Coming Home to Texas

by Victoria Chancellor

  Still, he felt as though he were wearing lead boots as he walked up the steps and rang the doorbell.

  And then she opened the door.

  “Jodie,” he whispered hoarsely. He coughed, then said, “How are you?”

  “I’m okay. I feel fine now.”

  “Good, that’s good,” he said, his lead feet anchoring him to the porch.

  “Travis, you didn’t have to come. I was going to come to you.”

  “Were you?”

  “I…Yes, I was. I did have some second thoughts. I had some…issues.”

  “And now?”

  “We need to talk. Come inside,” she said, stepping back from the doorway.

  He stepped from the porch into the small foyer, reluctantly looking away from Jodie to the tastefully decorated living room. Jodie’s mother was neat and obviously partial to a soothing shade of light green. “Where is your mother?”

  “She’s out back on the patio. She wanted to give us a place to talk.”

  He wished he held a hat in his hands. Or something to keep from grabbing Jodie, pulling her close and kissing her until they both couldn’t breathe. The urge to hold her was so strong, he resisted the impulse only by reminding himself that this was her mother’s house. They weren’t alone, and besides, just this morning Jodie had almost passed out.

  “Your mother scared five years off my life when she called earlier.”

  Jodie laced her fingers together as she stood just inside the living room. “I’m sorry. I really was going to call you, but she beat me to it.”

  “I’m glad she called.” He took a step forward. “I wanted to be with you.”

  “But you’d just left me.”

  He took a deep breath. “You know why I couldn’t stay. We talked about it.” He took two more steps into the room, stopping in front of her, beside the chintz sofa.

  “You did most of the talking, the explaining, last night. I didn’t really know what to say.”

  He sat on the sofa, took her hands and urged her down beside him. “Jodie, we need to be honest with each other. We need to communicate.”

  “I know,” she said, searching his eyes, reading his expression. “But I was too surprised and too afraid to tell you how I was feeling last night.”

  “Just last night, or feeling about us in general?”

  “Travis, I don’t think there’s anything ‘in general’ about us. Everything is immediate and intense and frightening.”

  “Frightening?”

  “Haven’t you felt it, too? Aren’t you a little scared by what’s happening?”

  “No. At first I was…reluctant. I thought I knew what I wanted from life. I have a great career, a new house in a town that feels like it’s been home forever and enough money to travel anywhere I want to go. I had a little black book with enough names and numbers of cute, superficial women who didn’t make demands on me.”

  “So you had it all,” she stated.

  “No, I didn’t. I just thought I did. I was never really happy,” he said, taking both her hands, “until I stood beside the exam table and watched Dr. Amy make a picture of our baby on that sonogram screen. Then my life seemed to fall into place. Our life seemed full of limitless possibilities.”

  “But then I disappointed you. I didn’t do what you thought I should.”

  “No, you didn’t, but to be fair, I overreacted.” He paused, then said, “I realized that part of my reaction was based on my mother’s need to put her career above her family. She didn’t want to be a has-been actress. Being a mother wasn’t enough for her, and I think I confused my feelings when you seemed to place more importance on your modeling. I’m sorry I overreacted.”

  “Apology accepted, and I understand about your mother. Yes, you do sometimes overreact. That’s your trademark. Mine is not communicating with you. I understand now how you got so frustrated with me. I was afraid to talk to you about everything. My career, our lives, our baby. I think I ran back to the life I knew because it was much more comfortable than thinking about the future.”

  “Why were you frightened of the future?”

  “Because other than my mother, I’ve never been able to trust anyone besides myself. As long as I was responsible for my success or failure, I felt secure.”

  “You’ve been very successful in your career. Is there room in your life for family?”

  “I’m making room.” He must have appeared skeptical, because she quickly added, “No, I really am. I’ve already called Neil and Felicia to explain the situation. She’s calling everyone tomorrow to tell them I need a week or so off, doctor’s orders. Then we’ll work out a new schedule.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Completely,” she said emphatically. Then she smiled and added, “It’s about time, don’t you think?”

  “Absolutely,” he said, keeping his smile until his lips touched hers. Even then, he felt so happy that he couldn’t stop grinning, so he nibbled his way from her lips to her ear, then down her neck.

  Soon they were both breathing hard and no longer grinning. “Damn, we’re in your mother’s living room, aren’t we?”

  “Yes, we are. But I do remember something about a private jet, don’t I?”

  His grin returned. “Very private. With a bedroom.”

  Her answering smile made his blood boil. “Let me say goodbye to Mom, then we’ll go.”

  “Home to Texas,” he said as she walked toward the patio.

  “I’M NEVER GOING to be able to look Greg and Carole in the eyes again,” Jodie said, snuggling against Travis as he leaned against the upholstered headboard of the cramped double bed. All she heard was the roar of the jet engines, so she assumed neither the pilot nor the co-pilot could hear noises coming from the back of the plane. Good thing. She’d been quite vocal about joining the “mile high club.”

  “We still have so much to talk about,” she said, rubbing Travis’s well-sculpted chest, trying to keep her hands from straying down the center line of his abs to the parts of him covered by a sheet.

  “Well, I’m pretty much a captive audience. If you feel like talking now, I’m ready.”

  She took a deep breath. “My mother is a very strong person and my most influential role model. I’ve told you about her, but I haven’t talked about my dad.”

  “No, you haven’t. It’s often the things we never talk about, though, that have the biggest impact in our lives.”

  “Exactly. And apparently that’s the way it was with me. I didn’t want to think about my father’s desertion of the family. We always said we didn’t need him. We never talked about him. And I guess he became this huge invisible influence in all our lives.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My mother became even stronger and more independent. When my sister grew up, she started going from man to man, looking for that missing part of her background—that powerful male presence most daughters take for granted.”

  “And you?”

  Jodie breathed deeply, taking in the smell of Travis’s cologne and the musty smell of good sex. “I was the oldest, the responsible one. I grew up more like my mother, except I was also bigger and heavier, a gangly kid with big feet and a woman’s body by the time I was twelve. I also had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder from being the largest girl in my class. So not only did I convince myself I didn’t need a man in my life, I knew that I couldn’t depend on one to support me either financially or emotionally.”

  “That’s not a bad attitude, Jodie. It’s only harmful if you exclude everyone from your life who might want to support you—either financially or emotionally. It’s harmful if you won’t let someone in because you’re convinced they will fail you.”

  “I know that now, but I hadn’t really thought about it before I talked to my mother. She’s pretty insightful.”

  “Oh, yeah? Did she say anything about me?”

  “She thinks…well, she thinks you’re in love with me.”

  Travis leaned around to loo
k at her. She felt flushed and embarrassed by his quirky smile. “She does, does she?” He curved his palm around her jaw. “I think she’s right.”

  “Oh, Travis,” she whispered. Her heart overflowed with love just as her eyes filled with tears of joy. “Tell me,” she said hoarsely.

  “I love you, Jodie Marsh.”

  “I love you, too, Travis Whitaker. More than you know.”

  They kissed and she turned in his arms, her breasts pressed tightly against his chest. She slid her leg higher, encountering the evidence of his renewed desire.

  He broke the kiss and smiled. “What can I say? You inspire me.”

  “I do.”

  “Oh, yeah.” He kissed her again, then pulled back to look into her eyes. “I know we’ve got the passion, but there’s more to a marriage than making love. I want you to know that I’ll never try to hold you back from going after what you want. I was too bossy, but I’m new at this.”

  “You’ve been married before,” she reminded him.

  “Yes, but I never felt this worried, this possessive before.” He smiled tenderly. “I guess I should have known then that I was in love with you.”

  “Well,” she said, running her fingers through his hair, “as long as you know it now.”

  “Believe me, I do. And I’m serious, Jodie. If you want to continue modeling, that’s fine with me. I’ll miss you terribly when you travel, but you’ll always know where home is. And I promise I’ll be the best father ever to our little peanut.”

  “Even when that means changing diapers and pacing the floor late at night?”

  “Especially then. I’m going to learn everything possible about babies.”

  “You’re going to be impossibly, obsessively exuberant about this baby, aren’t you?”

  “Absolutely,” he said with a grin.

  “Well, I forgive you in advance, as long as you don’t forget the baby’s mother.”

  “Never,” he said fiercely. “I couldn’t get you out of my mind after that first weekend together, and I can’t get enough of you now.”

  She ran her leg along his thighs and smiled. “Mmm, I see. Do you think we have time for a little more mile-high activity?”

  “Absolutely,” he whispered before he kissed her and pressed her down into the pillows.

  SEVEN MONTHS LATER, Jodie waddled out of the Four Square Café into the heat of September. “This was probably a mistake. I think I should have stayed home, sitting under a ceiling fan with my feet propped up.”

  “Are you feeling bad? Any problems?”

  “No! And don’t start telling me to be careful, either. I’m not walking fast enough to hurt myself.”

  Travis chuckled. “I wasn’t going to tell you anything. I just thought maybe you were feeling a little closer to delivery.”

  “Unfortunately, your daughter isn’t cooperating at all. She’s as stubborn as…well, as both of us.”

  “She’s strong-willed.”

  “She’s also cranky.”

  “Like her mother.”

  “Hey, you’d be cranky, too, if you were carrying around a thirty-pound watermelon and couldn’t see your feet.”

  Travis hugged her. “I’d carry our watermelon around if I could, sweetheart.”

  “Maybe we’ll wait for modern science to give us that option before we try for the son you’d like to teach to spit.”

  “Hey, I was just teasing.”

  Jodie paused and leaned against him before getting into the SUV. “I’m sorry. I’m just so ready to see our baby.”

  He kissed her forehead. “It won’t be long now.” He paused. “Are you missing the excitement of your career? I know this past month has been hard on you, but you’ll be in front of the cameras before long.”

  “I know,” she said with a sigh. “I’m not really missing the assignments. How can I when I see my own face in all the women’s magazines and even on television? But I think I will enjoy getting back into the studio—not to mention getting into some clothes that don’t resemble tents.”

  “Maybe you should design some maternity clothes next. The swimsuits and cover-ups were big hits with the buyers.”

  “Maybe. At the moment I’d just like to get away from this heat.”

  “Let’s go home and I’ll try to take your mind off how miserable you are.”

  Jodie looked up. “What did you have in mind?”

  “How about a nice cool shower?” he said with a grin.

  Jodie laughed and held him as tight as she could, their nearly full-grown “peanut” pressed between them. “That’s how we got into this situation to begin with.”

  “Yeah,” he said with another big grin. “Let’s go home.”

  That simple phrase had never sounded better.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-6915-9

  COMING HOME TO TEXAS

  Copyright © 2004 by Victoria Chancellor Huffstutler.

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