Taming Travis (Wishing Well, Texas Book 4)

by Melanie Shawn

  An uneasy feeling swelled in my stomach. “Nothing.”

  Well, not nothing. She did say that he liked me, but I did not want to start talking about how we felt about each other. I knew I would come out on the losing side of that conversation.

  “She didn’t say anything about,” he motioned his hand between us, “us?”

  “I don’t…what are you…” I had no idea how to answer that.

  “I told her about us. Only her. She is the only person that knows about our agreement.”

  “Oooh.” That made sense why he would be asking, but… “Wait, she didn’t act like she knew.”

  He grinned, it was clear that his sister obviously frustrated him but also that he loved his sister very much. “She was probably just playing around. Seeing what you would do. How you would react. Not in a cruel way, she’s doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She just likes to stir the pot sometimes.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I probably shouldn’t have told her.”

  “Well, if it makes you feel any better, she isn’t the only one who knows,” I admitted. “I told my sister, too.”

  He smiled and leaned back in the chair. “I think that’s only fair since she was the mastermind behind this whole thing.”

  “Yes. She was,” I agreed with a sigh.

  I didn’t know whether to hit her or kiss her for it. If she hadn’t said those things, if Travis hadn’t overheard us, then I wouldn’t have had this time with him. I would’ve never known what it felt like to be touched, kissed and held by him. I wouldn’t have gotten to know him. But, I also wouldn’t be in danger of having my heart shredded into a million pieces, which I knew it would be when I saw him with someone else while I was here.

  It was inevitable, that I was sure of.

  “So what did she say about our arrangement?” He placed his hands behind his head and the cotton of his T-shirt tightened around his bulging biceps.

  I did my best not to look at them, so I wouldn’t drool. “She said that there should be cameras following me around instead of Colton, because this was a reality show she’d want to watch.”

  “That’s funny.” He dropped his arms and I let out a breath of relief. “Harmony said pretty much the same thing. She said that this was going to be fun to watch.”

  I laughed. “Maybe our sisters don’t love us as much as we thought they did.”

  I felt myself falling into the comfortable rhythm that we always fell in when we were together. From our first conversation in the storage room there was a level of familiarity that I’d only ever felt with my family. Not that I had any familial feelings towards Travis. Unless you counted marriage, then I had all kinds.

  Knowing that I had to pull the brake before this train left the station, I said, “Well, too bad for them, the shows over. Tad and Alexandria are leaving tomorrow so this is over. You’re free to go about your normal life and I—”

  “What if I don’t want to be free?” he cut me off mid-speech.

  My heart fluttered at the words that I’d been wanting to hear. But I knew that no matter what he said, there was no future. And I needed to get out before I got hurt. Or more hurt.

  I let out a small laugh, and pretended he was kidding.

  “I’m not kidding. I don’t want this, us, to end. I want to see where this goes. I care about you. A lot. So much it scares the shit out of me.”

  Now my heart slammed into my chest like a crash test dummy.

  Travis leaned forward and reached for my hands, but I pulled them back and set them on my lap. With Tad, I’d gotten carried away. I’d left school. Changed my entire life. I was still suffering the consequences from that decision. I’d told myself that my heart didn’t get a vote in things and I had to be true to that. I had to be true to me.

  “Look, I care about you, too, Travis. This has been great. You’ve been great. But I have to focus on the show now.”

  “I know.” He nodded with a grin. “I understand, of course you need to focus on that. But I’m talking about after the—”

  “I’m planning on moving to LA as soon as this show’s done filming. Your life is here.”

  “We can make it work. We can figure it out.”

  My phone rang and I’d never been so happy for an interruption. My resolve was weakening faster than Usain Bolt runs the 100 meter. I picked up my phone. “I have to take this.”

  “I’ll wait.”

  No. Please don’t.

  Panic started to move in. If he waited, he’d talk me out of this. I had no doubt that he’d convince me that we might actually have a future. It would be easy to do because I was exhausted and my defenses were down and he would be saying everything that I wanted to believe more than I wanted my next breath.

  My voice was strained as I pleaded, “I don’t have time to do this. Just go. Please.”

  He stood and for a split second I was sure he was going to fulfill my earlier wish and walk over to me, pull me into his arms and kiss me senseless. But I was wrong. Instead, he did exactly what I asked him to do.

  He left, taking my heart with him and I had no one to blame but myself.

  Chapter 22

  Travis

  “No matter how flat you make a pancake, there’s always two sides.”

  ~ Walker Briggs

  “Fuck!” I cursed as I sucked in a harsh breath and shook out my hand, which I’d just burned the shit out of. The motion caused a sharp pain to shoot through my shoulder that had been doing so good, but just my luck, had started flaring up today.

  Staring down at the steam rising from the engine I growled. I hated mechanical work on good days. Today was not a good day for me to be dealing with a tractor’s engine overheating. The only upside was that it had crapped out after I’d made it back to the barn and not in the middle of the field.

  After a quick check under the hood I’d ruled out a leaking radiator, although I did burn the shit out of my fingers in the process. Sweat dripped down my back and I removed my ball cap and ran my fingers through my hair before replacing it and kicking the tractor tire in frustration.

  “Hey, what did that tractor ever do to you?” The booming voice of Walker Briggs carried from the back porch of the main house.

  “It overheated,” I said under my breath as I walked into the barn. I had no desire to speak to anyone today. Not even my dad.

  I’d tossed and turned several nights this week, but none had been as fitful as last night. For some reason I’d just figured everything would work out. I thought Mia might need time, who wouldn’t? We’d known each other less than a week. I didn’t expect her to be as crazy as me because I’d marry that girl tomorrow if she’d have me. But I never thought I’d get shut down before I even had a chance to plead my case.

  She didn’t want time. She didn’t want to see what happens. She didn’t want to give us a fighting chance. She’d didn’t want me.

  “What’s got your panties in a bunch?” my dad asked as he stepped up beside me.

  “Nothing.”

  “Your mother said she invited your new girlfriend to Sunday dinner tomorrow, this nothing have anything to do with her?”

  “She’s not my girlfriend and she’s not coming over.” I crossed to the office area where we kept a mini-fridge, grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it. I was hot, thirsty and cranky so I figured I might as well fix one of those conditions.

  My dad let out a low whistle. “That was fast. I figured once you actually got a girlfriend that that would be it. She’d be the one.”

  “Why?” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. My tone was borderline “you better watch it” level but right now, there was nothing I could do about it. “Why would you think that?”

  “Because son, you may not realize it, but you’re a romantic. I know that a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me. They think all your skirtin’ around is who you really are. But they’re wrong. I know you. I know the little boy that used to insist on us buying two whenever we got new animals on the far
m because you never wanted them to be lonely.”

  I’d forgot that I’d done that.

  “I know that out of all nine of my kids, you’re the only one that remembers mine and your Mother’s anniversary every year. You’re the only one that sits and listens to stories you’ve heard a hundred times about the first time we saw each other. Our first date. Our first fight—”

  I smiled, “When you got mad at her so you wouldn’t hold her hand when you were at a store and when you got to the car she gave you back her engagement ring.”

  “I was a kid. I was a dumb seventeen-year-old kid.” My dad threw up his hands using the same defense he always did. “It doesn’t matter, because I never pulled that stunt again. She made her point. Just like I’m making my point now. I believe you’ve always wanted that kind of love. The real thing. All that foolin’ around you were doin’ was just because you hadn’t found the real thing yet.”

  Damn.

  He was right but it didn’t change anything. “Well, it doesn’t matter if I thought I found it. Mia and I were never really together.”

  His brows rose. “Come again?”

  “At Trace’s wedding I was in the storeroom getting glasses for mom and Mia came in, but she didn’t know I was there. She was on the phone with her sister talking about her ex coming to town with his new fiancée. Her sister suggested that she get a fake boyfriend for the week. When she got off the phone, I offered her my services.” I smiled remembering the look of horror on Mia’s face when she’d realized I’d overheard her conversation.

  “Your services?” His brows rose even further.

  “Not like that. I offered to be her fake boyfriend.”

  “And she agreed?”

  “Sort of.” I sighed. “Mom walked in and I introduced Mia to her as my girlfriend. Once Mom left I kind of railroaded her into negotiating terms.”

  “I see. Well, that explains why your Mama’s been winking every time she mentions her. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be picking up on.” He said more to himself than to me before directing his question my way, “Railroaded or turned on your charm?”

  I shrugged. “A little of both.”

  “And why did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  My dad grinned. “The railroading and the charming?”

  “Because I wanted to…” I started to say that I’d done it for the massages, but I stopped. Not because I was worried about my dad finding out about my injury. That seemed insignificant to the pain I was feeling about losing Mia. Not that I’d ever really had her. I didn’t say it because it wasn’t true. So I took a deep breath and told him the truth. “I did it because I wanted to be with her. From the second I saw her, I was gone. She was it. I figured I’d get my foot in the door and then…”

  “Then she’d invite you in to stay awhile?”

  I readjusted my ball cap. “Pretty much.”

  “And that didn’t happen.” He stated.

  “No.”

  “What did happen?”

  My shoulders dropped as defeat worked like gravity, pulling me down. “Everything was going good, better than good. It was amazing. We were…I really thought we were getting closer. That she was falling, too. Maybe not as fast and hard as I had, but that she was tumbling close behind me.

  “Then last night she ended it. I guess, not really ended, since we weren’t ever really together. I told her how I felt and she said that she cared about me, but that she needed to focus on the show. I said I understood and that I would wait and she said that she was moving to California after she was done here and that she didn’t have time for this. For us.”

  My dad was quiet and I lifted my hands in exasperation as I continued, “And maybe she’s right. California is a long way away.”

  “It is.” He nodded. “But it’s also just geography. Last time I checked, love, real love, laughed at little things like geography.”

  The apple obviously didn’t fall far from the tree in the romantic department.

  “That’s great in theory.” I countered, “But what about in practice?”

  “What about it?” My dad challenged. “Do you think I would’ve let a little thing like geography stop me from being with your mother?”

  “No, sir.”

  He let out a forced laugh. “Son, I would’ve moved heaven and earth to be with that woman. I damn sure would’ve moved across the country, hell, out of the country if that’s what it took.

  “So the only question is, do you love this girl?”

  “Yes,” I answered without hesitation.

  “If she loves you back, which I have a feeling she does, would you move to California for her?”

  “Yes.” Again the answer came without a moment of pause.

  My dad tipped his head towards me with a knowing expression. “Does she know that?”

  “No, sir.”

  She didn’t. But, she was going to find out.

  “Rookie mistake, boy.” A wide smile filled my dad’s face. “I’d make that right sooner rather than later. And in the future, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging and look for a way out.”

  After dropping that pearl of wisdom my dad turned to leave.

  “Oh, and Dad I don’t think Mom knows that Mia and I were never really together.” I explained, “She was really distracted by everything that was—”

  My dad raised his hand. “Believe me. She knows. Your mother knows all and sees all.”

  “Right.” Dolly Briggs had been nicknamed the All-Knowing One because she always knew everything there was to know about all nine of her kids. “Then I wonder why she made the chicken when I asked her to? If she knew that we weren’t really together?”

  My dad’s grin grew wider. “My guess is it was because she knew what I know.”

  Sometimes, my dad’s riddles were amusing, now wasn’t one of those times.

  Impatience flooded through me. “What do you know?”

  “I know that you are going to make me lose the pool,” he said flatly before turning and leaving.

  The pool?

  I had no idea what he was talking about. It wasn’t until he was halfway back to the main house that I remembered he and the boys were taking odds which Briggs brother would be next to walk down the aisle.

  I’d never wanted to be the cause of my dad losing a bet before, but I damn sure did now.

  Chapter 23

  Mia

  “Honesty is not something’ you should flirt with, you should be married to it.”

  ~ Walker Briggs

  “This is so stupid,” I reprimanded myself aloud to an empty motel room. “Stop it.”

  My bottom lip trembled as I typed on my computer, approving the caterer’s bid for craft services. I’d been crying on and off for the past twelve hours and I wasn’t sure exactly why.

  I knew that I’d be sad. Really sad. But I never expected this. If you looked up hot mess in the dictionary there would be a picture of me, sitting here, in my pajamas, with red puffy eyes and a runny nose.

  As irritated as I was about this completely disproportionate emotional breakdown I was unable to stop, it did reveal a very real truth to me. If I was this devastated about losing Travis after only knowing him a week, then I did the right thing. What would the aftermath be if I’d agreed to what he’d suggested last night?

  Two large teardrops slid down my cheeks and I grabbed one of the used tissues beside my computer and blew my nose into it. I had to get it together, fast. This morning I’d bowed out of saying goodbye to Tad and Alexandria by claiming to have come down with a nasty cold and not wanting to expose Alexandria to it in her delicate state.

  This “bad cold” was going to have to clear up ASAP. Colton and all the girls were due in Wishing Well on Monday morning. The first shoot was scheduled for that evening. And there were about a thousand loose ends that I had to tie up before then. The clock was ticking on my pity party and time was running out.

  Sitting back in my chair, I took
a few deep, cleansing breaths to try to hold back the dam of tears that was threatening to burst.

  I continued inhaling and exhaling in a steady, slow rhythm as my eyes scanned the room. Everywhere my gaze landed was marked by Travis. The bed, the chair, the bathroom, the very table I was sitting at. It all seemed so empty without him. His presence had left a void in this room and in my heart that I wasn’t sure would ever be filled.

  A loud vibrating sound from an incoming call filled the hollow space and I took in a shaky breath to fortify myself. When I lifted my phone off the table I saw that it was a Facetime call from Libby.

  I was torn. As much as I wanted, needed, to talk to her, I also didn’t want her to see me in this condition. Usually I loved Facetime. Today it wasn’t my friend.

  After wiping my face and wrapping my hair up in a bun, I answered the call.

  “Hey, Libbs.” My voice trembled slightly, but was actually stronger than I’d expected it to be.

  “What’s wrong?” Alarm tinted her voice and her face twisted in concern.

  “Nothing. Just a little overwhelmed trying to wrap up all these last minute details.” I figured a half truth was better than a full lie.

  “You’re crying because you’re busy?”

  No. But people did cry because they were overwhelmed. Since she wasn’t buying that though, I threw a Hail Mary pass to keep my current emotional state secret and blurted out, “I’m not crying, it’s allergies.”

  “Allergies?” she repeated, unconvinced.

  I motioned behind me. “And I was cutting onions.”

  “You have allergies and you’re cutting onions.”

  Well, when she put it like that it sounded ridiculous.

  “Yep,” I responded weakly.

  She sighed. “Don’t ever commit a crime, Mia.”

  “What?”

  “You would be a nightmare for your defense attorney, which would be me. You are the worst liar. First alibi tip: never give two unrelated cover stories. Or at least combine them. Say you were cutting onions and you’re allergic to them.”

  “That would’ve been better,” I mumbled.