Her throat didn’t seem to be capable of swallowing all of a sudden. She had to force it.
“You can’t promise that,” she said.
She was pretty sure she was the only one capable of it. Sometimes Gavin, but he was sure iffy lately.
“I can promise that I’ll do everything I can to keep your kids safe when they’re in my plane,” Travis said, expression solemn like he was at church confessing to sins that would make the most experienced priest blush down to his toes. “And you too.”
Oh.
That was…
Dave had never said anything like that.
He loved them. But…
“I promise you that,” he said.
Without saying anything else, and leaving her standing there like a statue, Travis turned to climb into the pilot seat, buckling in before slipping on his headset.
Okay, so that declaration totally did make her tummy do the flippy-do, howdy-ho.
She rolled her lips again and crossed her arms around her middle, holding herself up like she’d done so many times before since the boys were born.
Chapter Eleven
“Becoming a mom is a lot like jumping into cold water. At first it takes your breath away…but then you get used to it.” — Anonymous Mom, Georgia, USA
Rachel
Despite Rachel’s intense discomfort, the flight was not awful. They didn’t even crash or anything.
The whole group arrived at the Frank residence in black SUVs that waited for them at the little airport. The place hadn’t changed since the last time she’d been there when the babies were first born.
Stone and wood with the rock-lined staircase leading to the front door remained the same. The huge bank of windows facing the mountain hadn’t changed either. They’d built the house with one thought in mind—make it massive and make it permanent.
Though the house was enormous, precise placement of the trees made it blend right in with the rest of the forest. Green pine and juniper trees everywhere with crisp mountain air that smelled amazing—clean and bright—but tended to make her light-headed, what with the lack of oxygen this high on the mountain.
Travis disconnected from a call and strode next to Rachel, where she stood at the base of the staircase leading to the enormous front door. The boys were going bananas running through the trees, kicking up the gravel of the driveway on their way across and making enough noise that it sounded like there were substantially more than two of them. She figured she’d let them get it all out of their system and blow off some steam with the dogs before they went inside.
Less opportunity to break Evelyn’s stuff, and all that.
“I’ve been thinking about Brady,” Travis said as chauffeurs from the service that had picked them up at the airport unloaded bags and hauled them inside the house.
Rachel closed her eyes. Damn. She didn’t want to talk to Travis about Brady. Because she’d already used her quota of nos that day, and she had a hunch she was about to use a bunch more.
“What have you been thinking?” Rachel asked, tilting her head to indicate they should probably go inside.
He clearly wasn’t ready yet, because he didn’t head that way. Instead, he glanced at her sneakered feet.
What was up with that?
“Are you up for walking and talking?” he asked, pointing toward the copse of trees with an opening and a path leading through.
Oh. Okay. Sure. She could walk and say no at the same time. Except…
Rachel looked to the stairs leading to the entry arch, then to her boys screaming up an entire hour of pent-up third-grader energy. “I’m on duty.”
“I’ve got the boys,” Dave said from the top of the stairs. He waved Travis and Rachel away. “You two have a nice chat.”
Rachel turned a bit of side-eye toward Travis.
He squirmed.
What could she say? She was a pro at side-eye. It came with being a mother.
“He’s in on whatever you’re going to want to talk to me about, isn’t he?” Rachel asked, not thrilled about the idea of taking off with Travis or having him and Dave tag team her on parenting choices.
“He is.” Travis apparently succumbed to the tug of the wilderness and moved toward a trail at the east edge of the property.
“The boys need to run around for a while longer before they go inside,” she said to Dave.
He nodded. “Got it.”
“And no sugar before dinner.”
He nodded again. “You’re the boss.”
“Don’t let them unpack the suitcases until I get back. I have a system.” It was a good system that ensured the clothes didn’t get all tossed into one pile in the middle of the room. Which was the way they’d prefer to live.
Dave saluted. “Consider it not done.”
Travis paused at the entry to the trail, apparently waiting for her to catch up. She hurried to meet him there. He, however, didn’t seem in a hurry to talk.
They walked in silence for a bit, the crunch of pine needles under their feet, the rustle of the trees, and a bird chirp here and there the only sounds.
The peace was…peaceful.
April would totally love it.
She made a mental note to tell April all about it the next time they talked. She needed to check in with her friend anyway, since her husband had been taking extended work trips over the past month. Rachel understood more than most how it felt to manage everything alone. To have the whole world fall on her shoulders.
Travis still said nothing. Of course he didn’t. She had his number. He was waiting for her to talk first. Negotiating with her mini-tyrants had taught her a lot about keeping her mouth shut and waiting them out.
The trail opened up to a vast swath of beach along one edge of the smaller lake. A sensation of falling hit her as she took in the view. The jolt of mountain gorgeous seriously knocked the air out of her.
She gasped. A good gasp. The kind of sound that came from witnessing beauty of this magnitude. Unlike the house that was in-your-face enormous, the panoramic view was pure serenity.
Rachel gaped as she turned a semicircle to take in the lake, mountains, and endless sky. “I forgot how beautiful this place is.”
A breeze blew light ripples along the surface of the water, and only a few boats in the distance disturbed the scene. Insects made touch-and-go landings on the ripples, risking their lives for a taste of the water.
Risking their lives because at any moment a rainbow trout could pop right up like the Puffle Yum Momster and grab its dinner.
Still pretty, though.
“The new dock is around those trees. We spend a lot of time on the lake during the summer. I’ll teach the boys to water-ski this year if you want,” he said.
Water-skiing?
“I’ve never been.” Rachel started toward the dock.
Travis shoved his hands in his pockets, like he seemed to always do around her. “Then I’ll teach you.”
The offer snagged in the air between them. He wanted to teach her to water-ski? What would his mother’s fake cat have to say about that?
“We’ll see,” she said in lieu of an agreement. “What was the thing you wanted to talk to me about for Brady?” Rachel continued her trek in the direction of the dock—away from the trail. The pull of the water was intense.
Back in college, she’d swum on the competitive team. That was long before she’d gotten pregnant. Back then things were as simple as diving into deep water and swimming away her cares.
“I’d like to take him up a few times in my single-engine.” Travis cleared his throat. “Let him get the feel for flying in a small aircraft.”
Rachel’s heart seemed to stop beating.
“Dave liked the idea, too,” he continued.
She stilled. Swallowed. Blinked. “I know I’m suppose
d to say yes, but I’m not going to say yes.”
“Do you want me to quote you some statistics about the safety of flying?” he asked. “Because I’d be happy to.”
She just bet he would. That didn’t change anything, though.
“I know the statistics say it’s safe.” Rachel grabbed a stick from the ground and broke off small pieces, tossing them aside as they walked along. “But statistics don’t help when it’s my kid up in the sky in a piece of metal with a single engine.”
“But you take that same kid in a piece of metal with an engine down I-70 at seventy-five miles an hour?” Travis asked, trotting to keep up with her pace.
She nodded and tossed the whole stick aside. “I see your point. I acknowledge your point. I even agree with your point.” She turned to him. “But the answer is still no.”
“You’re being unreasonable,” he said, crossing his arms and glowering, his brown eyes boring into her.
He couldn’t ask her to trust him with her kid. Not Travis, of all people.
“You have no idea how unreasonable I can be,” she said.
“I think I have a fair idea.” He let enough southern into his accent to piss her off further and make her heart beat faster.
Trust was earned and he, he absolutely hadn’t earned it. As a matter of fact—
“Then I guess I’ll ask Gavin,” he said.
“Seriously?” She shoved her hands onto her waist. “Play the go-to-dad game?”
He stared at the water, seeming to track one of the boats in the distance. “I don’t play games. But this is important. That kid had stars in his eyes when he started talking about planes. It’s in his blood.”
She’d seen the stars, too. They made her throat clog with motherhood-induced panic.
“That doesn’t happen for everybody.” Travis stood closer to her. A little too close. She could smell his brand of achingly woodsy cologne. It mixed with the low oxygen content of the mountain air, and the combination made her not want to argue anymore. Her traitorous body wanted to do other things with him. Inappropriate Molly-type things.
She moved a couple of inches away.
He seemed to get the point and moved a few inches in the other direction.
“Brady’s safety is important to me,” she said through gritted teeth.
He turned on her, hands on his hips. “You don’t think his safety is important to me, too?”
Not the same way it was for her. He didn’t have the same investment.
“Right. Uncle Travis. Understands the significance of safety.” She let out a laugh.
“You know, Rach—” Travis took the stairs up to the dock and walked to the edge. “You put too much weight on the wrong shit. You worry about the wrong stuff.”
He had no idea what she put weight on or why. Why the safety of her kids mattered more than any other thing on the planet.
“And you don’t know anything about it.” She crossed her arms under her breasts.
He held her glare with his own. “I know that I’d never let anything happen to my nephews.”
Except he wanted to take her son up in the sky. A sky with gravity. Gravity that would pull him back to earth—fast. “And I know I’d never let you have the chance to hurt them.”
The harsh tone of her words seemed to leave a bruise, given his pained expression.
“You think I’d hurt them?” he asked.
“I think you’re too invested in nothing not to.” Rachel stared at her image reflecting back on the water’s surface.
God, she missed the water. Missed who she’d been in the water.
Free.
She’d been free.
Travis started back toward the beach, clearly expecting her to follow.
She didn’t follow. Just stared at the ripples of the water, counting them.
One, Gavin’s not here.
Two, Brady wants to fly.
Three, Travis can’t take him.
Four, there is nowhere to cry.
She heaved a breath and turned, ready to step off the dock to the beach. The mountain beaches weren’t the ocean kind with small, pebbled sand that stuck to your skin. These were muddy beaches with rocks. Lots and lots of rocks.
Rocks and the pull of the water.
She looked back at the lake.
Screw it.
She pulled her top over her head, revealing a black tank top underneath.
“What exactly are you doing?” Travis asked. “My mother could come around that corner at any second.”
Instinct seemed to kick in and he did a scan of the beach and trail, apparently to be sure his mother wasn’t going to pop out from behind a juniper tree. He could chill. She wouldn’t take off all her clothes.
“I’m going swimming.” Rachel pulled off her shoes, setting them beside her shirt. “I’m having fun. Because, apparently, I take shit too seriously.”
And the water screamed for her to let it soothe the ache of motherhood that rooted so deep she thought it would pull her under.
…
Travis
Fucking hell, was this the moment they were going to deal with that?
“You can’t skinny-dip in the middle of the day.” Travis did a wide wave with his arm. “There are boats out here.”
Also, his mother’s fake cat would have a whole basket full of kittens. Hell, if he had a fake cat, she would probably have kittens, too.
Rachel gave a sound that sounded like pshaw. “Oh, does me having fun bother you? Make you uncomfortable?”
She frowned and lines around her eyes, that he’d never noticed before, deepened. When’d she get those? And why did she have frowny lines instead of laugh lines? He blamed Gavin.
“Rachel, this is enough.” Before he could ask her nicely to reconsider, she turned and did another scan of the water.
“How deep is this?”
Uh. “Deep enough for a speedboat.”
They hadn’t moved the family boats over yet. Actually, he’d need to chat with the head of maintenance to find out why.
Still wearing only her shorts and the tank top, she dove into the lake like she was an Olympic swimmer.
Her form was spot-on and she hit the water with her freestyle stroke ready to go.
Travis gulped.
Then he turned back toward the trail.
Then he turned back toward the water.
Trail. Water. Trail. Water.
He decided he should probably—as a southern gentleman—ensure that she did not drown.
“Are you coming in?” She turned, treading water several lengths from the edge of the dock.
He shoved his hands onto his hips. “I am not.”
Her blond hair hung around her shoulders, meeting at the waterline to fan around her. Somehow her pink lipstick was still intact.
Pink lipstick that probably tasted like sunshine.
No. He could not think shit like that.
Just because he figured she tasted like sunshine didn’t mean he was going to go licking her to find out.
Once at Casa Bonita, he’d wondered what the enchiladas tasted like on Kellan’s plate. Nope, didn’t taste those, just let his mind wonder and moved on.
“Forgot how to swim?” Rachel asked, still treading water.
“I can swim,” he called.
“Then you’re just a scaredy-cat.” She laughed, floating on her back, and her boobs were so right there, two mounds above the water, and he was really wishing she would go back to the treading water thing.
“My mama terrifies me.”
Then Rachel, serious as all hell Rachel, did the one thing he did not expect.
Rachel meowed.
He couldn’t let that stand. He was not a scaredy-cat. What was he telling his mama about limits and how he didn’t lik
e abiding by them?
Rachel laughed like he’d never heard her laugh before. “Your face. You should see your face.”
He wanted her to laugh like that. Laugh lines, not frown lines, should find their way into her expressions.
“Get out of the way,” he instructed, waving her aside.
She did as he asked, doing a side-swim to the north.
“I jump in this lake and you promise to seriously reconsider letting Brady fly.” Hell, might as well negotiate with her when he could.
As she moved aside, he was already unhooking his belt and pulling down his jeans.
“No.” She shook her head.
The black boxers he was wearing had to count as swimming trunks of some variety. He yanked his shirt over his head and cannonballed into the lake.
It. Was. Fucking. Cold.
He pushed himself up to the surface, sputtering and cussing at the cold.
“You didn’t say it was f-f-freezing.”
She lifted a shoulder and splashed him. “Meow.”
She moved to splash him again, and he caught her wrist in his hand before she could complete the motion. A zing of something that felt like a live electrical wire moved through him when their skin connected.
Suddenly, the lake wasn’t really that cold anymore.
Neither of them said anything, and she wasn’t laughing anymore. They clearly weren’t thinking of cats or airplanes. They were both there, in a lake, and he was holding her…wrist.
Without thinking further, he treaded through the foot of water separating them until there were only a few inches between them. He slid his hand along the inside of her wrist up to her palm until their hands met and he linked their fingers together.
Her mouth parted.
He was hard in spite of the chill of the lake.
And he didn’t fucking care.
He stroked the fleshy part of her palm with his thumb. “Do you want to meow at me again?”
She shook her head. It was subtle, but there. “I’m good.”
He grinned.
“Glad we settled that.”
Rachel’s free hand skimmed along his side, pulling him closer to her. Any closer and she’d feel… Her eyes went wide.
Rachel, Out of Office Page 12