Taking a Chance

by April Zyon

  She laughed. “Why in heavens name would you practice that look? Oh mercy. Okay. I will practice, but you know what that means, right?” When he looked at her in askance, she smiled and said, “It means that you will have to see me again, teach me how to perfect it.” Good lord, she was doing it again! She was asking him out—again!

  “I don’t know, I’ve trademarked it,” he said. He shot her a couple more looks before nodding slowly. “All right, I shall teach you. It will be long hours, hard work, and I am a relentless task master. You might very well regret asking me to instruct you in the art of the perfect puppy dog look.”

  “Well, I will do my best to make you proud.” She started to call him “master,” but that was so not a word she would use with a man, ever. “Hopefully, when I have it perfected, you won’t be immune to it and I will be able to talk you into doing other wild and crazy things with me.”

  He laughed at that, but didn’t say anything. They were entering the town limits moments later. The rest of the drive to the Factory was quiet, but comfortable. Nice.

  When they reached the building, he opened and held her door for her, giving her a hand out of her own truck. He even walked with a hand on the small of her back, opening the door to allow her to enter The Factory ahead of him.

  Cassidy liked the feeling of Travis touching her. Typically, she didn’t like people touching her at all, but this man was the exception. He seemed to be the exception to a lot of things. The cool air of The Factory battled with the rising heat of the Texas day, but it also drew her in closer to the glass counters where the ice cream was housed. Seeing the woman behind the counter, she smiled. “I would like a double scoop of the chocolate, please? I want that in a bowl, but I would also like a waffle cone, plain.” She scooped her ice cream with bits of the waffle cone and loved it. Stepping to the side, she let Travis order.

  He ordered an old fashioned mint in a bowl then paid. The server told them to grab a spot and she’d bring everything out to them. “Let’s sit out of the sun,” Travis suggested, pointing to a spot that was more like a living room setup. It had armchairs, a sofa, and even a coffee table with a lamp resting on the floor for added illumination.

  “This place is very nice.” Cassidy said as she settled in on the sofa, hoping that he would sit beside her. “I don’t recall Massey having anything at all like this before. I like it. Whoever put this in is utterly brilliant.” Ice cream and Texas, oh yeah.

  “It wasn’t quite this nice when I was a kid,” he said. He sat down next to her, his thigh rubbing hers, his arm along the back of the sofa. “Back then it looked more like a burned out warehouse. About ten years ago, a young couple bought the place and refurbished it. They kept all the original recipes for the ice cream, but made it a more inviting place to bring the family or dates.”

  “Well, they did good. Good for them.” Cassidy found herself leaning into Travis as if she had been doing it for years and years. The way that she fit him seemed to be perfection, and she liked it, a lot, especially when he let his fingers begin to toy with her hair.

  The server brought them out their ice cream with a smile. She even gave them a little biscotti with each of their bowls. After thanking her, Travis shot Cassidy a grin and slid off the sofa to sit on the rug. He put his dish on the coffee table in front of him and patted the spot next to him. “Come on, get down here.”

  Cassidy did just that. She got onto the floor with him and grinned. “Now we are hidden from the world.” She was teasing, mostly. It kind of felt that way with the sofa blocking them from view of most of the place. “I like it.” She took a bite of her ice cream and sighed happily. “Oh man, that’s good.” The ice cream was smooth, creamy, and utterly divine.

  He just grinned at her and nodded. He held his spoon out to her, a bit of his ice cream on it. “Taste?” he asked her softly. Travis was closer, or seemed to be, with his attention focused so intently on her in that moment.

  Cassidy opened her mouth, her eyes on him, and accepted the spoon of old fashioned mint. She closed her mouth around the bite and sighed in contentment, her eyes sliding closed as she did so. “Oh, that’s good.” She lifted her spoon to him and smiled. “Taste?”

  Chuckling softly, he accepted the bite from her, his eyes never leaving her face. He swallowed and licked his lips slowly. “Tasty,” he said, his voice deeper. “I didn’t mean for you to have to share with me, Cass. I just figured since you hadn’t been here before, you should taste a second option, for future reference. Thank you, though.” Leaning in, he pressed a quick kiss to her cheek before sitting back to eat more of his ice cream.

  “I wanted to.” She leaned in closer to him. “You know…” She took a bite of her ice cream. “I bet that these would taste wonderful combined.” She was playing with fire. “Want to try?” She held up her spoon with some chocolate on it. She was half thinking of kissing him after taking a bite and half thinking of putting it with his ice cream. She was still uncertain which way would work best.

  Nodding, he took a bite of his ice cream then leaned in to take the bite she offered. She watched his jaw work a little before he smiled. What came next, she didn’t expect at all. He caught her chin in his fingers, leaned in close, and kissed her gently.

  Cassidy held her spoon in her hand and leaned into him to kiss him back. She loved it, the taste of him and the ice cream. It was a heady mixture for sure. When they pulled back, she licked her lips and smiled up at him. “It tasted very, very good.”

  “Yes, you do,” he said. His lips curled into a slow smile. He let her chin go after a moment more. “Eat up,” he told her. She watched him watching her as they ate their ice cream. Travis was messing with her too, she was sure of it. He would take a bite, then lick at the spoon slowly or draw it out of his mouth with a smile on his lips.

  Cassidy watched him as he watched her. Finally, when they finished their ice cream, she leaned back against the couch and enjoyed him touching her. It felt right. It felt as if they had been doing this very thing for years instead of having just met.

  When he’d practically licked out his dish, he settled back next to her. Letting out a happy sigh, he slid an arm around her shoulders and hugged her in closer to him. He rested his cheek to her temple, rubbing his fingers lightly over her arm.

  “This is nice,” Cassidy said finally. “To be able to be here and to feel this good with someone.” She was nestled up close to him with her eyes closed, simply relaxing.

  She felt and heard him chuckle softly. “I’m glad you’re comfortable with me, Cass. Hate to think this was a strain on you,” he teased. Giving her a squeeze, he shifted a bit. She watched as he pulled up a contact and got ready to text. “Figured I should let my brother know where I’d gone off to.”

  “Oh yeah, good idea.” Cassidy hadn’t even thought about letting anyone know she had run off. “Can you let them know that I kidnapped you, or body-napped you, or whatever you want to call this?” Bamboozled him into a date or something of the sort.

  He chuckled again. “All right, how’s this?” He had his finger moving over the little keypad. “‘Bro, kidnapped by a gorgeous woman. She had me by the balls, what’s a guy to do? Demanded ice cream for safe passage, couldn’t resist. Talk later.’”

  “Oh God, you totally can’t send that to him.” Cassidy moved so that she could grab the phone, laughing as she did so. “He will think that I’m hurting you or something equally insane.”

  He kept the phone out of reach as he laughed. “Oops, sent it off. Trust me, sweetheart, it will be fine.” His phone beeped a moment later. “Oh, we have a reply. Let’s see what little brother has to say. ‘You lucky bastard. You couldn’t have had her kidnap me too?’” Travis was howling with laughter as he showed her the picture that had come with the text message. It was Joshua looking pathetic while a horde of women behind him in the shot seemed to be moving in a hundred different directions.

  Cassidy looked at the image and giggled. “Oh God, I am so freaking happy that
I’m not there right now. Like crazy happy that I’m not.”

  “Me too.” He smiled down at her. “Okay, what to say back?” he muttered. “‘Sorry, she’s a one man kidnapper. You lost the chance by going in the front door. If you’re really good, I’ll bring you some ice cream back from The Factory.’” He sent the text off.

  It only took a moment before a reply came through with another picture. Josh was grinning big. “‘Have I mentioned you’re my most favorite older brother ever?’” the text read.

  Cassidy snickered and shook her head. “Oh lord love a duck, that means that we will likely have to bring ice cream back for everyone, and to be honest, I’m so not ready to go back there. Think that he will survive a little while longer?”

  “He’ll live,” Travis told her. He typed out another message to his brother. “‘Promise to be good and not go off like a raving lunatic, I’ll bring you a tub back to the ranch. Try to be helpful too so Mama doesn’t realize I’m not there, if you can manage that.’”

  A few seconds later came another text. “‘Uh, yeah, about that…’” was all it said.

  “Oh God, what now?” Cassidy didn’t think she wanted to know what the about that might be. “Please tell me that they haven’t noticed that the two of us are both missing? If so, those women are going to begin to gossip and speculate that there is something going on between the two of us.” Which, she wouldn’t be opposed to.

  “Hang on,” he muttered. He got out of the texting, went to his phone book, and hit send. “What the hell, bro? Did you rat us out?” he asked. “What?” Travis squeaked out. He let out a groan and hugged her closer. He muttered a few choice words, promised his brother some ice cream, and hung up. “They noticed about two seconds after we took off. Someone heard the truck. Apparently, they think we did one of several things. We either ran off for a meal, ran off to a movie, ran off to find a bed, or you dropped me off at home. The popular opinion, no thanks to my brother and Rhys, is we raced over to the Carver Ranch for a romp in the sack. Sorry, sweetheart, but apparently, we’re rekindling a love that’s been years in the making.”

  Cassidy laughed and shook her head. “They do realize that we just met, right? I mean, they wouldn’t think that you would just jump into bed with someone you just met, would they?” She typically wouldn’t do that. Then again, she typically wouldn’t be held in a man’s arms after just meeting him, and she sure as heck wouldn’t have let a man she’d just met drive her truck. But she was with him. He was different, and she’d known it from the start.

  “We did meet before,” he reminded her. “Years and years ago, but with the whole Alison and Joshua thing, it’s the running theory. They’ve been in love since the first day they met, but only recently did they admit it. Come on, I have an idea to help stem this a little.” Getting to his feet, he held out a hand to her and smiled.

  Cassidy looked up at Travis and grinned. She trusted him. That’s what it boiled down to. “Okay.” She put her hand into his and when he helped her up, she noticed that he pulled her just a bit closer to him than he likely would have one of his brothers. “So.” She felt the breath catch in the back of her throat. “What is it that you think will help?”

  Chapter Four

  Travis just smiled at her and led her toward the sign on the wall of the ice cream shop. He placed Cassidy in front of it, shifted her a little, and then nodded. Moving in next to her, he messed with his phone before holding it up in front of them. “Smile for the birdie,” he told her. Since she could see herself on the screen as he got the shot set up, she knew when she was ready. He snapped the picture. “Now to send this off to Rhys.”

  Cassidy was laughing and shook her head. “You do know that likely won’t help a great deal, right? I mean, yes, it shows that we are here at The Factory and the time stamp and all that, but unless we go back right now, they will still think something’s up. And I have to tell you.” She looked up at him, her hand on his chest. “I don’t want to go back to that insanity just yet, if you don’t mind.”

  “Me either,” he said with a grin. He pocketed his phone before stepping in closer. “Why don’t we go for a walk? Maybe take a few more pictures—for us, not those at the house. We’ll just enjoy the day, and on the way back, I’ll get some ice cream for my brother. The smallest one I can for his part in starting up the rumors.”

  “That sounds like a good and solid plan to me.” Cassidy slipped her hand into Travis’s and smiled. “So, what was his part in it all? The fact that he and his wife have been in love all their lives and didn’t admit it? I’m assuming that they had seen each other more than the one time, though. Right?”

  “Who, Josh?” he asked. At her nod, he chuckled. Tucking her close, he led her out of The Factory. “I don’t remember their exact ages, but they were fairly young when they first met. It was a moment that, at the time, meant nothing, but looking back, you just know that’s when it happened. They met, became friends, hung out a lot, and it all just expanded. Then, when they were teenagers, they sort of fell away from one another a bit. They have always lived here, but Ali was a model for a number of years, always traveling for shoots and events and that sort of thing. She came back just this year with a stalker hot on her heels. The universe put them in one another’s path, and they reconnected. He got her talking, they figured it all out, and finally, thank God, admitted they have always been in love with one another. It was really painful there for a time as they both tried not to seem to pay attention to one another and yet lapped up every bit of information there was.”

  “Oh I can only imagine. I remember her now,” Cassidy said with a smile. “Not from here, though. I met her at a Superbowl a couple of years back. Super sweet, but so shy. I was shocked that she was in the field she was in with as shy as she was.” She cocked her head to the side for a moment and added, “You know, I recall security talking about a stalker, but I didn’t know it was her. Poor girl. They got it all cleared up and the stalker caught, though, right?”

  “Oh, hell yeah,” he said with a grin. He dug out his phone again, and a moment later, showed her a picture. “The woman with the frying pan is Alison’s mama. The man under her foot is the stalker. He came over to our ranch to get at Ali, but got whacked upside the head with a cast iron skillet. Mama Hollister took him down with that big old frying pan, kicked him in the nuts too from what I heard.”

  “Wait, are you serious?” Cassidy took the phone and used her fingers to pinch the photo bigger. “Holy crap, she did!” She scrolled down and said, “Wait. I know this guy. I had a restraining order on him when I first got into news meteorology.” She had to think a moment, but then said, “Jeremy, Jeremy Rogers. That’s his name. He’s creepy on a mega scale.”

  He stopped, pulling her to a stop too, his face serious. “Did he hurt you, Cass?” His voice was chilling as he stared at her, searching her face. He didn’t say anything more, just watched and waited on her answer, but she could feel the tension radiating off him.

  “Oh no, he didn’t hurt me. I had a restraining order out because he hacked my computer system and, well, he tried to film me. I saw the light on, though, and went crazy nuts angry. Well, not crazy. I did, however, call the cops and found out that this guy not only did that, but he was highjacking my Internet and reading all of my email, sending emails to himself from me and all kinds of crazy stuff. He didn’t like me for long because I maced him the next time I saw him.” She shrugged. “I hate that he fixated on her. She’s a sweetie.”

  Travis relaxed a little and nodded. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt,” he said quietly. Pulling her a little closer, he got them walking again. “Alison’s good. She bounces back quickly, and having my brother around definitely helped. He kept her from focusing on it too much, mostly the what-ifs of everything that could have gone horribly wrong in that situation.”

  “Well, it’s good that things are over. Hopefully that guy is locked up and being given twenty-four-seven hugs by a nice white jacket. I also hope that he’s
getting those wonderful little pills that make things all chill and stuff.”

  “Don’t honestly know where he currently is. He’s not here, that much I do know. He was charged with breaking and entering, two different counts. Destruction of property for pretty much destroying the Hollister home, which really pissed off Rhys and his mama. Then the stalking charges, of course. He was under a restraining order at the time, so that went against him too. He’s facing a shit load from all I’ve gathered. Not that I’m caught up on the latest yet. I did just get back to town after all.”

  “Oh wow. He really screwed up big time,” Cassidy whispered. “He didn’t do anything like that to me, thank God. Then again, I pretty much slapped his ass with the restraining order the moment I found what he had been doing. I couldn’t have been in his sights more than two weeks, three maybe?”

  “You’re lucky then,” he said softly. He hugged her closer, rubbing his hand over her side gently. “Enough talk about him. He’s out of the picture, and life is moving ever onward. I do have to ask, mainly because it’s been buzzing around in my head for a while now, what brought you back to Massey, Cass?”

  Cassidy took a breath, and when they stopped at an overlook, she took a moment to gather her thoughts. “I had a great career,” she told him quietly. “I didn’t get to do a lot of the things that I wanted to do like go into the field and chase storms, but I didn’t mind because I was in front of the camera and I got to work with production and direction.” She was chipping at the wood railing with her nail and chewed her lower lip as she thought about what to say. “I met my ex there.” Again, she went quiet. “I thought that we had something.” It didn’t feel nearly as real as the connection she felt to Travis, but that was beside the fact. “But I was wrong. We dated and then we got engaged. He moved up the food chain at the network and I became head meteorologist.” She shrugged. “Until the day that he brought his lover in and inserted him under me to train. Granted, I didn’t know that Miles and Scott were lovers, but who really does, right?