CHAPTER FOUR
Talia sat in the passenger seat of Lennox’s F-150 King Ranch pickup, her head spinning at that morning’s revelations. Not only had Anna not gone home to Bolivia, but her employer, John Fredrickson, was apparently involved in the ruse to make it look like she had. He might even have killed her. Was Fredrickson also responsible for the man who chased Talia last night? Or did it have something to do with the men Anna had heard threatening Fredrickson?
Then there was the stuff Kyla had said about that scary guy from last night coming after Talia again. The mere possibility had her rattled so much she could barely think straight.
“I thought Maria was going to be at a friend’s house the whole weekend,” Lennox said, driving through the perpetually heavy traffic along Interstate 5. “Did something change?”
“No,” Talia said, appreciating Lennox’s effort to distract her when she was obviously on the verge of spinning out of control. “Maria is spending the weekend with her best friend, Beverly McDaniel, but it was always the plan that Maria, Beverly, and their friends would go to Legoland this morning. Anna was supposed to help chaperon the kids, and with her missing, they called and asked if I could help instead. I hope you don’t mind that I said okay?”
“Definitely not,” Lennox said. “I don’t have kids, so I never get to go to Legoland. This is my chance to act like a kid myself. I’m not turning my nose up at it.”
“And here I thought you were coming just to keep an eye on me,” Talia said with a laugh, having a hard time not loving the boyish energy coming off a big Navy SEAL like Lennox.
“Oh, yeah. That too!” he assured her even as he tried to hide his eagerness. “But there’s no reason I can’t have a little fun at the same time, right?”
“Right,” Talia said, feeling the smile spread across her face as Lennox continued the drive northward. “Well, I have no doubt Maria will enjoy having you there. She asks about you all the time.”
From the corner of her eye, Talia saw Lennox grinning like a goofball. He and Maria had only seen each other a few times, but when he’d saved her and her older sister, as well as Talia, from bad guys at the zoo a while ago, it had definitely made an impression. Maria now considered Lennox to be an older brother slash personal superhero. Maria was also positive that Talia and Lennox should date because they “looked good together.” Like a six-year-old knew enough to make that kind of assessment.
Talia was still thinking about how silly kids could be as Lennox took the exit off the interstate, turning toward the Legoland parking lot off Airport Road. To a kid like Maria, the only thing that mattered was that Lennox was funny and liked to tell jokes. The fact that he was a Navy SEAL and therefore never around didn’t mean anything to a little girl who saw her parents on a regular basis.
It wasn’t difficult to find Maria once they arrived at the front gate area of the park. She was the precious blonde-haired girl standing in the middle of a group of other similarly aged kids jumping up and down in excitement as their au pairs waited patiently several feet away.
“Lennox!” Maria suddenly screamed at the top of her small, six-year-old lungs, taking off running in their direction like an Olympic sprinter. She might be little, but she was very fast for her size.
Maria ran into Lennox like a tiny freight train, almost bouncing off before he reached down to pick her up and spin her around, laughing as much as she was.
“I didn’t know you were bringing Lennox,” Maria said, turning toward Talia the moment she was on the ground, energy bubbling out of her as she hugged Talia. “Does that mean you guys are dating now? OMG! Are you married already?”
Maria grabbed Talia’s left hand, looking for a ring even as Lennox’s blue eyes twinkled.
“No, Maria, we aren’t married,” Talia said with a laugh. “And no, Lennox and I are not dating. We’re just friends. He wanted to come spend the day at the park with you.”
Maria gave Talia a thoughtful look, her blue eyes skeptical, as if she quite didn’t believe what she was saying. The expression was way too mature to fit on her six-year-old face. But a second later, the serious expression faded, replaced by a childish grin.
“Are you going to ride all the rides with me?” she asked Lennox in excitement, jumping up and down again. “And buy me chicken fingers and fries and chocolate covered churros and ice cream?”
“I’ll ride as many rides as you want, assuming I fit on them,” Lennox said with a chuckle. “But when it comes to food, Talia gets the say there, and something tells me she’s not going to be okay with all that junk food.”
Maria looked disappointed for a few seconds, before nodding her acceptance and grinning all over again. “But you’ll ride the rides with me, right?”
Talia laughed, knowing exactly what he was in for today. As cute as she was, Maria could be a menace when it came to getting what she wanted. Which meant Lennox would be forced onto every ride in the park until his stomach was tossed upside down.
Lennox quickly became the center of attention for all the children, who excitedly dragged the tall, athletic SEAL toward the first ride, a spinning cup thing called the Bionicle Blaster. Seeing him led around by a bunch of little kids who barely reached his waist was adorable. And Talia wasn’t the only one who thought so. The other au pairs obviously did as well.
“So that’s the handsome and mysterious Navy SEAL that Maria is always telling us about?” Katrina Weber said with a knowing grin. Petite with wavy honey-blonde hair and green eyes, she was quickly becoming Talia’s best friend. “Did you finally break down and agree to go on a date with him? Not that I blame you. That man is fine!”
Talia sat down on one of the park benches as Katrina waved at Beverly McDaniel as the six-year-old girl she was an au pair to spun around and around on the ride with Maria and Lennox. Beverly was Maria’s best friend, and the two girls were never far from one another.
“No, we aren’t dating,” Talia admitted as Katrina joined her on the bench. “But I did spend the night at his apartment.”
“Wait. What?” Katrina blinked once then stared at her. “You aren’t dating but you’re sleeping together? Like a friends-with-benefits-kind of thing?”
“No. Nothing like that.” Talia wished it was that simple. She glanced over to check on Maria, who was laughing like wild and having the time of her life. “I stayed at his place because some guy tried to attack me last night outside Anna’s apartment building.”
“What?!” Katrina repeated, looking even more stunned than before, even as she kept one eye on Beverly.
“I was worried about Anna not showing up at the park yesterday or answering her phone,” Talia explained. “I went to her apartment hoping to find her but the moment I got there, this scary guy chased me. I have no idea if he was trying to grab me or kill me, but he was definitely someone bad.”
Katrina continued to stare. Like she was so horrified she couldn’t even speak.
“Anna is missing,” Talia added. “The police are convinced she flew home to Bolivia and that John Fredrickson paid for her plane ticket, but we confirmed this morning that she was never on the flight. Not that the police are ever going to believe us. They seem content to go along with anything Fredrickson tells them. I guess he’s paying them off.”
Her friend frowned. “Do you think this has to do with all the stuff the other women have been talking about lately? The crap the people we work for are involved in, I mean.”
Talia opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted when Maria and Beverly exited the teacup ride, each of Lennox’s big hands firmly clasped in their much smaller ones while the rest of the kids followed as fast as their little feet could carry them. The girls didn’t slow as they dragged him toward the next ride. Laughing, Talia and Katrina—along with the other au pairs—had no choice but to follow.
The sight of the tall, broad-shouldered Lennox sitting in the back seat of the tiny airplane of the Cargo Ace ride, knees sticking up almost to his ears as it went round and round in circles was the most hilarious thing Talia had ever seen. The fact that Maria was sitting in the front seat, waving her arms and laughing made it even better. Talia took over twenty pictures with her phone before moving over to join Katrina on another park bench as the other au pairs settled in the other seats situated around the ride. There weren’t a lot of guys out there who would do what Lennox was doing right now. It was endearing.
“So?” Katrina prompted, interrupting her thoughts.
Talia looked around, lowering her voice. Between the rides and all the kids, the park was loud, but she still didn’t want to take the chance of someone overhearing. “Anna called me yesterday before the party. She said those same men everyone else has been seeing were at the Fredricksons two nights ago and that they threatened her boss over something. She planned to snoop around his office and tell me what she found when she got to the party but then she never showed up.”
Katrina’s eyes went wide. “Do you think Fredrickson caught her? Or those men who threatened him? Do you think she’s still alive?”
The question made Talia’s heart seize up in her chest. “I don’t know. But Lennox and his Teammates are going to help me find out since I sure can’t get anything from the police.”
“What can they do?” Katrina asked in confusion. “It’s not like SEALs are cops.”
Talia thought back to how Lennox had saved Maria and her from bad guys with guns at the zoo. What he’d done had been dangerous and yet he’d kept them safe regardless.
Realizing Katrina was looking at her expectantly, she opened her mouth to tell her friend about Kyla helping them but then decided against it. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Katrina because she most certainly did. It was just the help Kyla was giving them was way outside the woman’s normal job description. If anyone found out, Kyla would almost certainly get in trouble and lose her job at the very least. Worse, if it got around to the other au pairs and they started talking the information that there were people looking into them could also make it back to Fredrickson or the other families.
“No, they aren’t cops,” she finally said. “But what other option do I have? It’s not like there are people lining up to help.”
Katrina seemed to consider that before nodding. “So, how was spending the night with such a hot hunk like Lennox?”
Talia snorted, caught off guard by the sudden change of subjects. She supposed it was simply her friend’s way of lightening the somber mood that had settled over the conversation.
“When the detective at the police station suggested I call someone to come get me, I didn’t know who to call at first,” Talia said. “I was terrified and all I could think about was that I wanted to be with someone who made me feel safe. That person was Lennox.”
“But I thought you weren’t interested in dating him,” Katrina said, part curious, part confused. “That you didn’t want to be involved with someone who would never be around.”
“I’m not,” Talia admitted. “The thought of trying to date someone with a job like his seems like a recipe for disaster but I’ll be honest, when we were hanging out together last night, it was nice.”
Katrina lifted a brow. “Oh, really? Are you going to try a real date with him then or simply keep shamelessly using him as a bodyguard?”
“I’m not using him!” Talia exclaimed.
She quickly looked around, worried that someone might have overheard. But in an amusement park full of laughing, screaming kids, no one even looked their way.
“I’m not using him,” Talia said again, softer this time as she looked over at Lennox and Maria running through the turnstile for another ride on the airplanes. “In fact, I find myself liking him more and more by the hour. But while that’s certainly a positive, it doesn’t mean I’m ready to overlook all the negatives that would come with getting involved with a Navy SEAL.”
“ Positives? Negatives ?” Katrina repeated with a derisive tone. “You do realize that this isn’t some kind of problem to be evaluated and solved, right? It’s a potential relationship. You don’t weigh out the pros and cons. You take a leap of faith, date the guy, and see what happens.”
Talia let out a sigh. “I understand what you’re saying but I’m not like you. I’ve never taken a leap of faith in my life. I’ve carefully planned every decision I’ve ever made, from moving to San Diego to be an au pair to using public transportation instead of buying a car. And I sure as heck don’t pick a potential boyfriend on a whim.”
“Honey, not every whirlwind relationship is going to end up like your mom and dad’s,” Katrina murmured gently. “Sometimes, magic happens.”
“Has it happened for you yet?” Talia asked, already knowing the answer and feeling bad about pointing out the obvious.
Her friend only smiled and shook her head. “No, but that doesn’t keep me from looking, and from believing that it’ll happen someday.”
Talia didn’t know whether to laugh in amusement or sigh in exasperation, but before she could do either, a screaming, laughing group of children came running their way, dragging poor Lennox with them.
“Talia! Talia! Talia!” Maria came in running at warp speed, Beverly right behind them. “Lennox is going to go on the Coastersaurus with us next. It’s going to be so much fun!”
Laughing, Talia reached out to fix Maria’s wind-blown hair. “How about you take Katrina and some of the other ladies on the Coastersaurus with you?” Since Lennox was never going to complain, she decided it was time to protect the man from himself. “I think Lennox needs to take a little break.”
She expected Maria to argue, but instead, the little girl turned her head up to glance at him before looking at Talia. “Okay, he can take a break, but you should sit with him so he doesn’t feel left out of all the fun.”
Talia shook her head as Maria and the other kids ran off with Katrina and other au pairs. “Okay, what just happened?”
“Are you sure Maria’s only six?” Lennox asked with a chuckle as they followed. “Because I think she just played us like a pro. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she wants us to spend some time together alone.”
Sure that he was right but refusing to comment on it, Talia smiled as Maria and Beverly waved excitedly from where they stood in the ride queue, Katrina keeping a close eye on them. Of course, as she returned their wave, Talia quickly figured out she wasn’t the one they were waving at. Instead, it was Lennox.
She wasn’t surprised. Apparently, she’d been abandoned by the kids now that the fun adult had shown up to play. So typical.
“You’re good with kids,” she said, not bothered at all with how much Maria enjoyed Lennox’s company. Maria’s father was a busy man, so she didn’t get to see him as much as she probably would have liked.
“I have a lot of nieces and nephews,” Lennox said with a chuckle. “I get to be the fun uncle who gives them too much sugar and then dumps them on their parents to deal with.”
Finding a place to sit so they could get a good view of the kid-friendly roller coaster, Talia laughed, easily imagining Lennox plying his nieces and nephews with extra junk food just for the fun of it.
“How many nieces and nephews are we talking about?” she asked.
“Like I said last night, I have five sisters, all older than me,” Lennox said, leaning back on the bench beside her. “And they all have kids, so we’re talking fourteen little munchkins, ranging in age from four-years-old to late teens. When they’re all together, it’s a handful.”
“Wow,” Talia breathed. “I have three brothers, but all of them are so wrapped up in their careers that they haven’t considered having kids yet.”
She didn’t get into the fact that her brothers were essentially carbon copies of her father, all work and no family time. Those weren’t the kind of secrets she shared with a lot of people.
Lennox lifted his arm to rest on the back of the bench and Talia automatically leaned into him a little.
“Speaking of being good with kids, how’d you end up being an au pair for Maria?” he asked. “It’s like you two were meant for each other.”
Talia smiled, thinking that Lennox was exactly right. She got along with little Maria better than she could have ever imagined. In a way, she was like the baby sister Talia never had.
“I never intended to become an au pair,” she admitted. “I was two years into my elementary education program at Oregon State when I realized I was burying myself in student loans that would take about a hundred years to pay off on a teacher’s salary. I was thinking about taking a break from school to get a job and build up my savings account so I wouldn’t need to take any more loans when my grandmother mentioned a wealthy Belarusian family in San Diego looking for an au pair. The next thing I know I’m on a Zoom call with Mr. and Mrs. Rybak being offered the position.”
“Okay. That’s a lot to unpack,” Lennox said with a laugh. “Let’s start at the top. You went to Oregon State, so I’m guessing you’re from Oregon?”
“Yup.” She nodded. “I grew up near Salem, which is just south of Portland. My father also grew up there so when he met my mother in Belarus and married her, they decided to go back there. But since he traveled a lot and didn’t want my mom to be left alone in a country completely foreign to her, he brought my grandma and grandpa over from Belarus as well. It was Grandma who taught me to speak Belarusian, which is probably what got me the job with the Rybaks.”
“What kind of work does your father do?”
“He’s been working in Microsoft’s International Division since the late 80s,” Talia said, trying to keep the usual anger out of her voice. “He’s traveled around the globe for thirty years.”
“It must have been difficult moving down here to San Diego when all of your family is up in Oregon,” Lennox remarked.
“My grandparents are getting older, and my mom spends way too much time alone, so yeah, it was kind of hard,” she said quietly, surprised at how honest her answer was. “But it was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so my family insisted I go.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything, instead gazing at the dinosaur-shaped coaster as it tipped over the first drop and rattled along the track. Maria and Beverly were in the front seat, holding their tiny hands over their heads and screaming in delight. Katrina was one row back, looking like she’d rather be at the dentist getting her teeth cleaned.
“I noticed you didn’t mention how your father felt about you taking a job as an au pair or if he was unhappy about you leaving college,” Lennox said softly, not taking his eyes off the ride in front of them.
“My father and I don’t get along very well so I didn’t think about including him in the discussion about my becoming an au pair,” she said, trying to sound casual.
Lennox nodded, then continued without batting an eye as if she hadn’t made that comment about her father. “Do you like being an au pair?”
“I do like it,” Talia admitted, appreciating that Lennox had obviously recognized that her father wasn’t a subject she wanted to talk about. “Honestly, I took the job without much in the way of expectation. The pay was good, not to mention the private cottage on the property and the food available to me in the main house. With almost no expenses, I thought that if I kept the job for even a year, I’d be able to save enough money to cover a good portion of my remaining degree program.”
“I think I hear a but in there somewhere,” Lennox said with a smile. “Maybe there’s something about the job you didn’t factor into your careful calculations?”
With comments like that, Talia wondered if Lennox had been talking to Katrina lately. Because it seemed like another hit on her reasoned, careful approach to life.
“I ended up falling in love with the Rybaks, especially Maria and her older sister, Sofia,” Talia said. “They’ve welcomed me into their lives and made me feel like I’m part of the family.”
“So you think you might like to keep working for them?”
“I’ve thought about it but if I’m going to be a teacher, I can’t keep putting off college, regardless of how much money I’m saving.”
“Have you given any thought to staying in San Diego to finish college?” Lennox asked casually, tracking Maria and Beverly with his gaze as they ran through the loading corral for another trip on the roller coaster, Katrina at their heels.
Talia almost laughed. Lennox might be a SEAL, but he definitely wasn’t that covert when it came to his interest in where she’d be a year from now.
“Yes, I’ve thought about it,” she told him. “Katrina is on me all the time to do just that. Heck, even Mrs. Rybak has brought it up a couple times. Maria will be starting first grade in the fall, which means I could go to college and still be an au pair. But it isn’t a simple decision. Out of state tuition in California is stupid expensive and while starting teachers in California and in Oregon make about the same, the cost of living is much higher here.”
“That seems like a practical approach to the situation,” Lennox agreed, although she wasn’t so sure he meant it as a compliment. “But what about what makes you happy? Where does that comes into your calculations?”
Maria came running their way then, giving Talia a reprieve from answering.
“Did you two have fun talking?” Maria asked precociously as she stopped in front of them, grabbing at their hands and hurrying on before Talia even had a chance to think about replying. “Great! Let’s go on the Ninjago ride!”
Urging them to their feet with a tight grip on their hands, Maria led Talia and Lennox through the park, babbling nonstop about all the rides she wanted to do today and how much fun it was to come to the park with both of them at the same time.
“We could all come back here every day this week,” Maria suggested, looking over his shoulder at them hopefully. “I bet Lennox would like that a lot, wouldn’t you, Lennox?”
“I’m sure he would,” Talia said, throwing a sideways glance Lennox’s way. “But I’m pretty sure Lennox will be busy doing his Navy work, so I think another visit to Legoland will have to wait until he has another day off.”
Maria’s lower lip pushed out for a few seconds in disappointment, but then she gave them a wide smile. “Okay, we’ll come here then, just the three of us. It’s a date!”
Before Talia could attempt to correct her, Maria pulled away from them and took off after Beverly and Katrina toward the Ninjago ride.
“Once again, I think Maria played us,” Lennox said with a deep chuckle. “Though I guess I can’t complain too much since I’d love to come here with you guys again. If that’s okay?”
For all her talk with Katrina about not wanting to get involved with Lennox, Talia realized she wouldn’t mind coming back here to Legoland with him and Maria. In fact, she looked forward to it.
“I’d like that,” she said.
“Cool.” He grinned. “But don’t think that I’m going to let you get out of answering that question I asked earlier. I want to know what makes you happy.”