“In my house,” she said finally.
“It is not what you think.” Rachel, still not looking up, gripped the back of Kellan’s chair until her knuckles turned white.
“I think you two have been carrying on right under my nose this entire time.” Evelyn shoved her hands on her hips, staring Rachel down.
“Well, then, I guess it’s exactly what you think,” Travis said.
Now it was Rachel’s turn to shove her hands onto her hips. “Trav…”
“What’s carrying on?” Brady asked.
“It’s like what Uncle Dave did with that lady at the park that one time.” Kellan was thinking so hard he was going to break his brain. “Back behind the dugout.”
“This is not about me.” Dave held up both hands. “I’m just here because Dakota took the car, so I don’t have a way to leave.”
“Rachel?” Gavin asked, his eyebrows falling. “Since when do you call him Trav?”
Okay, so Gavin got a little leeway, since he’d been involved in his own drama. But Rachel’s life was currently imploding, just like his relationship with Dakota. So she also deserved a little leeway.
“Since we became a couple,” Rachel said to the back of Kellan’s chair.
The room went silent. A heavy, wet blanket with weight even Dakota’s dramatic departure couldn’t touch.
Even both boys were quiet, and that never happened.
“Boys,” Rachel said. “Why don’t you head outside and play?”
“They are fine. They need to hear this, too.” Evelyn stuck her nosey nose right where it didn’t belong. “They’re old enough to understand that their uncle Travis and their mother are an item.”
“Like Dad and Dakota?” Brady asked.
Well, without the whole door slamming and the throwing of the ring.
“Both of you, go outside and play.” Rachel grabbed the bowls from the table and went to rinse them in the sink.
“C’mon boys, this is a grown-up talk.” Gavin gave Rachel a look with a subtle head bob. He had her back on this.
She wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. Mostly good. Unexpected. But good.
Thankfully, both boys seemed to get the vibe in the room and headed outside. The soles of her feet itched to follow them. Instead, she went back to cleaning the dishes.
“I care about her,” Travis announced. “A lot.”
Rachel stopped rinsing Brady’s bowl, seemed to stop functioning altogether. She glanced up at Travis. He was staring at her intently.
He cared about her, and he wasn’t afraid to say it in front of everyone.
She gulped. The water poured over her hands, over the now-empty bowl, to swirl down the drain.
“I’m not entirely sure how she feels about me, but I want to make it clear that I care deeply for her.” Travis continued his announcement like it wasn’t a big deal.
It was, in fact, a big deal.
Huge, even.
“No.” Evelyn’s word was curt, to the point. “This is unacceptable.”
“Mama,” Gavin said, setting his bowl aside. “Let’s hear them out.”
Rachel turned to look at Gavin, and his warm brown eyes rested on her. They weren’t angry. She wasn’t quite sure what they were, but they weren’t upset.
“If they want to talk about it,” he continued.
Rachel didn’t. She didn’t want to talk about it with Evelyn, etc.
Not until she talked about it with Travis. They should’ve formed a plan when he’d suggested it. Then things wouldn’t have gone wildly off script.
“What will the boys call you now, Travis?” Evelyn was all piss and vinegar and southern sour. “Unca-Daddy? Unca-Step?”
“Mama.” Gavin set his bowl aside and stepped forward. “This is uncalled for.”
“What is uncalled for is your brother and your Rachel—”
“She’s not my Rachel.” Gavin stared down Evelyn in a way that Rachel had never seen before. Stared her down and stood right up to her.
“I’m no one’s Rachel,” Rachel said. “I’m my Rachel. I’m the mother of Brady and Kellan. And Travis and I are a couple, and we’re figuring things out, and we were waiting to announce it because we knew this, this right here, is what would happen. You’d lose your mind. It’d drip into the boys’ lives, and people would get hurt.”
“Mom,” Brady squealed from outside. He ran straight to the door of the kitchen that led to the back patio. “Kellan’s sick.”
Rachel quickly dried her hands and hurried toward the door.
“He threw up all over,” Brady went on. “It’s like a peach ate gummy bear ice cream and it exploded everywhere.” He made dramatic hand motions to illustrate the point.
Wonderful. Ridiculous Evelyn and her toaster tarts, and ridiculous Gavin and his breakup drama, and her ridiculous clients with their demands—
All of a sudden, Brady’s face turned the funky shade of green it always turned right before…
“No, no, no,” Rachel said under her breath.
She reached for the trash basket kept under the sink. Then she lunged toward Brady.
No one else moved, but Dave asked, “Is he going to—”
That’s when it happened. Brady followed in Kellan’s footsteps and, because he was Brady, his lack of aim was impressive when it came to all bodily fluids.
He did not hit the trash can. He did hit the floor. Also, Gavin’s shoes.
Mostly, Rachel caught the mess in her hand.
She gritted her teeth.
But she did not break.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Motherhood should come with a warning that you’ll be forced to take a crash course in Bodily Fluids 101 from the School of Life.” — Angela, Saskatchewan, Canada
Rachel
Rachel’s life was the perfect symphony of defective and she was the conductor. Yes, someone had seriously tossed handfuls of dysfunction glitter all over her, and that shit got in everything. It was, apparently, also impossible to get out.
All the Franks—including Evelyn and Bob—had come down with whatever virus had joined them on their vacation. Rachel had been up all night taking care of them, because of her titanium stomach and an immune system not fueled by toaster tarts.
After Brady’s impressive demonstration in the kitchen, they’d all fallen like dominoes. Click. Click. Click. One Frank after another.
Rachel had started a log for each of them to document their medication usage, temperature, and any other pertinent information. Given that she hadn’t slept all night, she’d seriously started to worry she’d forget who was who. Writing everything down became extra important.
She sent the dogs to stay in her bedroom so they wouldn’t get in the way. Because when it all went down, they seriously got in the way.
Like, a lot.
“Rach?” Gavin rolled over on the leather sofa where she’d set up his triage station. That’s what she called it in her mind, anyway. It sounded more impressive than “his spot on the sofa.”
She’d just checked his temperature—it was finally under a hundred. She was pretty sure he’d be holding down some fluids soon.
It’d hit him last, but it’d hit him hard when he finally went under.
“What’s up?” She set a cup of ice chips beside him on the coffee table.
Gavin started to sit. “I can take over.”
Rachel pushed him back down. “I’m good for a while longer. Rest. Then I’ll catch a nap. The worst seems to be over.”
Well, for most everyone.
Travis’s triage station was still in the bathroom. She’d set him up with a pillow on the floor and a couple of blankets.
Mostly, he wanted to be left alone. She knew this because he requested that exact thing. She still required temperature checks so she could be sur
e he wasn’t going in the wrong direction.
Evelyn and Bob had eventually moved back to their bedroom, but Evelyn had a bell to ring for Rachel. The bell thing was super lovely. Insert all the sarcasm.
“Ask Mom,” Kellan said with a huff to something Rachel hadn’t caught and probably didn’t want to know. “I gave back the gummy bears. You can go get them out of the trash whenever you want.”
“No, you may not,” Rachel said, tucking their blankets back around them. She positioned the two of them on the sofa across from Gavin. Brady at one end, Kellan at the other.
The boys, because they were boys, were bouncing back quicker than the rest.
Having everyone in the same room was easier for her to manage. She’d even set up the other couch for Travis, when he decided to get up off the floor and join them.
He wasn’t going to his bedroom because she was not giving him a bell. One bell per virus was plenty.
Also, when this was all over, Rachel was not allowing gummy bears ever, ever again. The boys could have them when they were old enough to vote. Not a second before.
Yes, she understood it was not the gummy bears’ fault that everyone got sick, but she couldn’t ban toaster tarts. She had to draw the line somewhere.
“We should play video games,” Gavin said, directing this statement to the boys. “You think we can convince your mom to set us up out here with a console?”
Yes, they could. Because if they were well enough to play video games, they were well enough for her to go crash for a while. At least, until Travis peeled himself off the floor or Evelyn rang her bell.
“Yesssss,” Brady said, his gaze settling on his dad. “We have this new game that makes everyone happy. Even Mom.”
“‘Cause she gets five minutes of peace,” Kellan parroted in a voice that sounded remarkably like Rachel’s, if she did say so herself.
She couldn’t help it, even in the midst of the destruction of their vacation, she smiled.
And wasn’t that really what motherhood was all about?
“Ha.” Rachel set up one of her hey-so-you-threw-up packets on the floor beside Kellan. It included a bowl, a wet washcloth, and nitrile gloves she’d stolen from the first aid kit—because she’d learned her lesson on not wearing those in the kitchen with Brady.
“I kind of wanted to talk to you both about Dakota first.” Gavin gave Rachel a look that seemed like he was asking for backup.
Actually, she was really interested in this conversation, too. So she was happy to give him that backup.
Gavin stared at his hands, fidgeting with them over the top of the blanket. “We broke up. She’s not going to be around to see you boys anymore.”
His words held strength, but Rachel heard the hurt beneath them. Gavin was in pain. It wasn’t just his stomach. And that sucked.
“She’s really upset about that,” Gavin continued. “The not seeing you anymore.”
Not from what Rachel had heard. She was upset about a lot, but none of it had seemed to revolve around the boys or the dogs. But whatever Gavin needed to tell himself, and the boys, to lighten the blow of losing her.
“Okay,” Kellan said, nodding.
“Sorry, Dad,” Brady followed. “She was nice.”
Then they went back to watching whatever animated show they’d found on Netflix. Like Gavin hadn’t just given them information that was seriously going to change their lives.
Gavin was blinking hard. And a whole lot.
“Are you okay?” Rachel sat at the end of the sofa where he stretched out. He didn’t look okay, but she couldn’t think of what else to ask him.
“I’m…”
“It’s okay not to be okay,” Rachel said, softly, so only Gavin could hear.
Fine. Maybe she said the words for herself a little, too.
Even pale, even exhausted, he gave her a sad smile. “That’s a very Rachel thing to say.”
“Is it?” She tilted her head to the side, studying him.
He nodded. Then he cleared his throat. “How’s Travis holding up?”
Presently he was lying down. On the tile floor of the bathroom. At least, that’s where she’d left him when she peeked in on him last.
“Apparently, he prefers silence while he recovers.” Rachel slid her gaze toward the hallway leading to the restroom where he’d taken up residence. “I’ve been checking on him, though.”
“He always did prefer to do things his way.” Gavin closed his eyes for a minute.
So did Gavin, if he decided to be honest with himself, but now was clearly not the time to point that out.
“Once you’re well enough, we can go someplace and talk about what’s happening between Travis and me. If you want to,” Rachel said, toying with the edge of the blanket. “It sounds like you and I have both had an eventful summer.”
“Eventful” being the least appropriate word ever.
Gavin didn’t say anything for a bit; he seemed to be intently studying the wall behind Rachel.
“Are you happy with him?” he finally asked.
The way he said it sounded like her answer really mattered.
But that question was an easy one. “Yes. He makes me really happy.”
“Then that’s what counts.” Gavin smiled. It seemed forced, but he was trying, and she appreciated that more than she’d ever be able to show.
The bone-deep satisfaction she experienced at Gavin’s willingness to let her be happy made her smile. Maybe they could be real friends, beyond just co-parents.
“I thought you might be more upset about it,” she said, not able to meet his gaze.
“I knew you’d meet someone eventually. I’m not thrilled it’s Travis.” Gavin glanced at her. “I wish it were anyone but one of my brothers. But he makes you happy. You’re both important to me. Your happiness is important to me. I’ll deal with the rest of it, so it doesn’t affect what you’ve built for our family.”
“What have I built?” She had an idea of what she felt like they’d constructed as a team, she was just suddenly really curious what he thought, too.
“You built a pretty awesome situation for our boys. They know they’re loved. They know you’ll be there for them. I wish I could say that I had a huge hand in it, but I don’t think that’s true. Mostly, it’s you, Rachel.”
Rachel swallowed hard. “You’re not giving yourself enough credit.”
They both sat in silence, the only sound the television the boys were watching nearby.
This was how it should’ve been. Well, without the vomit and convalescence part. Two parents, two kids, two dogs, the television on in the background. Nothing falling apart for a change. And yet…
“I think I’m falling in love with your brother,” she said, the words surprisingly easy, given the weight they held.
Gavin looked at her like she’d just suggested they all eat toaster tarts for dinner. “That’s good, because I’m pretty sure he’s already there.”
“You think?” He seriously thought so?
Gavin nodded, a sly smile tipping the edges of his mouth. “He’s in pretty deep. Deeper than I’ve ever seen him.”
Her heart seemed to expand, even though she was pretty sure nothing had changed at all. And that was…that was…
Her eyes got a little wet. She parted her lips. Then pressed them together.
“Thank you,” she said. Meaning every bit of the words.
“For what?”
“For starting me down this path.” She would not cry. Refused to do it.
“You know, Rach, I didn’t want to stay away. But I didn’t want to make your life harder, either. You always seemed like you preferred it when I stepped back so you could run the show.”
She stilled. That’s what he thought?
The sticky, bitter taste of regret seemed to coat her tongue.
“That’s not what I wanted at all.”
She wanted her kids to have their dad. To have everything.
When Gavin had stepped back, she’d done all she could to fill that gap. Maybe…did she not need to?
They did the silent thing again until she stood to go check on Travis.
Was she the one making things harder than they needed to be? She was, she knew. And she hadn’t even realized it.
Suddenly, she really wanted to check on Travis, to ensure he was okay.
She drew a deep breath. This conversation with Gavin was just really uncomfortable, and she wanted to get away from it. From failing.
So she did the hard thing. She sat back down. “I’m sorry you thought that’s what I wanted.”
“Besides, it’s not me you need to worry about on the Rachel and Travis front.” Gavin pursed his lips, then gave a wry smile. “It’s Mama. She’s got ideas for all her little chicks, and Mother Hen did not have designs on you ending up with her Travis.”
Rachel sucked in a breath. “What do you think I should do about her?”
“Well, I think you and Travis have to decide together what’s important and what’s not. If she’s important—and, I kinda think she should be, but it’s not my call—then you work it out with her.”
That was a problem, then, because, “I have no idea how to work anything out with your mom.”
“Show her how much you care for Travis. She’ll come around.”
Rachel nodded. She could do that. She wasn’t sure it would be enough, but it was something she could do.
“It won’t hurt the situation that all I want, Rach, is for you to be happy.” This time he smiled a genuine smile. “If that means it’s with Travis, then it means you’re happy with Travis. He’s a good guy.”
“That’s not what you used to say.” In fact, that was the opposite of what he used to say.
Gavin shrugged. “He takes things too casually at work. But I assume he’s treating you right, and it helps the way he looks at you like you’re everything. He’s never looked at anyone that way.”
That brought a whole dash of wet to her eyes.
“I want the same for you. The happiness,” she said.
Rachel, Out of Office Page 24