“Uh-huh.” He was still grinning.
“But he never…”
“Did this time. Uh, after I explained to him ‘n’ Mother that I needed it to do some fancy courtin’, that is.” He winked at her.
“Courtin’? D’you mean you’re seriously pursuin’ that woman who’s…”
“The mother of my son, yeah.” Travis gestured toward the house, just visible beyond the tennis courts. “Told ‘em ‘bout that, too.”
“Omigosh! What’d they say?”
“Mother can’t wait to meet Randi ‘n’ Matt.” He shook his head and chuckled. “She also said I’d better put a weddin’ ring on the lady’s finger right quick. Then she changed her mind ‘n’ said to make it an engagement ring. Said she wants to play mother of the groom at a big formal weddin’.”
Sarah grinned at him. She’d left for her swim while their parents had been deep in a private conversation. Her mother had never looked so relaxed. Nor her father, for that matter. “And Daddy?” she asked. “What’d he say?”
“Said to marry the woman if I love ‘er, then studied me a second ‘n’ said, ‘Never mind, any fool can see you do.’ And then he asked when he could meet his grandson! Said he has a golf swing he wants to show ‘ im, ‘n’ lots of other things, too. ‘Grandfather-to-grandson things,’ he called ‘em.”
Sarah felt a sudden rush of tears. She blinked them back and met her brother’s gaze. “He means it, doesn’t he, Trav? He’s really truly changed.”
Not trusting his voice, Travis nodded. So much had happened so fast his system was threatening to go into overload. His father had even offered to speak to Aunt Louise about sponsoring Troy at Stanford, if Troy really wanted to go into research, as Travis suggested. And when he’d left them, his parents were planning to go to Europe for a second honeymoon.
He shook his head in wonder. He’d never believed in miracles, yet he knew he’d seen one today. Now all he needed was a little faith, and maybe he’d be graced with another.
Randi. Could he dare hope to free her from her past? What he hadn’t told Sarah was that he’d just made a phone call to Jill Terhune, and the results had been encouraging. She was making no promises, but Jill said she’d think about what he had in mind. She said she had some good feelings about recent developments between him and Randi. And Matt, of course.
Matt. God, but he loved that kid! Matt was a miracle all by himself. But Randi worried him more than he liked to admit. Was it possible to get past her fear? Get her to care for him, as he’d begun to care for her? Huh, might as well quit mincing words. As he’d begun to love her.
He smiled, remembering her face after he’d kissed her last night. Maybe he did have a chance. He’d never believed in romantic love, either, and look at him now. Hell, maybe the age of miracles had arrived.
“RECONCILED! TRAVIS, that’s wonderful news!” Randi and he were walking in the park near her home. Up ahead, Matt tossed a Frisbee for Ulysses, laughing each time the dog caught it. It was nearing dusk, and with Travis’s impromptu visit, the little imp had again won a postponement of his bed time. “How did it happen? Tell me.”
Travis chuckled. “Lord, if you don’t remind me of Matt when you get excited!”
“Well, of course I do. I mean, we’re related, aren’t we?” She felt herself blush, glad it was growing dark, so maybe he wouldn’t notice. She was remembering the countless times she’d thought the same about him—that he reminded her of Matt. And how at first this had unnerved her, made her uncomfortable. And how it no longer did. How, instead, each little quirk, each similarity, filled her with an undeniable warmth, a curious sense of peace and…joy!
“Aren’t sons and their mothers supposed to share a few genes?” she demanded, hoping to cover the silly grin that had started to spread across her face with these thoughts.
“Yes, ma’am,” Travis said, smiling down at her. “I believe y’all are.” Without pausing, he captured her hand as they walked, savoring the feel of her slender fingers, pleased when they curled within his clasp.
A tender warmth stole through her with this contact, and Randi exhaled slowly, barely avoiding a sigh. She felt so good when he held her hand this way—as he had last night. Lord, she’d had the sweetest dreams about those moments they’d shared—the way he’d looked at her as they stood over their sleeping son, the way he’d kept her hand in his, his touch gentle, the way he’d kissed her….
He made her feel warm and protected…and cherished. Travis, whose very presence had once made her want to grab her son and run. How had they come this far? How had she come to…She swallowed thickly. Could it be…? Were her feelings running that way? Deep enough to be called…
Unwilling to complete the thought—at least for now, with Travis beside her and perhaps able to sense something—she quickly drew their conversation back on course. “Uh, we were talking about you and your family, remember?” She still couldn’t get over his news.
He recounted his visit to Sunnyfields, omitting the most private moments with his father, but explaining about Wally Reston. Reston, whose funeral he’d be attending tomorrow. That this would postpone his plans for the Sarah Anne was something he also omitted. Of course, Jill hadn’t yet given her sanction, but—
“Hey, Travis, didya see that?” Matt came running up with a Frisbee-bearing Ulysses at his heels. “I throwed it reeal far—” he gestured toward the distance, where a man with a small boy waved as they strolled away “—an’ that kid’s dad helped Lysses find it. It was in the bushes, but Tommy—that’s the kid-says his dad’s a real good Frisbee finder. But I tol’ him ‘bout you ‘n’ how you’re a good finder, too.” He looked at Randi. “Right, Mom?”
Breathless with this recital, he glanced at Travis, then back at Randi. “Mom?”
“What, sweetheart?”
“Could Travis be my daddy?”
Randi swallowed, hard, an ocean of conflicting thoughts whirling through her brain—that Travis was his father, that her son’s poignantly innocent question only served to drive home her doubts about what she’d done, that Matt’s longing for a father who’d be a part of his life, like this Tommy’s dad, was tearing at her very soul…
And that this was the most awkward moment of her life. God, she wished the ground would open up and swallow her, so she needn’t respond!
Noting her discomfort, Travis swallowed past the sudden constriction of his throat and stepped in. He smiled at his son, determined to make it seem as if Matt’s question was nothing out of the ordinary. In her distress, Randi had released his hand, and he used it to ruffle Matt’s hair. “Tell us what you’d do first thing, Tiger, if somebody waved a magic wand—”
“Like a fairy godmother?”
“Yep, like a fairy godmother…or maybe a fairy godfather…”
Matt giggled.
“And after she or he waved it, let’s say I’d be your dad…” Struggling to keep his voice light, Travis hoisted Matt to his shoulder, retrieved Randi’s hand and headed back the way they’d come. “What would you do with me, huh?”
Matt looked thoughtful as he pondered this. “I’d ‘vite you to camp out—in a real tent!” he said, sliding a glance at his mother.
“Hmm,” said Travis, “sounds neat. What else?”
“Well, we could play ball ‘n’ stuff, ‘n’ you could help me ‘n’ ‘Lysses find Frisbees.”
“But don’t we do some of those things now?”
“Yeah,” Matt said, “but if you were my dad, you’d be around to do ‘em all the time.”
His father nodded, wanting to look at Randi for her reaction, but sensing she wouldn’t appreciate this right now.
“An’ y’know what else?” Matt added brightly. “Every night, when you ‘n’ Mom tuck me into bed—like last night?—I’d tell you how much I love you. I’d tell God how much I love you, too, ‘n’ ‘member you in my prayers!”
Travis couldn’t speak. By sheer force of will, he kept walking, aware of how Randi’s fingers cle
nched within his grasp. Finally, unable to help himself, he glanced at her face.
Like his own, it was wet with tears.
“BUT, MO-OM, Robbie’s camped out lotsa times at his cousins’, ‘n’ he’s a four-year-old, too.”
Randi heard the tears threatening Matt’s voice and felt like an ogre. She couldn’t help recalling his words to Travis a couple of nights before, wondering if he’d been hinting at this at the time.
Hinting that with a dad, he wouldn’t need to plead, since the dad would probably join in the all-male camp-out.
Oh, Lord, don’t think about that. You’ve lost enough sleep over the things he said the other night, as it is! Just deal with what’s going on now, Terhune!
But her stomach clenched at the thought of Matt on an overnight camp-out with Robbie Spencer and Robbie’s tenyear-old twin cousins. What if something happened? Like another urinary infection. The boys would only be in the cousin’s backyard, true, but how would the other children recognize an emergency if it happened? They were just kids!
“Matt, sweetheart,” she began tentatively, searching for a way to say no without upsetting him, “I know you’ve got your heart set on this, but—”
“But!” he cried. “When you say ‘but,’ you always mean no!” Face screwed into a contortion heralding tears, he turned toward his aunt, who was mixing a batch of brownies at the kitchen counter. “Aunt Jill, make her unnerstan’!”
As Jill turned to face them, Randi shot her a look that said, Make him understand.
Jill sighed. Randi was becoming overprotective. The signs had been increasing over the past year, and since Matt’s recent crisis and hospitalization, his mother’s tendency toward excessive fear and restraint of the child’s emerging independence had mushroomed. Something had to be done.
“Matt,” she said softly, “why don’t you take Ulysses for a romp in the yard while your mom and I talk?”
His lower lip thrust out, Matt cast a doubtful eye over the two women. His aunt smiled at him, and he glanced at his mother and managed to pull in his lip. “All right,” he mumbled. “C’mon, ‘Lysses—” he signaled the pup “—we gots to let these wimmens have a talk.”
“YOU COULD’VE SUPPORTED me,” Randi accused when she and Jill were alone. She gestured in the direction of the backyard. “That little stinker’s sharp as a tack, and like most bright children, he’s not above playing off the adults in his life against each other.”
Jill shoved the brownies in the oven, turned to her and sighed. “I know, love, but hear me out, okay?” She smiled to take the edge off what she was about to say, and Randi gave a reluctant nod.
“Randi, I know you worry about Matt and only want to protect him from harm, but isn’t it possible you could be, uh, overdoing it a bit?”
“Overdoing it?” Randi looked hurt. “What if something should happen with Matt, and the other boys don’t realize it? What if they can’t see he’s in trouble?”
“But the parents will be only yards away.”
Randi speared her with a look that said she wasn’t budging an inch.
“Okay,” Jill said, “if you’re not comfortable with the setup as it stands, what if we send along our cellular phone and teach Matt and the boys how to use it? Better yet, we could give ‘em a call every so often. Maybe we’d be waking them up all night, but kids fall back to sleep with no trouble. But if something was wrong, we could alert the parents. They’d be there in moments.”
Randi was silent as she digested this. Trust Jill to come up with a creative solution; it went hand in hand with her other artistic talents, she supposed. But Randi’s apprehension didn’t ease, though she was hard put to say why. “I don’t know, Jill,” she began evasively. “I mean, Mall’s just a baby. He’s—”
“He’s not a baby. He’s four and a half years old. But he could resent being treated like a baby if you don’t lighten up a bit.”
“Lighten up!” Randi was stung. Yet, try as she might, she couldn’t ignore the ring of truth in Jill’s words. Matt had sounded resentful. That had stung, too.
“Look, sweetheart,” Jill said gently, putting an arm about her shoulders, “no one knows better than I how loving and caring a parent you’ve been. No kid could’ve had a better mom. All I’m saying now is, you might wanna take a fresh look at the situation. Your little boy’s growing up. He needs some freedom to try his wings.”
She’s right, Randi thought, so why does it hurt? Why can’t I relax about this?
Though Randi was silent, Jill could tell she’d given her pause. “Tell you what,” she said. “Why don’t you think about it awhile? The camp-out’s not till the weekend. No one’s demanding you make a decision right now.”
Randi cocked her head toward the backyard and managed a grin. “Oh, no? Did you see the look young Master Terhune tossed us as he left?”
Jill chuckled, relieved to see her sister’s sense of humor peeking through. “Just you leave Master Terhune to ol’ Jill the pill, kid. By the time—”
“Mom! Aunt Jill!” Matt’s voice cut across the yard. “It’s Travis! Travis is here!”
“Oh, no!” Randi cast an eye over the paint-stained jeans and T-shirt she frequently wore around the house. Her hand went to her hair, caught in an askew ponytail that was still damp from the shower she took after jogging. “Lord, I’m a mess! Why does that man insist on showing up unannounced?”
Jill flushed. She’d known Travis was coming and why. But Randi wasn’t supposed to know about it, for fear she’d resist what he had in mind—what they had in mind, now that he’d talked her into it. And in this, she still had some uncertainty; she prayed she wasn’t making a mistake. “Uh, why don’t you run up and change while I keep him entertained, sis?”
Randi needed no urging. flashing her a look of gratitude, she exploded out of her chair and flew upstairs.
“BEST BROWNIES I ever tasted,” Travis declared as he sat at the kitchen table with all three Terhunes.
Matt chimed in with “Me, too!” then glanced at his mother. “Uh, ‘cept for Mom’s,” he added loyally. “Her ‘n’ Aunt Jill make the bestest brownies in the whole world. They’re lots better ‘n Robbie’s mom’s. She puts nuts in ‘em. Yuck!”
“Say, Tiger—” Travis glanced at the wall clock and then at Jill “—if it’s okay with Mom and Aunt Jill, why don’t you take one over to Robbie right now? He might like ‘em, too.”
“But for heaven’s sake, don’t say anything about the nuts!” Randi warned, prompting a giggle from Matt.
“Matter of fact,” Jill added with a glance at the clock as she sectioned off four brownies, “you can take some for all the Spencers.”
“Okay,” Matt said cheerfully, “but that baby can’t eat any.” He made a face. “She gots no teeth.”
Chuckling, Jill covered the plateful with plastic wrap and handed it to Matt.
“Robbie won’t care ‘bout the nuts, though,” he called over his shoulder from the back door. “He eats anything chawk-lit!”
“Okay, you two,” Randi said when Matt had disappeared-out the door, “what’s going on? I saw you glancing at the clock, and you couldn’t wait to hustle Matt out of here. C’mon, what’s up?”
“She’s quick,” Travis said to Jill. “I’ll say that for her.”
“Sharp as scissors, my sister,” Jill agreed with a nod. “Maybe she missed her calling. Does the CIA hire women?”
“Very funny,” Randi grumbled, “but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there’s something in the works between you two. Now, out with it.”
“Tsk, tsk.” Travis shook his head. “Bossy, too. Maybe you’d better tell her, Jill.”
“Tell me what?” Randi demanded.
“And impatient!” Jill said with a laugh. But when Randi threatened to hurl a brownie at her, she held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, okay!”
Randi lowered the brownie to her plate and Jill told her, “You know Travis has reconciled with his family, right? Well, one of
the percs of being a full-fledged, dues-paidup member of the McLean clan is the use of—get this, sis—the family yacht!”
Randi’s eyes went wide, but Travis ran a hand over his jaw and groaned. Yacht. He never called the damned thing a yacht.
“And,” Jill went on, “he’d like your permission to take Matt out for a cruise.”
“Oh,” Randi said. Just Matt? Why not Matt and her? Why not all three of them? Were women routinely excluded for some reason? “All by himself?” she asked, trying to keep from sounding hurt—and worried.
“Well, no,” Travis said. “I mean, I’ll be sailing with him, and there’s the captain and crew, of course.”
“It’ll only be for a few hours,” Jill put in, seeing the reluctance on her sister’s face. “We’d wait for them at this little restaurant at the yacht basin Travis told me about.”
Randi shook her head. “I don’t know, Travis…” she began, then caught the arch look on Jill’s face. A look that said, There you go again!
“It’ll be perfectly safe,” he assured her. “But, tell you what—why don’t I take you out there today? I can show you how safe it’ll be.”
“What, right now?”
“For somethin’ like this, darlin’—” his gaze was strangely full of promise, sending tendrils of that old nameless longing to her nerve endings, “—yeah, now’s the time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
AS TRAVIS GAVE HER a tour of the Sarah Anne, Randi was awestruck. The sheer size of the yacht, not to mention its grand appointments, boggled the mind. It hit her now just how wealthy Travis, or his family at least, was. The furnishings alone had to cost multiples of what she made in a year.
“Hope you brought an appetite, darlin’.” Travis’s lazy drawl invaded her unsettling thoughts. “Unless my nose is lyin’, Etienne’s cookin’ up a storm in the galley.”
The tantalizing aroma of something delicious drifted up from below. Randi sniffed appreciatively as he led her toward a set of stairs, carpeted in a plush turquoise wool.
“Etienne?” she asked, suddenly aware of the warmth of Travis’s hand on her arm. She was aware of his “darlin’,” as well, though she’d long since told herself this was nothing more than a casual endearment, perhaps something he threw at many women. But in recent days she wasn’t so sure; memories of the quiet intimate moments they’d shared with Matt, not to mention the kisses they’d exchanged, said there was far more than the casual between them. And if that were true—
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