She hadn’t thought him capable of smiling.
“Allie McBride. It’s been a while,” he drawled.
Good God. Why did this not surprise her? Allie was known and loved by everyone.
Allie jumped up from the couch and crossed over to him. She bent down and squeezed the hulking figure, who actually placed his own arm briefly around her and squeezed back.
Unbelievable. Was he going to make a pass at the English teacher, too?
“It’s been, what? Ten, eleven years? I nearly didn’t recognize you, you’ve changed so much, and yet”—she shook her head as she stared at him—“you’re still the same.”
Instead of returning to her seat on the opposite side of the couch, Allie squeezed next to Meredith to be closer to Travis, almost pushing Meredith over. Didn’t the woman have any respect for personal boundaries?
Now Meredith was really confused. Eleven years ago she and Allie had graduated from St. Andrew. Had they known each other from high school?
“Oh, God, you were the smartest kid I knew then, always knew you’d—” Allie stopped abruptly and brought her hand to her mouth. “Crap. But that’s not why you’re here. This is about Darcy. You say she’s missing?”
Okay, getting to the details was important. But it was also important that Meredith knew everything she could about the man she might be hiring to look for her daughter. “Sorry, Allie. How do you two know each other?”
Allie looked at her almost incredulously. Then looked at Travis and back to her again. “Travis. Travis Brennan. You mean you don’t remember him? Our senior year, he was the computer science assistant, even though he was only a junior, because he was freaking brilliant.” She threw what could only be described as a proud smile at Travis. “Braces back then, and—sorry, Travis, but it’s true—a bit of a mullet?”
The computer aide? Meredith searched her memory but the only aide she could remember was a scrawny guy who always spoke to her like she had the intelligence of a monkey even though—
Oh. My. God.
It all finally came back to her. The taunting. The practical jokes. Not some of her best moments by any means. Not when she was on a power trip that last year as the head cheerleader and homecoming queen.#p#分页标题#e#
And now she was hiring that same guy whose life she might have made particularly miserable to help her find her daughter?
Fate had a funny way of kicking you in the ass sometimes.
…
Travis could not believe his luck.
When he’d first heard who he was meeting today, he’d tried to tell himself that she couldn’t still be as bad as he remembered. She had to have changed. People mellowed with age, right?
Meredith Sanders sure as hell hadn’t.
Gorgeous, yes. Still had a long, thick mane of chestnut hair that made a man’s hands itch to touch. Long, shapely legs to wrap around his waist, a decent size rack to hold his interest, and dark, mesmerizing eyes that a guy could drown in. Until that razor-sharp tongue lashed out unexpectedly and cut him to the quick. After all these years, she was as mean and as selfish as when she’d first humiliated and taunted him back in high school, a decade before.
Only then he hadn’t had the self-confidence or strength to fight back. He’d been a computer nerd who could barely lift his backpack. But three tours in Iraq and a ten-month op in Afghanistan had given him more than just his strong physique. It had mentally and physically prepared him for battle with forces of all calibers.
Including selfish, mean-spirited girls from high school.
She hadn’t even blinked when she met him. Hadn’t a clue who he was or their history.
And up until this moment, he’d actually liked it that way. Liked the edge it gave him, the advantage over her, which he’d need if he was going to determine whether there was any foul play here or if the rich girl was playing a game with her stepmom. Hell, if Meredith was his stepmom, he wouldn’t stop looking for ways to throw a wrench in whatever plans and ideas she had.
That would make this easier. Finding it all a ruse. Then he could finally get out of town and take that long-awaited vacation in Key West he’d been setting out for when he’d gotten the call from Jace. Having just completed a job up in Idaho and, being native to the greater Salt Lake area, he’d been the logical choice for this job.
But now, seeing the dawning horror hit that pretty face, seeing the moment when who he was and what she’d done to him all came back to her…it was priceless.
Damn. He wished he had his camera.
“Yes. I think it’s coming back to me,” she said in that scary tone of voice she used before she sicced the varsity football team on your ass. He would know. He looked over to see her eyes narrow and her head tilt in that haughty way she had, like a queen staring down at her lowly subjects. “I’m curious, Travis…” Oh, yeah. She was definitely pissed. “…why you didn’t share this interesting little history with me before now. In fact, if Allie hadn’t recognized you, would you have ever told me?”