My Missing Puzzle Piece (Creekside Falls #1)

by Kristin Hoepfl

  Elle rolled over and slipped from his arms. She turned and looked up at him.

  “Morning,” Elle said stretching and smiling.

  “Morning. How did you sleep?” Trevor said leaning in for a brief kiss.

  “Amazing, I was in your arms. You?” Elle leaned over and kissed the tip of his nose.

  “I’m glad. I slept great, I was with you.”

  Trevor looked at Elle who smiled. He stretched out his arm and pulled her closer.

  She cuddled into him before saying, “So I was thinking?”

  “Do I want to ask?” Trevor asked cautiously.

  “You don’t have to because I’m going to tell you. What do you think of Jake and Taylor?”

  “What do you mean what do I think of them?”

  “Well I don’t know if Jake has mentioned Taylor but...”

  Trevor interrupted saying, “He has talked about her but nothing too much.”

  Elle continued, “He has? That’s good. Taylor’s talked about him too and I was thinking we should set them up.”

  Trevor looked at her slightly confused saying, “But they already know each and seem to be hitting it off. How do you set up people who know each other?”

  Elle laughed and said, “You clearly haven’t set anyone up before have you? Two people can know each other and be set up. I was just meaning maybe we could give them a little push.”

  “Can’t say I have set anyone up before, butting in isn’t my thing. I don’t know if that’s a good idea, we’d be interfering.”

  “Not if we push it lightly,” Elle said and her green eyes got so big, like a little kid making puppy dog eyes to get their way.

  “I think they’re doing okay on their own. What if we push it and it ends up bad. We can’t have our best friends hating each other and being awkward, can we?”

  Elle gave an exaggerated sigh, “Okay, you win. We won’t push them.” And she snuggled in closer.

  Elle’s stomach rumbled loudly, they both started to laugh.

  “Hungry?” Trevor said still laughing.

  She looked over at Trevor. “I didn’t eat before I came over yesterday.”

  “We should eat breakfast then.”

  “I’ll make it.” Elle offered.

  “Isn’t it my turn? You made it every time I stayed at your place.”

  “No, I’ll do it. I want to. What do you want?”

  “Well what I want isn’t going to fill your stomach so whatever you want to eat is fine.” He said mischievously with a smile as he tried to pull her back towards him.

  “How about we have what you want after breakfast? We can have breakfast in bed.” She said sweetly as she rolled out of the blankets and grabbed one of Trevor’s shirts that were stacked on top of his dresser.

  “I like the sound of that. Do you want help with breakfast?”

  A wide grin crossed her face. “I’ll call you if I need help but I think I can manage.” And with that she sauntered out of the room showing off her amazing ass and legs. Elle brought breakfast back to bed about a half hour later.

  “That smells so good!” Trevor said as he helped Elle with the coffee, omelet, bacon and toast she made for them. “You made a lot. Looks great, I worked up quite an appetite.” He said with a wide grin and gleam of deviltry.

  “Well, I’m starving and figured we needed our energy.” Elle said with a wide grin and eyes flashing brightly of what was to come.

  Later on that afternoon when Trevor and Elle took Bruiser for a walk; her phone rang, when she looked at the screen she recognized the number and decided she didn’t need to take it. The phone stopped ringing quickly but started again just as quick.

  “You want to get that?” Trevor said gesturing to Elle’s jacket pocket where she put her phone.

  “No it’s fine.” Elle said. “I’ll check it later.”

  Elle’s phone than beeped, that she had a voicemail, and quickly beeped again that she had a text message waiting. She groaned.

  “Okay now you need to see what that’s about. Are you avoiding someone?” Trevor asked curiously.

  “No I am not avoiding anyone,” she said as she playfully punched his arm. “Fine, let me see what the message is.” She said as she grabbed her phone.

  Elle’s face went pale when she read the text message and then listened to her voicemail; Trevor knew that it couldn’t be good if she had that look. She didn’t seem to be in a rush to head back so he didn’t think it was urgent or that serious but knew something was wrong.

  When Elle put her phone back in her pocket, Trevor asked, “What was that about? You got this weird look on your face when you were checking your phone?”

  “It was nothing. Everything’s fine.” Elle answered and to prove it she took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “You sure? You didn’t look like everything was fine when you were listening to the message.”

  “Let’s keep going.” Elle said and with that started to walk back towards Trevor’s place.

  Trevor followed behind her but wasn’t about to let this go, he knew something was up and that she just wasn’t telling him. Why, he had no clue but he damn well wanted to find out. Trust was supposed to be their new motto.

  “You didn’t answer my question.” Trevor persisted.

  “It’s nothing important, that’s why.” Elle said coolly.

  “It must be if you made that face and now you’re avoiding talking to me. Damn it, I don’t want to fight but I’m worried about you.”

  “You don’t have to be worried,” was all Elle said back to him.

  Trevor didn’t know what else to say to her, so they walked the rest of the way to his place in silence as Bruiser stopped at every bush, tree and mailbox to sniff, as if he hadn’t walked by these bushes, trees and mailboxes a million times before. They got to his place and Bruiser left them to go drink from his water, when Elle broke the silence.

  “Don’t be mad but the message was from Rob, he wanted to explain, say that he didn’t mean to hurt anyone but that he needed the money. Also, he wanted to see if I could help him get another job.” Elle said and then started to bite her lip nervously.

  “He what?!” Trevor practically roared.

  “He asked…”Elle started to say but was cut off by Trevor.

  “You don’t have to repeat it, I heard you the first time. Why did he call you?”

  “I guess because we knew each other and now I know people. He probably thought I could help.”

  “Do you want to help him?” Trevor said flatly then, “How did he get your phone number?”

  “I don’t know, probably from someone we were both friends with before, I still talk to some of them sometimes so they have it.”

  “You didn’t give it to him?”

  “No I didn’t give it to him.” Elle yelled. “I thought we were moving past this?” She continued.

  “We were until the ass decided to call you for help!” Trevor yelled back at her. “You never did answer. Do you want to help him?” Trevor was getting pissed off now.

  Elle paused for a minute and took in a deep breath before answering him.

  “I may have considered it and I do think he should get another job but I don’t think I’m going to help him.” She answered but knowing it wasn’t what she wanted to or should have said the minute it came out but now it was too late.

  “You don’t think? After everything he did?” Trevor barked as his foot tapped angrily on the floor waiting for an answer.

  Elle said defensively, “You told me what he did and I don’t like it or the reason behind it and I’m not saying he deserves help but….”She paused to think about what she was going to say.

  Trevor couldn’t believe they were fighting and over Rob again! If his head wasn’t pounding and his heart racing at the anger and frustration he would have thought this was a nightmare but nope…this was his reality.

  Elle just looked at Trevor and didn’t honestly know what to say. She wanted to be honest but the tr
uth was if she could find Rob a job even cleaning bathrooms, she probably would try to help him. He needed the money to pay back a large gambling debt. It wasn’t that he deserved a chance or her help, especially with what he did and tried to do to Trevor, Trevor of all people! But it wasn’t like her to turn her back on someone when they needed help, especially an old friend. She wanted to just forget it for Trevor, who she loved more than her next breath, but didn’t think it was in her nature. The whole thing frustrated and made her angry more than anything and the thought had a few tears sliding down her cheek. Damn it!

  She gulped in a few deep breaths than said, “It’s not me to turn my back on someone who asks for help.”

  “But after everything, you’d still consider helping him?” Trevor said with a voice that sounded as if he just moved a million miles away from her. He was retreating to the other side of the room and more importantly away from her.

  “Honestly if I could I guess I would try to find him something.”

  “Well obviously this isn’t going to just go away.” Trevor said with such frustration in his voice.

  “I guess not. But this isn’t about us.” Elle said as she attempted to walk towards Trevor.

  “This might not be about us but it involves us and we can’t just ignore it. It’s like the giant elephant in the room, what are we supposed to do just move around it like we can’t see it?” He said as he stepped back even further.

  “This is about me not trusting you isn’t it?” Elle asked instead of answering him and continued, “It’s because you think I’m sticking up for him and not you, right?”

  Trevor stared at her blankly before responding. “When did this become about me? I’m not who he turned to for help? I’m just the person he screwed over that’s all.”

  “This isn’t about help or anything else; this is about me trusting you. You said you could let it go but you obviously can’t.” Elle said knowing she was overstepping.

  “Would you be able to let it go if you couldn’t trust me, especially if I was going to help the person who screwed you over?” Trevor asked knowingly he basically just proved her right but wouldn’t let her know it. Not after the way she’s being with Rob again.

  “This is why I didn’t want to tell you?” Elle asked not answering another one of his questions.

  “You were just never going to tell me?”

  “I wasn’t going to hide it forever but it wasn’t something I wanted to talk about it right now.”

  “Is that so?” Trevor was getting more and more aggravated with her.

  “Yes.” Elle said with conviction.

  “Honestly, I don’t know what else to say.”

  “Then I guess we’re done with this.” Elle said as she walked away from him. She knew they weren’t going to get past this today and would just keep on arguing.

  “I think I’m gonna go.” Elle said as she grabbed her purse. “And the answer to your question before, I wouldn’t be able to let it go if I couldn’t trust you but I can, I can trust you with anything even my life, I know that without any doubt. For the record, you can trust me too. I would do anything for you but you have to understand that I am not someone who walks away when someone needs my help and I can help. Including you! I love you and am not walking away from this relationship but I’m not coming back until you to decide what you want first.” With that she walked out his door.

  revor stood there stunned; this fight was happening too often for his liking. He knew what Elle said was true, she was right about the trust thing but he needed time to think because as much as he loved Elle and wanted to be with her, he had to be completely sure that trust wasn’t going to continue to be a problem for them. Rob was merely a temporary issue of conflict, but without trust their relationship would not survive. He believed she would do anything for him and he did trust her but some part of him wasn’t sure it was unconditional, like she said she had in him. As much as it killed him he was going to stay away from her until he knew for sure if he was capable of trusting her like she did him. Bruiser looked up at him and barked while nudging Trevor towards the door Elle had just walked out.

  “I know buddy, but I can’t go after her right now.” Bruiser flopped to the floor at Trevor’s feet and made a whimpering noise. Trevor bent down to pet him and said, “don’t worry.”

  Elle sat in her car baffled by what just happened, how could they be back here already? The amazing weekend they just had and their amazing make-up sex was short lived because of a stupid phone call from Rob. Rob came between them the first time but so did she. She didn’t do enough to show Trevor him how much she loved and respected him. Elle really hoped this wasn’t the end for them; they had just gotten their relationship off the ground. She would wait for him to figure out what he wanted. She could only hope he would, and soon, she didn’t know how long she could put her heart on hold. The pain she was feeling was intolerable as it was. She had barely recovered from the last slash and burn heartbreak episode. Was she wrong? Was she being unfair to Trevor for not understanding her? Wasn’t this exactly what he had done to her before? They had to break out of this crazy cycle if they were ever going to make it.

  Trevor and Elle didn’t see each other or talk for a week. Trevor knew the ball was totally in his court because she said she would give him the space he needed to decide if they were what he wanted. He was using the plans she created for his business and they were working out great. Everything was going well for him at work; he was relieved that the whole scheduling debacle hadn’t hurt him with his employees or clients. Jake’s advice was to get his head out of his ass and do something to get Elle back, just before he walked out of his office, declaring it was up to Trevor to fix it because he was being an idiot. Even being busy at work didn’t help him not think about her. Trevor hadn’t called or stopped by to see Elle because he was still trying to get his head together and figure the whole thing out. He had to be sure of what he wanted before he went to see Elle. It was only fair to both of them. He knew he wanted her, his hold up was the trust thing and that was driving him crazy.

  A week went by and Elle still hadn’t heard from Trevor. It was a terrible week for her, so much was unknown and she could not shake the funk she was in. Work didn’t even provide a respite from her personal life, her clients weren’t being too demanding like they usually were and they even closed a few of the more interesting projects. They had a new client, the CEO of the largest insurance company in the city, called to set up an appointment to discuss possible embezzlement by two employees, but that didn’t even grab her attention. Her mind wouldn’t sway from Trevor and the sick feeling she had that it was over. It had been a week and she hadn’t heard from him. She was still hoping she would. But on the plus side was it was Thursday so one day closer to the weekend and tonight was girls’ dinner with Taylor. Elle didn’t feel like cooking so Taylor had her over at her place.

  “Hey.” Elle said as she walked into Taylor’s.

  “Hey you. I wasn’t sure what time you were coming but dinner’s almost ready so your timing is perfect.”

  Elle handed Taylor a chocolate chip pound cake with chocolate frosting on it that she brought for dessert as she walked into the kitchen and gave Taylor a big hug.

  “Let me get us drinks. What do you want? Wine?” Taylor asked her friend knowing she had yet another bad week.

  “Wine is fine but not too much I haven’t been eating…or sleeping much. Dinner smells good though.” Elle said with a lackluster smile.

  “Thanks. It’s almost ready, probably another ten minutes.” Taylor said as she looked at the time while uncorking the wine.

  Elle walked over to the stove to see what was cooking, she saw Taylor made angel hair pasta with shrimp, asparagus and tomatoes in a vodka cream tomato sauce -- it was one of Elle’s favorites. She was lucky to have a friend like Taylor. She just hoped she wasn’t bad company tonight.

  They ate dinner in silence; Elle knew it wasn’t something Taylor did well, so she mu
st have been doing it for her. The thought made her smile but then she realized Taylor hadn’t talked about Jake in a while and that wasn’t like her. Maybe the silence wasn’t just for Elle.

  “That was so good!” Elle said as she sat back on the dining room chair after they finished their dinner and dessert. “I missed this.”

  “It really was. Missed what?” Taylor said looking at Elle.

  “Having a nice time and being able to actually eat something. My nerves have been all over so I haven’t been able to eat much; this is probably the first I’ve eaten more than a yogurt in a week.”

  “Still nothing from Trevor?” Taylor asked.

  “No nothing yet. I don’t know if he is going to come around. I mean he feels like he can’t trust me, there seems to be no coming back from that and I don’t know if I can blame him.” Elle said with a defeated voice.

  “No you can’t blame him but give him time.” Taylor said as she squeezed Elle’s hand.

  “I’m not trying to pry but you haven’t mentioned Jake, did something happen with you guys?” Elle was curious that his name hadn’t come up and she wanted to think about something other than her own misery.

  Taylor stood to start clearing their plates, avoiding eye contact with Elle. “No nothing happened but he did cancel the dinner we were going to have at his place last week.” Taylor said like it was no big deal, but Elle knew that it was a big deal to Taylor.

  “He did? Why did he do that?”

  “Well he said that maybe its best we keep things the way they are now.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Beats me, I’ve been trying to think of what happened or what he means but I’ve got nothing.”

  “Do you want to keep things the way they are?” Elle asked.

  “The way they are now? What with us sexually frustrated and not going anywhere, cause that sounds like a lot of fun?!” Taylor said as she rolled her eyes and came back to sit down.

  Elle gave a short laugh then said, “Okay I take that as a no.”

  “Men.” Was all Taylor said as she sank down further in her chair.