Hidden by Tara Taylor Quinn Page B

complacent, quit watching, quit taking action—and was found?
    Tricia turned onto the next major street, strolling slowly—and watching. The possible price if she relaxed her vigilance was too high to pay.
    She was a woman on vacation at her parents’ condo. She’d go to her grave with that story if she had to. If it meant Taylor lived.

5
    â€œH i, it’s me.”
    â€œTrish? Oh, my God. Thank God.” He’d picked up his cell phone on the first ring. “Where are you? What happened? Are you okay?”
    It was worse than she’d thought. He was more upset than she realized he’d be. After all, it wasn’t as if they had any kind of commitment to each other. Or expectations. She was just a woman he’d picked up in a bar, slept with, shacked up with, no strings attached. She’d only been gone half an hour. And he had to have known she’d come back for Taylor.
    Which meant he was just plain concerned.
    And that wasn’t good.
    â€œI’m fine,” she said, her chest still tight with tension as she peered around her from the pay phone on the patio at the Coronado Del—one of the island’s plushest resorts. Tricia’s favorite, not that she had anyone in her life she could share that with.
    â€œWhere are you?” She could hear Taylor babblinghappily in the background. The baby’s chatter made it easier to take the note of anger edging into Scott’s voice.
    â€œAt the Hotel Del. My stomach was upset and I had to find a bathroom, fast.” Not at all sexy or glorious. But, as it turned out, the truth. And better yet, a truth that would work as a perfect cover now that the danger, if there’d been any, had apparently passed.
    When she’d veered into the Del, the man who’d been behind her disappeared.
    â€œI would’ve driven you!”
    â€œI know, but Taylor was having so much fun and I didn’t think it was this far.”
    Lame. Too lame. Scott wasn’t a stupid man.
    â€œYou’re half a mile away!”
    He was talking like a husband.
    â€œI’m really sorry, Scott.” About so many things that were out of her control. “I thought there was a public restroom at the top of the road,” she lied, “but it was closed for renovation and by that time I figured it would be quicker to walk to the next place rather than turn around and go all the way back to you and then have to hike to the car. I had no idea it would take me this long to find a public restroom.”
    Please don’t let there be a sign for one on the road, making this an obvious lie.
    Things were getting too difficult.
    Scott’s sigh was long and clearly distinguishable. She could hear her son babbling in the background.
    â€œMama?” She recognized the warning tone of impending upset in Taylor’s baby sounds.
    â€œShe’s right here, sport.” Scott’s voice was kind, reassuring. “Okay.” The word was louder as he spoke into his phone. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”
    Turning her back to the pay phone, nestled into the half-booth along a wall on the edge of the courtyard, Tricia took one more glance around, just in case.
    The stricture on her chest loosened a little more. “Yeah,” she said, “me, too.” And then added, “I’m really sorry.” More than he’d ever know.
    â€œYou don’t need to apologize, love. I overreacted.” He sounded so sincere; he was accepting this so easily. “Is your stomach better?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œThen walk out front. We’re pulling up now. We missed you and want you back.”
    Tricia had to blink back tears as she hung up the phone, avoiding the eyes of the guests she passed on her way through the resort. If she’d still been free to indulge in dreams, Scott would have been the star of every one of them.
    Â 
    Scott thought he’d had himself completely under control.