by Trish Milburn - The Texan's Cowgirl Bride (Texas Rodeo Barons)
His attempts to let her know how he felt lined up like a row of train cars crashing into each other. There was the time he’d managed to get himself paired with her for an English project only to find out that she was going with her family to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas and would have to email him her part of the assignment. Then there was when he’d maneuvered close enough to her at their lockers so he could ask her to prom. But Dillon Brooks had beaten him to it by moments.
Travis had no one to blame but himself for hesitating. At least he had the consolation of hearing Savannah decline Dillon’s invitation.
Eventually, Travis quit trying. He still hadn’t been the most confident guy in the world when he’d met Corinne the summer after high school, but he’d managed to scrape together enough courage to ask her out. And miracle of miracles, she’d said yes. Within a year they were married and he was headed off to a military career, much to his parents’ surprise.
The army had changed him. Somewhere in the midst of boot camp he’d grown a pair and found a well of self-confidence he hadn’t known existed until his drill sergeant had screamed it to the surface.
He glanced at the picture of him with Corinne on their weekend honeymoon in San Antonio. They were riding in one of the boats that carried tourists along the River Walk and grinning ear to ear like the fool kids they were. They had no idea what lay ahead of them. It wasn’t fair that he’d voluntarily gone into a war zone, but she’d been the one cut down before her life really got started.
Travis jerked his gaze away from the photo and ran his hand over his face. He’d told himself a long time ago that he should have only happy memories when he thought of Corinne, but sometimes the darkness took over, the hatred that made him want to break into the state penitentiary and rip David Crouch apart. It wasn’t enough that Crouch would spend the rest of his life in prison. Travis wanted him to suffer.
He knew it wasn’t healthy to carry those types of violent thoughts around inside him, but no matter how hard he tried they never totally went away. The best he could do was push them aside for a little while.
Shifting his focus away from the past, he glanced at the clock. Too early to leave to meet Savannah.
“So, what kind of case got tossed your way this time? Spying on a cheating husband? Someone faking a back injury to get the insurance payout?”
“No case. Just catching up with an old friend.” He scrunched his forehead when he caught sight of Blossom, clad head to toe in leather, which he knew she hadn’t been wearing a few minutes earlier. It was a striking contrast against her bobbed, dark red hair. “Am I running a P.I. firm or an S&M store?”
She crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. “Very funny. I told you I was going to see Metallica tonight.”
He shook his head. “I can’t figure you out. One night you’re going to see One Direction, another Metallica. Do you ever give yourself whiplash?”
“I don’t like to be predictable.”
“Well, you’ve got that covered.”
She smiled. “You know you like me just the way I am.”
“You definitely keep things interesting. What’s next, a monster truck rally?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Even I have limits.”
He laughed as she turned and headed toward the outer door that led to the elevator lobby.
“I hear Weird Al’s coming to town,” he called after her.
She spun to walk backward and stuck her tongue out at him.
He chuckled some more as Blossom left. She was right. He wouldn’t change one thing about her. He admired how she marched to her own slightly offbeat drum. Every day was an adventure, from what color her hair was going to be to her various exploits. Whether she was learning Irish step dancing or going skydiving, nothing ever surprised him. During his entire tour in Afghanistan, Blossom’s brother Kurt had read her letters to the guys and then sworn his sister had to have been left on the doorstep because she was nothing like anyone else in the family.
Travis hadn’t been fooled. Kurt loved his sister and looked forward to hearing about her crazy life. She’d originally come to work for Travis so she could save up money to backpack through Europe. But she’d never left, and she’d proven to be an asset time and again. She had a unique insight into why people did the things they did, and she was especially useful when a case called for him to try to figure out the thought processes of women. Even though he’d grown up with a sister and had been married, he’d yet to figure out why women did the things they did.
He made a couple of calls on other cases before finally closing up shop and heading to Mack’s. And damned if he didn’t get a little nervous when he walked through the door of the neighborhood restaurant and bar to see Savannah already waiting for him. It was almost enough to make him turn around. Telling himself there was no reason to feel anything other than happy to see an old friend, he approached the booth where she sat.
“You’re early,” he said.
“Left some time for traffic then didn’t run into any.”
Again, her words seemed innocent enough, but he sensed a layer of fabrication. Side effect of his job, being able to tell when someone wasn’t being totally truthful. What was harder to discern was why. He slid into the booth as he tried to figure it out. Just because she wasn’t being completely truthful didn’t mean she was trying to hide anything from him—definitely not that she was so anxious to see him that she’d arrived a good ten minutes before their appointed time.
Even though he’d spent a good chunk of an evening with her only a few nights before, it struck him anew how attractive she was. Her dark hair with a slight wave came halfway down her neck, and those pretty blue-gray eyes had probably caught the attention of many a cowboy. It wasn’t the first time he’d had those types of thoughts about Savannah, but if anything she’d grown even more beautiful since high school. She wasn’t a girl anymore but rather a woman, one who would turn heads anywhere she went.
He told himself that he was simply making observations, nothing more.
Savannah grabbed a menu. “So what’s good here?”
“Mack’s is famous for the garlic fries.”
“Sounds good.” Savannah seemed distracted and appeared more fidgety than she ought to be.
“Is something wrong?”
She exhaled and laid the menu flat in front of her. “I want to hire you to find my mother.”
He didn’t know what he’d expected her to blurt out, but that certainly wasn’t it. “Your mother?”
“Yes. She left when I was young, and now I want to know why.”
A part of him he didn’t want to acknowledge was disappointed that her reason for calling him was professional, but it was for the best. Still, when he saw the layer of desperation in Savannah’s eyes, he found himself wanting to erase it. He knew what it felt like to want to find someone that badly, though their reasons were different. “Okay.”
“So how does this work?”
“First, I need for you to compile for me anything that could help in the search. Any documents, photos of your mother, anything you remember that could point toward where she might have gone.”
“It’s been so long. What are the chances she’s still even there?”
“We won’t know until we check. But even if she’s moved on, it’s a place to start.”
She nodded and pulled a small spiral notebook and pen from her purse. She flipped it open and looked as if she were about to start writing.
Without thinking, he reached across the table and placed his hand atop hers. “You don’t have to do it right now.”
“The sooner we get started, the sooner you find her.”
“We’re not going to find her tonight. And I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. Sort of like you were after your trip to the hospital the other night. Y
ou’re not going to make me starve, are you?”
For a moment, he thought she might argue. But she finally slid her hand from beneath his and moved the notepad to the side, though not back into her purse.
After they ordered the largest basket of garlic fries Mack’s sold and a couple of beers, Travis leaned back against the booth. “So, was your dad waiting for you when you returned from Mineral Wells?”
“Yes and no. He was at the barn, but thankfully my stepmother wheeled him off to a doctor’s appointment soon after I got back.”
“Guess it’s hard for parents to realize their kids have grown up sometimes. My mom still tries to slap cartoon character bandages on my boo-boos. It’s as if she missed the memo that I’ve actually served in a war zone.”
“I can’t say that my dad even knows where the bandages are in his house.”
“More of a mom thing.”
“I suppose.”
He heard the pain in her voice even though she likely had no idea she was telegraphing it. “I’ll do my best to find your mom. It’ll help if your dad, brothers and sisters share anything they remember, as well.”
She was shaking her head even before he finished. “No one can know about this. I don’t want them to be aware that I’m looking...in case I don’t find anything.”
He knew she was hiding something again, but he didn’t question her about it. Her reasons for wanting to find her mother weren’t relevant to his search, though part of him was intensely curious.
“Okay.”
“Is this like lawyer-client privilege? You can’t tell anyone what we talk about?”
“You don’t want me to say anything, I won’t.”
She sighed in obvious relief.
He decided to steer totally clear of the topic of the search, allowing her time to calm down from whatever had her so nervous. Was it her father? Would he frown on the search for the wife who had left him? Travis didn’t know all the details of what had happened, but he remembered a comment here and there when he’d been growing up about how Savannah’s mom had just disappeared. But it hadn’t been suspicious; it had been of her own accord. He couldn’t imagine his mother leaving him, Rita and their dad behind. But then he didn’t have all the details. He’d have to dig them up soon in order to help Savannah, and he had a feeling she wasn’t going to like the process.
For now, however, he was just going to eat fries with her and try to have a nice evening. Remind himself that he shouldn’t be thinking about how pretty she was.
“So, tell me more about the store you run. I haven’t been out by your family’s place in years.”
The tension lines on her face relaxed some as she grabbed a fry from the freshly delivered basket. “We sell peaches and pecans from the farm, products made from them, some crafts. It’s small now, but I have plans to expand if my dad lets me.”
“He still has a say-so over it?”
“Though I’m in charge of the farm’s operations, he’s still the owner. I didn’t hear a peep out of him until he got hurt.”
“I learned when I was in the army that the best way to get people on your side is to make them think everything was their idea in the first place.”
“Somehow I can’t see my dad believing it was his idea to make peach pies.”
“Peach pies, huh? Maybe I’ll request one of those as part of my payment. In fact, I think I’m still owed one from the other night.”
When Savannah glanced up at him, she thankfully smiled at his comment. “That can be arranged. I might throw in a pecan pie as a bonus.”
“Good thing I don’t request desserts as all of my payments or I’d look like a linebacker for the Cowboys.”
Savannah chuckled then took a drink of her beer. “So you like being a P.I.?”
“I seem to be pretty good at it.”
“But do you like it?”
He shrugged. “Most days. Sucks when I confirm a spouse is cheating and I know it’s going to lead to a divorce where kids are involved.”
He knew he’d said the wrong thing when Savannah didn’t respond and dropped a fry back into the basket. Damn it. “Sorry.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I have no idea if that’s why my parents split or not.”
He leaned his forearms against the top of the thick wooden table painted with the labels of various brands of beer. “Why are you looking for your mother now, after all this time?”
Savannah ran her fingertip around the lip of her bottle, and something about that motion made him wonder what it would feel like if she did it against his skin. He jerked his gaze away from her fingers and focused on the fries, shoving three in his mouth.
“Just seemed like the right time.”
Again, the conversation veered in other directions. She shared that her friend Abby had won the barrel racing competition at Mineral Wells, that Lizzie was going to have a baby and that she and Carly were in a prolonged friendly argument over which of them was going to be the kid’s favorite aunt.
“From what I remember, Carly’s the one most likely to get the kid in trouble.”
Savannah snorted a laugh. “You’re not wrong there.”
He liked the sound of Savannah’s laugh, even more so when he was the one to make her do so. A distant tolling of a warning bell tried to get his attention, but he ignored it. He told himself that this was nothing more than friends having a nice time, rekindling a friendship.
Yeah, right. He hadn’t been thinking of Savannah Baron in a friends-only way since Friday night, no matter how hard he tried. The dream he’d had the night before definitely was more than friendly.
“I should get going,” she said after a couple of hours, a single beer, two cups of coffee and the entire huge basket of fries. “You might keep a lot of night hours, but work starts early on a farm.”
Before she could pull her wallet from her purse, he pitched enough cash to cover everything on the table.
“I can pay for my share. I should probably cover yours, too.”
“You’re not exactly an expensive date.”
She tensed momentarily, but he didn’t backtrack. Evidently concluding he didn’t mean anything by it, Savannah smiled and slid out of the booth.
Travis followed her out to the parking lot then pulled a business card from his wallet. He extended it to her. “Just email me with whatever you can think of, and I’ll get right on it.”
“Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”
He tapped the edge of his Stetson. “I’m here to serve.”
“Working hard for that peach pie, huh?”
He smiled as he realized his heart was lighter than it’d been in a long time. “You have no idea.”
As he waved at her as she drove out of the parking lot, he admitted to himself that, wise or not, peach pie was the least of what he wanted from Savannah Baron.
Chapter Five
Savannah yawned as she put a new batch of peach preserves on the store shelves. She felt as if she hadn’t slept in a month.
“You look tired,” Carly said as she helped herself to a peach muffin.
Her sister had arrived from her home in Houston a few days earlier for an extended stay to help out with their dad as he recuperated. Even though Savannah would have never wished the injury on her dad, she was happy to have Carly around for a while. She didn’t see her sister near often enough.
“Didn’t sleep well last night,” Savannah said. Or the night before, or the night before...
“Your side still hurting?”
At the mere mention of her injury, the humongous bruise ached. “Yeah. I wake up every time I roll over on that side.”
Not to mention she’d stayed up late compiling everything she could remember about her mother, scanning old photos and digging out documents
. And then she’d lain in bed alternating between worrying about keeping the search from her family and remembering the warm strength she’d felt in Travis’s hand when he’d placed it atop hers during their meeting.
“Maybe we should strap you down so you can’t move.”
Savannah glanced at her younger sister and saw the mischievous smile Carly wore more often than not. She pointed at the large muffin in Carly’s hand. “You owe me $2.50 for that, you mooch. You’re as bad as Alex. At least he’s just a kid.”
Julieta’s five-year-old son had a sweet tooth the size of Texas, and Savannah indulged it whenever given the chance.
Instead of forking over the money, Carly sauntered to Savannah’s side and gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek. “You would charge your favorite sister for her breakfast?”
Savannah rolled her eyes as Carly took a big bite of her muffin and started perusing the stock on the shelves, including some old jars Savannah had spray painted red, white and blue for the upcoming Memorial Day and Fourth of July holidays.
The truth was she did love Carly. They, more than any of their siblings, had gotten lost in the shuffle that began with their mother’s leaving and continued through their dad’s subsequent marriages. But instead of directing all her energy into school and barrel racing, as Savannah had, Carly had chosen another way to deal with her emotions. She wasn’t known as the wild child of the Baron clan for nothing. But even with their vastly different personalities, Savannah felt closer to Carly than anyone else in her family.
The front door opened, drawing Savannah’s attention. When recognition kicked in, her heart threatened to stop beating. Standing in the doorway looking as sexy as hell in jeans and a black T-shirt hugging his nicely cut arms and chest was none other than Travis Shepard.
“Well, I’m glad I stuck around,” Carly said under her breath.
Savannah shushed her then moved toward the front of the store, aiming to put a barrier between Travis and her sister. Why was he here after she’d told him that she wanted to keep her search quiet? Had she made a colossal mistake trusting him?
“Hey,” he said with a smile, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.