North Dakota Weddings (16 page)

All woman.

Vance sighed as he put the key into the ignition.

“What next?”

“Well, there’s the zoo or a museum or”—Vance glanced back at Elisa—“the mall.”

“The mall!” Elisa screamed.

He shared a knowing smile with Andi. She held his gaze, then her eyes drifted over his face as though looking at him for the first time. A pleasant sensation filled his chest.

“You didn’t think we came all this way for you, did you?” Andi laughed.

Vance chuckled, too, as he drove out of the parking lot. He let her words put him in his place. Of course, they hadn’t come with him to simply be in his company.

If he had any brains he would keep his distance.

S
itting at the restaurant during dinner that evening, Andi felt slaphappy. “I never knew a person could cram so much into one day.” She yawned and quickly covered her mouth.

Vance watched her and chuckled but seemed distracted. “You’re tired. We’ll call it a night.”

“Ah, I thought we were going to see that movie.” Elisa chewed on a straw.

“No, Vance is right. He still has to work. Besides, hours at the mall and then the zoo…what more could you want?”

“A movie?”

Vance grinned at Elisa. “There’s always tomorrow. But your sister is right. I’ve got to do the work I came here to do.”

“But it’s late.”

He grinned, toying with his glass of water. “I planned to go in after hours.”

“Why?”

How Vance could frown and grin at the same time, Andi didn’t know. “Enough with the questions.” Still, she wondered what he was up to.

The dinner bill already paid, she stood. Vance drove them back to the hotel, quiet and distracted. She knew he must have been thinking about the work ahead of him.

He pulled into the hotel parking lot rather than under the passenger drop-off.

“What are you doing? You don’t have to escort us inside.”

“I know.”

Andi was glad when he came around to open her door. She could get accustomed to this, but that was the problem. They walked into the foyer where the registration desk was lined with people checking in.

“Must be hosting a conference,” Vance mumbled as he strode toward the elevator and punched the button.

Was he going to escort them all the way to their room?

The elevator door opened, and Elisa stepped in. Unsure if Vance would follow them, Andi paused and looked up into his eyes. “Thanks for today. It was a great time for Elisa. She needed that.”

“And what about you?” In his eyes, she saw…what? Yearning?

Vance brushed his fingers down her cheek—she closed her eyes, melting at his touch. A quick gentle stroke, it was over too soon. And with it, she’d revealed far too much to him.

Others flowed onto the elevator, pressing her to say good-bye.

“I’ll pick you up in the morning.” Vance’s eyes flashed, now seemingly filled with regret.

She nodded and stepped into the elevator just as the door whooshed closed, shutting her in and leaving him on the other side. Wariness crept back into her heart.

That night, Andi and Elisa each lay in their separate full-sized beds, giggling and talking like schoolgirls. Of course, Elisa still
was
a schoolgirl, albeit a freshman. It felt good to have some time for girl talk. They’d both enjoyed Vance’s company today, but sometimes it seemed as if they were competing for his attention. Still, Elisa apparently missed Todd.

The girl sounded like she was in love. Andi knew the feeling well, but she also knew it was just that—only a feeling. And much of the time, at Elisa’s age, it didn’t last, leaving at least one, or both, people with a broken heart. Elisa wasn’t inclined to listen to Andi on the topic. What teenager would be? When you had the feeling, it was like a drug and you couldn’t get enough. No one could tell you that you weren’t in love.

Andi sighed, listening to Elisa talk about Todd, wishing she could feel the same about love and be free to chatter on about it without fear. Andi huffed and rolled on her side.

“What’s with all the sighing over there, sis?”

“Was I sighing? I’m sorry. I’m listening.”

“So, is that how you feel about Vance?”

“Elisa!” Andi had probably revealed more about her emotions with that outburst than anything. She calmed herself. “Vance isn’t my boyfriend. He’s a client and has now become a friend. That’s all.”

She felt she owed him for all he’d done to bring Elisa around. That was it, wasn’t it?

“I’ve been telling you all my secrets. Don’t you think you should be as honest with me?”

How did she feel about Vance? Didn’t he make her stomach flutter and her heart pound? She couldn’t wait to see him again and missed him when he wasn’t around. “Okay, I’ll admit that he’s sort of cute.”

Elisa giggled in reply. There. Andi’d shared a secret. The last thing she wanted was to have Elisa close off to her again. Maybe if Dad or even Grandma had lived, this would be a normal interaction. But with Andi playing the parent, a barrier had been thrown up between them.

“Why don’t you admit more than that? Maybe you should be honest with yourself, Andi.” Elisa turned on her side and propped up on her elbow, facing Andi. “You know, he’s not like Jorgen.”

“I know.” Andi’s voice fairly croaked.

“But, since we’re being honest, I’m worried for you. I hadn’t thought about it before, but with Vance bringing us here and showing us where he works…”

“He lives and works here. From the sounds of it, that’s not going to change.”

“So, in that way, maybe he is like Jorgen.”

Andi rolled away from her sister and squeezed her eyes to stop the sudden pain behind them, knowing tears might follow. How did the conversation end with Elisa lecturing Andi about love?

“Today was a good day, Elisa. I don’t want to ruin it with talk of Jorgen again.”

The alarm clock sounded, waking Vance. He sat up in bed, disoriented at first. After dropping Andi and Elisa off at their hotel, he’d taken a short nap, wanting his mind to be clear for the work he had to do during the night hours. As he shuffled around his apartment, getting dressed and grabbing an energy drink from the fridge, he thought about Ground Zero—the last place he’d ever want to live. But…

He actually missed the dungeon.

A chuckle escaped.
Who’da thunk?
The underground launch facility and bomb shelter—because that’s what it was, a bomb shelter, too. In a word, the place was zany. He stood tall and put his hands on his hips, looking around his living room.

In a word. Boring.

Vance grabbed his keys and headed to ANND Systems. Sitting in the garage-enclosed parking lot, he decided to wait until after midnight when Tom’s shift would begin. Vance wanted to probe Tom about the disk he’d found and given to Vance, believing he’d dropped it.

Someone else must have been in that night. Would Tom be willing to share that information?

At 11:45, Vance only had fifteen more minutes to wait. In fact, he’d give it another thirty to be sure the other guy was gone, though Vance had come on legitimate business—Peter had requested his help, after all.

He leaned his head against the seat, thinking of the day spent with Andi. All day watching her smile. All day listening to her musical laughter.

Oh, how he loved her response when he touched her cheek. And he wanted to do so much more than touch her cheek—he wanted to kiss her. But the place, the moment wasn’t right.

He pounded the steering wheel.
Idiot
. What did people do when they found themselves falling for someone in an impossible situation? He’d already put in a call to his old boss in Texas. They wanted him back. His family wanted him back.

In Texas.

More than anything, he’d wanted to be part of running a company, and Peter’s offer had seemed the answer. He shook his head. His vacation was meant to clear his mind, help him to know what he needed to do next. Where he needed to go.

Instead, all he could think about was Andi Nielsen, and she didn’t fit into any of his plans. Feet planted firmly in North Dakota soil, she’d left college to care for her younger sister. She wasn’t likely to pull up her roots, leaving North Dakota or the small town where they lived any time soon. Nor would Elisa want to leave. She had a boyfriend.

Vance rubbed his eyes and sent up a silent prayer. Somehow, he had to focus on ANND, and the work he needed to accomplish once inside. It could take hours to look at the data. Could he finish this task tonight?

Working on the legitimate program was the least of his worries. He’d panicked earlier today, and rightly so. Tonight he would attempt to discover if he’d overreacted about the rogue program that had practically fallen into his lap—the whole thing made no sense, especially considering there was no such thing as a coincidence. On the other hand, if Peter were involved in something illegal, working on what Vance had termed the mission creep project, then Vance needed to find something concrete with which to contact the authorities.

Finally, the digital clock in the car read 12:45. Adrenaline surged through him. He wasn’t cut out for this. But…

It was time.

Lord, I think You’ve led me down this road….Help me to find what You need for me to see
.

Carrying his soft briefcase into the lobby, with phony confidence Vance looked up and smiled at…who was this? It wasn’t Tom. Heart hammering, Vance went through the security measures, then signed his name at the desk under the scrutinizing eyes of the new guy who looked young and—thankfully—inexperienced.

Vance averted his eyes, certain they were bloodshot. No point encouraging the man in trivial conversation. Vance’s athletic shoes squeaked as he crept across the cream-colored marble tiles and wiped his sweaty palms against his jeans. The sound echoed through the huge, silent foyer. Another fifteen feet to the elevator corridors and he’d be out from under the security guard’s scrutiny.

His jaw itched. After punching the button to retrieve the elevator, he scratched his chin and tried to inspect his appearance in the reflective doors. With the way he looked, it was a wonder Andi paid him any attention. The weight of his job had pressed against him heavily and it showed.

“Mr. Young?” the security guy blurted from the foyer.

Vance couldn’t exactly pretend he didn’t hear, considering they were the only two in the foyer, maybe even the building, at nearly one a.m. Maybe the elevator would accommodate his need to get away.

The guy stood directly behind him, staring at him in the reflection.

No such luck
.

“Mr. Young.”

Déjà vu
. Vance turned to face him. “Hey, where’s Tom tonight?”

“Tom? Oh, you mean the other night security guard. I don’t think he works here anymore.”

“Oh, sorry to hear that.”
Stellar
. Vance turned to face the elevator again. He needed to talk to Tom about the disk.

“It says you’re on vacation.”

It
as in the computer. Vance fought the urge to run his hand down his face, revealing his anxiety. “Uh, yeah. I am, but Mr. Lundgren called me in to work out a problem.” The elevator doors swooshed open, and Vance stepped in. “Hope it doesn’t take too long. I’m ready to get back to my time off.”

The security guard looked confused and unsure about pressing his authority. “I hear you.” He nodded, and the doors shut in his face.

Again, that eerie feeling crept over him that this was all a replay. Minutes later, Vance sat at the four-faced plasma screen in the dinosaur pen. Once he was logged in he began scanning the results of Peter’s last data test—the one he’d cited had problems that weren’t there when Vance left. They’d made sure of that before Vance walked out the doors. So why problems now?

Though ANND Systems would crunch large amounts of data and spit out the results as defined by the government contract, the government had its own people to analyze the results. Apparently the data was jumbled and unreadable. Vance folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in the chair.

A simple operator error stared back at him.

Anyone could have corrected this. Peter had wanted Vance to do it. Why? Vance made the correction, stood, and took a deep breath, unsure about what to do next. How could he find out what was truly going on without reading Peter’s e-mails?—a serious breach of ethical convention, something he’d already done to a point when he’d planted the program in the parallel system.

Should Vance leave the disk he’d discovered for the proper authorities? Would they know he’d not played a role in it if it were in fact part of a criminal act? That was his greatest fear—Peter’s government contacts knew him much better than they knew Vance.

Wishing the whole thing would go away on its own, he left the computer processing room for his office. There, on his desk, stood the photograph. He lifted it, peering at the woman in the picture who reminded him so much of Andi. Or was it the other way around?

If he didn’t believe in coincidence…

He stared at the picture, his heart torn. “Lord, show me what to do about Andi.”

Both of them
.