Breaking Travis (The West Series Book 5) (2 page)

Holly stood in her doorway and bit her bottom lip. Travis was back. What did that mean? Was he going to kick her out of the apartment? Without the store being open, she doubted she could afford to rent another place. At least until the doors opened again, she needed to stay put.

The reading of Mr. Nolan’s will had been postponed until Travis made it back into town. Until then, it had been agreed that the construction on the store would continue. Shutting the door, she leaned up against the cool wood and rested her head back, closing her eyes. She was in deep trouble. What if there wasn’t anything about their agreement in Mr. Nolan’s will? Would Travis hold up his father’s wishes? Would she be kicked to the curb? What about her store? Would construction stop?

Shaking her head clear of the million questions running through it, she walked back towards the bedroom and grabbed the water bottle she’d gotten up to get. Thankfully, it had caused her to hear the front door open. She knew the door had been locked and bolted—something she did every night—which meant he had a key to the place. She walked towards the door, locked it again, and snapped the chain on for good measure.

Travis was trouble. Had been most of his life and probably would be until the day he died. Too bad, she thought, crawling into bed. The man had a body like the gods and a face to melt even the hardest hearts. She sighed and closed her eyes, burying her face into the pillow. What she wouldn’t give to feel a good man on top of her like he’d been a short while ago. Giggling to herself, she decided she had gone too long without a date.

Then she frowned when she remembered she lived in a small town and there were no good men to date. Closing her eyes tighter, she tried to get the feeling of being that close to a man out of her mind.

She woke early the next morning and headed in to check on how construction was going. Since Mr. Nolan’s death, she spent most of her time making sure everything was staying on track—helping with ordering and organizing the materials, coordinating the construction crews, solving any issues or questions they had during the entire process. Some of the men had even given her her own hard hat and tool belt.

She knew that leaving early would make it harder for Travis to track her down and try to kick her to the curb. Since she was working on only a few hours of sleep, she was having a hard time concentrating. She stood off to the side and watched the men work and tried to imagine what the place would look like once it was finished.

The day didn’t get any better when, an hour past lunch, a water pipe broke in the apartment and started leaking downstairs. It took every man on site to finally clear the standing water on the cement floor so the workers could continue hanging the drywall. Thankfully, the damage had been contained to just a small spot that was already being patched.

She stood in what would be her new storeroom, looking up at the work the drywaller had done when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned expecting to see a workman, but was shocked to see Travis standing there looking down at her with a frown and a very black and swollen left eye.

“What’s all this?” he demanded with a frown.

Her eyebrows shot up in question. He had his hands on his hips and a very impatient look on his face. He was wearing a dress shirt and dress pants. Even his shoes were shiny and new looking. His dark hair had been combed back and he’d shaved since she’d seen him last night. “You shouldn’t be in here without a hard hat.” She walked over to the back doorway and grabbed a yellow hat and handed it over to him.

He set it on his head and demanded in a louder voice, which rose above all the pounding and sawing, “What is this?” He motioned around him.

“This is my store.” She frowned. “Remember?”

“Your bookstore?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

He took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead. “What I mean is, why is it under construction?”

She frowned. “Because the wiring in the building was older than the hills, and there was still roofing damage from the tornado, and…”

“I mean,” he ground out, interrupting her, “why is my father paying for all of this?” He yelled over the loud noises coming from a few feet away. She was used to the noises by now after being on site every day for the last month.

“Because it’s his building,” she yelled back, looking at him like he was crazy.

He grabbed her arm and marched her out of the back door. Here there was even more noise, since other men were using table saws and nail guns. He stopped and looked around, then continued to walk her towards the little garden area she had along the side of the building. She’d been raising tomatoes and squash and had a little picnic table and swing along a tall fence.

“Why is my father paying a lot of money to have you rebuild your store?” he finally said, dropping her arm and waving what she assumed were the bills.

“Because it’s his building and he had a vision.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Great,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Now he was having visions.”

She frowned. “Your father wanted to rebuild the bookstore.”

“I’m sure he did.” He looked her over. She had put on her standard construction clothes—old jeans, button-up blouse, and an old pair of boots. She’d tied her hair in two long braids, which lay across her shoulders out of her way.

“What does that mean?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

He laughed. “Listen, you’re very attractive and I’m sure you had your usefulness when my father was alive, but there’s just no way I’m going to continue all this.” He motioned towards the building.

She was shocked. He was going to take it all away from her.

“I don’t know what kind of…arrangement you and my father had, but he’s gone now and you can expect that anything he was giving you won’t be coming from me.” He turned to go.

“I’m sorry?” she said to his back.

He turned and looked at her, then sighed and turned back. “If I was sticking around town, maybe I’d help you out, but I’m not. I’m heading over to the lawyer’s office right now and putting all this”—he motioned to the building—“on the market. So if I were you, I’d pack up what you can and get going, because if you’re still on my property by tonight, I’ll call the cops.”

She lost the last thread of her temper at that moment. “How dare you.” She took a step closer to him. “Your father was a great man, a man with a vision for this town, and in one day you plan to wipe out everything he’s worked hard for?”

He took a step closer to her. “You’ll want to be careful what you say to me.” His eyes bore into hers.

She took another step closer to him until they were almost nose-to-nose. Well, they would have been if he wasn’t a foot taller than her. She blinked back her anger before finally speaking.

“You’re heading over to Grant’s now?” she asked, throwing him off balance.

Grant normally worked out of his house, but since they had a daughter, he was in the office more and more. He claimed it was hard to take a business call when there was a kid screaming in the background, but everyone knew that Alex, his wife, had kicked him out so he would actually get some work done instead of playing with their daughter all the time.

When he finally nodded, she said, “Good, I’ll just walk over there with you.” She turned and started walking down the street.

He laughed and followed her. “Why? Do you really think that my father left you anything?”

“No, I know he didn’t.” She glanced over her shoulder at him.

“Then why tag along?” He kept in step with her easily, noticing that she marched a little faster when he was beside her.

“Because I know what he wanted, and I can only hope that he had the brains to put it all down on paper before he left us,” she said, a little breathless.

By the time they walked into Grant Holton’s office a few blocks away, she was completely out of breath. Her face was red from the heat and some of her hair had come loose from the braids.

When she marched back towards the office, Travis followed. Knocking on the door, she stepped in without waiting for an answer. Grant was on the phone and when he saw her, he nodded and smiled. When he saw Travis, he quickly apologized and hung up the phone.

“Travis?” He stood and held out his hand. “It’s good to have you back in town.”

Travis was completely floored. This was the man whom his mother had shot and tried to kill. He’d heard that Grant had married Alexis shortly after Travis had left Fairplay. Now the man was actually being nice, like none of it had ever happened.

“Grant.” He shook his hand and stood there, like he didn’t know what to say next.

There were pictures of Alex, Grant, and their children all over the office. Travis glanced at a few, but then turned his eyes towards the floor. It was too hard to see Alex in those pictures, happily holding a chubby baby.

“Travis and I would like to know what’s in his father’s will,” Holly said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Now, Holly, we’ve been through this a dozen times. I can’t tell you what’s in Mr. Nolan’s will unless Travis here”—he nodded towards him—“says it’s okay.”

She glared at him until finally he nodded. “I’ll allow it, I suppose.” What harm could it cause? After all, there was no way his father had left anything to this woman.

“Fine. If you’ll take a seat, I’ll just pull it up.” Grant sat back behind his desk. “Did you just get into town?” he asked him.

Travis shook his head. “Last night,” he said, looking down at his fingernails, not wanting to make eye contact with the man.

“I hope your trip was good. We’re real sorry about your dad; he was a good man.”

Travis glanced up at Grant quickly. “Thanks,” he said and then looked back down at his fingers.

“Here it is,” Grant said, getting both of their attention. He skimmed over the computer screen then turned to them. “I’ll cut to the chase.” He looked up at him. “What it says in here is that the house and all the assets go to you, Travis…”

Travis smiled and glanced over at Holly.

“…After completion of any current projects.” Grant leaned back in his chair. “There are explicit orders that you oversee them until completion or you forfeit everything.”

“What?” he said, sitting forward. “What does that mean? What projects?”

“Well, your father started a few of them over the last few months. As I can see, you already know about the bookstore. He also started renovation work on the old theater, and on building a new park area just outside of town.” He glanced at the screen again.

“I don’t understand.” Travis stood up.

“Earlier this year, your father talked to me about wanting to put some of his money back into the town. He started a few smaller projects at first, like a fresh coat of paint on town hall, getting a few new park benches around town, and some new streetlights. Then Holly approached him about updating the bookstore and her apartment. I guess that started him thinking about some of the other projects he’d been putting off.”

“Can’t they just continue without me?”

Grant shook his head. “Your father made it clear that if you didn’t oversee the projects personally, they would stop completely.”

“Good, then stop them, I don’t care.” He turned to go.

“If they stop, you’ll be left with nothing. Everything your father owned will go to the town so we can finish the projects without you,” Grant said.

Travis stopped, his hand on the doorknob. He needed his inheritance if he was going to get out of the world he’d been in the last few years. He was getting tired and wanted to do something more with his life. He spun around and glared at the woman he thought was the cause of his father’s crazy scheme. “This was all your doing.”

Holly stood up and glared right back at him. “Don’t be silly.”

“Travis, Holly had nothing to do with this. There’s a note here.” He held out a sealed envelope. “From your father.”

“You mean I’m stuck in this town until all of his little projects are done?”

Grant nodded and handed him the note. “If you want your inheritance, you are. There is one more thing in here.” Grant looked down at Holly. “Holly stays in the apartment, rent-free, until the building is done. Once the building is completed, there are more instructions that I’m not at liberty to discuss until such time.”