with a blank look on her face.
“I’m kidding. I know you just wanted to talk to me so others wouldn’t get worried, I get it.”
“Before we start I want to say sorry though.”
“Sorry for what?” Jake said sounding slightly confused.
“That before I met you I thought you could have been sabotaging the schedules. I know you’re not but I wanted to apologize for even thinking it.” Elle said looking honestly regretful.
“I didn’t even know you ever thought it was me, but don’t worry about it,” Jake said with complete sincerity.
“Thanks that means a lot. You didn’t know?”
“No, Trevor never told me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry I mentioned it then forget I said anything.” Elle said blushing.
“It’s fine really. Let’s try and see if we can help him.”
“Okay if you say so.”
Elle pulled out her notes and asked her first question, “Do you know who would do this to Trevor? I mean you are his best friend so you know most of the people in his life, any ideas?”
“No, everyone who knows Trevor loves the guy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say anything bad about him and he would give a stranger the shirt off his back. It makes no sense someone would do this.” Jake said leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Have you heard anything that made you suspicious or have you heard of someone else logging into the schedules besides the people who normally have access?”
“No nothing. That’s what gets me, I haven’t heard anything. I didn’t even know all of this was going on until Trevor told me. Everyone genuinely loves Trevor and loves working for him, all the guys say nothing but good things about him and the clients all seem to love him too.” Jake said sounding annoyed at himself for not being able to help add anything else, besides telling Trevor about Becky and the schedules and Rob’s gambling.
“Okay, thanks for answering my questions. Let one of us know if you hear anything different.”
“No problem and no doubt I will.”
“Can I ask you something?” Jake said sounding protective and unsure all in one tone.
“Go for it.” Elle replied.
“You’re not going to hurt him are you?”
“Trevor?” Elle asked shocked he would ask that.
“Yeah. He hasn’t been this happy in a long time and I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“Well I don’t plan on hurting him; he makes me happy too so I guess we’re even. But I’m glad he has you looking out for him.” Elle said smiling at him.
“Okay now it’s my turn.” Elle said, as she looked right at Jake.
“Okay.”
“Are you going to hurt Taylor?” she asked pointedly.
“I don’t want to and am gonna try not to.” Jake said raking his hand through his hair.
“Good, I don’t want Taylor to get hurt any more than you want Trevor hurt.” Elle said and added in, “She needs a good guy who will care about her and you’re a good guy who seems to care about her.”
“I do but we’re just not there yet and I don’t want to hurt her or give her the wrong impression, I want to do the right thing by her.”
He seemed reserved when she met him at the bar and Trevor had told her Jake wasn’t too outgoing. She took it as a good sign he volunteered the information about Becky and the schedules and Rob’s gambling issues, and about Trevor and Taylor. Before he even answered she could tell he cared for Taylor by the way his face changed when she mentioned her name, he had a
sweet smile and his eyes twinkled. It definitely made her think yet again how good they’d be together.
Jack was one of the last people she talked to. He had been with Trevor since the beginning, he knew Trevor well but he also knew the other guys as well.
“Hi, Jack. Thanks for sitting down with me.” Elle said as she gestured for him to sit.
“Hi, no problem. I know something is going on here and I want to help Trevor out. He’s a great guy and doesn’t deserve this.” Jack spoke honestly and sincerely.
“Do you know who would want to do this? Maybe a current or former employee or customer?” Elle asked.
“No, no one. Everyone loves him, I don’t know of anyone who would want to do this. If it’s a previous customer I would be shocked, they always end their business with us on good terms, so do employees actually. He has this way about him that makes people like him.”
“Have you heard anyone complain about not being happy here or act differently around Trevor?” Elle continued asking him her questions.
“No one; and I haven’t heard anything. Everything and everyone seem the same as always, which I know doesn’t help you or him.”
Elle finished with Jack and sat down with a few more of Trevor’s employees who all said the same things as Jake and Jack, everyone loved Trevor, everyone was happy. However, two of their three suspects gave her reason to be even more suspicious, which at least gave her something to build on. Rob refused to sit down and talk to her about anything even though he knew her; he had a doctor’s appointment he said, but when she tried to reschedule with him he told her he didn’t know anything so it would be pointless. Then Becky walked out of the interview when Elle asked her about the sabotage. Becky said she had to take care of something and would be right back but never came back and no one seemed to be able to locate her later. She could tell Becky wasn’t interested in the interview or helping because she acted bored the whole time and even though she kept eye contact she had a glazed look like Elle was wasting her time.
My Missing Puzzle Piece (Creekside Falls #1) Page 12
