Page 23 of Dragon Charmed

“Yeah. And finding out her name is going to be difficult. I don’t see child services giving us that information. It was years ago, and I’m not sure, but I would think those records would be sealed. Maybe Alisha will think of it,” Tessa said. As if speaking it out loud would make it so. “While we’re waiting to see if she thinks of anything else, let me talk to my friend and see if she knows who this Evelyn is. And speaking of last names. What is yours?”

He hesitated for a moment. “Wells.”

“And what will I find when I search for you online, Ben Wells?”

He shrugged. “Honestly? Nothing. I’m not on social media.”

She gaped at him. “At all?”

He chuckled. “You sound like I told you the sky is falling. In my line of work you learn very quickly that social media can be your downfall. I don’t want my personal life flashed all over the Internet for someone to track or steal my identity.”

She guessed that made sense in a paranoid kind of way. “What about your business? Don’t you have a website?”

“Nope. I get jobs through word of mouth mostly. It works for me.”

“Huh. I have no words.”

“Why do I have a feeling that is not a common occurrence for you?”

She glared at him in mock outrage. “Are you throwing shade at me?”

“Of course not. What’s your last name?”

Now she didn’t want to tell him since she definitely was on social media, and he might make assumptions based on her past. But she needed to play fair. “Stuart.”

“Okay, Tessa Stuart. Do you want me to go with you to talk to your friend?”

Nope, nope, and nope. That was so not happening. “No. I’ll talk to her, and then we can regroup and decide where we want to go next.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He collected the remnants of their lunch. “Did this curb your guacamole craving?”

Tessa smiled at him. “Good food is my religion. My love of guac will never be curbed.”

He chuckled. “Good to know, Tessa Stuart.”

His deep laugh made her warm in the belly. Or more than likely it was the jalapeños she just ate.

And that’s what she would continue to tell herself.

Chapter 8

The blinking cursor in the search bar mocked him. It didn’t help that Ben sat in a library surrounded by teens and preteens typing away on the computers lined up along the wall.

He leaned forward and typed Tessa Stuart, Nashville into the search and clicked enter. He was expecting to have to dig through quite a bit to find something about her, but her picture popped up immediately.

Holy crap. She had a Wikipedia page. He blew out a breath and opened it and began reading. It was no surprise that she was a model. Or, from what he read, had been a model. He opened another search bar and searched on her name and model pictures and gaped. She was knock-you-on-your-ass gorgeous. There was a spark that jumped from the pictures that invited you in.

Those eyes. They were his kryptonite.

He went back to the Wikipedia page and kept reading. She had retired—seriously?—at twenty-five from modeling and went on to get her business degree. According to the article, she now worked in the fashion industry for Katrina somebody or other who was based in Nashville. Why did famous people only use first names? He already knew Tessa was smart, but this solidified it.

He wasn’t sure what he thought he would find, but this certainly wasn’t it. It wasn’t fair that she wouldn’t be able to find anything about him. But he did warn her. Hell, he would like to search on this damn computer and find something about himself as well. If it were only that easy for him. And then he could stop withholding the truth—ah, who was he kidding—lying to Tessa.

“How do you find out about someone if you don’t know their name?” he mumbled.

“Do you have a picture of them?” a voice asked.

He turned to the kid sitting next to him. Ben wasn’t too good at guessing ages, but the boy was maybe twelve if that. “Excuse me?”