Travis (5 page)

♀♂

Kylie
placed the lid back on her nail polish as she admired her bright teal blue
toenails. Half an hour ago, blue had seemed like the perfect color to help boost
her mood. Heaven knew she needed it. Had she given in to the anger and
frustration that had been boiling in her blood, she’d have gone with red.
Luckily, she was more optimistic than that and was hoping this would liven her
spirits.

Optimism.
Funny how she was once again forcing herself to ignore the dark, turbulent
emotions curling in her chest and rather focusing on what tomorrow would bring.
Without a plan, she still wasn’t quite sure what that was going to be though.

Sitting
on the front porch swing, painting her toenails and drinking iced tea seemed
like the perfect way to pass a Friday afternoon. It wasn’t like she had
anything pressing to do, considering she’d pretty much pushed every other job
offer out when she originally agreed to do Gage’s renovation.

Bastard
.

Kylie’s
phone rang, startling her from her wandering thoughts. Glancing down at the
caller id, she noticed it wasn’t the same number she’d been ignoring for the
last couple of weeks. No, this time the caller was her sister and a genuine
smile tipped her lips as she hit the talk button and held the phone to her ear.

“Hey,
Jess,” she answered.

“Kylie!
Oh my God! I can’t believe you answered the phone.”

Kylie
giggled at her sister’s dramatic response. “Why wouldn’t I answer?”

“Well,
let’s see. I tried calling you last week, no answer. I tried calling on Tuesday
and again on Wednesday this week, nothing. Where’ve you been?”

“Right
here,” she answered. Yes, there had been a few days she had ignored all calls
that came in, so it was likely that she’d missed Jessie’s calls as well. Oops.

“Where’s
here?” her sister asked.

“At
home. Why?”

“No
reason.”

Right.
As if Jessie would ask if she didn’t need something. Since Kylie was just as
protective of her baby sister as their father was, she immediately wondered if
everything was all right. “You ok?”

“Peachy,”
Jessie answered, sounding definitely not peachy.

“Where
are
you
?” It was Kylie’s turn to question whereabouts.

“I’m
at home,” she said softly. “But Dad’s not home. He’s been working a lot these
days, and I don’t want to stay with Melissa so would you mind if I come visit?”

Kylie
knew that Jessie had a hard time interacting with their father’s latest
girlfriend even though they lived under the same roof. As far as Kylie was
concerned, Melissa was a keeper and as long as she made Joe happy, she hoped he
would eventually settle down for good with this one. But Jessie wasn’t keen on the
idea of sharing their father’s love with anyone else, especially another girlfriend.

“You
can come down.” Kylie loved when her sister visited. They didn’t get to spend
nearly enough time together as it was.

With
Jessie finishing up her last year of college, working for some big technology
company in Dallas, she knew she had to jump at every available opportunity
because her sister was a busy woman. Unless Jessie decided to move south, which
Kylie didn’t see happening anytime soon, she wasn’t going to get to spend much
time with her in the near future.

“Are
you serious?” Jessie sounded relieved and quite sad all at the same time.

“Of
course I am,” Kylie replied. “When are you coming?”

“I’ve
got a week of vacation, and I sure could use some time away. So, if it’s cool
with you, I’ll see you the first week of June?”

“Wow,
I thought you meant soon. That’s a ways away.”

“I
know, but I’ve got to wrap up a couple of things before I take off. I’ve got
the time scheduled.”

“Well,
you know you’re welcome anytime. I can’t wait to see you, Jess.”

“Thanks,
Ky.”

“Sure
thing, sweetie. Call me when you’re on your way down so I know to expect you.”

With
that, Kylie hung up from her sister, setting her cell phone on the seat beside
her and once again staring down at her toes. She grabbed the bottle of clear polish
and gave each toe a once over as she replayed the conversation with her sister over
again.

Why
had she sounded so sad? Surely it wasn’t because Joe was gone because he was an
airline pilot, it’s what he did. He was gone more than he was home, and this
wouldn’t have been the first time Jessie was home alone with Melissa. The woman
had lived with Kylie’s father for the better part of the last six months. Wait,
no. Make that a year. Wow. They’d been living together for almost a year now.
That had to be some sort of record for her dad – at least since Kylie’s mom
left.

“You
look like a country song.”

The
deep tenor of that particular voice got her back up as soon as she recognized
it, and Kylie looked up to see the voice’s owner walking up the path to her
front porch. Or did they consider that swaggering? Either way, she didn’t want
to keep looking at the way the man rocked a pair of jeans and boots. She was
supposed to be pissed off at him.

It
was a true testament to how far lost she was to her own thoughts that she
hadn’t even heard his truck pull up. Kylie considered questioning why he was
there, but then thought better of it. She had absolutely no desire to talk to
him. Not today, not tomorrow. Not ever. So it didn’t matter what prompted him
to waltz back up to her doorstep. In a minute, he was going to get up close and
personal with her front door.

Glancing
down at her toes to see if they were dry enough to allow her to walk without
ruining what she’d spent the last thirty minutes on, Kylie knew she was going
to take a chance if she did. Damn that man.

Why
did he have to show up and ruin a perfectly good pedicure?

Daring
to look up at Gage, Kylie met his penetrating gaze and refused to look away
although the ache in her heart throbbed anew. “Why are you here?”

“To
talk?”

“I’m
pretty sure your actions speak louder than your words, Mr. Matthews. I have
nothing more to say to you.”

One
would’ve thought that her anger would have subsided because she’d had two and a
half weeks to cool off. And that was after the solid week she’d spent taking
her anger out on the cabinet she’d been restoring in her spare time. Needless
to say, the cabinet wasn’t being restored anymore – it was now in pieces. On
the floor of her garage.

But,
remembering the incident and now seeing the man who was personally responsible
for turning her world upside down only intensified the deep, black rage she’d
been consumed with.

For
a solid decade, Kylie had worked to banish all thoughts of Travis Walker from
her heart and her mind, and for the last half, she had to think she’d done fairly
well. In fact, even the worst of her lonely nights had been getting better.
However, rather than the memories living in that tiny box collecting dust in
the far recesses of her brain, Travis was now front and center in her mind.
Seeing him, even briefly, caused her heart to ache all over again.

Based
on his reaction to seeing her, Kylie was sure Travis hadn’t been through the traumatizing
hell that she had when he walked out of her life without looking back. It hadn’t
been as easy for her to get over him as it apparently was for him to get over
her. That knowledge didn’t make the ache ease.

Knowing
her mental health was on the line, Kylie had given herself over to the heartache
that returned full force for the first few days after the debacle in Coyote
Ridge. She had screamed and cried and stomped through the house, refusing to
give in to the sadness, but rather embracing the anger. Seeing Travis face to
face, she felt as though not a single day had passed, and walking away from him
again without so much as two words between them was just as devastating as the
last time. The only difference… she was the one doing the walking this time.

Ten
years ago, she might’ve worried that her heart was too fragile to handle that sort
of trauma. However, somewhere along the way, the scar tissue had hardened,
encasing all of the scattered pieces and making her whole again. Maybe not entirely,
but considerably better off than before.

That
didn’t mean seeing him was easy. Far from it.

Travis
looked the same, only a decade older, and as much as she didn’t want to admit
it, the years had been kind to him. The only difference she had noted was that
she didn’t witness the quick, easy going smile she remembered. Even without
that seductive tilt of his lips and crinkle at the corner of his eyes, he was
just as freakishly handsome as she remembered. Probably more so.

There
had been a guardian angel present that day though. His name was Beau Bennett.

Gage
was the one to drop her in the middle of hell, but Beau – a close friend of
Travis’ brother from what he told her – had insisted on getting her out of
there. He seemed just as angry on her behalf, and that had helped ease some of the
pain for the interminably long drive back to her house in Killeen.

Beau
was cute and surprisingly funny, and she got the impression he was trying to make
her smile. Refusing to let anyone else see her fall apart, Kylie had pasted on
a smile, laughed when appropriate and tried to enjoy herself because she had
known even then that it was only a matter of time.

It
was after he dropped her at the house, insisting on walking her to her door,
that all of the memories from so long ago came flooding back in a rush. Wave
upon wave of anger and pain had battered her, knocking her down and dragging
her under until she wasn’t sure she could breathe anymore.

Still,
nearly three weeks later, the lingering effects of the stunt Gage had pulled
still irked her. Sort of like a month long hangover and no amount of aspirin
was going to help it either.

But
now, seeing him standing on the bottom step of her front porch, she was
reminded of exactly who had brought the long buried misery to her doorstep all
these years later. So if he was here to talk, she was pretty sure she couldn’t
emotionally handle any more conversations with him.

“I’m
sorry,” Gage said, his tone reflecting what sounded like remorse.

Sorry?
His timing sucked.

“I
bet,” Kylie retorted snidely. It was a little late to apologize in her opinion.

“Kylie,
I really am sorry –”

Kylie
was pretty sure he could stand there all day and say the words, and she still
wouldn’t feel a thing for this man. The outer layer of ice that had formed around
her heart and her soul was ten inches thick at this point. As far as she was
concerned, he could go to –

Wait.
Actually, she did have one question...

“Why’d
you do it?”

The
question had burned on the tip of her tongue ever since she climbed into Beau
Bennett’s kickass truck and listened to Florida Georgia Line stomp out a cool country
beat on the way home.

“Do
what?”

Lord,
please grant me patience. Please don’t let me lose it right here on this man.

“Seriously,
Gage? You show up at my house, telling me you want to talk and you ask me
that?” Kylie stared up at him, anger and frustration flowing like a raging
river threatening to spill over its banks.

She
wasn’t sure she’d felt this much resentment for one person in all of her life.
Not even Travis after he walked out with the flimsiest of breakup excuses she’d
ever had the pleasure of receiving. At least he hadn’t been dishonest about it.
She might not have liked that he did walk away, but he had the decency to tell
her, rather than blindsiding her the way Gage had.

Propping
himself on the railing that outlined her porch, Gage sat at an angle, his hands
resting on one leg as he stared out at the yard, or maybe something beyond that
only he could see, Kylie wasn’t sure.

She
wasn’t going to prompt him to talk. If he had something to say, she was sure he
would say it. Glancing down at her toes she figured he had about three minutes
tops and then she was going back in the house and calling it a night. She
didn’t care if it was – Kylie thumbed her phone to remove the screen saver – three
o’clock in the afternoon.

“I
like you,” he said, his voice almost too low to hear.

Wow
.
Was he kidding?

“You’ve
got a funny way of showing it.” Kylie didn’t know what else to say to that. She
wasn’t even sure how to interpret that statement.

They’d
known each other for two months before he brought her peaceful little world
crashing in on her, and honestly, she had thought they were getting along
nicely. They’d gone to dinner a few times, shared some laughs, and even a few kisses
that had turned her knees into Play-Doh. But none of that mattered much when
the person you trusted throws a curveball at you… And aims straight for your
face.