There was still this hollow, burning sensation in her chest, but because of Travis, she knew it wouldn’t undo her, wouldn’t unravel her. Knew, too, that someday, it would get easier.
She was nobody’s little girl anymore and that realization was really painful. But Travis was with her and he meant the world to her.
“He liked you, you know. My dad,” she added in case Travis wasn’t following her rambling speech. “He really liked you a lot.”
She smiled, thinking of the less-than-subtle hints her father had dropped. Her father thought Travis was perfect for her. She rarely knew her father to have been wrong.
“I think he was hoping that he’d found someone for me—” Belatedly, she realized what that had to sound like to Travis. She didn’t want him thinking she was envisioning wedding invitations dancing in her head. “—Not that I’m saying—”
He didn’t want her spoiling the moment with a declaration of a non-relationship, even though he had a feeling it would be a protest without any true feeling behind it.
“Shh,” Travis chided softly, putting a finger to her lips to silence her. He loved watching the way her eyes widened. “You might not be,” he told her, “but I will be. Once everything’s in order, I think I’d like to talk about the future,” he told her. He felt his way around slowly, never taking his eyes off her face. Watching it for a reaction. “Our future,” he specified, silently holding his breath.
She heard the blood rushing in her ears. “Together?”
The wonder in her eyes almost made him laugh. He had a feeling that wouldn’t have gone over too well. She was being vulnerable. Well, hell, he couldn’t remember when he’d been more vulnerable himself. “That’s the gist of it.”
She didn’t want to misunderstand or take something for granted. She needed to have everything spelled out. “How together?”
Was she backing away, or testing the waters? He wasn’t sure. But there was only one way to find out. He had to dive in first.
“As together as two people can be,” he told her. “You know, rings, church, wedding dress.” He thought of his family. They could come on strong at times. “In-laws who don’t really understand the meaning of the words ‘not butting in—’”
“Don’t make fun of your family,” she protested with feeling. “I love them.” She took a deep breath. “And I love you.” Another deep breath followed before she could continue. “So, if you’re asking me to marry you—”
“Maybe I just like wedding dresses,” Travis teased, trying to keep a straight face but without a whole lot of success.
She laughed before completing her sentence. “—if you are asking me to marry you, the answer’s yes. Oh, yes,” she repeated with enthusiasm, rising up on her toes as she tightened her arms around his neck.
He tucked her even closer against him, reveling in the feel of her body pressed so close against his. “So we can have strings?” he asked innocently, referring to her ever-present “no strings” mantra.
She felt suddenly so giddy, her head was beginning to spin. Oh, Daddy, I wish you could have been here. I wish you could have heard him. And then it occurred to her, given the faith that had been instilled in her as a child, that her father could very well be privy to all this right now.
The thought made her smile—and gave her peace.
“We can have a whole string factory,” she told him with a laugh. Shana tightened her arms around his neck and kissed him as hard as she could, giving him her heart as well as her pledge.
Lost in the depths of the kiss, Travis didn’t realize what he was feeling at first. Dampness. His cheek was wet.
Shana was crying.
Drawing back, he saw the telltale evidence on her lashes. “Oh, please don’t cry,” he implored. “I don’t know what to do when a woman cries.”
A woman’s tears always made him feel so helpless. He could handle almost anything else but that. And why did women cry when they were happy?
He was assuming she was happy, he thought in minor desperation.
She had a ready solution to the dilemma for Travis. “Just kiss me,” she instructed, offering up her mouth to his.
His smile was wide, filtering into his eyes and down into his soul. “I can do that.”
Travis lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with every fiber of his being. She’d said yes!
Lost in the moment and the promise of the life that was to come, a life that would find them forever joined, neither one of them heard the door being unlocked.
It wasn’t until the door was firmly closed again—slammed really—that either one of them realized there was someone else in the house with them.
Shana’s heart hammered hard as she pulled her head back and looked toward the foyer.
For just a split second, she thought it was her father walking in.
Her head knew that wasn’t possible, but her heart was having trouble catching up.
But it wasn’t her father in the foyer.
“Well, I must say that your taste in men has improved,” the woman standing there said. “By about a hundredfold.”
There was blatant approval in the deep brown eyes as they swept rather possessively over Travis, taking inventory of all his parts as if they were hers for the taking. She was accustomed to being the pretty one, the one who drew all the attention when she entered a room. Shana had always been the afterthought.
But these days, her lifestyle had left its mark on her and that mark was less than kind. She seemed worn around the edges, like a woman who knew her time was limited and was desperate to hang on to the trappings of years that had already passed by.
The smile on the woman’s lips was almost predatory as she extended her hand, her scarlet nails curving like talons. “Hello, I’m—”
“Susan,” Shana said in a hoarse, stunned whisper.
Chapter 13
“H ello ‘little sister,’” Susan said mockingly.
The tall, almost too-slender woman looked around the foyer as if to reorient herself. Or maybe Susan tried to imagine the house without their father, the way Shana had been doing just moments ago.
Susan tossed her dark brown, blond-streaked hair over her shoulder and haughtily lifted her chin. There was more than a hint of a smile on her lips. “So, he’s really gone, huh?”
Shana felt her back going up at the irreverence in Susan’s voice. She tried to tell herself it was because Susan was hurt that she would now never get a chance to work things out with their father. There would be no truce in the offing, no coming to an understanding. Just a permanent wound and a scab running over it. That had to be painful.
She took a breath before answering. “Yes, he’s really gone.”
Susan made a disparaging noise as she shook her head. An enigmatic smile creased her lips. “Bet that came as a shock to him. Dad always seemed pretty confident he was going to live forever.”
She’d been gone all this time and now that she was here, Susan was being sarcastic and disrespectful. Shana took offense in her father’s name.
“He was sick for quite some time, Susan. Which you would have known if you ever bothered to come around.”
“Yeah, well, whatever,” Susan shrugged her slender shoulders dismissively. “That’s all in the past now, isn’t it? The important thing is, did I miss the reading of the will?”
Shana’s eyes blazed. Was that all their father was to her? An inheritance? “You missed the funeral, Susan,” she retorted, struggling to keep her resentment from pouring out.
Whenever she became angry at the way Susan neglected him, her father would say that Susan had a lot to deal with and that they should cut her some slack. Even so, she knew that her sister’s behavior, her absence from his life except on those occasions when she needed money, hurt him deeply. And that was something she was having trouble forgiving right now.
“Yes, but did I miss the reading of the will?” Susan repeated with feeling, making it clear that all she cared about was what was coming
to her, nothing more.
How could this woman be Shana’s mother, Travis wondered silently. “Not yet,” he informed the older woman.
Susan looked at him with renewed interest. “Did he cut you in?” she asked, mildly curious. “Is that how you know?”
“I was your father’s lawyer,” he told the older woman evenly. “He had me place all his accounts, the restaurant and the house in a living trust.”
“Doing the two-step with the tax man, good for him.” Susan nodded her approval of the news. “He always was a sharp old guy, at least when it came to managing his money.” She flashed an inviting smile at Travis. “So what’s say we cozy up a little and get that pesky will reading over with?” And then she added a coda to her suggestion. “Unless it’s all just divided up between Shana and me. In that case, just get me my half of everything and I’ll be out of your hair.” Her words were addressed to Travis, but she was looking at Shana as she said them.
Shana began to set the other woman straight, but Travis shook his head, stopping her. This was his job, and he took over.
“It’s not divided up that way,” he told Susan evenly.
Suspicion entered the dark blue eyes and her expression hardened. “Oh? And just how is it divided up?”
Travis took out his card and offered it to Susan. “Why don’t you come by my office and I’ll go over it with you then?”
She pushed aside his hand, disregarding the card. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. “Why don’t we just go over it now?” she countered coldly.
“He doesn’t have the will with him, Susan,” Shana said.
The smile was malevolent. “No, but I’ve got a feeling lawyer-boy here has it memorized.” She cocked her head, eyeing him as she came closer. “Don’t you, lawyer-boy? You and Shana cook up a little something between the two of you?” she prodded. “Get my dad to sign a new will? Maybe hold his feeble hand to get the signature right?” she suggested, anger evident in her expression.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Shana snapped, defending not just her father, but Travis as well. “Nobody made Dad do anything. It was his idea.” Her anger rose. “Maybe if you had shown up a few times over the last few years, you would have seen for yourself that he was clear-headed until the end.”
Susan was not buying it. “But you whispered in his ear, didn’t you, Shana?” the older woman accused sarcastically. “Talked about how awful I was for not being around, playing nursemaid like you. Being a saint always became you.”
Shana bristled at the suggestion that she had turned her father against Susan. If anything her father tried to get her to forgive Susan. “I never talked against you.”
“Yeah, right,” Susan snorted. “Pure little Shana, never did anything wrong in her life.” She looked at Travis haughtily and with pity. “Pretty boring, isn’t she?”
He found his hold on his temper slipping through his fingers. “Why don’t you stop right here, Ms. O’Reilly?” he said coolly. “Before you say something you might regret.”
Susan laughed. “I never regret anything I say, lawyer-boy.” The smile vanished as quickly as it had materialized. Anger took over. “Now, just how unequal is this damn will?” she demanded.
Shana put out her hand, asking Travis to keep silent. This was for her to say. “Dad left everything but one bank account to me, but—”
What she was going to say was that, despite Susan’s treatment of their father, she wanted the division to be more equitable than that. But it was just going to take her some time to raise the money in order to pay her sister more. Shana never got the chance. Susan cut her off with a ripe curse.
“The hell he did,” Susan spat. Her face contorted with barely suppressed rage. “Dad wouldn’t do that to me.”
No, not if you’d showed just a little compassion, a little affection. Something. But you didn’t. “You hurt him a lot, Susan.”
She blew out a breath and bit off another oath. “Lucky for him he’s not here right now because I’d show him just what real hurt is.” Susan tossed her head, sending her hair flying over her shoulder. “He can’t do that. I’ll take this into court, Shana,” she shouted indignantly. “I’m his only daughter. I should get everything. He can’t just do this to me,” she insisted furiously.
Travis felt his stomach tighten into what amounted to a clenched fist.
Confusion etched into Shana’s features. For a second, she stopped breathing. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.
Susan turned on her. “What are you, deaf now, too, as well as conniving?” And then she stopped abruptly, staring at the confused expression on Shana’s face. The truth came to her riding on a lightning bolt. And then she laughed. It was a harsh sound. “Oh, this is rich. Really rich.” Her face invaded Shana’s space. “You don’t know, do you?”
Here it came, Travis thought, desperate for a diversion. He caught hold of Susan’s arm, pulling her away from Shana.
“This isn’t the time or the place,” he told Susan angrily. “If you want to go over things, you and I can go to my office—”
This time it was Shana who waved him into silence when he made the suggestion, her eyes pinned on the sister she had once idolized. “What are you talking about, Susan? What don’t I know?”
Susan looked like she was almost enjoying this, revealing the secret she’d once insisted be kept. “That I’m his only kid. His only daughter.”
Shana didn’t understand. What was Susan talking about? Was she just playing with her head?
“Then what am I?” Shana demanded hotly, her mind refusing to give any credence to anything that Susan was saying. On more than one occasion, Susan had been caught in a lie. She could lie so smoothly, so effortlessly, that she probably believed what she was saying.
Instead of answering, Susan laughed. “Oh, this really is rich,” she repeated. She was enjoying prolonging this. “He never told you, did he? That old man actually kept his word. Who would have thought it?” she marveled. “He promised he wouldn’t tell, you know.” Her eyes slid over toward Travis. “But he told you, didn’t he, lawyer-boy? A man confesses things to his lawyer he wouldn’t share with his own family.”
There was an unnamed panic festering and growing in the pit of her stomach, making her ill. Shana looked from Susan to Travis.
Was that guilt she saw? Why? Did he know what her sister was talking about? If he did, then why hadn’t he said anything? If it concerned her, she had a right to know. Why would he have kept it from her?
“What is she talking about, Travis?” she asked, her throat aching.
“Yeah, ‘Travis,’” Susan mimicked in a sing-song voice, “tell Little Miss Priss what it is that I’m talking about.”
She didn’t have time for games. Not wanting to wait, Shana took a stab at it, coming up with the only thing that would make sense under these circumstances. “Am I adopted, is that it?”
Entertained, and feeding on Shana’s distress, Susan laughed again. “Girl gets a gold star—for guessing half right. You’re adopted all right, Shana,” she confirmed wickedly, her voice throbbing with glee.
Why wouldn’t Dad have told her she was adopted? There was no shame in that, in being selected rather than conceived. “But that still makes me his daughter.”
The smile on Susan’s lips grew even more malevolent. “It gets a little more complicated than you think, ‘little sister.’”
“Is this another one of your games, Susan?” Shana shook her head. “It’s not going to work. You can’t rattle me the way you could Dad. I’m not as forgiving as he was.”
“Oh, I bet I can,” Susan countered sweetly. “I bet I can really rattle you, Shana.” Again, she drew closer until she was all but in Shana’s face. “You weren’t Shawn and Grace’s daughter,” she informed her haughtily. “You’re my daughter.”
Standing beside her, Travis felt Shana start to sink as her knees buckled. And then she galvanized, squaring her shoulders and holding her head up high. “You’re lying.�
�
Placing a hand to her chest, Susan embodied the very portrait of innocence. “Now why would I lie about something like that?”
“Because you always lie, Susan. Every time Dad cornered you and you had your back to the wall, you lied.”
A smug expression on her face, Susan shifted her eyes over to look at Travis. “I’m not lying now, am I, lawyer-boy? You know that, right?”
A second set of eyes, fear and apprehension rising in them, turned toward him.
“Is she, Travis?”
Tired of the game, Susan waved at Travis, silencing anything he might have to say. “If you don’t believe me, check your birth certificate.”
Her birth certificate. Of course, why hadn’t she thought of that earlier? A thread of peace wove through her. Susan was just trying to agitate her. “I’ve seen my birth certificate, and it has Shawn and Grace O’Reilly down as my parents.”
Susan laughed harshly at Shana’s naiveté. “Not that one, you idiot. That’s the one that Dad had doctored in case you ever wanted to see it. The real one’s in his safety deposit box at the bank. Don’t hold it against him,” she added magnanimously. “I was the one who made him do it. Actually, it was Mom and me. It was the only way I’d agree to having you.”
Traces of resentment filled Susan’s voice as she continued the narrative that was shattering Shana’s world.
“Dad wanted you to know the truth, but I figured having a kid was going to be too much of a drain on me. Besides, the kind of life I was leading wouldn’t be any good for a kid. Dad certainly told me that enough times.” Anger filled her eyes. “Mom wanted to raise you so I said, ‘Go ahead.’ And just to keep things from being complicated, I told her she could pretend to be your mother.” Susan shrugged as if the story was boring her even as she related it. “They got another chance to be parents and maybe do it right this time and I got a chance to be free.” She tossed her head triumphantly. “A win-win situation all around.”
Shana’s heart beat so hard, she didn’t understand how it wasn’t breaking through her rib cage. “I don’t believe you.”
[Kate's Boys 04] - Travis's Appeal Page 13