Love You Madly(54)

They’d all been busy. While she was upstairs dreaming.

She flipped the coffee to brew and turned, slowly, to find Travis watching her. His face so stoic, his jaw set in a hard line. Unreadable. Hard to believe he was the same man who had called her witty, strong, and beautiful.

“We’ve got some leads then,” she commented.

He nodded. “So far Claire and Allie have found three prospects. Meems is trying to hack into a couple different area satellites that might give us a good aerial view of the properties.”

His tone was informative, professional, and completely appropriate. For a robot.

Not what she was hoping for from the man who had made her scream his name more than once just hours before. Who’d shown with every touch that he was a man of some expertise but also was incredibly intuitive to her every need and desire.

So why couldn’t he see that she needed something…more? She looked away, growing angrier, but at herself. She was an idiot. Her stomach gurgled, and she realized she needed something to eat. From the fridge, she grabbed a string cheese and a plum that she took to the table.

So preoccupied with who Travis was and wasn’t paying attention to, Meredith realized that she had been under some scrutiny herself when she sat down and met Claire’s gaze. She looked like she’d been watching her for a while, her pencil spinning back and forth between her fingertips.

“It’s nice that you have such a big house, Meredith,” she finally said. “Saved my brother from having to find a hotel room.”

Good God. What did the woman know?

It wasn’t like she and Travis were wearing signs that said, “Just did it,” but she was almost certain that Claire was on to them.

“Just three rooms, including Darcy’s and mine.” But the size of Meredith’s house wasn’t really what the woman had been commenting on. It was that her brother was staying under the same roof as Meredith. “So where’s Rick this morning?” she asked, deciding it was time to put someone else in the hot seat.

Claire shared a look with Allie before she answered. “He was called out of town yesterday, just after you and Travis left. He’ll be back by tonight.”

The gala. Something she, as chairwoman, was supposed to be heading, yet she hadn’t even remembered to check with any of the other committee members to see how it was going.

“Allie? I can’t believe I’ve been so derelict in my duties. Is everything going okay?”

“Please. Don’t worry about it. Sam and the rest of the committee have it all under control. Everyone caught your bit on Annabeth’s show and knows you have bigger things to tend to.”

Travis suddenly came to his feet, a small eleven-inch laptop in his hands. “I’ve got a signal.”

She looked over in confusion. “For what?”

“Lance. I found his cell phone in Matt’s list of numbers and triangulated the coordinates. I think I’ve got him.”#p#分页标题#e#

“Got him? What are you planning on doing? Shouldn’t you give this info to the police?” This was Claire.

“Eventually. But right now Lance is our best bet on figuring out where this auction is later tonight, and I have interrogation…techniques that are probably more effective than anything the police might have.”

“I’m going with,” Meredith said and came to her feet, which were noticeably bare, since she hadn’t expected the whole breakfast brigade so early.

He didn’t respond, just studied her. “All right. But I’ve got to go now. Can I get the keys to the Rover, Claire?”

“Oh, yeah. Here.” She pulled the keys from her pocket and tossed them to him. “Which brings me to my own question. I couldn’t help but notice Bonnie wasn’t out front. Is she in the garage?”

Meredith saw the look of something close to terror cross Travis’s face. So he hadn’t told her.

“I’m going to run and get shoes on and I’ll be right back,” she said, fighting back a smile, leaving the unhappy task of breaking the news about the car to Travis.

Only two minutes later, a pair of comfortable and stylish Toms on her feet, her lip gloss refreshed, the joke was on her.

The women around the table had the grace to look uncomfortable as they broke the news. Travis had left a minute before. Without her.

Something she took with as much dignity as she could manage, gliding across the room to pull her biggest mug from the cupboard and fill it with coffee and half-and-half. They gave her uncertain glances, but thankfully, returned to their tasks.

She sat, staring into space as she guzzled the coffee, trying to tell herself that Travis wasn’t avoiding her. And even if he was, it wasn’t because he regretted what had happened between them.