Wild Honey (24 page)

Stung by her scathing sarcasm, Travis reached for anger to cover what felt curiously like hurt. Which was ridiculous; he hadn’t been that thin-skinned since he was a kid. “Okay, lady,” he said tightly, “you’ve got it.”

“A
ND THATS ALL
I know, David.” Jill gave a helpless shrug. “Randi came home way too early from that surprise cruise, angry and upset, and she’s been really down ever since. Meanwhile, Travis has been calling and calling, but she won’t even talk to him. And neither is she willing to tell me a thing.” She paused, took a shuddering breath. “Something went terribly wrong on that trip, and I feel I’m partly responsible. If only I hadn’t—”

“Honey, don’t.” David reached across the kitchen table, where he’d joined her for lunch, and clasped her hands reassuringly. He’d been out of town on a week-long business trip until the night before, and this was the first chance they’d had to discuss what had happened while he was away.

“Jill, listen to me. You only had Randi’s best interests in mind, from what you’ve told me. I mean, the guy said he wanted to
court
her! What’s wrong with helping to engineer a little time between them? Especially when Randi’d been showing all the signs of a romantic interest in the guy herself.”

Jill nodded pensively. “They were holding hands, David, like lovers. And whenever she came back after being with him…well, I’d never seen her like that. She had stars in her eyes.”

“You see?” He smiled. “So don’t go blaming yourself for what may have happened between those two when they
were alone this time. In fact, look at it this way—you might even have done Randi a big favor.”

“You mean because she’s decided to resume seeing Dr. Martin.” It was the one positive thing Jill clung to; two days after the aborted cruise, Randi had announced just as she was going out the door that she’d made an appointment to see Carol Martin at her office. Just like that. Then she’d left for work—without a word of explanation, without even a hint about what was going on.

“Well, you’ve got to admit,” David said, “nothing else ever persuaded her to return to counseling.”

“I know,” Jill said diffidently, “but I wish it weren’t under such…strained circumstances. I mean, if you’d seen her eyes when she returned that evening! They looked—Maybe I’m being silly, but I could’ve sworn they looked…haunted. And then, all that anger. Lord, I wish she’d talk to me about—”

“Aunt Jill! When’s Mom comin’ home?” Matt’s voice preceded him through the back door. “Is it time yet?”

Jill quickly pulled herself together and glanced at him. “Matt Terhune, mind your manners and say hello first.” She smiled to soften the chastisement. “You must’ve noticed Uncle David’s car in the drive when you came from Robbie’s.”

“Uh, yeah.” Matt tossed David a sheepish grin. “Hi, Uncle David.”

“Hiya, Matt.” David ruffled his hair and made a show of looking him over. “You’ve been growing again, kid. I’d better watch it. Next thing I know, you’ll be borrowing my clothes!”

Matt giggled, prompting a bark from Ulysses, who’d followed him in. ‘Yeah, ‘n’ I’m gonna grow even bigger, I betcha. Like my friend Travis. He’s real big!”

David and Jill exchanged a look that said it was all too obvious who still occupied Matt’s thoughts, despite the estrangement between his parents.

Oblivious to their exchange, Matt turned back to his aunt.
“Now
can you tell me when Mom’s comin’…puh-Ieez?”

“Any minute now, honey,” she said with a glance at the clock. “What’s up?”

He heaved a sigh. “You know—Mom thinks I’m too little for a two-wheeler, but I’m not! I’ve been practicin’ on Robbie’s bike. He let me try it, ‘n’ I can ride it, honest. I only fell once, ‘n’ I didn’t even hurt myself—see?” He held out his palms, which were grass stained but otherwise unblemished.

“Smart of you to practice on grass,” David said as the sound of a car in the drive drew Matt’s attention.

“She’s home!” he exclaimed, and raced out the door.

Jill sighed. “I’d have bought him a bike weeks ago, but Randi—” she gave a helpless shrug “—won’t even agree to letting him have one with training wheels.”

“You’re still worried about her being overprotective.”

“Well, isn’t she?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know all that much about raising kids, honey—” he gave her a tender smile “—not yet, anyway. But I do know Matt’s very bright and extremely well coordinated. He seems awfully precocious, while maybe Randi’s just being cautious. You know all those child-development books she’s always reading. Maybe she’s using the guidelines they set for the average four-year-old. I mean, my sister’s kid didn’t even
mention
a two-wheeler till he was in second grade.”

“I suppose it’s possible,” Jill replied without much conviction, “but that still doesn’t make things any easier with Matt. I can’t help feeling the poor kid’s straining at the bit, David, and Randi…” She made a helpless gesture.

“Look, sweetheart,” he said, again taking her hands, “I know how much you love those two, and it’s only natural for you to worry about them. But you’re just weeks away from a very important wedding, love, and in case you’ve forgotten, you’re the main attraction. Brides-to-be are supposed
to be happy—” he caught her chin and leaned across to give her a kiss, then smiled into her eyes “—right?”

“Right,” she murmured with a soft sigh.

“Atta girl. Now promise me you’ll stop this fretting and leave your sister to Dr. Martin. If Randi’s in danger of becoming an overprotective parent, I’m sure it’s something she’ll address.”

“Maybe…but we both know there’s a larger issue that needs addressing.”

“True, but didn’t you once say that Carol counsels the total person? That she doesn’t just address a specific problem?”

Jill nodded, recalling how Carol had worked on her home environment. “She was as much responsible for helping me to be better organized—to get my homework done on time, that sort of thing—as she was for helping me get past the trauma.”

“Well, there you are, then. Carol’s sharp. If there’s a problem with the way Randi handles Matt, she’ll see it.”

“I suppose so,” Jill said, making an effort to look cheerful, since Matt and Randi could be heard approaching.

For David’s sake, she resolved to leave Randi’s problems to the professional. Still, she couldn’t help wondering what had happened on a certain cruise that was beginning to seem like the dumbest thing she’d ever agreed to.

“T
HAT’S WONDERFUL NEWS
, Jill. I really ‘preciate your tellin’ me.”

Jill had just told Travis that Randi had gone back into counseling. He shifted his grip on his car phone and sighed. “She won’t even talk to me.”

“I know,” she replied sympathetically. “But she’s hardly told me any more than I’ve just told you.”

“So she’s freezin’ you out, too? God, I’m sorry, Jill. I should never have dragged you into this.”

“Yeah, well, you didn’t exactly twist my arm. Besides,
she hasn’t frozen me out exactly. It’s just that…she’s been awfully quiet lately. I guess we’ll just have to respect her need for privacy. Hey, a guy in your line of work should understand the need to keep secrets occasionally, right?”

He chuckled. “Right.”

Jill detected the sadness beneath the chuckle. “Yeah, well, just don’t make me sorry I told you what Randi wouldn’t and get yourself over here. Matt’s been missing you, Trav,” she added softly.

“Jill, I’m sick with missin’ him—and his mama. Still, I’m afraid Randi wouldn’t ‘preciate—”

“Not to worry. Matt’s been pestering her, so she’s agreed to let me invite you over—” there was a moment’s hesitation “—when she’s not here, that is.”

Checking a rude response, Travis scheduled a visit with Matt for the next day.

“Good enough,” Jill said, “and don’t forget that other thing we talked about, huh?”

He assured her he wouldn’t and said goodbye, but not before thanking her again for the good news.

At least, he hoped it was good. He stared broodingly into the distance, not ready yet to pull back onto the highway and resume driving. Randi was in counseling again, thank God. He could only hope it would help her deal with the shattering revelation he’d been inadvertently made privy to on the
Sarah Anne.
As to whether it helped dismantle the wall she’d erected to shut him out…

With a growl of frustration, he muttered a choice phrase and started his engine. He really was the world’s biggest fool. It was what he’d always said about people who thought they were in love, wasn’t it? So far, his foray into romantic love had brought him a hell of a lot of grief and not much else. A wise man would just give it up.

“Dammit,” he said as he pulled onto the highway, “if it weren’t for Matt…”

The words trailed into silence as an image intruded: the
agonized wounded look in Randi’s eyes as she’d stumbled on the truth. As she’d unconsciously voiced the bitter reality behind all that fear. A reality that had lain buried in her subconscious mind for years.

“Ah, Randi,” he whispered, “I’d give anythin’ to take away your pain. To undo the unspeakable things that put that hellish look in your eyes. But I can’t, and it’s drivin’ me…”

He sucked in his breath, then released it slowly, forcing himself to abandon this fruitless line of thinking. The truth was,
she
experienced those things. She
had
been the victim of sexual abuse as a child, and nothing he said or did could change it.

Taking another calming breath, he forced himself to concentrate on the positive. On the softness of her eyes as they’d danced, on the sound of her laughter. He swallowed thickly. To see her that way again, to hear her laugh, he’d risk everything he had, do whatever it took. And if that made him a fool, so be it.

Besides, he told himself as he headed for Sunnyfields, romantic love wasn’t the only kind that exacted a toll. A frantic call from his mother, and then another from his father, had alerted him to an unexpected crisis at home. It seemed Troy was furious over something Travis had done. Troy? Furious? His brother didn’t have a furious bone in his body. What in hell was going on?

“D
AMMIT
, T
RAV
, what right d’you have to meddle in my life?”

Travis gaped at the brother he faced across a stretch of living-room carpet. Troy
was
furious. Jaw belligerently outthrust, eyes glittering dangerously, his normally mildmannered sibling was looking daggers at him. He couldn’t believe it!

“Mind tellin’ me what this is all about?” he asked carefully.

“You bet I’ll tell you!” Troy gestured wildly out the window, where their father could be seen practicing his golf swing. “Out of the clear blue, at breakfast this mornin’, the father
you
coached informed me he got in touch with Aunt Lousie at Stanford yesterday.”

Frowning, Travis nodded, still uncertain where this was leading.

“He also informed me,” Troy went on tightly, “that the way was all clear for me to go there and work with her. And that I had
you
to thank for it!”

“Well, hell,” Travis replied, “I thought—”

“Well, you thought wrong! The fact is, I have no intention of goin’ into medical research. Not with Aunt Louise or anyone else!”

“But—”

“But did you take the trouble to find that out?” Troy demanded hotly. “Hell, no. Not the great all-knowin’ Travis McLean! You just come sashayin’ in here and…and take over, don’t you? Well, just who d’you think you are? Who gave you the right to run my life?”

Travis was floored. It had never occurred to him to check with Troy first. But he loved his brother and he’d known he was unhappy. He’d just assumed…

But this wasn’t the first time he’d wrongly assumed something about a person he loved.
What right did you have to barge into my life this way…to just take over?
Randi’s angry words, so similar to his brother’s, came to him with unnerving clarity.

“Troy,” he said, feeling his way blindly through the possibilities suggested by the jarring comparison, “I never meant to tell you how to run your life. All I wanted—”

“All you wanted was to be in charge,” Troy accused as he crossed to the door. Reaching it, he turned back, his anger unabated. “Dammit, Travis, you’re every bit as controllin’ as the old man ever was! I’m fed up. From now on, I’ll thank you to butt outta my life!”

Stunned, Travis watched him slam the door behind him. Finding his way to a chair, he slumped wearily into it, dropping his head into his hands. Bewildered and hurt—he loved Troy and had only meant the best for him—he never heard the door reopen until a soft voice intruded.

“Guess he was pretty hard on you, huh?”

He raised his head and met Sarah’s sympathetic gaze. “I could hardly believe it was Troy, talkin’ like that.”

She sighed. “I know…but, Trav?”

“Hmm?” he replied absently, still smarting under Troy’s condemning comparison of him to their father. Controlling! Is that what he was?

Sarah placed a hand gently on his arm. “Travis, Troy sounded awfully harsh, I realize, but think about it. Is that necessarily a bad thing—for him, I mean?”

Pondering this for a moment, he heaved a sigh. “You’re thinkin’ maybe it’s a good thing, is that it? That maybe ol’ Troy’s been overdue for somethin’ like this?”

She nodded. “From what I’ve seen and heard from him lately, it could be he’s finally comin’ into his own.”

“Go on,” he urged, interested despite his bruised feelings.

“Well, followin’ the reconciliation between you ‘n’ Daddy, a lot of things’ve been happenin’. But I’d say Troy’s behavior’s been the most remarkable…”

A
FEW HOURS LATER
Travis climbed into the Alpha, greatly sobered by what he’d learned. Following the exchange with Sarah, he’d sought out his brother and apologized. From the heart, and Troy had known it. Then they’d had a long talk.

Though Troy didn’t want to go into medical research, he’d made up his mind to make a career change. On his own. Travis had wanted to jump up and hug him, but he’d wisely held back, sobered by the new strength and maturity
he saw in Troy; he didn’t need or want approval from his big brother.

Troy was giving up surgery to study sports medicine. Given his love of sports, it was perfect. So perfect Travis wondered why it hadn’t occurred to him, then throttled the thought; he’d sworn to butt out, and that started now. It wasn’t his business to speculate on his brother’s affairs. Or try to run his life.