Trust in Advertising (15 page)

Vincent chuckled. “A present, for me? Sure, come on in.”

Madison jumped off the chair, holding her remaining cookie in one hand and the cookie for Vincent in the other. Lexi followed after her, carrying Madison’s letter and smiling.

“I got cookies!” Madison flew through the door, laughing.

“Wow, you sure do.” Vincent smiled as the small girl crawled into his lap.

“Wherever did you find something so delicious?”

Madison handed him the smaller cookie, then began eating her second one.

“She,” Madison pointed her finger at Lexi, “showed me the hiding spot, but I can’t tell you, Uncle Vincent, cuz it’s a secret.”

Anna grinned when she noticed the crumbs all over her daughter. “And just how many cookies have you had, sweetheart?”

Madison smiled sheepishly. “Two?” Anna just nodded her head, winking at Lexi, who had sat down in the chair beside her.

“Lexi said it was okay, Mommy. Don’t worry.” Madison noticed Vincent hadn’t taken a bite of his cookie yet and frowned. “You gonna eat it or what?”

Vincent took a bite, putting a smile back on his niece’s angelic face.

“Delicious.”

“He likes it. I told you he would,” Madison said smugly.

“You’re a very smart girl.” Lexi laughed, watching the pair enjoy their treats.

“Lexi, can we—”

“Alexandra,” Vincent corrected his niece. “Her name is Alexandra, honey.”

Anna rolled her eyes and shook her head. Madison just giggled at him. “No, it’s not, Uncle Vincent. You’re so silly. Her name is Lexi.” She quickly turned to Lexi for confirmation.

“Yes it is, Madison. Thank you. I’ve been trying to tell your uncle that for days. Now maybe he’ll remember.” She winked at the little girl bouncing in Vincent’s lap.

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Vincent smirked at her. “Sorry,
Lexi
.”

“No problem,
Vincent
.”

Anna threw her hands up. “Oh my gosh, Vincent, are you really this stupid?

I obviously got all the brains when we were in utero.” Vincent looked at his sister, startled by her outburst.

Madison chanted, “Stupid, stupid.”

Lexi stood up to slink out of the room. “I’m just going to go back to my desk,” she said softly, trying to excuse herself from the impending altercation.

“Freeze, Lexi White.” Anna grabbed her arm and pulled her back down into the chair beside her.

“Anna!” Vincent snapped. “What has gotten into you?”

“Lexi White.” Anna said each word slowly. “Doesn’t that name sound familiar to you?”

Vincent’s brows furrowed together. “Yes, you’re sitting right beside her. Are you on something, Anna? A new medication perhaps?”

“What is it about the Y-chromosome that makes men so dense?” Anna muttered softly to Lexi who had to stifle a laugh. “Think, Vincent. Lexi White …”

Lexi, feeling the intense scrutiny of his gaze, blushed and began examining her shoes, unwilling to look up at his hypnotic eyes at that moment. Even partially hidden behind the veil of her hair, her pulse raced under the microscope of Vincent’s stare. Vincent let out a frustrated sigh before she finally lifted her gaze to find him running his hand up and down his cheek as he continued thinking, his dark hair falling into his eyes.

“Madison, has Mommy been acting strange all day?” he asked. Madison giggled and crammed a piece of cookie into his mouth.

“We went to high school with her, Vincent, you moron,” Anna blurted out of nowhere.

Vincent snapped his head back to Lexi and began choking on the cookie in his mouth while Madison happily sang, “Uncle Vince is a moron. Uncle Vince is a moron!” He grabbed his bottle of water and took a sip, trying to calm his cough.

“
You
went to Riverdale?”

A beet red Lexi nodded her head. “Go Spartans,” she feebly cheered, pumping an unenthusiastic fist into the air.

“What year did you graduate?”

“She was in our class!” Anna rubbed her temples, her brother’s idiocy wearing on her patience. “Yes,
our
graduating class. I worked with her on the 85

Victoria Michaels

yearbook for two years. She was in every one of your classes, I’m sure. She was almost valedictorian, but that girl Michelle somebody beat her by the smallest margin in Riverdale history or something. Don’t you remember any of this?

How can we be twins?”

“Did we have any classes together?” Vincent ignored his sister, his attention focused solely on Lexi.

“A few.” Lexi’s heart thundered in her chest. She would never admit it, but she knew for a fact they had four classes together senior year and could name each one and where he sat in the classroom. If she tried hard enough, she could probably remember his entire schedule from senior year, including his locker number.

Stalker.

“Don’t you remember, the middle of junior year, a new girl moved to town and people went goofy over it?” Anna’s attempts to jog his memory didn’t appear to be working.

“You used to cheat off of me in Government senior year, if that helps.”

He paused, then shook his head in disbelief. “No, I cheated off this new junior who was taking government a year early for some reason.”

“No, that was me.” Lexi smiled at the memory. “You sat one row over to the left and when you didn’t know the answer you would drop your pencil into the aisle between us and peek at my paper as you picked it up.”

Now it was Vincent’s turn to blush.

“My brother cheated? Ha! I knew you didn’t pull an A in Mrs. Blackstone’s class on your own! And you teased me about my B.” Anna mocked her brother, who just kept staring at Lexi.

“It was you … but I don’t remember you.” He looked away and his brows furrowed. He remained quiet for a very long time, his face scrunched in concentration. “I’m sorry, Lexi. If I would have known.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, Vincent. We weren’t friends back then, and I was horribly shy, so it’s not your fault. I probably should have mentioned it the day you came back, but when you didn’t say anything, I figured there was no point in bringing it up.”

“Uncle Vincent!” Madison clamored for his attention, oblivious to the awkward tension that fil ed the room. “Wanna play? Oh, Lexi, where’s my letter?”

Lexi handed the little girl her fluorescent envelope and stood to leave, wanting to put some distance between her and Vincent. “I have some work to finish up. If you need anything, let me know.”

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“Wait.” Anna was on her feet following behind Lexi. ”Madison, you can play with Uncle Vincent for a few minutes. I’m going to give Lexi the guest list for the gala and go over a few things with her, if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure that’s fine.” Vincent turned to his niece and smiled. “You have been so patient while we talked. What do you want to play?

Anna left the office and laid a paper in her hands. “So, that went well.”

Lexi’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Yeah, that was only mildly awkward.”

She had no desire to talk about Vincent’s reaction, or lack thereof, to finding out the truth about who she was. Instead, she began examining the list of names in front of her.

“What’s this?” Lexi scanned the paper that included some of the most prominent people in San Francisco.

“The guest list for the gala. The people who have RSVP’d have a star next to their name.” Anna scribbled a few more stars on the paper, confirming it was accurate.

“Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what gala are you talking about?”

“The Hunter Advertising Charity Gala. We host it every year and raise money for different organizations in the Bay Area. This year we are focusing on the new leukemia wing at Children’s Hospital. It’s in two weeks, and not only does it raise a great deal of money, but it’s a work event where contacts are made and deals are brokered. Basically, it’s the biggest night of the year for Hunter Advertising, personally and professionally.” Anna slid out a beautiful black and white invitation with elegant raised script lettering and handed it to Lexi.

“Sounds like a wonderful event. So, what do you need from me?” Lexi punched the date and time into her calendar before she forgot.

“Vincent will go into more detail about this, but briefly, he is going to get you a hit list of people.”

“A hit list?”

“Sounds much more sinister than it actually is.” Anna winked. “It’s a list of people he wants to make contact with at the event. Advertising is all about who you know, and this is one way to expand that list.”

“Hit list. Got it. So, he needs me to do some background on them personally, wives’ names, kids, girlfriends, beloved pets, favorite sport. Then find out 87

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current campaigns, what worked, what didn’t. Pull marketing statistics and demographics information for them? That kind of thing?”

Anna’s face broke out in a brilliant smile. “In a nutshell, yep.” Anna glanced down at her watch. “Crap, Erik gave me something to take down to Sean. I’ll be right back. I’m going to leave you this list, and I’ll E-mail you as I get more RSVPs.” Anna rummaged through her bag for a book and took off down the hall, but before she was out of earshot she yelled, “Men wear black, the women all wear white, so make sure you have something to wear.”

Lexi’s head came crashing down onto the top of the desk at the thought of attending a black tie affair with the elite of San Francisco. How was she going to blend in with this crowd? She frantically scanned the invitation again to see if it mentioned anything about being a masquerade ball so she could cover her face and make an anonymous fool of herself.

Out of nowhere, the most beautiful sound came from Vincent’s office—

laughter. A deep belly laugh harmonized with high pitched giggles.

Intrigued, Lexi crept over to Vincent’s door and peeked inside. What she saw took her breath away. Vincent’s suit jacket was draped neatly over his chair, and his black dress shirt was now untucked and completely wrinkled. He was on all fours, without shoes, crawling around on the floor with Madison perched high on his back, screeching in delight. She had taken his designer silk tie and pulled the knot to the back of his neck, using the long end as the reigns.

“Do it again, Uncle Vince!” Madison laughed, kicking her “pony” in the ribs with her tiny heels. Vincent reared up on his back legs and neighed as Madison grabbed him around the neck to keep from sliding off.

He was a completely different man. This man was playful and acting silly without hesitation. The smile that lit up his face transformed his features from serious and sullen to youthful and carefree, something that up until now Lexi didn’t think he was even capable of anymore. And yet with Madison, he wasn’t Vincent Drake the VP of Hunter, he was just Uncle Vince, and from the looks of it, he was loving every minute of it.

“He really is amazing with her,” Anna whispered in Lexi’s ear, back from her trip to Sean’s office. With a smile, the women continued their spying. “Whenever he gets in a really bad mood, all I have to do is bring her around and he glows.

She thinks he hung the moon just for her.”

Lexi watched as Anna walked in and announced it was time for the pony ride to end and helped Madison get her shoes on to leave. Vincent’s laughter 88

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stopped, and he shot up when he noticed Lexi standing in the doorway watching him.

“What are you smiling about?” Vincent asked in a clipped tone.

“Nothing, it was just … nice. That’s all.”

“What was nice?” Vincent asked as he slipped his shoes back on his feet, brushing the lint off his slacks.

“Seeing you smile again. I thought maybe you had forgotten how to after all these years.”

Vincent shot her a sarcastic smirk.

“You really should do it more often,” Lexi said softly and smiled before going back to her desk to answer the phone.

“Bye bye, Uncle Vince. I gotta go home. Don’t forget to come play Barbies soon.”

Vincent scooped her into his arms and gave her a big hug. “I will. I promise.”

“Bye, Vincent.” Anna stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “And please be nice to Lexi. She’s a very sweet girl and smart. You need to keep her around.”

“Bye, ladies.”

Just as Vincent began wiping the cookie crumbs off his desk, Lexi came crashing through his door.

“Vincent!” She grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair and began shoving his arms into it. “Drop the crumbs and get this jacket on. Now.”

“Would you please tell me what the hell is going on?” Vincent wiggled out of her grasp and fixed the jacket himself, tucking in his shirt at the same time.

Lexi took a deep breath. “Sean just called. He’s stuck on the bridge with a flat tire, and he’s supposed to meet—” She didn’t even need to finish.

Vincent’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “He was going to meet with Mr. Walden, from the bookstore chain and get the contract signed. Christ.

How long do I have?” He immediately ran his fingers through his hair, trying to tame the messy mane.

“Twenty minutes, but traffic should be light at this time of day, so I think you’ll make it.”