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“That’s not possible. We both met her today. And mine is looking for her bio dad, who happens to probably be Mel the Alien Hunter. Hale spent the day in Alamosa. Except for…” He remembered what Hale had done this morning. Was it possible? “He got called in by Gene at the motel who said the shower had gone out in one of the rooms.”
There was a knock on the door, and Zane poked his head through. “Hey, man, I know you’re all about making a stand and shit, but Hale’s meeting Elisa right now if you want to try to save this.”
The familiar name stopped him cold. “Elisa?”
“That’s what he said her name was,” Zane replied. “And she’s pretty, though she reminds me of someone. I can’t place it.”
Van knew. “Mel Hughes.”
“Huh.” Zane seemed to think about that for a moment. “That’s weird, but she does look a bit like him.”
“Holy shit,” Jake breathed over the line. “Is your girl’s name Elisa?”
“Weird Bliss forces win again.” He remembered what Elisa had told him earlier today. “And she thinks she’s meeting with a friend and his partner, and Hale took that in a Bliss definition of partner.”
“What other definition is there?” Zane seemed genuinely confused.
Jake laughed, the sound booming over the cell phone.
He hung up on his brother because Hale was meeting with the most intriguing woman Van had ever met, and she thought they were a couple—he and Hale.
Did she like Hale? Or did she think he would make a fun friend, and a gay couple would be easy to hang out with?
“Oh, she thinks you’re gay.” Zane nodded like he’d figured out something really hard to understand.
“No, she knows I’m not.” This was a serious problem. “She thinks Hale is, and he’s totally into her. He thinks this is a date. She thinks this is a fun hangout, and Hale’s going to get hurt if I don’t turn this around.”
And he was going to have to do it in his Trio T-shirt because all he had in his locker was a clean work shirt and a pair of jeans. It wasn’t the kind of job where he had slacks and a nice shirt sitting around in case he needed them. He wore a T-shirt and jeans every day. He didn’t keep date clothes hanging around, and now that seemed like something he shouldn’t have overlooked.
It didn’t matter. He raced out of the locker room because he wasn’t about to leave his best friend alone.
* * * *
Elisa only briefly paused outside of Trio, and it had nothing to do with being worried about the man she was meeting inside. She’d asked about Hale and gotten nothing but praise from the man who ran the Movie Motel. Gene thought the world of him, and apparently he served as the go-to guy for most of the town’s handyman needs.
Her sister had reminded her that people thought Ted Bundy was a nice guy, but Sabrina watched way too much murder TV. Elisa was sure she was following all of the rules for single women who didn’t want to end up on Dateline. She was meeting him in a public place, and she’d parked in front of the building. The bar was on the main street and well lit.
No. She wasn’t worried about meeting with Hale and his partner.
She was annoyed that her biological father still hadn’t called her. No text. Nothing. Either the Harper twins had told him and he didn’t care, or they’d lied to her and he probably still didn’t care.
She was searching for something here, and she wasn’t going to find it. If it hadn’t been for tomorrow night’s date with the attractive man from the festival, she might pack it up and head home in the morning.
A big SUV pulled up next to her car, and she watched as a tall man stepped out and opened the back door. A blonde woman came around from the passenger side after another big guy opened her door.
“Tell me she didn’t fall asleep, Cam,” the blonde was saying. “She’s a bear when she wakes up before she’s ready.”
The man named Cam came back out with a toddler against his shoulders. “I can hold her while you and Rafe eat, and then we’ll switch off.”
“And if she wakes up and is a crabby baby girl, I’ll take her on the dance floor and get her giggling,” the man named Rafe promised. He leaned over and kissed the blonde. “Stop worrying. She’s fine. It was an ear infection, and Caleb took care of it. Relax and let her fathers take care of her. You were up most of the night. I expect you to drink a couple of glasses of wine, and then Cam and I can carry both our girls out of here.”
