by Emmy Eugene
“Hey,” he said gently. “You believe me, right?”
“I’m trying real hard to,” she said, the storm inside her raging now. “I just need a minute. Please.” She walked away from him again, and he let her go this time. Millie wasn’t sure she liked that, but she probably wouldn’t like it if he wouldn’t give her any space either.
He said something behind her, but she didn’t hear the words as she’d let the fury and panic and irritation swell into something that was making all of her other senses go on hiatus.
She passed the teen dance and the hot chocolate tasting and went out the front doors. She gasped as she did, because it was cooler out here and she needed the air to think. Why was her brain misfiring now?
It felt like only a few seconds passed before Travis joined her. He didn’t touch her, and Millie was secretly glad he hadn’t just let her abandon him. He was there; he hadn’t walked away.
“I gave you one minute,” he said. “Do you need another?”
She turned toward him and searched his face, trying to find something, but she didn’t know what. “You really didn’t kiss her?”
“No,” he said emphatically. “I wouldn’t do that to you.” He looked angry and sorrowful at the same time. “Millie, come on. This is me. I couldn’t even talk to you at the speed dating thing. I’m pretty sure the only reason you gave me your number was because we went out ten years ago. And then…” He let his voice drift off as he shook his head. “You have to know I like you a whole lot. Why would I kiss someone else? It makes no sense.”
“No, it sure doesn’t,” she said, her mind moving slowly through the things he’d said. He simply looked at her while she took the time she needed to understand. “Okay,” she said. “I believe you.”
“Thank you,” he said simply. “Do you still want to go to the concert? I think I heard them warming up.”
“Do you?”
“Kind of, yeah,” he said, but he sounded a bit on the miserable side.
“Why’d you leave the hot chocolate tasting?” she asked.
“I didn’t want to go around that room with that crowd by myself. I felt…claustrophobic.”
“I’m sorry.” Millie reached up and gently removed his cowboy hat.
“Mills,” he said. “You don’t need to be sorry. I’m the one who’s sorry. I should’ve shoved Caroline away. She trapped me.” He dropped his chin to his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m no good in situations like that.”
Millie lifted his chin. “It’s not your fault.”
“You really believe me?”
“Travis, if we can’t trust each other, you should take me home right now.”
“I trust you,” he said.
“Do you? Just yesterday, you said you were trying to believe what I’d said about being satisfied with you.” She knew he had a past to work through. Heck, she did too. And not finding him in the tasting room and then seeing him kiss that other woman…every insecurity Millie had about all the men in her life abandoning her had roared through her head.
He didn’t answer, and Millie handed him back his hat. “I’m trying to believe you,” she said. “And I think right now, that’s the best we can do for each other.”
“I’m going to go find her,” he said. “She’ll tell you what I did.”
“Trav, that’s not necessary.” Millie watched and waited as several people entered the community center. “Come on, let’s go get a seat for the concert. It’ll fill up.”
“You sure?”
“Yes,” she said, because she didn’t want to talk this to death, and he still wore an agonized expression. She also didn’t want him driving all over town to find Caroline Landy—someone Millie didn’t even know. Sure, she recognized the Landy name, but all of their kids were much younger than her and Travis.
He’s right, she told herself. He wouldn’t be having a relationship with someone ten years younger than him. And he had been nervous during their two minutes of speed dating. And he kissed her like he was falling in love with her, and maybe she’d misinterpreted the kiss. Everything had happened fast, and there had been those flashes of light.
They found seats in the theater right in the middle section, and Millie reached over and took Travis’s hand in hers. His eyes landed on hers, and he lifted their joined hands to his lips and kissed her wrist.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured again.
Millie just shook her head. “You never gave me a confession.”
“What?”
“Earlier, in the truck, I said it was confession time.”
“I didn’t know that was a two-way game.” He cleared his throat. “I would’ve squashed that.”
“Oh, come on,” she said. “Anything. Something you wanted to do as a kid.”
He seemed to think really hard about it for a moment. Around them, the theater started to fill up. Her phone buzzed, and Millie took it out of her purse to see Momma had texted. She didn’t swipe on the device to read the full text. Instead, she shoved her phone back in her purse and looked at Travis again.
He was watching her. “You don’t need to read that?”
“Nope.”
He looked like he didn’t believe her, but he said, “When I was a kid, I actually thought I could be a professional fisherman someday. That was what I wanted to do. Fish. All day long.”
Mille smiled at him, some of the awkwardness between them finally evaporation. “Do you still like to fish?”
“If I had time, I’d probably like it,” he said. “Haven’t been fishing for a while, though.”
Millie leaned closer to him and dropped her voice to a whisper. “You know you’re a billionaire, right? If you don’t want to work so much, don’t. It’s not like you need the money.”
He stiffened beside her. “The work has to get done around the ranch.”
“Then hire someone.” Millie wasn’t trying to be cruel. “Honestly, Trav, you don’t seem that happy out at the ranch.”
“I am,” he said, but his voice was hollow and a bit high-pitched.
“All right,” she said. “It’s not my place to say.” She squeezed his hand. “I just want you to be happy.”
“And I want that for you too,” he said.
“What does that mean?” Millie asked, but the lights dimmed, and the first clear, beautiful peal of a bell filled the air.
She’d ask him afterward, though her idea of a romantic Sunday evening with him had withered the moment she couldn’t find him in the tasting room.
Only a few minutes later, her phone started ringing. Even the buzzing was loud, and Millie pulled her phone out to silence it completely. “Momma,” she whispered, so exasperated with her mother. She’d done the same thing to Millie when she’d been dating Mitch. Suddenly, she needed Millie there at night to help her swallow pills, as if Millie could do that. She couldn’t seem to find anything when Millie had a date. When she didn’t, everything ran smoothly.
She swiped the call to voicemail and glanced at Travis. “Let’s go,” she whispered.
“Yeah? Everything’s not okay?”
Millie shook her head and stood up. She needed to talk to him, and she needed to get home. She wanted to enjoy the bell choir, but she couldn’t. “Sorry,” she said to the people next to her, and she stumbled over feet in her haste to get out.
Travis followed her, but she waited until they were safely in the cab of his truck before speaking again. “What did you mean about you wanting me to be happy?” Her stupid phone lit up again, and Millie heaved a sigh. “It’s my mom.” She swiped on the call, and practically bit out the words, “Momma. What is it?”
“We can’t find Puddles, dear. I know how much you love that cat.”
Millie actually didn’t care about her mother’s mostly blind and deaf cat. “Momma, ask Betty to help you.”
“She is.”
“Fine,” Millie said. “I’ll look when I get home.” The cat was probably curled up on her momma’s pillow. Or in the backyard. She ended
the call and looked at Travis. Something inside her told her to let this go, but she couldn’t.
“I just feel like you’re…” He cleared his throat. “Unhappy living with your mother.”
“I am,” she said. “But I can’t afford my own place.”
“I know,” he said. “Maybe you could…I don’t know. What are you going to do when she passes?”
“Excuse me?” Millie asked. “She’s not going to die any time soon.” The thought actually made Millie realize she could be trapped in her current situation for a very long time.
“Let’s say she does,” Travis said. “Are you planning on staying in Chestnut Springs?”
It was like God Himself had switched on a light inside Millie’s brain. “You’re worried about me leaving town.”
Travis shrugged and said, “Not really.”
“You’re a bad liar,” she said, the storm returning to her chest. Tears pricked her eyes and, she shook her head. How had this night gone so badly, so fast?
“I live here now,” she said, though the memories of her life in San Antonio were so much better than the life she had now. “I’m not going to leave, even after Momma dies—which isn’t going to be for a while, by the way.”
“Okay,” he said. A moment later, he pulled into her driveway. “Millie, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“We’re both working through some things,” she said. “I get it.”
“Would you—?” He clamped his mouth shut and shook his head. “Never mind.”
“No,” she said. “Just say it.” Though if it was something else hard, Millie might just need to stay in bed all day tomorrow.
“Would you consider working for Chestnut Ranch full time? It comes with room and board.”
Surprise filled her. “What?”
“We have cabins on the road before the homestead,” he said. “Two of ‘em are empty. You could live there. Work the ranch.” He shrugged. “Do your party planning in the evenings and on weekends. Well, our ranch hands rotate weekends on, and they get other days off during the week.”
“And you have the authority to offer me such a job?”
“Sure,” he said. “We always need more help on the ranch.”
Millie chuckled, but it wasn’t an entirely happy sound. “You’re really not a good liar, Travis.” And she was glad of that. Then she’d know when he wasn’t being truthful with her. In that moment, she knew he’d told her the absolute truth about the kiss with Caroline Landy. “But I’ll actually think about it.”
Her mother came out the front door, Puddles cradled in her arms, and Millie sighed.
“I’ll call you later,” he said, leaning over to kiss her quickly. Millie still felt a bit unsettled when it came to their relationship, but tonight wasn’t the night to hash it all out. So much had been said already.
She got out of his truck and hurried toward her mother as she tried to come down the steps. “Mom,” she said. “No. Go back inside. I’m coming.”
Chapter Nineteen
Travis didn’t sleep well at all after dropping off Millie. He kept getting startled awake by the nightmare of Caroline’s lips against his. That three seconds had taken something from him, and he got angrier and angrier every time he thought about it.
He finally got up before the sun, which honestly wasn’t that hard now that Christmas was only a couple of weeks away. He needed to get started on Millie’s gift so he had time to finish it before the Christmas party.
She liked organization, and she worked at a desk, so he’d been sketching out a custom desk that would hold her papers, her files, her little bobs and bits, like paperclips and labels and all the stationery that she’d told him about.
He’d just put the coffee to brew when Russ came thundering down the steps. “Trav?”
“Right here,” he said, stepping around the corner. “What’s wrong?”
His brother was tucking his shirt into his jeans, and he looked freaked out. “Momma called. She said the kitchen is flooded, and she can’t get ahold of Rex or Griffin.”
“They’re probably still asleep.”
“Yeah.” Russ swiped his keys from the drawer. “Want me to go alone?”
“No,” Travis said. “Give me two minutes. I’ll meet you in the truck.” He left the kitchen and took the steps two at a time to the second floor. He changed quickly and bolted back downstairs. He switched off the coffee maker and said, “Come on, guys,” to the dogs. His father loved Winner, Thunder, and Cloudy, and that would get him out of the house.
Russ waited in the driveway, and Travis lifted Thunder into the back of the truck before climbing into the cab. “All right,” he said. “Let’s go.”
After the quick drive to town, Travis unloaded the dogs while Russ went up the front steps. A startled cry filled the morning darkness, and Travis nearly dropped Thunder as the other dogs ran toward the front door.
“Stay back,” Russ said, turning. “Trav, everything is wet. Dogs out back.”
Travis whistled at the dogs, and they came back toward him. “Out back, guys.” He led the canines through the gate and into the backyard. He went up the steps to the deck and opened the back door. At least an inch of water sat on the ground, and Travis didn’t dare go in.
“Mom?” he called.
“I’m taking them back to the ranch,” Russ said. “Mom’s already out front. I’m getting Daddy now.” He moved through sloppy, wet carpet and down the hall to their parents bedroom.
“What happened?” Travis called after him.
He kicked off his boots and took off his socks. He rolled up his jeans and stepped inside. This was going to be a nightmare to fix, and he was suddenly glad Seth no longer lived in the master suite on the main floor of the homestead. His parents would move back in there, obviously, and Travis and Russ would make sure their house was dry and mold-free before they came back.
“Dad,” he said as his father shuffled through the water, leaning heavily on Russ. “What happened?”
“Near as we can figure, the pipe burst at some point,” he said. “Momma started the dishwasher before bed, and it gushed all night.”
“All night,” Travis said, gazing at all the water. It felt like a job that was way too big for him, and he felt the same helplessness at cleaning it up as he did about getting Millie to believe him that he hadn’t wanted nor invited Caroline Landy to kiss him.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” Russ said. “We’ll call a restoration company.”
“Right,” Travis said. “I’ll work on getting as much out of the house as I can.” He picked up the nearest thing to him—a dining room chair—and took it out to the garage.
His parents still had a car, but they didn’t drive it much. He’d need the space for everything that currently had water soaking into it, so he returned to the house and found the keys for the pickup his dad hadn’t driven since his horseback riding accident.
He propped the door open with a can of paint, and he started moving everything out of the house and into the garage. The table and chairs were easy for him to wrangle alone. Barstools went next, and then the garbage can. He spied the wet-dry vac and grabbed that, putting the discharge hose out the back door as he started vacuuming up the standing water.
The restoration company would do that, but Travis didn’t want to slop through any more water. Plus, he wondered if he needed to pull the stove out or not. In the end, he left it, because they could pay someone with more skills and knowledge than he had.
He moved into the living room and picked up his father’s recliner. His back protested, and he groaned as he set it back down. “Ohh,” he said as his back spasmed. So maybe he wouldn’t be lifting the rest of the furniture out of the living room.
Picking up a lamp, he took that out. The lighter end tables went too, but Travis didn’t even try to move the recliner or the couches again. Russ would be back soon enough, and he could help.
Russ did arrive several minutes later, and he found Travis in the backyard
with the dogs. “Coffee,” he said.
“Bless you,” Travis said, taking the cup. “You know, we really don’t have time for this.”
“We’ll just call someone,” he said. “But it was a good idea to start loading everything into the garage.”
“Yeah.” Travis sipped his coffee, feeling the caffeine move through him with lightning speed. “My back freaked out when I tried to lift the recliner. I did everything else I could.”
“Let’s finish it up, then,” Russ said. “I can stay and meet the restoration guys, and you could get back to the ranch to get started with the dogs.”
“Sure,” Travis said. “You know we’re going to have to babysit Daddy, right? He’s going to think he can come out onto the ranch and work.”
“I know.” Russ sighed. “I already gave him orders to stay in the homestead. Then I texted Griffin and Rex, so they’d know he was there.”
“Did they answer?”
“Nope.”
“Must be nice to sleep this late,” Travis grumbled.
“Why were you up so early?” he asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Travis turned back to the house. “Help me with the recliner.”
“Something with Millie?”
“What part of I don’t want to talk about it do you not understand?” Travis shot him a glare. “But yes, something with Millie.” Maybe he should talk through things with Russ. So as they moved the furniture out of the living room and continued clearing things away from the wet hallway in the bedrooms, Travis told him about the hot chocolate tasting, the escape, the kiss with Caroline Landy.
“Holy stars above,” Russ said. “What did Millie say?”
“She was angry,” Travis said. “I didn’t kiss Caroline. I told her everything. I tried to explain.”
“Do you think she believes you?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Travis said. “We tried to stay for the concert, but her mom kept calling. I don’t think she likes Millie being gone at night.” He sighed and stretched his back. “I need some painkillers.”
He found some in his mother’s kitchen, and he turned back to Russ. “Can you go back to the farm? I just want to sit here for a while.”