Nicole Edwards - Travis

Travis took a step back when Kylie put her hand on his chest and shoved. It was like trying to move a mountain, but thankfully he appeased her.

“I’ll pick you up in the morning.”

Crap. Kylie had already agreed to talk to him tomorrow. And he was supposed to pick her up at her house. Part of her wanted to tell him not to bother, the other part wanted to hear what he had to say. Closure. That’s what this was about, and even though she’d figured it all out, despite his denial, Kylie still wanted to see how honest Travis Walker was going to be with her this time.

Nodding her head, she turned away from them and headed back inside. She didn’t care if Jessie was ready or not, they were leaving. If her sister wanted to stay, well, she’d have to find her own way home because Kylie was so done with this.

♂♀

“Hey, baby. What are you still doing up?”

“I was waiting for you.”

Curtis Walker peered down at his wife from where he stood, and he smiled. He loved looking at her, found himself watching her every chance he got. Didn’t matter if she was fluttering around the kitchen, or tending to the small garden she had planted in the backyard, or brushing that ornery old horse of hers that wouldn’t have anything to do with anyone but her. And he especially loved those rare times when he woke before she did. He could spend hours – hell, days – listening to her breathe softly as she dreamed. Still, after fifty years of marriage, his heart rate still kicked up a notch every time he looked at her.

“How’d it go?” Lorrie asked as she set her e-reader on the coffee table and turned to face him.

“Well, let’s just say it was a learning experience.” Curtis thrust his hands through his hair and moved around the couch to join his wife.

It was still fairly early, but he was exhausted. Trying to keep up with seven rowdy boys… er, men, took a lot out of him. He wasn’t as young as he used to be. But listening to them razz each other as grown men wasn’t much different from when they used to chase each other around the house as young boys.

“What did you learn?” she asked with a smile that radiated.

Curtis eased down onto the couch beside his wife, pulling her against him and placing his arm over her shoulder. Lorrie curled up beside him, tucking tightly against his side just as she always did. He found he longed for the times they could sit just like this. Whether they were watching TV or just talking about things going on with their boys.

“Well, let’s see,” he began, unsure where he should start. “Brendon and Braydon found a new woman tonight, but that’s not all that surprising. She was a beauty though.”

“Anyone I know?”

“Hadn’t seen her before. She’s not from here. She came in with another pretty girl who seemed to catch Travis’ attention. From the moment she walked in the door, he was tripping all over himself.”

“So they knew each other?”

“That’d be my guess,” he explained. Curtis had seen recognition in the woman’s eyes when she had looked at Travis, but at the same time she didn’t seem all that comfortable with him either.

“What was her name?” Lorrie asked, placing her hand on his thigh and leaning into him a little more as she tucked her feet beneath her.

“Kylie. Didn’t get a last name, but her first name was Kylie,” he replied.

Lorrie pulled away suddenly and Curtis moved back, staring down at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Curtis, that’s her. Oh my goodness, that’s her.” Lorrie’s enthusiasm confused him.

“Who?”

“What am I going to do with you? Your memory’s going fast, old man.” Lorrie’s blue eyes sparkled as she teased him, but Curtis still had no idea what she was talking about.

“Careful, woman. I’ll lay you down right here on the couch and show you just how old I am.” Just as he’d hoped, she blushed sweetly and then swatted him on the chest.

“She’s Travis’ wife. Kylie. That’s his wife’s name.”

The single word triggered the proverbial light bulb and Curtis realized why Lorrie had gotten excited. That’s right. Travis’ wife – the one he had never even told them about. How he hadn’t put two and two together in the first place, he had no idea. Maybe he was getting old.

“Did they talk? Did they say why she was here?”

Awww, hell. This couldn’t be good. Curtis closed his eyes as he leaned back into the couch trying to remember all that he could because she wasn’t going to let up on him. And the other half of the story probably didn’t fare well for the young woman.

“What is it, Curtis?”

He opened his eyes to see Lorrie’s serious face staring back at him, endless questions in her eyes.

“Well, see, I was coming out of the restroom and well, that’s when I saw Travis.” He swallowed hard. “And if Travis is still married to that woman, then things aren’t looking all that great for her at this point.”

“Why?”

“Let’s just say it looks like our boy might have found a different form of interest.”

“What does that mean?”

Curtis looked Lorrie right in the eyes. “Well, based on what I saw, I think Travis isn’t interested in women much these days.”

Lorrie’s eyebrows scrunched as she seemed to be translating what he was telling her. When she didn’t say anything for long seconds, Curtis took a deep breath and spilled it. “I saw Travis kissing Gage Matthews in the hallway at Moonshiners.”

Lorrie’s eyes went wide, her hand came up to cover her mouth as she stared back at him. The shock only seemed to last a few seconds because then suddenly Lorrie was smiling. “Well, I don’t care who he’s with, but hearing that he kissed someone is the best news I’ve heard in a long time.”

Her cute little smile was infectious and he found himself grinning back at her. She was right. They’d heard a lot of news lately, thanks to the rumor mill in Coyote Ridge. Gossip spread faster and more often than that waitress’s legs down at Moonshiners. And that was saying something.

But most of the time, although their boys were often the topic of those conversations, there wasn’t ever much about Travis. He was a private man and Curtis respected that about him, but he knew Lorrie worried all the same. No matter how much she wanted him to find his happily ever after, the man didn’t seem to have many lasting relationships if he was having any at all.

Pulling Lorrie back against him, Curtis relaxed into the couch once more. “I don’t care either, honey.”

“Did it look serious?” she asked as she settled against his side once again.

Curtis kissed the top of her head and grinned. “It looked like two men kissin’, darlin’. I wasn’t going to stand around and take notes.”

“Let’s just hope he finds happiness sometime in the near future. That’s all we can hope for,” Lorrie said with a sigh.

Yes, that’s all he hoped for any of his boys. They were good men, just as Lorrie and Curtis had raised them to be. Gay, straight, whatever. Curtis didn’t care, and he knew his wife didn’t either. They just wanted them to be happy.

It was the only thing that mattered to them.

As he sat holding his wife, Curtis couldn’t help but wonder when he’d made his sons believe otherwise. Because up to this point, neither Travis nor Ethan had been open and honest with them about their relationships. They seemed to forget that having seven boys meant their eyes and ears were sharper than some – even now. They’d had no choice but to hone those senses. Turning your back on one little rugrat was asking for trouble, but seven… That was a recipe for disaster. Those habits were hard to break.

And no matter how much their boys thought otherwise, Curtis and Lorrie saw a lot more than they gave them credit for.

♂♀

If Travis thought standing in Kylie’s house yesterday, or seeing her at Moonshiners, had been hell, he was certain he wouldn’t survive this day.

When he pulled up in front of her house a few minutes ago, he’d been surprised to see her waiting on her front porch. Part of him expected her to stand him up, which he would rightfully deserve. The fact that she looked just as surprised to see him wasn’t lost on him either. And now her fresh lavender scent filled the interior of his truck, causing him to swallow hard and pretend to be unaffected – for her benefit only.

 “Where do you want to go?” Travis asked Kylie when she buckled her seatbelt after getting situated.

 “I don’t care.”

Ever since she left him standing in the parking lot of Moonshiners yesterday evening, he had done little else besides think about her and anticipate seeing her again.

In fact, as soon as he left Moonshiners last night, Travis had gone straight home, knowing that he wasn’t going to be decent company for anyone other than himself at that point. He’d fought the urge to bring Gage back to his house as well.

Needing some time to think, mostly about how he was going to explain to Kylie what she’d seen, he had tried to ignore the need that had his body humming to life. Unable to get away from the images in his mind, he’d finally given in to his own hand in the shower.

Hadn’t helped.

Between alternating thoughts of Kylie and Gage – some of which overlapped into intensely erotic fantasies – he decided to forego trying to get himself involved in a situation that might make things worse before he had a chance to set Kylie straight.

Travis put the truck in Drive and pulled away from the curb. Since it was obvious Kylie wasn’t going to give him any suggestions, Travis took it slow while he thought about where they could go to talk. He wanted to avoid anywhere public and thanks to the time he’d spent there when he was in the Army, Travis knew there wasn’t much to do in the small town Kylie lived in, so it didn’t take him long to make a decision. Coyote Ridge might not be the most logical place, and surely Kylie would question him, but for some reason, Travis wanted to give her a little glimpse into his world – let her see him as a person and not just the man who hightailed it out of her life when the honorable thing would’ve been to stick around and work it out.

Today, taking her to his home town just felt like the right thing to do.

“Where are we going?” Kylie asked when they entered the on-ramp to Interstate 35 South.

“I want to show you something,” he told her, not going into detail because he didn’t want her to put the kibosh on his plans before they even happened. When she didn’t say anymore, he took that as a good sign.

Several minutes later, with only the sound of the tires speeding along the pavement to fill the strained silence, Kylie finally spoke up. Travis was surprised it took her that long.

“So, um, what was it like growing up with six brothers?” She didn’t look at him as she asked the question, but Travis didn’t need her to. She was making small talk, and right now, he appreciated it.

“It wasn’t easy.” Flipping on his turn signal, Travis changed lanes, preparing to take the next exit. “There were seven of us, and my parents, in one house. Maybe it was easier that we were boys, and we were all into sports and such, but that much testosterone in one place was combustible at times.”

“I can imagine. How’d your mother survive it?”

“She’s the strongest woman I know,” Travis told her. Lorrie Walker had a backbone of steel, and she didn’t take any shit from her boys. With Curtis around to knock a few heads together when needed, she managed to run a tight ship while they were growing up. In fact, she still did. And when she spoke, they listened.

Travis wasn’t sure how much about him that Kylie cared to know, but he wanted to share himself with her. He would ignore the fact that he was about ten years too late in doing so. And he was probably setting them both up, but at this point, he didn’t know what he had to lose. As far as he was concerned, he’d lost everything already…

“My parents just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary last year. My brother Kaleb got married not too long ago, and Zane, the youngest, is planning to get married later this year, we hope. Oh, and we just found out that Zoey and Kaleb are expecting,” he explained.

“Wow, that’s great.”

“Yeah. They’re proud. Mom’s already started turning one of our old rooms into a nursery for when they come over.” Travis kept his eyes on the road.

“Will that be your parents’ first grandchild? I mean… Do you have any children?”