Gage moved closer, causing Kylie to adjust between them. It was almost as though she knew they both needed her, that they both wanted her warmth, because she turned and realigned herself so they were both right up against her.
Yeah, Travis could get used to this.
A short while later, Travis was opening his eyes once again, the morning sun now shining down rather than sideways which meant the day was quickly progressing and as much as he wanted to sleep the day away with them both, he knew he had to get home. The last thing he needed was his brothers ridiculing him because he was suddenly slacking off on the job.
Travis cuddled closer to Kylie, partly because he wanted to be close to her, partly because he was hoping she would stir. He wasn’t about to leave without saying goodbye, but he needed to get going.
“Baby,” he whispered against her ear and she stirred a little more.
“Hi,” she said with a smile, her hand clutching his chest and making his heart squeeze a little more. Ten years without this made it damn hard to want to go without for even five minutes.
“I need to head out. I’ve got some things to take care of today.”
“Ok,” she mumbled, but then she jumped, as though she just remembered something. Her warmth disappeared as she flipped over, facing Gage.
“Before you leave, I wanted to tell you that I want to take the job. If you’ll still have me, that is.”
“Baby, I’ll take you any way I can get you,” he replied, his voice hoarse from sleep.
The topic of their conversation reminded Travis that Gage’s house was now crispy, and he’d lost everything he had worked so hard for. All of his material possessions gone. It also gave him an idea, and he made a mental note to stop by his parents’ house once he was back in Coyote Ridge.
Shit. And that meant he had to go dig his truck out of the ditch. Realizing that the day was going to get away from him fast if he didn’t get a move on, Travis rolled out of bed, once again pulling on his clothes, this time getting his shirt although he’d much rather see Kylie in it.
Then again, he had plenty more she could choose from. Especially when he invited her to his place.
Chapter Thirty Three
♀♂
Kylie thought her heart would shrivel as soon as Travis and Gage walked out her front door, but with so many things to do, she hadn’t had time to think about anything other than getting things in order.
She had a few more days with Jessie in town, but then she was going to go stay in Coyote Ridge so she could start working on Gage’s house. They’d had a brief conversation before he left that morning about plans. Since he didn’t offer for her to come stay with him, she figured she would have to seek out a hotel in the area so she’d be fairly close. She’d been so busy finishing up the plans for the house that she hadn’t had a chance to call any.
Now that she had a few minutes to spare, she figured she’d reacquaint herself with her friend Google. A good friend who never let her down, she pulled up the search engine and got ready to search for hotels in the area when her cell phone rang.
“Daddy!” she greeted her father with the same excitement she always did when he called, which had seemed to be less and less lately.
“How’s my little girl?” She found it amusing that he still referred to her as his little girl, although she had a younger sister. Since he referred to Jessie as baby girl, Kylie figured it was only fair. And endearing.
“Better now that you called. Where are you?”
“La Guardia.”
Her father was an airline pilot, and because he had moved to Dallas a few years ago to be closer to his then girlfriend – now fiancé – she didn’t get to see him as often as she would like. Although she got along brilliantly with Melissa, the lovely woman who had walked into her father’s life three years earlier and effectively changed him for the better, there were times when Kylie was just a tad bit jealous of the woman.
Not quite to the extent Jessie was, but she still longed for the times she’d spent with her father when she was younger. Mostly after her mother abandoned them not long after Travis had shattered her heart to pieces. Needless to say, that hadn’t been a good year for her.
Not that she would ever let her father know that she had any concerns whatsoever. He deserved to be happy and Melissa apparently made him very, very happy.
“Will you be home soon?”
“Tomorrow. Why? You coming to see your old man?”
“Not yet. Remember that job I told you about? Down closer to Austin? Well, I’m taking it so I’m going to be busy for a few weeks.”
“Refresh my memory. What kind of job?”
Kylie’s father was incredibly protective of both of his daughters, and she was well versed on the round of questioning that was coming. Come to think of it, Jessie must’ve inherited their father’s inquisitive genes.
“It’s a fairly extensive restoration. The guy I’ll be working for is legit. In fact, he’s a police officer.” She wasn’t sure that would make her father feel any better, but she figured it couldn’t hurt.
“Where’s this house?”
“Coyote Ridge.”
There was silence on the line for a moment before Kylie filled the static with anything that would take his mind off of the fact that she was going to be where he couldn’t necessarily find her on a moment’s notice. Not that he had ever tried, but she knew he worried.
“Jessie’s here.”
“I heard.” His reply sounded both worried and sad. “She tell you why she came down?”
Kylie glanced toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms as though she could see through the walls and confirm her sister wasn’t eavesdropping.
“She just wanted some time away. I’ve missed her, and I think she knows it,” she said, hoping her answer would appease him.
“They got in a fight, Kylie.”
Well, that she didn’t know.
“When?”
“A few weeks ago. She moved out.”
“What?”
Her sister hadn’t told her that part. In fact, her sister hadn’t told her anything whatsoever.
“She’s staying in a hotel right now because she said she wasn’t sure she wanted to stay in Dallas.” There was a long pause, and then her father cleared his throat before continuing, “Talk to her, Kylie. She trusts you.”
“I will, Dad.” Just as soon as Jessie crawled out of bed.
“So, where is this Coyote Ridge? You know I’m going to look it up on the map, don’t you?”
Kylie smiled. She hadn’t heard of the small town before Gage showed up on her doorstep either, so she wasn’t all that surprised that her father hadn’t. Considering her soon to be ex-husband was living there, she figured she should give him very few details. Not that her father even knew she was married. At least not yet anyway. As long as Jessie kept her mouth shut, that would last a little while longer.
Their marriage had been a spur of the moment decision, and Kylie knew her father would never have given her his blessing to get married at nineteen, especially after how unhappy he had been with her mother all those years. They’d married young, and their marriage had been rocky at best ever since Jessie was born.
As though their mother was avoiding having to pay child support because Kylie was positive neither of them would’ve agreed to live with her, she’d stayed until Jessie’s eighteenth birthday. Then walked right out the door and never looked back before the ink was dry on Jessie’s high school diploma. Since Kylie and Travis hadn’t been married long enough to validate it, she’d managed to keep her secret all these years.
“Just north of Austin. Don’t worry, it’s only for a month, and I promise to call you often.”
“Every day,” her father commanded, making Kylie laugh.
“Probably not every day, Daddy. But, I promise, I’ll call you. I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself.” She’d managed for this long, she figured it wasn’t much of a stretch to believe she’d be able to survive whatever roll
er coaster ride she was signing herself up for where Gage – and Travis – was concerned.
“Well, I gotta go, little girl. I expect to get a text at the very least to let me know you’re all right. And talk to your sister, please.”
“Will do, Daddy. Love you.”
“Love you too, honey.”
With that Kylie hung up the phone and stared down at the receiver.
A fight, huh? And why hadn’t Jessie mentioned that she didn’t have a place to live. Not that moving out of their father’s house was a bad decision considering Jessie was twenty seven years old. But, she should be seeking something permanent, at the very least.
Kylie set her cell phone on the desk, torn between letting Jess sleep a little while longer or running and jumping on her sister’s bed and insisting that she wake up and chat. She glanced at her computer screen, then toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Before she could make a decision, her cell phone rang again.
Snatching it up, she glanced at the caller id. She didn’t recognize the number, but she hit the talk button anyway.
“Hey, baby.” The sound of Travis’ voice sent a soothing warmth through her entire body. He’d called her.
“Hey.”
“You still at home?”
“I am.”
“You have any plans for tonight?”
Kylie’s smile couldn’t have gotten any wider without splitting her face right in two. She looked down the hall once more and swiveled in her chair so she faced her desk.
“I’ve got some things to take care of this afternoon, but I’m free tonight. Why? What’d you have in mind?”
“Ok, but you’ve got to keep it quiet. Think you can do that?”
“I think I’m pretty good at keeping a secret, Travis,” Kylie joked.
There was suddenly a sad inflection in his tone, “Don’t I know it.” He cleared his throat and then continued, “Ok, so here’s the deal.”
Kylie listened to what Travis had to say and by the time they got off the phone ten minutes later, she was stunned silent. Travis had gone into lengthy detail about something he was working on for Gage. She had a hard time believing he’d pulled together something of that magnitude in just a few hours. And now he was asking for her help.
That meant she needed to tackle the things she had scheduled for the day. Starting with her conversation with her sister which was the most important. After that, she had an appointment she didn’t want to miss and then she’d be on her way to Coyote Ridge.
The sound of her sister’s footsteps on the hardwood had Kylie twisting in her chair to look at her. Even fresh out of bed the girl was beautiful. She was even more so because she didn’t flaunt it and she had a personality that people flocked to.
“Hey,” Kylie greeted as her sister passed her by on the way to the kitchen. Deciding to pull the same stunt her sister had pulled on her just that morning, she jumped right into the conversation. “I just got off the phone with Dad.”
“That didn’t sound like a conversation with Dad,” Jessie muttered, although she did slow her stride somewhat.
“Well, that was actually Travis, but I talked to Dad before that.”
“Good for you. What’d he have to say for himself?”
Kylie decided she needed to be standing for this discussion, so she headed to the kitchen behind her sister, going for the refrigerator. It was past lunch, but since neither of them had eaten, she decided to make her sister’s favorite.
“Sit, I’ll make grilled cheese.”
A beaming smile lit up Jessie’s face, and she quickly detoured back around the island to the bar and plopped down on a stool.
Kylie pulled out the necessary cooking utensils and then grabbed bread, cheese and butter before setting everything up in front of Jessie. “Dad said you moved out.”
That seemed to get Jessie’s attention, but she didn’t say anything. Kylie proceeded to butter the bread after turning on the stove and putting the frying pan on the burner to start heating.
“He mentioned that you and Melissa had a fight. Care to tell me why?”
“Not really, no.”
“Tough,” Kylie made eye contact briefly before returning to her task.
She worked in silence for a couple of minutes, but if her sister knew anything about her, she was well aware Kylie was not planning to back down. She gave her some space, figuring she was putting together her explanation. Once the two grilled cheese were browning in the pan, Kylie leaned up against the counter and faced her sister. “I’m waiting.”
“It was nothing,” Jessie hedged.
“Not buying it, Jess. If it was nothing, why’d you move out?”
“I’m twenty seven years old, Ky. Don’t you think it’s time I got my own place?”
“I do, actually. But a hotel does not qualify as your own place.”
“It’s temporary. I’m looking.”
“So why are you really down here?” Kylie got the impression that her sister wasn’t just visiting because she had vacation time and needed to get away.
Kylie turned away so she could tend to their lunch, and when she turned back, Jessie had her head in her hands. The sight of her sister upset broke her heart right in two. “Jess, what’s going on?”
“I quit my job,” she sobbed. “I just up and quit and here I am, homeless and jobless, and I don’t know what to do.”
Kylie turned down the heat on the stove and went to her sister’s side, wrapping her arms around her. She didn’t ask any more questions because it was clear her sister needed a minute. If she pushed, Jessie would just shut her out, and it was obvious she needed a friend right now.
She had no choice but to pull away a few minutes later when the smell signaled their lunch was about to set off the smoke detectors. Kylie hurried through finishing the sandwiches, grabbed two plates from the cabinet and a package of Doritos from the pantry before serving their meals on the bar. Retrieving two cans of lemonade from the refrigerator, Kylie joined her sister.
“Dad’s going to marry Melissa,” Jessie said some time later when they were both eating.
“I know.” That wasn’t news because her father had proposed to Melissa some time back. They lived together and from what Kylie knew, they were extremely happy. “Do you have a problem with Melissa?”
Jessie turned her head to the side, her eyes scanning Kylie’s face as though she were trying to read where the question was leading. Either she was satisfied with what she found, or she wasn’t planning to answer because she turned her attention back to her food.
“No. I don’t.”
Kylie was surprised by her honesty. Then again, Jessie had never been the type to lie about anything. She was too honest at times as a matter of fact.
“So why’d you move out?”
“It was time.”
Kylie didn’t push.
“I’m tired of having nothing of my own. I liked my job, but I didn’t love it. I hated living at home because I’m too old to be living at home. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I’ve been putting it off.”
“Do you have plans now?” Kylie peered over at her. “You know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you want.”
“Right. Because you don’t have a life. I saw those two men in your bed, Sis. And don’t worry, what you do is your business. If you want Dad to know, you’ll tell him.”
Kylie stared at her plate, wondering if that would ever be a good idea. Her father was going to flip a lid as soon as he found out she was married. If this thing between her and Travis and Gage was going to move forward, her father was going to have a coronary.
“You’ll let me know what you decide to do, right.” Kylie didn’t want her sister disappearing on her. If she didn’t have a place to go, she’d much rather have her there so she could make sure she was ok. Without a job, maybe she could help Kylie with her reno on Gage’s house. She could always use an extra pair of hands and Jessie had helped her before.
“Yes.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Kylie turned to face Jessie. “Help me with the renovation on Gage’s house. It’s going to take a few weeks, and we’ll have to stay in Coyote Ridge for a little while, but it’ll give you something to do while you decide your future.”
Jessie’s eyes widened, and a smile tilted her glossy lips. “Where will we stay?”
If Kylie wasn’t mistaken, there was interest and something more along the lines of hope in her sister’s tone. “Not exactly sure yet, but worst case, we’ll stay in a hotel close by.”
“I’m game.” Jessie jumped up from her chair and threw her slender arms around Kylie’s neck, nearly knocking her off of her stool.
Returning the hug, Kylie held her sister close, rubbing her hand up and down her back. In all honesty, she was looking forward to time with her sister. She was looking forward to someone to talk to.
Chapter Thirty Four
♂♀
When Kylie called to tell him that she was on her way, Travis asked her to meet him at Gage’s farmhouse. Since he knew Gage was currently at Kaleb’s, – an intentional setup to get him away from his house for a couple of hours – he didn’t want to risk the chance of Gage seeing her truck.
Not yet anyway.
Pulling down the long, winding drive, he was thankful he was the first one to arrive. Having hijacked the key with Kaleb’s help, he wanted to get inside and get the house opened up. They didn’t have a lot of time because Kaleb wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to convince Gage to stick around if he decided to call it a night. Travis asked his brother to give him a heads up if Gage did head out. At least they’d have about fifteen minutes to clear out.
After unlocking the front door, Travis ran through the house flipping on lights and opening doors. His timing was perfect because he was walking out onto the front porch when the first set of headlights beamed up the driveway. Minutes later, there were more. Until there was a long line of trucks and SUVs lining up along one side.
“This feels like one of those reality shows, bro.” Sawyer clapped him on the back as he moved to stand beside him.
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