by Trish Milburn - The Texan's Cowgirl Bride (Texas Rodeo Barons)
Chapter Nine
Travis didn’t move until he saw the light flick on in Savannah’s upstairs apartment. Even then he stood in the same spot for a few more moments, half believing that he’d imagined the kiss. The first kiss he’d given a woman since the last time he’d held Corinne in his arms before shipping out to Afghanistan.
Finally, he forced himself down the steps and back to his vehicle. When he was in the driver’s seat, he looked up at the lighted windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of Savannah. But not even a shadow showed through the blinds. With a deep breath, he started the engine and headed home.
As the miles ticked by, he couldn’t shake the feeling of having been hit by a stun gun. The moment Savannah’s lips had touched his, he’d felt it all the way down to his toes. Even as much as he’d loved Corinne, he’d never experienced anything that intense with her. And that made him feel as if he really was betraying her.
Corinne had loved him, but she’d died alone with him thousands of miles away on the other side of the world. For all he knew, he could have been shooting hoops or telling dirty jokes with the guys at the moment she’d taken her last breath. It felt like the ultimate betrayal to think what was between him and Savannah was more powerful after one real date and one hot kiss.
He ran his hand over his face, trying to wipe away the guilt.
It wasn’t Savannah’s fault. She’d tried to walk away, but he’d followed her hoping for exactly what had happened. Well, not exactly. He’d hoped for a kiss, all right, but not one that shook him to his core, one that dredged up memories he tried so hard to not let rule him anymore.
Part of him whispered that he’d done nothing wrong, that he wasn’t betraying Corinne because she was gone. But no matter what that voice inside him said, he couldn’t fully banish the guilt. He’d eventually gotten to the point where he could function, even learned to smile again, have fun and reclaim his life. But there had been nothing even approaching a serious date. And if that kiss tonight was any indication, things were very, very different with Savannah.
Could he allow himself to feel that deeply for someone again? To risk the pain of losing her? He didn’t think he’d survive it again. In fact, he was sure he wouldn’t. Next time, he doubted there’d be enough of him left to pick up and start over. He wouldn’t want to.
As much as he wanted to continue seeing Savannah, he needed to take a step back. Maybe the infatuation with her would fade if he just shifted his focus. It wasn’t as if she was his only client. Tomorrow, he would work on other cases while he waited to hear back from the people he’d contacted regarding her mother.
He kept telling himself he’d made the right decision all the way home. But as he lay in his bed hours later, unable to sleep, he wondered if he could stay away. It would have been hard enough before the kiss. But now that he knew how her lips tasted, as sweet as the peaches she worked with every day? It was going to be damn near impossible.
* * *
SAVANNAH STOOD FROM where she’d been sitting on the floor rearranging a shelf of peach preserves. She hurried around the front counter toward the ringing phone, hoping it was Travis. She didn’t know why she was torturing herself, because obviously her kiss was enough to send men fleeing.
It’d been three days since she’d seen him. After he’d left her with her heart beating out of her chest, she hadn’t heard from him. Not unless you counted the text he’d sent the next morning saying he had to go out of town on another case and that he’d let her know if he found out anything else about her mother’s whereabouts.
She grabbed the phone without even looking at the caller ID. “Peach Pit. How can I help you?”
“May I speak to Savannah Baron?”
“That’s me.”
“This is Susan from Dr. Fisher’s office. We got your test results back, and Dr. Fisher would like to schedule you for a biopsy.”
Savannah grabbed the edge of the metal prep table to steady herself when she grew lightheaded. “So it’s cancer?”
“Not necessarily. Dr. Fisher needs to take another look to determine that. How soon can you come in?”
“How soon can I?” She couldn’t stand waiting any longer to know if she had a clean bill of health or if she was in for a fight for her life.
“We actually just had a cancellation for tomorrow, so can you be here at nine?”
“Yes.”
“Come to the same front desk as you did before, and they’ll direct you to the right place.”
“Okay, thank you.” It felt so weird to thank someone for the opportunity to have a needle stuck into her breast.
After she hung up the phone, she felt as if all the blood had drained from her body, leaving her weak and dizzy. She managed to make her way to the steps leading up to her apartment without collapsing and sank down on them. She pressed her hand against her forehead and made herself take several slow, deep breaths until the worst of the dizziness subsided.
The burden of the knowledge of what was going on in her body weighed down on her, and she yearned to be able to relieve that pressure. She still didn’t want to share the news with her family, but she could call Abby. But her friend needed to stay focused on riding and maintaining her points lead. Savannah knew Abby well enough to realize she would rush to Savannah’s side and turn into a mother hen, hurting her chances of staying atop the standings.
She wished she could tell Travis, but he’d made it clear he didn’t want to talk to her. How had everything in her life gotten turned upside down so quickly?
With work still to do, she should get up and back to it. But she couldn’t find the energy, not even when someone stepped through the front door. For the first time since she’d opened the Peach Pit as more than a mere roadside stand, she wished the customers would stay away, give her this one day to process, to withdraw into a protective cocoon.
“Savannah?”
She jerked her gaze up and saw Travis looking back at her from the other side of the front counter. She blinked a few times, wondering if her mind had manufactured him. But no, he was still there.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, just tired.”
His forehead creased in what looked like concern. Did she dare hope that she’d been wrong about his lack of feeling for her?
When he looked as if he might come around the counter toward her, she stood and returned to where she’d been working before the phone call. She hoped he didn’t notice that her hands shook as she organized the last few jars of preserves. Without looking at him, she moved farther down the shelves and straightened the mini pecan pies even though they didn’t need it.
“How did your other case go?” Only when she heard the skepticism in her voice did she realize that part of her had considered his explanation for his whereabouts had been a lie to avoid seeing her.
“Fine. It’s over now. I had to testify at a trial in Austin.”
She glanced at him and didn’t see any deception in his eyes. Then she felt bad for thinking him a liar.
“But I’m here because of your case.”
“Oh?” She fidgeted with the peach pies down on the next shelf.
“I may have a lead.”
She stopped her busywork and turned toward him. “You found her?”
He held up a hand. “Don’t get too excited. It’s a possible first step in tracking her movements after she left here. I got a hit on her name, from about six months after she left. I’ve made some calls, waiting to hear back.”
Savannah’s heart rate sped up at the news. “Where was it?”
“Up in Oklahoma.”
“So what now, do we go there?”
“Not yet. Lots of these potential leads don’t pan out, so that’s why I put in a call to someone I know in Oklahoma City. If we get something more concrete, then we reexamine.”
So it was a tenuous lead, but it was a lead nonetheless. It was more than she’d had five minutes ago.
Travis leaned his forearm against the end of the shelf. “I also wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for not calling.”
Trying to act as if it didn’t matter, she shrugged. “You were busy. So was I.”
“I thought we might go riding tomorrow.”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Gina could watch the store for a while, couldn’t she? Or draft Carly.”
“I have a doctor’s appointment early in the morning.”
“Oh.” Travis hesitated before saying more. “Follow-up on your injury?” She detected a note of hope in his voice, and it broke her heart a little.
“No. I have to have a biopsy on the lump to see if it’s cancer.” She bit her lip when saying the words out loud brought tears to her eyes.
In the next moment, Travis was beside her, surprising her by enveloping her in his arms. She sank into the warmth of his embrace, needing his strength. She’d always been strong, independent, but this was different. She’d never had to face the fact that her body might be plotting against her.
“You’ll be okay,” he said, then planted a kiss atop her head. He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself as much as her.
* * *
SAVANNAH HEARD THE first bird chirp of the morning before any hint of dawn was even lightening the eastern horizon. Despite Travis’s assurances that she’d be okay and her own attempts at giving herself pep talks, worry had settled on her like a cold, steady rain. She’d worked until the wee hours, hoping to get so tired that she’d fall asleep as soon as she hit her pillow. But even though she’d been exhausted when she’d trudged to bed, sleep remained elusive. She’d tossed and turned, stared at first the ceiling then out the window at the sliver of moon, trying to will herself to sleep. A warm glass of milk hadn’t helped. Neither had music. Altogether, she’d gotten a grand total of maybe fifteen minutes of subpar sleep.
Yeah, that was a great way to go to the doctor, worn-out and cranky.
Tired of the fruitless search for rest, she got up and headed for the kitchen. If she couldn’t sleep, she supposed the next best thing was to fully wake up instead of feeling like a zombie. She might as well make use of her time and finish the Christmas tree art made from green and red buttons.
Two cups of coffee and the rest of the buttons later, she held up the gold-fabric-covered canvas and admired the button tree. She liked it so much that she decided she was going to keep it for herself instead of putting it in the store. She wasn’t feeling up to putting more energy into the store anyway. All the ideas she and Travis had come up with while eating barbecue ribs were still sitting unrealized on the notepad in her purse.
Hating how down she felt, so unlike herself, she pulled out the notepad and ran her fingertip over all the suggestions. A flood of determination filled her. After she was done with this biopsy, she was coming home and tackling one item on this list. If she had cancer, she would fight it tooth and nail. If not, she’d thank God, fate, her lucky stars, and never take life for granted ever again. But either way, she was going to move forward with her plans for making the Peach Pit a destination not to be missed by anyone visiting Texas. She would prove to her father that she was every bit as capable of being a business success story as he was.
He should know that when she put her mind to something, she kept working at it until she succeeded. She’d been that way with barrel racing from a young age, with her grades in school, and had already grown the Peach Pit far beyond what anyone had expected. But she wasn’t finished, not by a long shot. And the stupid lump in her breast wasn’t going to get in the way of her plans, even if she had to chop the whole thing off. She’d do it, recover and deal with life in the aftermath. It was better than moping about it or not having a life at all.
With a new, proactive outlook, she showered, got dressed and headed downstairs. She left a note for Gina that she had business to attend to in Dallas and didn’t know what time she’d be back. Her bases covered, she headed outside.
Of all the things she could have encountered as she stepped out the front door, Travis was what she least expected.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’m taking you to your appointment.”
“I’m perfectly capable of driving myself to Dallas.”
He hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. “But you shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”
That hit her right in the heart. She couldn’t imagine anyone she’d ever dated before offering to accompany her to a breast biopsy, especially not someone who was so obviously bothered by the idea that something very bad could be happening in her body. It struck her how brave his being there truly was. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I’m going to.”
She glanced at her vehicle. “I need to drive in so there aren’t questions. I told Gina I had business in Dallas today.”
“Where is the doctor’s office?”
When she told him, he nodded. “My place is on the way. You can leave your car there.”
“Okay.”
She followed Travis all the way to the outskirts of Dallas, down a nicely shaded street full of houses built before everyone thought they should have at least three thousand square feet. She liked these smaller homes with their neatly kept lawns and pretty flower beds better than the subdivisions full of homes that would have been called mansions in another era. Yes, she’d grown up in a large, very nice home, but she honestly preferred her little apartment. It fit her personality more.
Travis finally pulled up in front of a small brick home. She had to smile because compared to some of the other houses on the street, this one screamed bachelor. The front porch was bare of any furniture, and the flower beds were empty save for a large rosebush at one corner of the house and some daffodils that had lost their bright yellow petals. She got the feeling this was not the home he’d shared with Corinne, and she understood why he likely hadn’t wanted to live in their shared space anymore. Too many memories.
He got out of his vehicle and motioned for her to pull into the driveway. When she stepped out, he was there to greet her.
Travis nodded toward the modest house. “Home sweet home.”
“I like it.”
He laughed a little, as if he suspected she might be stretching the truth a little.
“Okay, so maybe it could use a little bit of personality.”
“Yeah, I should plunk a statue of Sherlock Holmes down in the front yard.” He extended his arms and simulated the plunking down of said statue.
“P.I. humor. Who knew?”
He smiled and turned back toward his vehicle at the curb.
It wasn’t until she was buckled into the passenger seat and Travis had pulled out onto the street that she started to get nervous. Her new positive outlook threatened to abandon her. As if sensing her change in mood, Travis reached over and took her hand in his. He could have given her a quick squeeze of reassurance, but instead he entwined his fingers with hers.
Savannah looked across at him and smiled. “Thank you.”
All he did was nod, but it was enough. In that moment, she felt even closer to him than she had when they’d kissed. She’d swear her heart expanded in her chest, filling with a depth of feeling for him that she was afraid to label.
Travis didn’t let go until they had to get out of the SUV at the clinic. And even though she detected hesitation in him, he walked beside her as she headed toward the front door. He placed his hand at the small of her back as they stepped inside and up to the registration desk. And he stayed beside her, lending silent support, as she filled out paperwork and waited to be called back.
Savannah fought the urge to fidget
as her appointment time approached. She actually jumped when Travis clasped her hand in his.
“It’ll be over before you know it.”
But as she watched her appointment time come and go, her stomach rolled more and more. Finally, at the point when she was seriously considering running out the front door and pretending nothing was wrong, a nurse came out and called her name.
Savannah froze, suddenly very afraid of what lay beyond the door behind the nurse.
Travis squeezed her hand, drawing her attention. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “You’re strong. You can do this.”
Drawing on his confidence, she stood and took a deep breath just as the nurse called her name a second time. Her legs shaky, she followed the older woman. As Savannah passed through the doorway, she glanced back over her shoulder to find Travis watching her with an encouraging smile. She hoped this biopsy resulted in good news because she was definitely beginning to fall for Travis Shepard.
* * *
THE MOMENT THE door closed behind Savannah, Travis had to get outside to some fresh air. He’d been as supportive as he could for her, but he couldn’t stand the sterile smell anymore. He’d felt the same way when he’d taken her to the hospital. It was part of the reason he’d gone to the Burger Barn to buy her some dinner.
Though Corinne had died well before they’d wheeled her into the emergency room, and he hadn’t even been there, for some reason he still equated medical facilities with her loss. They always brought up those memories, making them as raw as they’d been when he’d stepped off the plane at Fort Hood knowing his wife was gone.
He had no idea how long Savannah would be, but he figured he could stay outside for a while, make some calls to see if he could chase down any more information about her mother. He walked away from where a couple of people were smoking but stayed within view of the lobby where he’d been sitting with Savannah.
Fifteen minutes later, he cursed under his breath as the lead he’d had on Delia fell through. He didn’t look forward to telling Savannah that, and he decided that today was not the day to do so. What would it hurt to wait until tomorrow? Savannah certainly had enough on her mind without piling on a dead end in the search for her mother. He wanted to give her answers, not more questions.