by Ginna Gray
He slanted her a disgruntled look. "Cute, Rebecca. Real cute. In case you didn't notice, that is one tenacious female. Short of being brutal, I doubt she would have accepted that, and I don't like hurting women."
Rebecca looked at him sharply, and had to battle down a bubble of hysterical laughter. She wanted to point out that he had hurt her plenty of times. Even now, he was more concerned about a stranger's feelings than hers.
But she didn't. Mainly because she knew it was true. With the exception of herself, Travis was a cream puff where women were concerned. A modern-day Sir Galahad in sneakers and holey jeans.
"Okay, I accept that, but why me?"
Travis shrugged. "You just happened to come in at the right time. It's no big deal." They reached the marina, and he guided her down the correct pier.
"No big deal? But don't you see what a mess you've gotten us into? Now Pepe and Constanza think that we're in love and that we're... well... living together."
"We are living together."
"You know perfectly well what I mean. They think we're going to be married. And regardless of what Pepe said, sooner or later they're sure to slip and say something to Erin and Elise. Knowing Pepe, probably sooner."
"Don't worry. I'll handle it.'' They reached the boat and Travis jumped aboard, then extended a hand to assist Rebecca. "First thing tomorrow morning I'll come back and explain that I made the whole thing up to get Bootsie off my back."
"Fine. You do that."
"Will you quit worrying about it? It was just a harmless deception. You're acting Like it's the end of the world."
"I am not. I just wish you hadn't involved me, is all." Rebecca settled herself on the padded seat and gave an annoyed sniff. "It does seem to me that a man with your experience with women could have handled the situation in a more straightforward manner."
"I handled the situation just fine. So just shut up about it," he snapped, and switched on the engine.
Rebecca pressed her lips together and fell into an offended silence. Not that it mattered. Ignoring her, Travis opened the throttle all the way the instant they cleared the harbor, sending the boat pounding over the choppy waves and making conversation impossible.
She was still smarting when they reached Rincon, and when they stepped out of the boathouse onto the pier, she turned to Travis, her expression stiff. "You will straighten this mess out with the Moralleses first thing tomorrow, won't you?"
"Dammit! I said I would, didn't I?"
"You don't have to shout. I just wanted to be sure."
"Don't worry. I'll explain. It shouldn't be too difficult to convince them that there's nothing between us. What man in his right mind would want to cozy up to an icicle like you?"
Rebecca sucked in her breath and stepped back, her face stricken.
"That's a rotten thing to say." Her voice, barely above a whisper, quavered emotion.
"What's the matter? Can't take the truth?"
"It's not true. It's not!"
"No? Well if that kiss back at Pepe's is anything to go by, if s no wonder you're divorced," Travis taunted. "Hell, even a cold customer like Evan Hall needs a responsive woman in his bed, not a marble statue,"
Rebecca struggled to swallow the hurt and the anger, but for once she could not. "You know nothing!" she said in a furious voice that rose steadily in volume and intensity. "Not about my marriage and not about me. Do you hear me, Travis McCall? You know nothing! So just shut up!"
"I know-"
"I said shut up!" she shrieked, and lunged forward.
She caught him off-guard, ramming him stiff-armed, her flat palms striking him square in the chest, and shoved with all her might. He went staggering backward. For a moment he teetered on the edge of the pier, arms flailing, his expression comically shocked. Rebecca burst into tears, grabbed her bags and took off up the pier at a dead run an instant before he lost the battle with momentum and gravity and toppled over.
By the time Travis hauled himself back up onto the pier, she had disappeared inside the house. He stood there, wiping his face and dripping sea water. It collected in a puddle around his feet, only one of which was still in a shoe.
"Dammit. These were my favorite deck shoes," he muttered, wringing out the tail of his T-shirt.
He looked toward the house and shook his head. Rebecca had actually pushed him into the water. And shrieked at him like a fishwife. Amazing. Never, not in his wildest dreams, would he have guessed that she had that kind of fire in her.
No, that wasn't quite true. Not after that kiss. He had tasted the passion in her then, and it had thrown him for a loop. Travis pulled both hands down over his face. Ah, hell, he might as well admit it—so had his own response. He hadn't expected to feel anything, and he hadn't liked it when he had. Which was why he'd said all those nasty things to her.
He grimaced, remembering. Immediately, remorse and shame flooded him. Never in his whole life had he treated a woman so poorly, not even Rebecca. "Dammit, McCall. What the devil is the matter with you lately?" he muttered.
But he knew. He'd lashed out instinctively in self-defense. He sighed and wrung out his hair. "Stupid, masculine self-defense. And ego." He'd been so sure all these years that he had her pegged. It wasn't an easy thing, finding out that he might have been wrong, even if it was only about her ability to respond sexually.
Travis sighed. Bad as he hated to admit it, he owed her an apology. He glanced at the house again. After that little fracas, the chances of her still being in the living room were poor to nil. She was probably holed up in her room with the door barricaded, bawling her eyes out.
He found the thought strangely disturbing, and his guilty conscience pricked him even more. Who could blame her? Rebecca Quinn may be a stiff-necked, cold, pain-in-the-butt, but she didn't deserve the things he'd said to her.
Glumly, Travis started up the pier, his one shoe squishing. It was probably for the best though that he put his apology on hold, as upset as she was. He'd give her tonight to calm down and talk to her tomorrow morning.
First thing, he told himself, and ignored the little voice in his head that whispered, Coward.
* * *
Travis arose early the next morning. Like a child bracing for a dose of bad medicine, throughout his shower, and while he was getting dressed, he rehearsed his apology. Determined to get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible, he marched down the hall with his jaw set, muttering the stilted little speech over and over.
He expected to find Rebecca in the kitchen preparing her breakfast, but she wasn't there. He came to a halt in the center of the living room and planted his fists on his hips, thoroughly aggravated. The kitchen was neat as a pin, but the half-full pot of coffee, told him that she had already eaten and gone.
Cursing under his breath, Travis stomped out on the deck and scanned the beach in both directions. It took a while, but he finally spotted her, sitting huddled on the sand with her arms wrapped around her updrawn legs. Travis scowled. What the devil was she doing down there? Hell, it was barely dawn. The sun hadn't even cleared the horizon yet.
He hated the idea of chasing after her and was considering putting off his apology until that evening, when the telephone rang.
Travis groaned and stomped back inside. At that hour of the morning there were only two possibilities: an emergency, either at the Bureau or with his family. Or it was one of the twins.
"Yeah, who is it?" he growled into the receiver.
"My, my. Aren't you just a ray of sunshine?"
Travis closed his eyes. He would have preferred an emergency. ' 'Knock it off, Erin.''
"Did you hear that, Elise? Can you believe it? That's our happy-go-lucky cousin talking."
"Goodness, Travis," Elise chimed in. "I never knew you were such a grump in the morning. I'm shocked."
"Ah, jeez. They're both on the line," he groaned at the ceiling.
"No, I don't think that's it, sis. Remember all those camping trips and sleep overs. He was always the
one who was disgustingly cheerful in the morning. No, I think it's something—or someone—else that's put his nose out of joint."
"Mmm. You're probably right."
"Hey! Hey! Would you two mind not talking about me as though I weren't even on the line, for Pete's sake. What are you calling me for this early anyway? And I'm warning you, it had better be good."
"Ha, smarty! It so happens, we aren't calling you. We're calling Rebecca to wish her a happy birthday. We know what a morning person she is so we got up early especially to catch her before she left the house. Put her on, would you."
"I can't. She's not here."
"Travis McCall. You haven't run her off, have you?" Elise demanded with uncharacteristic sternness.
"No, I haven't run her off," he shot back in a mocking sing-song. "She's down on the beach."
"At this hour? What's she doing down there?"
"How should I know? As far as I can tell, she's just staring out at the water."
"Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good," Erin murmured, her voice turning serious.
"No, it doesn't," Elise agreed. "But it's hardly surprising, after what she's been through."
"What do you mean, after what she's been through? Say, are you two by any chance talking about her split with her husband?"
"She told you about that?"
"Only that she divorced him two months ago." He paused for Elise to elaborate, but all he got was silence. Finally he sighed. "So? Are you going to fill me in or not?"
"We can't, Travis," Erin answered. "It's Rebecca's personal business and we can't betray her confidence. All we can tell you is she's had a really rough time of it."
"That's right. So you be nice to her now, Travis. You hear?"
Travis snorted. "Yeah. Right. I'll stay as far away from her as I can. Will that do?"
"No, it certainly will not. Look, I don't know why you're such a jerk when it comes to Rebecca, but for today at least can't you put that aside and be your normal charming self?''
"What are you saying, Erin?" he asked warily.
"I'm saying that on top of everything else, it's Rebecca birthday and she's all alone. She's bound to be feeling blue. Couldn't you spend the day with her? Take her somewhere? Do something to cheer her up? You're good at that sort of thing."
"What! Are you nuts? No. Oh, no. Absolutely not. Forget it."
"C'mon, Travis. It's her birthday."
"No."
"Pleeeze. You'd be doing us a tremendous favor."
"You can cut out the wheedling. It won't work this time. And that goes for you, too, Elise, so just don't start."
"Well!I like that."
"C'mon, Tra-"
"No. And that's final."
"Oh, all right," Erin snapped. "Do you think you could at least manage to leave her a note and tell her that we called and that we'll call back tonight?"
"Yeah, I can handle that."
"Gee, thanks loads."
When Travis hung up the telephone, he scribbled out a note and stuck it to the refrigerator with a magnet. Then he poured himself a mug of coffee and wandered back out onto the deck.
Rebecca hadn't moved.
He took a sip of coffee and stared at her. She looked so... forlorn. And alone.
He looked away, then looked right back. She wasn't his problem. They had agreed to stay out of each other's way. Gritting his teeth, he bowed his head and raked a hand through his hair, bringing it all the way down the back of his head to his nape to massage the tight muscles there. He looked at Rebecca again.
Ah, hell.
He slammed the coffee mug down on the railing and loped down the steps.
This time he barely got within thirty feet of Rebecca When she spotted him. She scrambled to her feet and took several steps back, and Travis winced at her wary expression. Having a woman leery of him was a new and not very pleasant experience.
"Take it easy," he soothed. "You don't have to worry about me. I'm not angry. I just want to talk to you for a minute.''
"About what?"
The faint disbelief and caution in her voice annoyed him, but he told himself he deserved it. He tipped his head toward the house. "Erin and Elise called."
Instantly her wariness turned to alarm. "Oh, my word! They've talked to Pepe, haven't they?" She groaned and put one hand over her mouth and splayed the other one over her stomach. "I knew this would happen! I knew it."
"What would happen? What're you talking about?"
"About us. About Pepe or Constanza telling them that we... that you and I are... you know."
"No, I don't kn— Oh! Jeez! That business at the cantina last night!" Travis grimaced and smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand. "I forgot all about that. But don't worry," he added quickly, holding up both hands when Rebecca made a distressed sound. "They didn't mention a word about our so-called engagement, so they haven't heard anything. You can bet if they had they would have bombarded me with questions."
Rebecca sagged visibly. "Well, that's a relief."
"Yeah. And before you ask again, I'm going to explain things to Pepe this morning. Okay?"
"Thank you."
The wariness was back; Travis could see it in her eyes. Her gaze met his, then skittered away. Only a few feet separated them. Rebecca crossed her arms defensively across her middle. Travis stuck his fingertips in his back pockets. She looked down at her feet, sunk in the white sand, then at the waves gently rolling ashore. Travis's gaze swept the inland mountains, the lacy clouds, the far headland, as though he found them fascinating. The awkward silence was broken by only the swish of waves, the dry rattle of tattered palm leaves and the occasional squawk of a mannerless gull.
"Look, uh...about what I said last night. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." Her startled gaze shot to his face, and she stared as though she couldn't believe that she'd heard him right. Travis drew a circle in the sand with his bare foot. "I was just angry and shooting off my mouth. That's all. I didn't mean to make you cry."
"That's all right. Anyway, it wasn't you who made me cry. It was..." She made a vague gesture, then let her hand fall to her side. "A lot of other things that sort of piled up. Your remarks just pushed me over the edge is alt. But I do appreciate your apology."
The explanation reminded him of what his cousins had said, and for an instant he wondered about those "other things." Then he remembered the reason for their call.
"Oh, by the way, happy birthday," he said dutifully.
Rebecca's eyes widened. "How did you know?"
"Erin and Elise told me. That's why they called. They said to tell you that they'd call back tonight."
A soft look entered Rebecca's eyes. "That was sweet of them. They're really wonderful friends. In all the years we've known one another, they've never forgotten my birthday. It means a lot to me," she added quietly, then looked away again, suddenly embarrassed.
"So, how are you going to spend the day? You got anything special planned."
"No. I suppose I'll just stay here. Maybe I'll go for a swim later."
Her lips formed a polite smile, which he was sure she intended to put his mind at ease. It didn't work. As hard as he tried not to, he noticed that her eyes were still sad.
The silence stretched out again. Travis clenched his jaw and squinted his eyes at the surf, sparkling in the brilliant sunrise. He told himself to walk away, but somehow his feet remained planted in the sand. He pulled his fingers out of his hip pockets and rubbed the back of his neck.
Ah, what the hell. It was her birthday.
"Look... since you don't have any plans, why don't you come with me today?" he blurted out before he could change his mind.
"What?" Rebecca blinked, stunned. "Travis, why on earth would you ask that?"
"Because I don't like the idea of you staying here alone on your birthday. It's not right."
"I see." She smiled again, a bit wanly this time. "Thank you, Travis. I appreciate the offer, but—"
"Look, I'm not talking about anything fanc
y. I got a call from David yesterday. His power cruiser has just come out of dry dock after a complete overhaul. He can't get away right now to take it out on a shakedown cruise and he asked if I'd do it for him. We could go over to Alhaja Verde and pick it up and take it out for the day. Do a little fishing. Maybe some swimming."
"Travis, you don't have to do this."
"Hey. I wouldn't if I didn't want to. You know me well enough to know that."
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. She wanted to accept—he could see it in her eyes—but she was torn. For some strange reason, her hesitancy made him determined to convince her.
"I appreciate the offer, Travis. Really I do, but I'm just not sure this is a good idea. As you pointed out, I'm not exactly your favorite person."
"Yeah, but we're both adults. Surely for one day we can call a truce."