My Missing Puzzle Piece (Creekside Falls #1) (2 page)

“Thanks. Bye. I’ll see you.”

“Bye, see you around.”

It wasn’t the best or most romantic of first meetings but it wasn’t the worst either she thought. Especially since things like that didn’t ever happen to her.

She never expected to hear from him a few days later asking her if she could help “beef up” his business. He explained that he had under-prepared for growth and now needed to rethink the size of his company and hire some new folks and get some others off their butts. She suggested several ideas off the top of her head and he liked them so they agreed to meet the next morning.

He showed up at her office ready to go and they worked for several hours on what he needed for the next phase of his company’s life. He was so excited when he left she couldn’t help but get energized for him as an entrepreneur herself. As a woman she couldn’t help but be energized by him period. She let her mind wander to all the possibilities of relationship and, even though she told herself to get a grip and live in reality, not the fantasy her mind was quickly weaving, she was floating the next week when she went to his office to get started putting their plan into action.

But, when she got there he wasn’t at the office and in the days and weeks to come he was rarely around and when he was he spoke to her in cool, clipped tones and often handed her off to his assistant Becky to “handle”. She felt a little foolish at first and then insulted, and then just down right angry so she started being a bitch to him when he did
bother
to show up. The professional side of her knew they could handle everything they were doing via email and phone calls and the work got done. The personal side of her was hurt and embarrassed that she had already “gone there” with him in her mind and yet he seemed oblivious to her presence. She knew that acting like a scorned woman toward a client was unprofessional at best; juvenile in the least, but she was like a woman on a mission and felt out of control at times.

She would lie in bed at night and scold herself but then the next time she saw him she would feel the anger rising inside and would listen helplessly to her own voice as she spoke to him in a rude, patronizing tone.

It was obvious when they finished the job that he wanted little to do with her and by that time she felt exactly the same way. The only problem was that she knew she was still so damn attracted to him and that she had blown her chance with him, if she ever had one to begin with. That man hated her.

hen Trevor found out something underhanded was going on at his company, he knew what he had to do, he had to call Elle and hire her again. Just the mention of her name made him think about her hair, skin and eyes, she was beautiful with her long, wavy, brown hair that looked silky enough for him to run his hands through if they were ever intimate. He shook his head at that thought. She was petite, about 5’3 but not too thin, which was perfect to him, with green eyes like emeralds and fair skin. He didn’t know her well, but what he did know from their limited involvement the first time they worked together, was that she was shy and that was so damned cute. He could also tell she was determined, and tough as nails, the type of woman who didn’t give up. The thought of her made his heart beat a little faster and sweat started to form on his forehead at the thought of seeing her again. God he was in over his head but he needed her help.
It shouldn’t matter that she didn’t seem to want to give him the time of day when they worked together before, but the thought of it really got under his skin.

Trevor had a few serious relationships in his past and thought he knew a few things about women until Elle came along. When Elle ignored him or was downright rude to him, even though she was working for him, it put him in a funk because it had been a while since he had an instant and deep attraction, the kind that went straight to your bones, to a woman. Even the woman he was seeing when he met Elle hadn’t attracted him at that deep of a level. Hell he didn’t remember ever having that with a woman but he felt it with Elle. She was also a woman he would be working with again, for who knew how long. Great! This should be fun, he thought sarcastically because inside, he knew otherwise.

The last time they worked together he had been so swamped he could barely breathe and when he did have a few minutes here and there to catch up with her on the progress she was pretty much a bitch to him. That didn’t change the fact that he thought she was smokin’ hot but it did make him avoid her. It got to where, if given the choice, he’d just email her his questions or problems rather than have to face her. There was no doubt in his mind by the time the work was done; that woman hated him.

He was painfully aware that if she took him on as a client again she would probably be at his office most days, for as long as it took to figure out this whole mess. He was actually hoping like hell she’d be bitchy towards him, like
she was before, then he would be able to move on once and for all. She had been on his mind ever since they met. But he couldn’t decide if he wanted her to be involved with someone else so he wouldn’t have a chance with her and have to move on, or not. He didn’t understand why
she
had to be the woman that made him feel this way.

Elle’s phone was ringing off the hook when she walked into the office after meeting with Taylor to discuss the new client. Elle saw Trevor’s name on the caller ID and her stomach plummeted, she couldn’t believe it, what could he want?! It had been seven months since she worked for him and her feelings and thoughts about him still ran rampant. Even when she tried like hell to stop herself
he
kept coming back to mind; appearing like the perfect man for her, even though she didn’t know him that well. Her history of falling for men who either rejected her outright or hurt her was never far from her mind. That history played like a movie in her mind as the phone rang and rang. Finally she answered, “Hello?”

“Hi, Elle? This is Trevor Cavanaugh. Would you be able to take me on as a client again?”

“Probably, but tell me what happened so I can be sure.” Elle said as she pulled out her notebook to take notes.

Trevor explained, “I have noticed a problem with the schedules for my crews, the only logical explanation is that someone is going in and changing them. My teams are showing up for scheduled jobs late or not at all. They’re going to homes and businesses that either don’t have a job on the schedule or aren’t even clients of ours. I don’t know exactly how to fix it especially since I don’t know
who is doing it, and honestly I don’t have the time to play private investigator in order to get to the bottom of it. I figured you’re the person I needed to call.”

“Oh wow. I’m sorry about that. But I should be able to help.”

“Great. When can you come by?” Trevor asked.

“Is Monday morning okay, say around at 8:30?”

“That’s perfect and…thanks for this.”

“No problem. I have a suggestion though, when you do the schedules next make sure you keep a copy and keep checking them for changes, since I’m guessing others have access to them. Also, change the password for editing them.”

“Thanks, I’ll go do that now. See you Monday.”

“See you then,” was all Elle said before she hung up the phone.

After getting off the phone Elle sat back and thought about Trevor. Her heart started to race and butterflies formed in her stomach at the idea of not just seeing him again but working with him again. This time they would be working closely with each other, which was the last thing she could handle when the attraction was still so strong. She regretted that she was nasty to him on the last job but at least she was getting a second chance.

She had until Monday to prepare herself; that gave her only four days to suck it up and be as confident as she could manage so it wouldn’t be obvious she had a thing for him. She didn’t want to be a bitch again but that might be her only choice, it worked last time. She had to pretend the best she could, she couldn’t let him see just how much
she wanted him to be hers. “What was he a piece of property?” she mused to herself. She started thinking it would be better if he were seeing someone so she could move on from feeling like a fifteen-year old with her first crush. She wanted him to be hers but wondered if it could ever happen and she started to doubt herself again. After all she was sure she wasn’t his type.

The first time Elle worked for Trevor she came to respect him and his company, she liked the employees that she met, and more importantly, she liked him. He was adorable, nice, and everything else she wanted, except he never made time for her so in turn she became more distant and less friendly with him to prove that she didn’t need him to notice her. Her experience with men was limited since she only had three boyfriends. There was Rob, the guy she dated in high school; he was a friend before they started dating. They went out for a few months but she could never see him as more than a friend. She felt a ‘special’ connection to him as her high school boyfriend, something she didn’t take lightly. They dated from May to November their junior and senior year. They went to prom together, mainly because neither had anyone else to go with. The second guy was Andy, they met sophomore year of college in Business Ethics but it was basically over before it even started. The last guy, Tom was a serious boyfriend and that relationship lasted almost a year, but he hurt her. He broke up with her to date an old friend of hers, right after he and Elle started sleeping together. The worst part was that she thought he could have been ‘the one’ but it turned
into a giant clusterfuck instead of happily ever after
.
She never thought she’d find a guy she needed that way again, let alone want to take the leap with, emotionally, until she met Trevor.

Elle walked across to Taylor’s office. Taylor was her best friend since forever; she was staring intently at her computer.

“What’s up? And why do you look more pale than usual?” Taylor asked as she looked up from her work.

Elle ignored Taylor’s pale comment since her friend always picked on her for being so pale, not that Taylor was much darker. Elle’s forehead puckered and she said, “I just got off the phone.”

“I know I heard you talking.” Then silence for a second, before Taylor said, “spit it out already you’re killing me.”

“It was Trevor Cavanaugh, he just hired us again. I have a meeting with him on Monday morning.”

“What?! The Trevor you couldn’t stop talking about when he was a client last time and have brought up on more than one occasion since?” Taylor said with a huge smile.

“Yep that’s the one,” Elle said as she sank back into a chair in Taylor’s office.

“Well I’ll be damned. Maybe you two will be able to pull your heads out of your asses long enough to give it a shot this time.”

Elle laughed but had to agree with Taylor and just said, “Yeah, maybe...” then she thought about it a minute and gave Taylor a doubtful look when she remembered
what his employees said about his record with women, he was a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy.

Taylor said, “Don’t give me that look! I know what you heard about him since you harped about it at the time, but that doesn’t mean it’s true or the whole story. Give him a chance.”

After talking to Elle earlier in the day Trevor decided that, he would take a much-needed break and go out on a Thursday for beers with his friends. The guys asked him to join them all the time but he rarely did because his schedule was all over the place. He didn’t have a normal nine-to-five job. Trevor met up with a few buddies, including his best friend Jake, who had been in the Air Force until about two years ago; he was working with Trevor, he said, until he found something else. Trevor was happy to have him home and working with him for however long Jake wanted. He was also the only one Trevor ever mentioned Elle to; he was glad he’d be there; a night out with friends would give him something to help clear his head. His other friends Sam and Drew were going to be there as well. They were meeting at McDuckers, their regular bar.

Elle was thankful she already had plans for that night; talking to Trevor earlier in the day had made her crazy. She was going to Taylor’s place; they usually had dinner at each other’s house every Thursday. They had been close since high school, even though they’d had different groups of friends. Taylor was friends with everyone but Elle was shy so she kept to herself more. Taylor was Elle’s business partner, consultant and go-to person for
everything. She had a degree in nursing but didn’t have luck on the job front so did a one-eighty and was now with Elle. Everyone loved Taylor, which didn’t surprise Elle one bit and helped with client relations. Elle thought about their friendship and how much they’d been through and was glad they still had each other; it meant the world to her. Since Taylor was more outgoing than Elle, they balanced each other out pretty well.