Keep My Baby Safe

by Bella Grant

  Intrigued, she paused the show again, not wanting to miss a second, and checked the message. Travis had responded in under a minute to hers, which astonished her. He must have been watching his phone! she thought excitedly.

  Pretty darn sexy, huh? You have such a way with words. I’m really glad you answered. I always enjoyed chatting with you.

  He starts with a tease then gets into some serious shit. Diana looked around the room as if she thought she was being pranked. They hadn’t spoken at all for five years, and in two days, they were complimenting each other. He even admitted he liked chatting with her, which shouldn’t have been surprising. They had always talked easily until the last six months or so of their marriage. He was being much more forward than he had been in the past, and she liked it. Just be careful, she warned herself before answering.

  DIANA: I always liked talking to you. We had fun back in the day, remember? Even when we were broke right after college. Haha!

  TRAVIS: I do remember. Walking in the park and wondering around the French Quarter. Man, we saw some crazy things!

  Diana laughed as she remembered.

  DIANA: Remember the time we turned down the wrong alley and ended up in the whips and chains area? I didn’t know you could use a chain as a thong! My eyes were burning!

  TRAVIS: I had nightmares for a week! I can’t believe we got out of there. They wanted us to hang out with them!

  DIANA: Um, if I remember correctly, they wanted YOU to hang out. Not me. I was not their type.

  TRAVIS: And that was before I was, as you called me, “pretty darn sexy.”

  Diana laughed again, enjoying their short conversation more than any she’d had in the last year. They had an easy rapport that had spanned their separation, which had to mean something.

  DIANA: You were hot back then, and you know it.

  TRAVIS: You’re still hot, and you know it.

  Shocked, Diana stared at the screen. He had changed, and she liked the new Travis. His aggressiveness was incredibly sexy, and she wondered if he would be as aggressive if they were in person. She wouldn’t mind finding out, but she was uncertain about asking him if he wanted to get together. What if he said no? Her indecision held her hand, and he sent another message before she could respond to his compliment.

  TRAVIS: I’m sorry if that was weird.

  DIANA: Not at all. I was about to say thank you.

  TRAVIS: You’re welcome. So, would you be interested in possibly going to lunch with me tomorrow?

  He had asked! Diana’s elation caused her to jump up and do a little dance, her earlier reservations forgotten. However, she didn’t want to appear too excited, so her answer had to be calm, almost aloof.

  DIANA: I would like that.

  TRAVIS: Great! Would you like me to pick you up?

  Diana glanced around her little apartment and thought about the mostly decent neighborhood she lived in. The other tenants in the building were good people, and she felt safe inside. She didn’t, however, walk outside by herself after dark if she could help it. She was grateful the parking garage required a code to get in, but it was hardly safe. Anyone could walk in and wait for an unsuspecting victim, and she’d seen a few people she didn’t want to be anywhere near waiting around inside.

  DIANA: How about I meet you? I have a bunch of errands to run, so I’ll be out and about.

  TRAVIS: Okay, sure. Where do you want to go?

  DIANA: Why don’t you decide and text me the address in the morning?

  TRAVIS: Typical. Never could decide where to eat. Haha!

  He added a rolling eyes emoji as well as a smirk emoji, and she giggled at his newfound silliness. Even when they’d been young, he’d never been such a joker. He hadn’t necessarily been serious all the time, but to send emojis was unlike him. She sent him six eye-rolling emojis before responding.

  DIANA: You know what I like, so surprise me.

  TRAVIS: I do remember. I’ll text you an address tomorrow. Send me your number.

  Diana sent him her number and received a text a moment later. She quickly saved his number before answering his question. He had never changed his number, and even though she’d deleted his when she bought a new phone, the number had been engraved in her mind since the first night they’d met.

  TRAVIS: Will 12:30 give you time to finish your errands?

  DIANA: Better make it one.

  TRAVIS: So you still lay around in bed all morning? Geez!

  DIANA: So you’re still up at the crack of damn dawn? Double Geez!

  TRAVIS: Love the mornings! Good night. Can’t wait to catch up.

  DIANA: Same here! Good night.

  Tickled, Diana dropped her phone on the couch beside her, lost in thought. He couldn’t wait to catch up with her. He wanted to see her. Giddy with excitement, Diana hopped off the couch again for another brief happy dance, which ended abruptly as she wondered what she would wear.

  Oh, stop it, she chided internally as she grabbed her glass to refill it for the last time that evening. This is simply two people reconnecting after a long time. She didn’t want to get her hopes up. He might only want to be her friend, though she was pretty sure she couldn’t just be his friend. She would want more.

  With a nod of her head, she decided she would go to lunch and get a feel for what he wanted from her. If friendship was all he desired, she would find reasons not to see him until he found different friends. But the big question in her mind was whether he wanted more than friendship.

  “Well, you’ll have to wait and see,” Diana said aloud. With a sigh, she reached for the remote once she’d returned to the couch with her wine and hit play.

  Jesse Pinkman celebrated loudly, yelling triumphantly, “Yeah, bitch!”

  Diana smiled and settled in, hoping the Emmy-awarding winning show would take her mind off Travis and their impending lunch date.

  Chapter 5

  Travis stared at his iPad. He’d saved her number as soon as she’d sent it to him, noting it wasn’t the one he’d memorized when they were together. Of course it isn’t, he reminded himself. When they had divorced, he had removed her from his phone plan, so she’d probably had to get a new number. Removing her then hadn’t made him feel guilty at all, but now his conscience twinged a little. He’d been an asshole to her because she had won the house in the divorce.

  He put aside the negative thoughts and focused on the fact that she had agreed to see him the next day for lunch. He had asked on a whim after their conversation had been so much fun. He missed talking to her, more than he thought he would. She was clever, and she still made him laugh, even through text. Their reconnection might lead to more than a friendship, but he had no idea how she felt. She’d seemed hesitant about the lunch date, her response annoyingly nice but not excited.

  So tomorrow will be a test, he declared internally as his opened the internet browser on his iPad and searched for the perfect restaurant. He didn’t want anything too fancy since they were going to lunch, and if Diana was running errands, she’d be dressed casually. He doubted, however, that she’d be running errands. The woman could sleep until noon on a Saturday if she had nothing else to do.

  He smiled at the memory of waking her with lunch in bed rather than breakfast. She’d been so charmed every time he did it that she forgot to be grouchy. Thinking of the meals he’d made her, simple sandwiches or soups and salads, he decided a quaint deli on the French Quarter would be perfect. He searched for a place with a patio or balcony they could sit on because he knew she liked eating outside. The weather would be perfect, so he saved the address and set the iPad aside so he could finish reading the contracts he’d been working with.

  After what seemed an hour later, he was yawning profusely and ready for bed. He glanced at the clock and realized not one, but three had passed while he worked. He’d finished the contracts quickly, and rather than put the research away for later, he’d delved in and become engrossed in finding what the new ER would need at the lowest cost.


  He stood and stretched, groaning loudly as his back popped and his shoulders screamed from being hunched over his desk. He shook his head, exasperated at himself for getting carried away. This was exactly what had driven a wedge between he and Diana five years before. He’d gotten lost in his work because he enjoyed it, but he needed to get lost in something else entirely. A woman. The woman he had always loved. His Diana.

  With determination in mind, he decided at that moment he would win her back. He’d done a little research on her, using his ability to do background checks—which he acquired because he staffed ERs—and he could see that she had, from all records available to him, left gambling behind her. She still owed money but was steadily paying off the debt, sometimes paying larger amounts than the minimum payment. He was proud of her, though he wouldn’t be able to say it to her when they talked. He’d have to wait until she chose to tell him she’d kicked the habit.

  And he’d have to work hard to kick his bad habits as well if he wanted her in his life. He couldn’t continue being a workaholic and win her. He breathed deeply and made a promise to himself: Work hours would end, unless absolutely necessary, at the office. And he would leave the office no later than six every day, beginning Monday. He would not work on weekends after this one, and he would prove to Diana that he had changed.

  If she’d changed too, their relationship might possibly work.

  Travis texted her around eleven the next morning so he didn’t wake her, just in case she was still sleeping. She answered immediately, assuring him she’d be there by one, and his stomach roiled like he was on a roller coaster. His nerves were on fire, as if he was going on a first date with a new woman. But this was Diana, the woman he’d loved for years, even through the ugliness.

  Except she isn’t the same, and neither are you, he thought as he headed to his car. He wanted to pick her up some flowers before they met, but before that he wanted to drop the contracts off at the office so he wouldn’t be tempted to work that evening or the next day.

  He wondered, as any guy would, if maybe his evening might be occupied by a willowy brunette with eyes the color of leaves. He certainly wouldn’t push, but he wouldn’t say no if the opportunity revealed itself. Her slim, muscular legs wrapped around his waist as he carried her through his restored mansion, promising her the world he hadn’t given her the first time. Her lips on his, her tongue dancing with his, and the scent of her body as her desire exploded. He remembered making love to her and wanted to do it again, so badly, in fact, his cock was rock hard as he turned the ignition.

  Can’t go to lunch with a boner, he chided, shaking his head as he trained his eyes on the road and his head on anything but the goddess he’d been married to. He pictured Michael and his atrocious amount of leg hair, which he thought was disturbingly thick even though women didn’t mind it. His boner died more quickly than a squirrel hit by a car.

  His office was closed on Saturdays, although either he or Michael were there at some point every weekend. The man with the nightmarish legs was working in his office when Travis walked in several minutes later. He poked his head in Michael’s office and nodded.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Michael asked.

  “Thanking you,” Travis answered, leaning against the doorjamb and relishing the joke he was about to tell. “Your furry legs killed my boner so I could walk like a normal man.”

  “Ah, shit,” Michael said in disgust, shaking his head as he sat behind his large desk. “I know we’re pals, but that’s got to be over some friendship line.”

  “I didn’t get hard thinking about your legs,” Travis retorted, straightening and heading across the hall to leave the contracts on his desk. “That would be crossing the line,” he called.

  “That would be crossing a fucking ocean, man,” Michael yelled. “You nasty bastard.”

  He stuck his head back in Michael’s office. “Don’t work too late.”

  Michael called to him as he turned to leave. “You’re leaving? You were barely here!”

  “I have a date,” Travis announced, smiling at his friend.

  “I thought you were acting weird, coming in here talking about boners. Who is she?”

  Travis cleared his throat and walked back to the doorway. “Diana.”

  Michael’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline, but he smiled as if he knew a secret.

  Travis’ eyes narrowed. “What’s that look?”

  “Nothing, man. Have a good time,” Michael said with a wink. “Glad your balls dropped.”

  With a bark of a laugh, Travis flipped him off and left. He turned away from his parked car and headed to the flower shop a block down. He remembered Diana’s favorite flower was the lily, and she preferred the colored ones to plain white. He hoped they were in season and reflected that she would know the answer. Smiling to himself, he stepped inside the cool shop and breathed in the scents of multitudes of flowers, grateful he didn’t suffer from allergies.

  “Good morning, sir,” the clerk, an older, gray-haired woman, greeted him after finishing with her customer. She turned to him with a warm smile, and he was reminded of his father’s mother. “How may I help you?”

  “I have a date at one and would like to get her flowers,” he explained, smiling at her. Her eyes twinkled at him, and he continued. “Her favorite flower is the lily, but I didn’t know if they were in season.”

  “Oh, sir,” she tittered, waving her hand dismissively as she walked around the counter to lead him to a display. “Lilies are always in season, if you know the right grower and greenhouse. We have a lovely selection right over here.”

  Travis looked over the selection, smiling when he saw purple, her favorite color. He looked at the clerk, who waited patiently. “Can I get a bouquet with purple and…um, what color would complement them?”

  “Well, that would depend on whether you want the bouquet wrapped in paper or in a lovely vase?” she asked. “Are you picking her up?”

  “Um, no, we’re meeting at a deli, so I guess I’ll need the flowers wrapped,” Travis told her. “And you can pick the color you think is best to complement the purple.”

  “I’ll have them ready in no time, sir,” she promised as she hustled. “Your new young lady will love them.”

  Travis smiled and thanked her, moving away to look at the display of roses. He didn’t bother to tell the woman Diana wasn’t a new girl. She seemed to enjoy the idea of a new romance and what some called the old-fashioned gift of flowers. However, his father had been giving his mother flowers at least once a week for as long as he could remember. Their house had always smelled like fresh flowers, different scents from all sorts of buds, and he’d wanted the same for his home and wife.

  Travis had brought flowers to Diana in the beginning of their relationship, and they’d enjoyed the scents together. But as his business began to expand and he grew busier and busier, the flowers were often forgotten, his wife put second to his work. His marriage had become less important to him than his job, and he’d lost her to her addiction.

  Shaking himself out of his negative reverie, he glanced at the door as it was pushed open by a pair of women, from the looks of them a mother and daughter. The daughter looked around twenty, flitting about and exclaiming over every flower she saw, her energy captivating and contagious. The mother, on the other hand, looked exhausted and threw herself onto the small bench for waiting customers.

  “Well, hello!” the clerk called as if she recognized them. “Have y’all talked about what you want?”

  “Only a million times,” the mother murmured, waving a hand in her face as if fanning the heat away from her face. Her cheeks were reddened as if they were in the middle of a heat wave.

  “Oh, Mom,” the young woman said, rolling her eyes and looking at the clerk. “She’s just tired.”

  “Dress shopping, caterers, now flowers,” the mother droned, ticking off their errands on her fingers. “Of course I’m tired!”

  The clerk smiled and told them
, “I’ll be done with this young man’s bouquet in two shakes. And I promise to make the flowers for your wedding as painless as possible.”

  “Thank you,” the mother said, grimacing a little as she glanced at her daughter. “You know, your daddy is going to flip when he sees what we’re spending.”

  “I think he’ll be all right,” she replied, glancing at her mother with a silly grin. “After a few years.”

  The mother shook her head. “You’re just lucky your man and your daddy get along so well, or he wouldn’t pay for this damn wedding.”

  The daughter giggled and the mother sighed, though she did smile. Travis was amused by the conversation and wished he and Diana had been able to afford a wedding. Her father was an unknown, even to her mother, who was a drunk Diana had moved away from as soon as she could. And though his parents had offered to pay for a small wedding, he and Diana had agreed to go to the courthouse and let the Justice of the Peace marry them.

  He told himself to stop wasting his thoughts on regrets, and he promised himself if he were to marry again, be it to Diana or any other woman, he would give her a wedding to remember. His imagination sparked, he pictured Diana in a white wedding dress with a lovely bouquet of lilies, walking down the aisle towards him with a smile on her face and a gleam in her eyes. The gleam of love for him he’d seen so many times during their relationship.

  “Sir?” The clerk lifted the bouquet for his inspection before wrapping the flowers in paper. “Does this look like what you had in mind?”