by Bella Andre
Twenty-five minutes into her wait, a big, black SUV drove past, then slowed and turned around before pulling in behind her car on the shoulder. Amy’s heart rate jumped as she waited for the driver to emerge. Though she hoped the person was there to help rather than harm, she made sure to have 911 ready to call on her cell phone with just the press of her thumb.
When Travis stepped out, the wave of relief that hit her felt like being swept up in an ocean swell. Where before she’d felt frightened and vulnerable, now she felt utterly, completely safe.
Travis was here, and he would never let anything happen to her.
Perhaps it was a foolish way to feel considering how things had ended between them three years ago, but she felt it nonetheless.
She called out his name as she stepped out of the trees, and he was quickly at her side, running his hands over her face and then her arms to make sure she wasn’t hurt. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Warm all over from his touch, she said, “I was heading to the tea place where we’ll be having the bridesmaids’ reception tomorrow when the engine started making terrible noises and smoking.”
“Thank God you’re all right.” He brushed his hand over her hair as though to reassure himself again. “Have you called a tow truck, or would you like me to take a look at?”
Before she could reply, the tow truck rounded the corner.
A few minutes later, she was in Travis’s passenger seat, and they were on their way to the Mountain View Tea Shop.
Travis drove in the same way he did everything else, with quiet confidence, keeping his eyes on the road while also tracking well ahead for any potential problems. Amy could easily imagine him driving around a high-profile client, watching out for danger even as he kept the ride as smooth as possible.
The tea shop was exactly the way Amy had pictured it—a bright, lovely space set back in the hills—and so small that Travis looked like he would barely fit inside.
“I’m sorry I’m a little late,” Amy said to the woman who greeted them. “I’m here about a booking for tomorrow. My name’s Amy Woodford, and this is Travis.”
“Ah, yes, I see it on my calendar.” The woman smiled at both Amy and Travis. “Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. It’s always lovely to meet both the bride and the groom.”
“Oh, no,” Amy said quickly. “I’m afraid you have that wrong. It’s for my friend’s wedding, not mine. I’m her maid of honor. And Travis is—” The man I once loved. And might still have feelings for, actually. “—in charge of security at the wedding venue. My car just broke down on the side of the road, so he brought me here.” She knew she was babbling, but that was because she was suddenly reeling from her sudden realization.
That she might still have feelings for Travis. Despite everything.
“In that case, I’m sure you’d like to sit down and relax a bit. I’ll bring you a few things to taste, and then, if you’d like, you can make some changes to the menu for tomorrow.”
Amy found herself ushered into a seat, while Travis perched on the dainty chair opposite hers. Was it just her imagination, or was everything in Malibu—from the weather to her rental car to the tea shop owner—trying to push them together?
“Well, that was awkward,” Amy said as the woman hurried off to fetch cakes and tea.
“It’s fine,” Travis said.
But it wasn’t. Couldn’t he see that?
Just then, the owner returned with several teacups so that Amy and Travis could try a range of loose-leaf tea selections, along with a half-dozen delicate little cakes. Once they were alone again, Amy suddenly realized she had to take Maya’s advice and talk to Travis. Really talk this time, when neither of them could run. Because she’d never be able to put things to rest inside her heart until she finally understood exactly what had happened between them.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said to me at the coffee shop,” she began in a soft voice, “about how you deliberately kept your past from me.” It wasn’t easy to speak her feelings so plainly, but she made herself continue. “That hurt, Travis. So very much. Especially when I told you about things that were incredibly personal, and yet you didn’t feel like you could trust me enough to do the same.”
“Of course I trust you,” he replied in a low voice. His hand closed around one of the cakes, tight enough that there were only crumbs left. “It’s me I don’t trust.”
“Please tell me why you feel that way.” Amy’s voice trembled with emotion. “I promise that I would never judge you for anything you say or anything you’ve done.”
* * *
Travis had barely slept last night, thinking of how badly he kept hurting Amy by running out on her. Three years ago, he’d thought he was doing the right thing to protect her. But he’d only ended up hurting her. Only to hurt her again when he ran from her questions at the café.
“I don’t know where to start.” His whole career relied on him taking decisive action, knowing the right thing to do, and executing it before a situation could get out of hand. But with Amy, that point was long past. Still, he knew she deserved to hear more of his story. Enough, at least, that she might finally understand why he hadn’t been able to let her think that he loved her—no matter what he’d really felt—and that she might also finally understand why she was better off without him.
“Growing up…things weren’t good. It was a rough neighborhood, with a lot of bad things going on.”
“What kind of bad things?”
“Gangs, drugs, fights.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you were involved in all that?” Amy tilted her head to one side, looking at him carefully. “Because I have a hard time believing it when you’re such a good person.”
“I wasn’t directly involved. But my family was. My mom died when I was young, so it was just me, my father, and my older brother.”
“I didn’t know that about your mom,” Amy said. “I’m sorry.”
She hadn’t known because Travis hadn’t dared to tell her even that much. He’d known that if he’d started talking about his past, the rest would have come out along with it.
“I never really knew my mom enough to miss her. But my father and my brother…” Travis paused to sip his tea, a momentary respite before he made himself continue. “They were monsters.” Though Amy gasped at his language, there was no other word for it. “My dad was a drunk who only kept whatever his current job was until the boss figured out how worthless he was. My brother loved picking on, and fighting with, anyone smaller than him. I was smaller than him for a long time. I was smaller than them both.”
“They hit you?” Amy asked, clearly horrified.
“Every day. Sometimes it would be one of them, sometimes the other. The bad days were the ones where they both decided it would be fun to remind me they were in charge.” His father had owned a belt with metal studs that Travis could remember all too well.
“Travis.” Amy reached across the table to put her hand over his. “Did anyone try to help? Did anyone in your neighborhood do anything to try to stop them from hurting you?”
“Eventually someone did.” He had done what he had to do to make sure that they would never hurt him again. “But for a long time, people just ignored it. Probably because all they saw was a kid who was destined to turn out exactly the same as his father and his brother. Worse, even, because he’d never known anything different.”
“You turned out great!” Amy declared. “The person who saved you must have done a good job.”
Travis swallowed hard. It was one thing to give her more details, but it was another to tell her absolutely everything. He still couldn’t do that, not here in this tearoom when he knew she’d be so full of disgust that she’d need to get away any way she could, even if she had to walk back down the freeway to get home.
Instead, he told her a different truth: “I never saw love as a kid, so I didn’t know what it looked like. Didn’t even really believe it existed.”
&nbs
p; “You work at a wedding venue,” Amy said with a gentle smile, “so you must know what love looks like by now.”
She was right that Married in Malibu had a way of making a believer out of pretty much anyone. But the truth was that Travis learned what love looked like long before he took the job. From the first time he and Amy had walked and talked and laughed together—love had looked like her. But even now, he couldn’t say it, couldn’t risk dragging her into his life when she deserved so much more than him.
Thankful that he could finally shift the conversation away from his past, he said, “Married in Malibu definitely sees more than its fair share of couples who are deeply in love.”
“Not to mention the way Jenn and Daniel look at one another.”
Travis nodded, then told her, “Married in Malibu also brought Liz and her husband back together.”
“It sounds like a truly magical place.”
“It is. Which is why you should accept Liz’s job offer. Not only will you be able to paint full time, but…” God, he hated to say the words, just as he hated to draw his hand away from hers. “Once you’re back in Malibu, I’m sure you’ll meet someone perfect for you. Someone who knows how to open up his heart all the way. Someone who isn’t going to always screw things up or hurt you.”
“Travis—”
The proprietor interrupted them before Amy could finish her thought. “I hope everything’s all right? Are you enjoying the sample cakes and teas?” She gestured to the practically untouched plates in front of them. Amy had nibbled at the cakes, barely tasting anything. Travis hadn’t touched his portions at all except to crumble the one cake in his fist. “Or would you like to try something else?”
“Everything is wonderful,” Amy assured her hurriedly. “The bridesmaids are going to have a great time tomorrow. I don’t need to sample anything else. Do you, Travis?”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head, “and I should get you back. I know you’ve had a long day already.”
After settling the bill, they headed out to his car in silence. He didn’t know what else to say. More than anything, he wanted to be with her, but what could he do when he was still the same man? Still damaged. Still incapable of being everything Amy deserved.
It wasn’t until he pulled into the driveway of her rental house that she finally spoke again. “Thank you for talking to me today, Travis. It means more than you know that you were willing to trust me.”
And then she leaned over, kissed his cheek, and left him staring after her, wishing he could follow her and pull her into his arms. Wishing he could kiss her passionately. Wishing he could say that he’d fallen in love with her three years ago and had never stopped loving her.
Not for one single second while they were apart.
* * *
Amy’s head—and heart—were both spinning faster than ever as she walked into the rental house.
“Whose car was that?” Maya asked. “What happened to your rental car?”
“It broke down, and Travis was passing when he spotted me. He took me to the tea shop, then gave me a ride home.”
“That was Travis?” Maya hurried to the door as though she might still catch a glimpse of him. “The guy you’re in love with was here and you didn’t give me a chance to meet him?”
Amy smiled at that, but only a little. “You sound like you’re my mother angling to find out if he’s good enough for your little girl.”
“Did I ever tell you that I actually got that from Nolan’s mother? The first time we met, she gave me the third degree, asking if modeling could ever be a stable profession and whether she should expect to have paparazzi hiding in her flower beds.”
Amy would normally have laughed at that story. When she didn’t, Maya reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. “Something more happened with Travis than just a busted car engine and a visit to the tearoom, didn’t it?”
“You’re supposed to be getting ready for your wedding,” Amy deflected. “Surely there’s something you want to talk over with me after your meetings today.”
“Married in Malibu has everything under control, and my wedding is going to be perfect.” Maya inclined her head toward Amy. “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, you can tell me about what happened with Travis this afternoon over a glass—or two—of bubbly.”
Maya grabbed a bottle of champagne and two glasses, then gently pushed Amy out onto the deck that overlooked the beach.
“Now,” Maya said once they each had a glass in hand, “what did he do that has you so flustered?”
Amy looked out over the ocean and took a deep breath of salty air before replying, “I took your advice and asked him to talk to me. Really talk this time. And he ended up telling me about his past. Some of it, anyway.”
She was glad that he had finally opened up to her. And yet, she couldn’t push away the sense that he’d filled in his backstory the way a painter might lay down the initial coats of paint on a canvas, in broad washes of color that hadn’t yet acquired real form. Creating a painting that wasn’t anywhere near finished yet.
“What happened to him?” Maya asked.
Amy shook her head. “I can’t give you the details. Only he can, if he ever chooses to. But what I can tell you is that, though he hasn’t done anything wrong, his life definitely hasn’t been easy or fair. Which just makes everything he’s achieved, everything he is, even more impressive.”
“And now that he’s shared his past with you?”
That was the part Amy was still trying to work out. Why did he think that having a bad history, no matter what had happened to him, would change anything about the way she felt for him?
Why had he felt he needed to walk away three years ago, rather than simply telling her all of this in the first place?
And why couldn’t she stop thinking about him? Couldn’t stop her heart from racing whenever he was near? Couldn’t stop wanting to throw herself into his arms and kiss him? Couldn’t help but feel safe with him, despite how conflicted she was inside her heart.
Again, she felt find a tiny hint of hope glimmering inside her. Travis hadn’t left because he found someone else, or because he didn’t love her. He’d left because he hadn’t thought he was good for her.
When the truth was that he was the best man she’d ever known.
She took a large gulp from her glass, and maybe it was the champagne talking, but she couldn’t keep her hopes to herself another second. “I can’t believe I’m about to say any of this, but now that Travis has finally started to open up, I’m thinking about giving him another chance.” Bumping Maya’s shoulder with her own, she added, “This is the part where you tell me that I’m being completely insane to even consider giving a second chance to a guy who broke up with me before we even started officially dating.”
Only instead of confirming that she’d lost her marbles, Maya said, “True love is the best thing in the whole wide world. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like if I weren’t marrying Nolan. Whereas you have gotten to see what life is like without Travis—and we both know how much you missed him. So now that you’ve got a second chance, if you think that he’s your one true love, then honestly, there’s only one thing I can tell you right now.”
Amy’s heart was in her throat as she said, “What’s that?”
Maya put her arm around Amy, then said, “You have to take a chance on true love with Travis again. Or you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
Chapter Seven
Late the following afternoon, Travis cursed his efficiency, as thoughts of Amy were waiting just on the other side of his security preparations for the wedding, which were now complete.
Needing to find more to do or risk his feelings for Amy overwhelming him, he headed for Liz’s office. The door was closed, and as he knocked, he heard laughter from within, followed by, “Come in.”
Travis wasn’t surprised to find Jason inside. The famous thriller writer often came over when he was done with his morn
ing’s writing to take his wife to lunch. Both Liz and Jason had the slightly guilty looks of people caught out at more than picking which restaurant to go to.
“My security preparations are finished,” Travis said, “so I thought I’d check to see if you needed any extra help with anything.”
“I’m all set on my end,” Liz replied, “but Daniel is setting up a backdrop for photographs in the garden, so perhaps you could see if he needs a hand. Preferably before Nate decides to give up on coding the lighting sequences to work on it.”
Travis smiled in silent agreement that their computer expert did rather seem to prefer working with his hands and a hammer.
Down in the garden, Daniel had laid backboards and reflectors along the garden path. Kate was hovering just on the other side of the garden, shooting worried looks at Daniel, obviously ready to pounce at the slightest hint of damage to her plants. Jenn was there too, clearing up what looked like an old-fashioned picnic in the garden, complete with blanket and hampers.
“What’s this?” Travis asked.
“I thought it would be nice to add something informal into the wedding,” she explained. “While I was waiting for some dough to rise, I thought I’d take the time to experiment.”
A new element to the wedding reception meant a new set of potential security concerns. Fortunately, after some quick mental calculations, Travis decided his existing security arrangements would easily cover it.
“I like how you’re always coming up with new and innovative ideas, Jenn,” Travis said.
“I do too,” Daniel agreed, walking over to put an arm around her and giving her a kiss on her forehead before she headed back to her kitchen to put her bread in to bake.
Normally, the fact that everyone was in a kissing mood would have been just fine with Travis. Today, however, it served only as a reminder of the fact that he couldn’t kiss Amy…no matter how bad he wanted to.