Hide & Seek (26 page)

“Yes.”

“Huh.”

Neither said anything for a moment. The gull’s screams grew as the wind picked up.

“So you want me to find the guy. How are you going to get him to her? Why does she believe this will work? Why would she even agree?”

“She’s an odd one, but she truly believes I will bring her the man of her dreams. You’ll have to just leave the acquisition part to me. “

“Oh, no.” Her eyes went serious. “You can’t do anything illegal, Tripp. That’s just not right.”

“I told you you’d have to trust me, right?”

“And I’ve been clear I won’t get into illegal activities. I won’t. Ever.”

“I’m not asking you to break laws, Lexi. I’m asking you to find someone and leave the rest to me.”

“What if I’m wrong? I don’t do this for
a reason
, Tripp.”

“Ever?”

She shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. I’d be messing with people’s lives. That’s not fair to them, and it’s not fair to me.”

“Well this one is waiting for us—for me, that is—to provide. You wouldn’t want her to hurt me, would you?” He batted his lashes at her like his sister did to him. “Would you do it if it was the very last request I ever asked you to do for me?”

“No.”

His hope drained.

28

Lexi couldn’t believe she’d been asked to search for someone’s other half, let alone for Tripp’s former lover. The task broke all her rules.

She’d stood and walked into the room as he explained what happened in New York—in exquisite detail. While she understood, a little, why Jill would accept his ridiculous scheme, how he could convince the other party, she had no idea.

Through a shower, coffee, breakfast, and even lunch, Lexi and Tripp talked more about Jill’s impact on his life and the potential effect on Lexi herself.

Tripp sat across from her at the coffee table, holding out his hands. “Please, Lexi. This … and a few other things are going to let us be together. You said you trusted me. So please. Trust me. I won’t ask you for anything again—ever. Just this once.”

She stared at him, willing herself to believe and trust, as she’d said she would. On a deep sigh, Lexi slid her palms against Tripp’s.

He rubbed his finger against her skin. “Is this a yes?”

A single nod had his lips curving up. “One more question first.”

“Okay.”

“How does this make us—” Her finger wagged between the two of them. “— work? How does it get us around the paradox? How—”

“You have to trust me.” He took both her hands in his.

Trust him. The hardest two words out there. Okay … I can do this.
“I need my hands.”

He let go. “You’re ready now?”

“Yes, and no. My hands help me focus. Let me see her picture.”

Tripp pushed a button on his phone, brought up Jill’s face.

An instant dislike hit Lexi’s emotional mind.

“I’m sorry.” He said it as if he understood her internal thoughts.

Lexi shook her head. “I just didn’t think she’d be so pretty. Should’ve known of course, but I only caught a glimpse of her from the back at that hospital.”

Tripp used his finger to turn Lexi’s head toward him. “She’s nowhere near as beautiful as you.” He laid his lips against hers, a soft, wordless thank you.

Lexi smiled against him, pushed the button on his phone, and brought up Jill’s face again. The blue eyes, blonde hair, perfect smile and symmetrical features greeted her again. Lexi tucked away her negative thoughts, letting Jill’s image fill her mind. She kept her goal at the front—find Jill’s true love—but came up with blurry images—nothing she could distinguish.

Lexi opened her eyes.

“Find someone?”

“No. I need to—I need to go outside. Away from you. When I think of her, I think of you. Your smell is all around me, and while I love it, it breaks my train of thought.”

She stood, taking Tripp’s phone with her as she wandered to the first floor deck. “Okay, Jill. This isn’t for you. This is for Tripp.”

Lexi closed her eyes, drew Jill’s image to mind again and focused on ‘true love’. She found, instead, Tripp’s image. His face caused her to shiver as if she’d found the answer she didn’t look for. He and Jill weren’t meant for each other—never had been. She shook off the thought, hid the smile and focused again on Jill.

Slide-like images ran through Lexi’s mind, one after the other until she found a different face. Again, her concentration faltered. She twirled a line of her hair.

Tripp’s body pressed against her back. “Having problems?”

“I keep losing focus. I told you I don’t do people for a reason, but they also move, and their personalities interfere with the visuals I get. It’s the hardest kind of stuff, too.” She spoke toward the ocean, hoping Tripp would hear her.

A nudge on her shoulder and she turned into him. His hands moved to her chin as his lips touched her nose. “You know Jill’s not supposed to be with me, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

“Tell me about Jill.” The thought pained Lexi, but with more information, she would gain clarity.

“Her mother died seventeen years ago from breast cancer, and Jill’s relied on her dad ever since. She needs someone who’ll take care of her, love her for her flaws and not for her money. She loves to travel, is very demanding, but she’s very giving, too—of her funds and time. She doesn’t work, but volunteers at a bunch of places in New York. She’ll give her all to a relationship but has been burned a number of times, mostly because of people going after her for her money. That’s why she sticks to people who treat her well. Like me.”

“That sucks for her,” Lexi said.

Tripp kissed her forehead. “It does, and it took breaking her heart for me to realize where her clinginess came from.”

“Okay, let me try again.”

Tripp let go, but instead of the deck rail, Lexi clung to him.

“You’re going to hang on to me?” he asked.

“Just let me … yes.” She laid her head against his chest. His heart beat at her ear.

In one thought, the images flew through her mind. One after the other, the more she relaxed with Tripp connected to her, the faster they passed. She flipped to one—the face of a man with blue eyes and dark hair like Tripp, but no star, no earring and not a bit of overnight stubble.

Lexi laughed, but Tripp remained silent.

She backed out, found the man dressed in a tie, his suit jacket on a coat rack next to a mahogany desk. He worked at a laptop, his fingers moving across a keyboard, though she didn’t see what he typed. She pushed farther back, brought to mind an office with a door and a nameplate.

“Sellers,” Lexi said. “Jacob Sellers.”

From four walls to a cubicle farm, she found a lobby.

“Second floor of an older building. One of those kids groups—for the underprivileged. Orange County Kid’s Connection.”

As the last image passed through, she fell against Tripp’s arms. The side of her head pounded. His hand rubbed the exact spot where it hurt.

“You pushed yourself for that, didn’t you?”

She nodded.

“I’m sorry.” He continued to rub. “I could feel it.”

She breathed in Tripp’s scent.

“Thank you.”

Lexi handed him his phone. “Jacob Sellers. I guess you’ve got some more work to do to convince him, now, right?”

• • •

“Jacob Sellers.” Ian’s voice reached Tripp with ease through the phone. “Thirty-one, owner of Orange County Kid’s Connection in Middletown, New York, son to Janet and Kevin Sellers of the same. Graduated New York University Summa Cum Laude, with a double degree in Sociology and Business Management—”

“Enough.” Tripp stopped the monologue.

“But you asked me to get the details.”

“Yes, I know. Can you shoot me an email with them and anything else you’ve got? Lexi and I are flying up to chat with … Mr. Sellers.”

“I hope he’s single!” The speakerphone picked up Emma, too.

“What if he’s not, Tripp? I didn’t even think to look.” Lexi drove as Tripp made notes.

“Shut up, you people,” Ian said “He’s single. I checked for active marriage records. Okay, info sent. I’ve got you on the nine thirty into LaGuardia. Limo to the Ritz since your place is a disaster—”

“Why is your apartment a problem?” Lexi eyed Tripp from her perch in the driver’s seat of her Mini.

“Renovations.” He lied with ease.

“Rental will be dropped off at the hotel tomorrow at nine. Ya’ll—No wait, that’s too weird. You two have fun.” Ian clicked off.

“Want to stay a few days at the Ritz?” Tripp laid his hand over Lexi’s, rubbing the top with his thumb. The motion soothed him.

“I’m assuming it’s tremendously expensive.” The hint of sarcasm did not go unnoticed.

Tripp raised an eyebrow. “Think I can’t cover it?”

She snorted. “You and I use our gifts in very different ways.”

“I know. There are so many things you could do with it, you know.”

“Did you not see the problems I had at the beach?”

Tripp laughed, squeezing her hand. “Well, yeah, but limiting yourself to that is like telling the expert in nuclear physics he can only teach middle school chemistry.”

Her laugh warmed Tripp right to his middle. “That’s one of the many differences in us, Tripp. You’re the bad boy who does what he wants without care. I’m the good girl who keeps to the simple, mostly uncomplicated, part of life.”

“That’s some of why I love you, Lexi.”

She didn’t look at him, but her smile grew. “I’ve got to say it’s not my favorite … ah … piece about you, though.”

Tripp burst into laughter. “I’m going to let that one go for now. I’ll leave your ‘faves’ to my imagination.”

They talked throughout the rest of the drive, the flight and the limo trip to the hotel in exactly the way Tripp had wanted to the night he’d been shot. Lexi snuggled into him under the soft white down blanket of their bed until she fell asleep against his arm.

Once her chest rose and fell in a consistent rhythm, he slipped away to the hotel bar with his cell.

“It’s one thirty, Tripp.” Jill slid into the booth next to him. “Couldn’t this wait until morning?”

He slid a photo of Jacob Sellers onto the table. “He knows nothing about this, but my plan is to drop him off at your place Friday afternoon. You’ll have a week to decide, though if you opt not to do it, don’t count it against me.”

She brought the image toward her, bobbed her head left and right. “Interesting.” Her gaze met his again. “I want to apologize to you.”

“Me?” Tripp couldn’t remember a time Jill apologized with any sincerity.

One manicured finger rose toward his shoulder. “I found out one of the guys Isabelle kept on staff decided to take you out. He was tired of following me around. Figured if he got you out of the picture, he’d get reassigned. He has been, by the way. To the NYPD.”

“You turned him in?” Tripp’s tone reflected his surprise.

“I did, yes. I figured it was the least I could do, and since he’s already in custody down there in that southern state you seem to want to call home, it worked out well.” She laughed, laying her hand on his. “Greed gets the best of them.”

“What the hell?” Lexi stood at the end of their table.

Tripp patted the seat. “Come here.”

She started to walk away.

“Lexi.” Jill ran a hand behind her neck. “Please.”

Lexi stopped, spun. “Why?”

Jill smiled. “Because I owe you a bit of thanks.”

A quick shiver jostled Lexi’s shoulders. She moved back to the table, sat on the bench, but didn’t get close to Tripp.

“Since you’re going to hold this against him, let me apologize on his behalf.”

Lexi cocked her head.

“I told him to call me as soon as he found something. So this is then.”

“We knew this morning,” Lexi said as if goading or expecting Jill to respond negatively.

“I guess Tripp didn’t want to spoil your day by announcing he needed to meet with an ex lo—friend.”

“I guess.” Lexi rubbed her arms as if she caught a chill.

Tripp drew her into him. “If you’d just stayed in bed, you’d be warm.”

“If you’d still been there, I would’ve, too.”

“You two are made for each other.” She waved at them both. “You took him from me, which I should be downright pissed about, and I do have the means to remain burned and make people pay for it.” She giggled. “But, when Tripp came to me, we chatted like old friends, something we didn’t do before you. I saw myself differently, and honestly, it kinda freaked me out.”

“And now you’re willing to accept a man you think
he
says is your perfect match? True love? Sight unseen?” Lexi’s surprise had Jill arching her brow with a growing grin.

“Oh, I’ll look him up, of course,” Jill said. “One half of us will be prepared. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, well, I’ll enjoy one hell of a wedding party. You guys should come, too.”

Tripp eyed Jill in the hope she’d be careful with her words. Like Ian and Emma, she also had been informed, a bit, of Tripp’s plans.

“Thank you for the invitation, though I’m not sure it would be appropriate for me to attend,” Lexi said.

Tripp breathed a slow sigh of relief.

“Well … I gotta get back. Need my beauty sleep.” Jill pushed up from the table.

Lexi turned to Tripp. “I’m going up. See her out, and I’ll see you in a little while.” She kissed him at the corner of his mouth before she slid out and disappeared.

“You haven’t told me all your plans, but by the look you have, I take it you’ve got something big in the works?” Jill’s grin widened.

“That’s for me to know …”

She laughed. “… and for me to find out.”

• • •

After four days within the boundaries of New York’s cityscape, roaming the streets, sampling the succulent array of foods, and taking in the nightlife, Lexi and Tripp headed north toward Jacob Sellers.

The landscape flew by in a blur as Tripp navigated the rental car out of city proper. The vegetation and pace of New York State reminded Lexi of North Carolina—a little.

“Been this far north before?” Tripp took her hands in his.

“Not on the east coast. I’ve been as far north as possible on the west side of the country, and I’ve been to Canada, but not up here. Only ever made it to New York twice.”

“It’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

“I do. Why do you want to leave?”

Tripp turned to her, his lips curved up in a grin she loved.

Lexi couldn’t help mirroring him. “Okay, so what do we do when we meet this guy? Explain the situation to him calmly? I mean how many people are going to believe we know the person he’s supposed to spend his life with, and she lives an hour and a half away—”

“With good traffic.”

“Okay, but
so
not the point. They live in separate cities and have never met before.”

“We live states apart, technically, and until a few weeks ago, we’d never met. Remember? You gotta start somewhere.”

“What if they truly aren’t compatible? I could still be wrong. It’s not fair to—”

“Not fair?” Tripp returned his gaze to the road. “Not fair to be helped into finding the love of your life?”

Lexi shook her head. “It’s not—”

“Let’s talk about ‘fair’ for a sec, Lexi. Is it fair that you and I have this massive roadblock in front of us? Is it fair that I know what to do but to tell you would totally negate what needs to happen to make it work? Do I look burdened with the ‘how’ in getting around the myth?”