AKA Lexi Frost (Lexi Frost Series) (16 page)

“
He’d have to be psychic.” Nicholas nodded. “But I’ll do what I can.”

“
Tomorrow or the next day, or we’ll have to get back to them. Paul’s not psychic, but I wouldn’t put it past his assistant.”

Nicholas left
, wondering about Paul’s assistant.

Flynn couldn’t shake the desire to see Lexi again. The email from Chris telling him about the studio time he set up for them with Lexi Frost couldn’t have come at a better time. Flynn read it through twice and swore it had to be a sign. Unfortunately, the tentative appointment was still a month away. On impulse he called Chris.

“
Flynn, what can I do for you?” Chris asked.

“
This studio time with Lexi Frost,” Flynn started slowly.

“
Don’t worry, you don’t have to take your clothes off,” Chris assured him.

Actually that wasn
’t a bad idea. Maybe he could book a personal session. He’d rather get to know her off the record, but in a pinch . . .

“
I wouldn’t care if I did. Maybe. Where’s her studio?”

“
Um, Seattle I think. Let me look, Nicholas sent me the address.”

Flynn heard Wendy
’s footsteps in the hall. “Listen, Chris, I’ve got to go. Can you email it to me sometime today?”

“
Yeah, I suppose. Why?”

“
Curiosity. Thanks.” He hung up as his wife walked by, barely glancing at him.

Flynn left
New York for Seattle that afternoon. He drove by the address Chris gave him for Lexi’s studio, then called Chris again to be sure it was the right address. The squat little building was unimpressive and not what he pictured for a successful photographer.

There was a camera store on the ground level and a
sign for a photography magazine on the second floor. One half of the second floor was dark. Nicholas worked for some photography magazine, so maybe that dark half of the upstairs was Lexi’s studio. There was some sort of sign, but it wasn’t lit, so Flynn couldn’t quite read it.

Parking the car
, he headed into the camera store on the first floor of the building. The lanky teenage boy behind the counter recognized him instantly. Flynn smiled.

“
I’m looking for Lexi Frost.”

“
Oh. Her studio is upstairs, but she hasn’t been in much lately. Was she expecting you?”

“
No. Not yet anyway. Thanks.”

Flynn smiled as he left
; he knew where her studio was. He’d head down to Los Angeles tomorrow and see if Drew could bring him to his senses. If not, maybe he’d hang out here for awhile.

A truck pulled through the parking lot to the outside stairs heading up to the studio. Anxious
, Flynn changed direction from his car to the truck and wasn’t surprised to see Nicholas get out. Nicholas, however, was surprised to see him.

“
Flynn? About a month early aren’t you?”

“
I was on my way to L.A. and figured I’d detour in the hopes of running into Lexi. The kid in the store said she doesn’t come into the studio much.”

Nicholas looked around in indecision.
“Okay, listen, you didn’t hear this. Paul misstepped and she’s pissed at him. We’re on flight 1716 from SeaTac to LAX at 7:30 tomorrow morning, she’ll be in seat 3b.”

“
Thanks,” Flynn stammered, stunned by his turn of luck.

“
Don’t thank me. I’m not really sure I’m doing you a favor by telling you this. Lexi’s hurt and not thinking clearly. She might not be interested. She might not be ready. She might consider you just to piss off Paul. He’s smart, resourceful, and he won’t let her go without a fight. And I recently heard his assistant might be psychic.”

The sincerity in the warning didn
’t make Flynn happy, but he decided it was worth the risk. Paul screwed up. Now he had a chance and an opportunity to talk to her. He had to take it. Flynn turned to leave, but Nicholas caught his arm.

“
One more thing, that studio appointment? I set that up, Lexi doesn’t know a thing about it. I intentionally put it a month out to give her a bit more time and I’m waiting to tell her, so not a word, okay?”

Flynn nodded and returned to his car
, considering his meeting with Lexi in the morning.

He spent the night at an airport hotel and surprised himself by actually getting a few hours
’ sleep. The next morning he boarded the plane and settled into the roomy first-class seat to wait. His anxiety started to kick in when Nicholas Daley stepped into the cabin and sat down in the window seat across from him. Sure enough, Lexi followed, taking the aisle seat next to Nicholas.

Flynn expected her
, but he was stunned nonetheless. He simply stared at her profile as she put on lip gloss. Her dark hair hung to her shoulders in soft waves.

Lexi turned and noticed him staring at her. She smiled.
“Hello again.”

“
Hello. You’re a difficult person to get hold of,” Flynn said, immediately wishing he hadn’t.

She frowned.
“Just call the studio. What’s up?”

Flynn grasped for any reason for an unofficial meeting.
“Maybe nothing anymore. Drew and I talked before about calling on your expertise, but Zane was resistant. There’s no point bothering you with it at the moment.” The words came to him from out of nowhere and he thanked whatever muse was watching over him. Lexi just nodded, accepting his sketchy explanation.

“
Fair enough.” She reached in her purse and brought out a Post-it pad and pen. Scribbling on it quickly, she handed Flynn the paper. “If you need to, send me an email.”

Flynn accepted the paper gratefully
, then read it twice in confusion. It had an email address for a Teri Giles. Her assistant maybe? That wasn’t going to help him.

B
eside him, Lexi laughed. “I use a pseudonym for work. You may have noticed some of my work is rather colorful? It insulates my kids from association with what I do. Call me Teri. Privately of course.”

Flynn nodded
, not quite believing his luck. No wonder he had trouble finding personal information on her.

“
Understandable I suppose. How old are your kids?”

“
Cassie is seventeen and Dev is fifteen. You?”

“
The twins, Simone and Saffron, are nineteen and Mindy’s eighteen. Mindy’s the only one still at home.”

“
Lucky. I can’t wait until I’m down to just one. It’ll never happen though,” she laughed.

“
Why not?” Flynn turned and leaned forward into the aisle, hanging on every word.

“
Cassie is part of an inseparable duo. They have sleepovers even on school nights, so I’m constantly having my closet raided by two girls instead of just one.

“
Dev, for whatever reason, had three older boys adopt him into their little basement band and they now spend every available hour at my house. At least I always have someone to mow or whatever.”

“
Tell him about the cat,” Nicholas said. He looked like he was fishing through his briefcase for a magazine, but apparently he was paying attention after all. Flynn wasn’t sure what to think of that. Teri groaned.

“
What cat?” Flynn asked.

“
I came home one day from a quick vacation.”

“
Which is amusing because she gets more stressed by being away from home than being there,” Nicholas added.

“
Shut up,” Teri called over her shoulder, turning back to Flynn. “Anyway, I walked in and Nicholas is there, as usual. I have a room for him too since he spends so much time dropping in unexpectedly to pester me.”

“
If you took your marketing and booking as seriously as the actual photo sessions, I wouldn’t have to pester you.”

“
Then where would you spend all your free time?” She looked over her shoulder.

“
I’d have time for a hobby.”

“
You say that
now
.” Teri focused on Flynn again. “Anyway, I walk in and the first thing that hits me is the smell: like a pet store. I asked Nicholas about it and he said it was the cat. I reminded him I didn’t have a cat. He said maybe I should mention that to the little hairball before it clawed up his other hand. He held up his hand and, sure enough, it was shredded. So I went looking for a cat, and tried to figure out which teen was in trouble, when I found out why the house smelled. Some bright kid, Jess I found out later, put the litter box in the laundry room but left the door closed. For a while was my bet.”

Flynn groaned sympathetically.

“My patience was gone at that point. I just sat down and hit speed dial on my phone over and over until all the kids were in the living room in front of me. I set them to work cleaning up the messes hidden all over the house. While I was yelling at them, the cat raced through the room: just a little gray streak. The kids all took off after her, but she got away.

“
That was almost a year ago. We still have the cat and no one ever really sees her.”

“
So where did it come from?”

“
I’m still not sure about that. I suspect she’s a stray that slipped into the house, and the kids just decided to let her stay. Rumor has it she’s fixed and declawed, but Nicholas can attest that’s not completely true. She doesn’t claw the furniture at least.”

“
Are you sure it’s a girl?”

“
Not really. Cassie named her ‘Catherine,’ so I hope so.”

“
Tell him the rest of that,” Nicholas prompted. Flynn grinned as Teri sighed and rolled her eyes.

“
Cassie named her ‘Catherine’ because that way I could continue calling her ‘Cat’ and it was acceptable. I’m not overly creative on naming animals.”

“
Sounds reasonable,” Flynn laughed.

“
No it’s not,” Nicholas argued, leafing through the latest issue of
Time
. “Tell him about the rest of the zoo.”

“
You’re annoying, read your magazine,” Teri snapped.

“
The zoo,” Flynn prompted, a smile spreading across his face.

“
Fine. We have sugar gliders. You know, the little nocturnal marsupial version of flying squirrels?”

Flynn nodded he was familiar with the creature.

“Anyway, the gliders are Dextrose, Maltose, and Sucrose.”

“
Sugars,” Flynn acknowledged.

“
Naturally. Although we call them Dex, Mal, and Suki for short. And they are completely misnamed! Sugar gliders my foot, they are little furry piranhas. Those little things love their meat!”

Flynn laughed at her indignant outburst about the mislabeled pets. He watched her
, mesmerized by her energy and the animated expressions on her face.

“
Then I have Monty, the python; Elvis and George the king snakes; Savannah, the monitor; Nippy and Trouble, the tree lizards,” Teri nodded thoughtfully. “Oh, and all the feeder mice are named Lunch and the crickets are Jiminy.”

Flynn paused.
“Snakes?”

“
I was terrified of snakes as a child and my stepfather filled the house with reptiles to cure me. It worked.” Teri shrugged.

“
Okay. A little unexpected.” Flynn wasn’t really a fan of snakes, but he pushed his misgivings aside.

“
I’ve been considering poison dart frogs, but I just don’t have the time or space right now to do it right. I’m putting it off to reward myself after I successfully kick all the kids out.”

Flynn nodded.
“Interesting goal.”

“
Another reason I keep my work separate. The kids like the zoo, but most other people think I’m nuts. You’re looking a little dazed yourself.”

“
Aren’t you glad that I’m not?”

Flynn looked up to see Paul putting a bag in the overhead compartment for the seat in front of Teri. He suppressed a groan
, but only just.

“
So, Paul, business or pleasure?” Teri asked coolly.

“
Pleasure.”

“
Back to stalking again?”

“
I decided since Flynn took an interest I’d better show up again before his wife noticed.”

Flynn wanted to hit the man again. He forced his hands to unclench before Teri noticed.

“Paul, that wasn’t nice,” Teri scolded. Flynn didn’t know whether or not to feel better. “You should be concerned about your own wife, not Flynn’s.”

“
Touché. But I asked Sara for a divorce over ten years ago, long before I met you. Flynn hasn’t asked yet and probably wouldn’t except for you.”