Rachel, Out of Office

by Christina Hovland

  She also paid on time and provided all the free lavender skin cream Rachel could ever need.

  This get-together was taking place in Rachel’s backyard. All the kids were bouncing on the trampoline, April poured margaritas, and Sadie served cookies she’d brought along from Heather’s Cookie Co.—the good kind with extra icing she got because she was friendly with the owner.

  “What are you confused about?” April asked, topping off Kaiya’s glass.

  “So Evelyn is just okay with everything because she thinks she accidentally gave you guys food poisoning?” Kaiya confirmed. “That seems unlike her, from what you’ve said.”

  She was right, it did seem unlike her. But it wasn’t about food poisoning. It was about Evelyn realizing things might just be okay anyway, even if she didn’t get her way.

  “That’s her excuse,” Rachel said with a sly smile. “But I think she came around because she realized her sons aren’t going to beat the crap out of each other over the situation between Travis and me.”

  “How do you feel about it all?” Sadie asked.

  “I have Travis. So things are pretty great.” Rachel settled back against her chair, gripping the cocktail with two hands.

  On the scale of great, things were magnificent. He’d found her toothbrush three times just that morning before she kicked him out before the boys woke up.

  He ate dinner with them every night in the week they’d been back—except two nights he had corporate dinners. On those nights, he stopped by afterward to say goodnight and give Rachel what he referred to as “a proper goodnight.”

  To be clear, there wasn’t much proper about the way he said goodnight. Hence the, ahem, magnificent.

  Even the thought made her cheeks heat and her heart flutter like it always had when a relationship was brand-new. The thing was, this relationship still had the flutter, but it was definitely not new.

  In truth, they’d been working toward it for years. She just hadn’t realized. For the record, the bedroom activities weren’t the only thing she adored about Travis. They were a definite perk, for sure, but more than that, he fit seamlessly into her life.

  Like he was always meant to be there. Like the splintered pieces of the life she’d planned all pointed straight to this place. To him, and to her boys, and to her family.

  “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I for one am really ticked off that you didn’t even try the produce thing,” Molly said with a huff.

  “What’s the produce thing?” Kaiya asked.

  “Don’t ask.” April held up her hand. “Trust me, it is not something any of us should entertain.”

  “Okay, what about this?” Molly shifted and faced April. “Car seat fittings.”

  “What?” April asked.

  Rachel pressed her tongue against her teeth so she wouldn’t ask questions. Asking questions when Molly had ideas was not a good choice.

  “We all love firefighters, right?” Molly asked. “I mean, did you see the calendar they did this year to raise money?” She fanned herself. “Do you know where a girl would go to meet a firefighter?”

  “I have no idea,” Kaiya said. “Where do you go?”

  Total mistake with all the questions.

  “To the firehouse. But you can’t just walk on in there unless something is on fire. Unless”—Molly held up her finger like she’d just had a brilliant idea—“there is a car seat fitting.”

  “You know what?” Kaiya said. “I went to one of those once and the guy who installed the seat was really cute and sweet. He even asked about special hand soap to get the gunk off his hands after he went on a call.”

  “What else did he ask about?” Molly zeroed in on Kaiya. “Did he ask for your number?”

  “Uh.” Kaiya looked from Rachel to April to Sadie. “Just so he could buy soap. He liked the idea of all-natural hand soap.”

  “Hon,” Molly sat forward, elbows on her knees. She set her margarita on the table. “When a man asks about hand soap, he probably wants your number.”

  “Here we go again,” Rachel said dramatically.

  “Just stop, Molly!” April laughed. “Next you’ll be telling her to go skydiving with Kent.”

  “Is he still doing that?” Molly asked.

  “All the freaking time.” April let out a long breath. “It’s just a midlife-crisis thing. He’ll get over it soon enough.”

  Rachel shivered. Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft was not her idea of a “midlife-phase” anything.

  No one needed to jump out of any moving transportation, as far as she was concerned. Not with the kids laughing in the background, fresh margaritas in the pitcher, and good friends to spend time with.

  Rachel felt an expansion in her chest. She closed her eyes, soaking it all in.

  “You know what?” Kaiya said finally. “I think Evelyn did get her way.”

  If there was one thing that could ruin the goodness soak, it was the mention of Evelyn.

  Rachel peeled one eye open.

  “I’m not quite sure how you got from A to B on this one,” Sadie said, popping a bit of cookie into her mouth. “But I want to hear it because it doesn’t involve skydiving, produce, or car seat fittings.”

  “Okay, hear me out. When you have a person who consistently acts in a certain way—always—and then all of a sudden they seem out of character, there’s something up. In this case, if we drill down Evelyn’s main plan, it wasn’t to keep Rachel and Travis apart, was it? It was to ensure that Travis and Gavin were happy, right?”

  This made sense. Rachel nodded.

  “I’m following you so far,” Sadie said.

  “Despite everything that happened, that end result has happened. So Evelyn did get what she wanted, just not in the way that we expected.”

  Huh. Rachel stared at Kaiya. She was totally right.

  And that was whacked.

  “What did you do before you sold skin cream?” Sadie asked.

  “I was head of pharmaceutical sales for a large medical supply company.” Kaiya licked at the margarita salt along the rim of her cup. “My ex always said I was a drug dealer. But that’s not really accurate, because I didn’t have access to the medications myself. I think he just thought it was funny. He was an ass, though, so his sense of humor was iffy.”

  The things you learned about a girl over margaritas and sugar cookies.

  “Hello, ladies.” Travis strode out the door, stopping to kiss Rachel on her temple. “Can I crash your party?”

  “You can always crash my parties.” Rachel glanced up at him.

  “Isn’t that good to know?” He nodded to the margaritas. “Are those for anyone?”

  “No,” Molly said. “They’re only for people we like. Therefore, you are welcome to one.”

  “Rach.” Gavin stepped out onto the patio. “Thought I’d pick up the boys a little early so this lug could take you to dinner. I didn’t realize they had friends over.”

  “For example,” Molly said to Travis. “They aren’t for your brother.”

  Travis shook his head. “He’ll grow on you, Ms. Molly.”

  “Not likely.” She shook her head, brown curls bouncing against her shoulders.

  “Mom,” Brady screeched. “Kellan spilled slime all over the trampoline.”

  “It’s in my hair,” Ollie squealed. He didn’t sound too torn up about that fact.

  Molly rolled her eyes and stood to go investigate. “They’ve been alone for like only sixty seconds.”

  Gavin followed her, as did April and Kaiya.

  Sadie said her goodbyes and headed toward the front door.

  “You two have a good night,” she hollered behind as she pulled the door closed.

  Rachel took in Travis. He was grinning a goofy smile. “Where’d they get slime?”

  “They kept
it from their birthday party.” She shrugged. The stuff was water-based. A good dose of the hose, and the slime would come right off.

  Only a month ago, she would’ve lost her utter shit over the slime situation. But it didn’t seem to matter as much these days. Not with the lightness she felt all the time.

  The happy.

  Oh, for sure, things were still a bit of a mess, but she was making do.

  She’d dipped into her emergency fund to make the mortgage payment, but James was looking to increase her hours—during regular business hours, of course—and things seemed promising with Kaiya. Even Sadie and April had asked if she could do some side jobs for them.

  Most of all, though, she’d been getting an appropriate amount of sleep at night. Therefore, the weight of her world didn’t feel quite so heavy.

  She stared at Travis. He wasn’t looking at her, though—he was watching the chaos happening at the trampoline.

  There was literally slime everywhere.

  Where the hell had they gotten so much of it?

  “I love you, Rach,” he said, out of the blue, but like he’d been trying to figure out how to say that for forever.

  Rachel’s heart seemed to stop beating for a moment, encapsulated in the feeling that she’d been alone, and now she wasn’t. Everything seemed to be all right in her extremely imperfect world.

  “Took you long enough,” she replied, finally catching his gaze and holding it. She savored the moment, because it was definitely a moment worth savoring.

  All the moments with Travis were.

  Then she stood, and kissed him.

  “I love you, too,” she said against his lips.

  She hoped, really hoped, this would be enough to get them through whatever the future tossed their way, because she had no doubt their story was only beginning. The last chapter ended for her, but it wasn’t the end. It simply led to the next part.

  There would be fractures, and splinters, and she’d probably want to invest in poisoned peach toaster tarts at some point.

  But, then again, that was the funny thing about perfection being measured by degrees. The imperfection—the ugly and dirty and messy parts—those are the bits and pieces that brought meaning to her life.

  She understood that now.

  The ugly parts were the ones that made the goodness shine extra bright.

  Epilogue

  Travis

  Four Months Later

  He was late, and that was unacceptable.

  Rachel was expecting him for dinner, but he’d gotten caught up with a supplier at the office.

  Finally off the phone, he grabbed his wallet and his keys and headed out the door.

  “Travis,” his mother called.

  He tried the box-breathing thing Rachel had showed him. It never really seemed to work.

  “Try this for me, sweetie.” She lifted a toaster tart to his mouth.

  He shook his head. “I’m late. Gotta get to Rachel.”

  “One bite. Tell me what you think.” Evelyn tried again, holding the pastry only millimeters from his mouth. “It’s for the airline.”

  “Seriously, I’ll try it later.”

  “When is the last time you ate?” she asked, following him as he moved to the elevator, still holding the tart to his mouth.

  “Lunch, Mama.” He pressed the button to call the elevator.

  “You go too long between meals.” She did not move the pastry from in front of his mouth. “There’s a correlation between sugary treats and the pleasure center of the brain. One bite produces oxytocin, dopamine, and raises your serotonin levels. I think if you ate the product we produce more often, you’d be a much happier man.”

  He was a very happy man, thank you.

  She didn’t move the pastry from his mouth.

  Fine.

  He took a bite.

  Then he gagged.

  Her newest Puffle Yum creation was not good. At all.

  Pastry dough with some kind of cream filling that held a ridiculously unappealing mouthfeel. The mini chocolate chips in the filling were not helping matters at all.

  “What is in that?” he asked, barely able to swallow the concoction.

  “Cinnamon toast with chocolate cannoli filling,” she said with pride, as though this were a good thing. “The perfect pie for the sky.”

  Travis did not believe in putting cannoli in a pop-up toaster. He had some standards. He also had dinner plans with Rachel.

  “Let’s rethink this one.” He gave the remaining tart a glare before stepping into the elevator.

  He beat foot out of the office. Then he hit every construction zone in downtown Denver while wishing he had grabbed a bottle of water to delete the taste of the toaster tart from his tongue.

  He had texted Rachel before he left the office, but she didn’t respond.

  Not that he expected her to, given that she’d made a new habit of keeping her phone away from the dinner table.

  Rachel now preferred to give her full focus to whatever it was she was doing.

  This new philosophy of hers worked out well for him, quite often. Especially when they were together in her bedroom.

  “Rachel?” he called from the front door of her house, toeing off his shoes.

  Usually, her house was filled to the brim with noise, and kids, and dogs when he arrived. Tonight it was quiet. Lately, Brady had been the first to barrel into him because they’d been going flying on the weekends.

  Brady was a natural.

  Rachel had warmed to the flying. She said something about how Brady had found his “thing” and she would embrace it.

  The look on the kid’s face was all smiles when he talked about his favorite airplanes—to anyone who would listen.

  Embracing her son’s adoration of aviation did not, however, mean going up in the single engines herself.

  Yet. Travis still held hope. Probably misplaced hope, given Rachel’s unwavering thoughts on the subject.

  Gavin even tagged along at the airport sometimes to see what all the fuss was about with Brady’s new extracurricular activity. Now, he would actually get in the planes. He got a kick out of it when Brady showed him the ropes.

  And he hadn’t missed any of Kellan’s games that season, at all.

  Dare Travis say that for the first time his family was…normal? Totally, obnoxiously normal.

  “Over here,” Rachel called from the dining room.

  “Sorry I’m late, I got caught up and lost track of…”

  He came around the corner to the dining room and paused. Rachel had set the table with her good dishes—and only for two. With candles. And they were lit. The boys must not have been on the premises, because there was no way she would’ve put fire right in front of them.

  “Hey.” She fidgeted with the fork beside one of the plates.

  She was all decked out in a little back slip of a dress that made him want to immediately peel it off so he could get a glimpse of what lay underneath. She’d tucked her hair up into a mess of curls that he guessed took her forever to create, because her hair was definitely not of the curled variety. Most of all, she seemed…nervous.

  “What’s going on?” He moved to her and kissed her firmly on the mouth.

  She melted against him like she always did when he kissed her.

  “I…” She heaved a deep breath. “Okay, so I have a little gift for you. I don’t want it to be a huge deal. You don’t even have to accept it. But the boys and I talked, and we all decided that it made sense. They spent all morning helping me clean out the garage.” The words spilled from her lips and made no sense at all.

  “Rach.” He placed his hands against her shoulders. “What are you talking about?”

  She handed him a small wrapped box from the middle of the table. “This is for you. It’s not just fr
om me, though. It’s from all of us, but they’re not here because Gavin took the boys to your parents’ house so you and I could have the night alone. He said something about your mom and cannoli. I stopped listening at that point.”

  A night alone with Rachel was a rare treat. A night alone with Rachel made him plot what they’d do next.

  Spoiler, it probably wouldn’t involve food.

  Then again, maybe it might…

  “Does that mean we get to have a sleepover?” he asked, hoping his eyes held the glimmer of excitement he felt in his bones.

  Rachel nodded toward the box. “Open the box.”

  He ripped off the paper and held up a garage door opener. He raised his eyebrows.

  “There’s now room in the garage for your car. And there’s this—” She handed him a large framed sign that matched the others she’d made for the house.

  Turning it over, he studied the craftmanship. The vinyl words she’d added to the cream background read, The Perfect Blend, Travis, Rachel, Kellan, Brady.

  “It’s for the entryway. So everyone knows you live here, too.” She was wringing her hands again.

  His pulse started pounding in his ears. Did she mean…?

  “If you want to live here, too,” she added quickly.

  He stood in stunned quiet.

  She wanted this?

  Yes, of course, he wanted this, but he hadn’t been certain that she wanted this.

  “Ask me again,” she whispered, knocking him out of his funk.

  Travis’s heart did a ka-thump that he was pretty sure wasn’t healthy.

  “Rachel.” Her name on his lips came with a heavy dose of southern that he wasn’t able to filter out, even if he’d wanted to. He stared at the sign she’d made like she’d crafted it from gold and diamonds instead of reclaimed wood and vinyl.

  “I’m ready now,” she continued.

  She didn’t look ready. She looked nervous as all hell, what with the way she worried her bottom lip and continued to wring her hands.

  Then she crossed her arms at her middle, and that was unacceptable.

  She didn’t have to hold herself up alone anymore. They held each other up now.