by Eve Gaddy
“Hi, Dr. Robinson. Is something wrong with Lucky?” Edie, the receptionist, asked.
“I should have called,” Tobi said, “but I was worried enough I just brought him and hoped Sweetie wasn’t too busy. He’s been vomiting. A lot.”
“Let me show you to a room.”
Tobi sat in one of the hard plastic chairs and watched Lucky as he sniffed around the room. She had to admit that the dog didn’t look terribly ill, but she was still concerned and glad she’d brought him to see Sweetie.
The door opened and Sweetie walked in. “Hi, Tobi. Hi, Lucky.” She squatted to pet Lucky, who immediately tried to lick her. She laughed. “Thank you for the kisses but that’s enough.” To Tobi she said, “Edie said Lucky’s been vomiting?”
“Yes, three times so far. He doesn’t look bad but I looked up vomiting on the Internet and—”
“Say no more,” Sweetie said. “You’re a doctor. You should know better than to look things up on the web.”
“I didn’t say I believed it all. But I wanted you to check him out.”
“You did the right thing. It could be nothing serious but it’s better to be safe.”
After examining Lucky and checking a stool sample Sweetie questioned her about what he’d been eating and if Tobi thought he’d gotten into the garbage or gotten hold of something that didn’t agree with him.
“No, I don’t think so. But I did switch dog food. Do you think that’s it?”
“It’s certainly possible. Why don’t you go back to the first food you fed him? And if you change it, be sure to do it gradually. Watch him the next few days and be careful reintroducing water and food. You know the drill.”
“I’ll do that. I’m sure you think I overreacted but—”
“Not at all. I think you’re a concerned parent. That’s what keeps me in business,” she added with a smile.
“Oh, my God,” Tobi said to Lucky on the way home. “I’ve fallen for you.”
So much for not wanting to get too attached.
Chapter Eleven
Travis finally got hold of Tobi late that afternoon. “I was starting to worry. I tried calling you all afternoon.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I had to take Lucky to the vet. I turned off my ringer and forgot to turn it back on.”
“Everything okay?”
“I think so.”
“Why don’t I come get you and you can tell me all about it over dinner.”
“I need to stay here. I have to watch Lucky.”
“Watch him what?”
“Watch and make sure he doesn’t throw up anymore.”
“Okay. I’ll bring takeout.”
“Perfect. I’ll see you in a little while.”
“So what’s up with the woofer?” Travis asked, walking into Tobi’s house later with Mexican takeout.
“He was vomiting and I got worried it was something serious. He did it several times.”
Travis looked doubtfully at Lucky, who was tossing his toy in the air and chasing it. “He doesn’t look sick. Dogs throw up all the time.”
“Not this much, and not in the same day. At first I wondered if it was a bezoar—”
Travis held up a hand. “Hold on. What the hell is a bee-zor? That sounds like a made-up name.”
“It’s an indigestible object in the stomach. It could be anything. But Sweetie X-rayed his stomach and it was clear.”
“What’s the problem, then?”
“His dog food, we think. I switched to a different one. I’m going back to the old food and seeing if that solves the problem.”
“You’re crazy about that dog, aren’t you? I told you you would be.”
“No you didn’t. You said I’d get used to him.”
He didn’t remember saying any such thing, but if that’s what Tobi wanted to believe then why argue?
“And FYI,” Tobi continued, “he’s my dog so of course I like him. But I’m not crazy about him. He’s a nice dog. Period.”
“Your nice dog is chewing on one of your shoes.”
“No, he’s—damn it! Lucky, no, no, bad dog.” She went to him and tried to wrestle the shoe away from him. Lucky planted his paws and growled, tail wagging the entire time, certain Tobi was playing tug-of-war.
Travis stifled a laugh. Tobi gave him the evil eye. “Stop laughing and help me,” she said.
Travis walked over to them and took her place, grabbing hold of the shoe. “Lucky, drop it,” he commanded, in as stern a tone as he could muster. The dog immediately dropped it, but he yapped, clearly wanting to play some more. “Good dog.” Travis patted him on the head. “You just have to be firm.” He handed her the mangled shoe.
“Thank you, Mr. Dog Whisperer.”
“You’re welcome.”
She looked at the shoe and shook her head. “There goes another one.”
They washed up and sat down with their food. Tacos, enchiladas, rice, beans, guacamole, chips, salsa, and tortillas. A Tex-Mex feast. “You realize Texas has the best Mexican food in the States.”
She looked up from her food. “I’ve never tried to eat it anywhere else.”
“I have. Some places are better than others, but once you’ve eaten Tex-Mex, nothing else really compares.”
They had almost finished dinner when Tobi said, “We need to talk.”
“About Mexican food?”
“No. I’m serious, Travis.”
“Okay.” Something told him he wouldn’t like what she had to say.
They went into the den and sat on the couch. Lucky followed and jumped up between them. Travis started to push him out of the way but Tobi told him to leave him.
“What’s going on, Tobi?”
“We’ve never really talked about…us. About our relationship, I mean.” Travis remained silent, wondering what in the hell this was about. Was the bad feeling he was getting warranted or was he overreacting because of his past?
Her hand was stroking the dog. Her gaze was glued to the dog, not him. “I want you to know it’s okay with me if you decide to see other women.”
“What?”
“We never talked about it, but I understand this—this thing between us—isn’t serious. It’s more like a fling.”
What the fuck was she talking about? A fling? He’d never thought of the two of them as a fling. Not from the first, when he saw her standing alone at the entrance to the ball. “You want me to see other women? And if I want to take these other women to bed that’s okay with you too?”
“No. At least, not while we’re…”
“Flinging?” he finished for her. He didn’t know what was going on but she was really pissing him off. “Have you met someone else?”
“No.”
“Are you planning to meet someone else?”
“No. Travis, I’m just trying to set some ground rules. We never have—we just sort of happened.”
Great. He’d just realized he was falling in love with her and here she sat, talking about ground rules and flinging and seeing other people. “What happened to make you bring this up now?”
“Nothing. I thought it was time, that’s all.”
“Bullshit. Something happened to spook you. What was it?” He could tell by her expression she wasn’t going to tell him. Lucky was now snoring between them. Travis picked him up and set him on the floor. Scooting next to Tobi, he put his arms around her and pulled her close. “Are you breaking up with me?”
“No, but I—”
He interrupted her by kissing her. And kept kissing her until she relaxed against him and returned his kiss. “I don’t want to see other women.” When she would have spoken, he kissed her again. “And I don’t want you to see other men.”
Gazing into his eyes, she still looked troubled. “Okay. I don’t want to anyway.”
That reassured him. A little.
“Look, Tobi, I can’t say what exactly is between us—” other than I’m falling in love with you and you don’t appear to be doing the same “—but this is
n’t a fling. Not to me, and I suspect not to you either.”
“At first I thought it would be. But…that’s not what’s happening.”
“No, it’s not.”
For whatever reason that was spooking her enough to bring up this seeing other people crap.
He wanted to make her forget whatever was bothering her. He wanted to make love to her until they were so steeped in each other that neither could imagine being with anyone else. He wanted to empty her mind of anything but the two of them.
Oh, man, how did this happen?
*
She’d made a mess of things. For a smart woman she could be very dumb sometimes. On the one hand she was glad Travis didn’t want to see other women. If he had, she’d have been devastated. Which made it so stupid that she’d even brought up the subject.
But they were getting closer. And today, when Lucky was sick, she’d had to close her mind to all the potential bad things it might be. Well, she’d tried, anyway. It hadn’t worked. If she could barely handle the dog being sick how was she going to cope if something happened to Travis?
“Hey,” Travis said softly. “Stop thinking. You’re going to get frown lines.”
“I can’t seem to help it,” she admitted.
“Then let me see what I can do to make you think of other things.” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. Slowly, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth, sending a shiver of need coursing through her blood.
Travis rose, picked her up, and began walking to the bedroom. Tobi put her arms around his neck and tried to shut out the voice in her head, telling her that sex wouldn’t solve anything. But since she hardly knew what she wanted, maybe that didn’t matter.
He set her on her feet beside the bed and undid her shirt buttons, one by one, placing a kiss at each new revelation of skin. When he finished he pushed the shirt off her shoulders and cupped her breasts, rubbing her nipples through the lacy fabric of her bra.
“Take your shirt off,” she said.
He smiled and shook his head. “Later. Right now we’re all about you.” He unbuttoned her jeans, unzipped them and pushed them down her legs. She was barefoot, and stepped out of each pant leg, holding on to Travis while she did so. He kissed her mouth, trailed kisses down her neck, tugged her bra strap down and kissed one shoulder, then did the same to the other strap and shoulder. Then he reached behind her to unhook her bra and slide it off.
His eyes, so beautiful and blue, darkened as he looked at her. She felt the heat of his gaze as it slid over her body. He pushed her back onto the bed but didn’t follow her. Instead, he stood beside the bed and began stripping off his own clothes. First came his shirt. She watched the play of his muscles as he shrugged out of it. Yearned to put her hands on that lovely bare skin, feel its heat beneath her palms. He started on his jeans, undoing the button, sliding down the zipper. He was in no hurry and his eyes stayed locked on hers as he pushed his jeans and briefs down his legs and off.
“Travis, hurry.”
“We have all night.”
“I want you now.”
“I want you too. And I intend to have you.” He raised her arms above her head and held her hands loosely clasped together. She felt his lips on her breast, his tongue circling the nipple before he covered it with his mouth and sucked. When he finished licking, sucking and caressing one breast, he moved to the other and repeated the seductive process. Her panties were wet; she was throbbing, aching for him. And still he took his time.
Tobi closed her eyes and gave herself up to the sensations. His hand cupped her through her panties, then dipped inside so his fingers could stroke bare flesh. Shivering, she lifted her hips in supplication, but he kept stroking, his fingers teasing her labia before finally, finally slipping inside her. He played with her for a while, until she writhed, pushing her higher and higher still. Bringing her so close to release, then letting it subside.
“Travis.”
“Tobi.”
“I want you inside me.”
Travis handed her a condom. She opened the package and unrolled it over his erection. His hands on her hips, he guided her on top of him and let her drive herself down on his cock. Once he was fully inside her, she began to rock. Faster, higher, spiraling out of control. Right as she approached the peak, he slipped a hand between them to caress her and send her screaming to her climax. Dimly, she heard him say her name as he came.
Chapter Twelve
Travis had a flying lesson the same afternoon as Tobi and her partners’ open house. Luckily the lesson only lasted until five, so that gave him time to go home, shower and get to the open house, even if he was a little late.
The clinic was packed when he arrived. He wasn’t sure if that was because of the free food and drink, or curiosity about Tobi and her partners, or because this was Whiskey River and people always showed up for events like open houses. Maybe it was all three.
He wound his way through the press of people, attempting to reach Tobi. He found his way blocked by Mrs. Alexander, a tiny older lady who had taught English at Whiskey River High for years. Travis, Zack, Levi, and Tobi had all been in her classes, and in fact, she’d encouraged all of them to go to college. Mrs. A, as Travis and indeed, all her students, thought of her, had also been their next door neighbor when he and his family had first moved out of the Barrels. Mrs. A had been retired for a number of years now, but her students still remembered her and held her in affection.
“Travis Sullivan, where have you been hiding? You haven’t been to see me in a month of Sundays.”
Travis leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Now, Mrs. A, you know that’s not true. I was by last week to check on your yard.” Enid Alexander was a long-time widow, who since she retired had been living on Social Security and her teacher’s pension, so Travis had taken care of her yard for her from the time his family moved next door to her, until he moved away. And then he’d arranged for someone else to take care of her in his absence.
“Oh, I know. Lean down here,” she commanded.
A little leery, nevertheless, Travis bent his head down. Mrs. A reached up and patted his cheek. “You’re a good boy. Who are you looking for, honey?”
“Tobi, but I see her over by the cookies.”
“Got your eye on the girl, do you?”
“Yes, ma’am, I certainly do.”
She laughed, more of a cackle. “I always wondered if you two would find your way to each other. I’m a little surprised, though. I wouldn’t have thought Tobi would get involved with a pilot after what happened to her.”
“What happened to her? You mean—”
“That plane crash in the mountains, of course. She was the only survivor. But it has been a number of years, so I suspect she’s come to terms with it by now. Why, she must have or she wouldn’t be sweet on you, would she?” When he didn’t answer she said, “You didn’t know?”
He shook his head. “No. It must have happened when I was playing ball. My parents had moved or they’d have told me, I’m sure. Zack and Levi weren’t in town either. I’m a little surprised I haven’t heard it from somebody before now.”
“Well, it was a long time ago and you know how people are. Something else comes up and they forget things after a while. Besides, they probably thought you knew.”
Holy shit, he thought as he left Mrs. A. That Tobi had been in a plane crash didn’t surprise him. It just confirmed what he’d already figured out. But Tobi was the sole survivor, which made the experience even worse. No wonder she wouldn’t fly. Or apparently even get on an airplane.
But Tobi hadn’t told him. He’d had to hear it from Mrs. Alexander, purely by chance. So what did he do now?
Nothing for now. It wasn’t the time to bring up such a sensitive subject. In fact, maybe his best course would be to let her tell him when she felt ready. And in the meantime he’d try to do a little research on the subject.
He finally made it over to Tobi just in time to hear the man standing next to her ask her t
o go to some kind of symphony with him. Duncan Weaver, Travis realized. The banker—a protégé of his sister-in-law Savannah’s father—was one of Travis’s least favorite people in Whiskey River. The guy was a pompous ass.
“There’s a sad lack of culture in Whiskey River,” Weaver was saying.
Tobi’s expression lit up when she saw him. “Travis, I’m so glad you were able to make it,” she said, holding out her hands.
Since the situation seemed to call for it, he said, “I wouldn’t have missed it,” took her hands, and laid a kiss on her that he figured even a dipshit like Weaver would recognize for what it was.
She seemed a bit startled at first. But when he drew back and winked at her, her lips quivered. “Travis, do you know Duncan?”
“Sure do,” he said, keeping an arm around Tobi. “How are you, Weaver?”
He didn’t offer to shake and neither did the other man.
“Quite well, thank you.” To Tobi he said, “Am I right to assume the answer is no?”
“Yes. I mean, no, I can’t go. But thank you for thinking of me.”
“Another time, then.”
“Not a chance, asshole,” Travis muttered as he left.
“What was that about?” Tobi asked him.
“What? Kissing you?”
“Yes, that kiss. You might as well have beat on your chest and said ‘mine.’”
“I got the point across, didn’t I? Besides, he’s a jerk.”
Tobi laughed. “Yes, he is. He just spent fifteen minutes telling me how crass and below his notice Whiskey River is and bragging about how somebody or other gave him season tickets to the Austin Symphony. But I can get my own point across, thank you.”
“So noted.” She didn’t sound annoyed. Just firm. Still, he asked, “Mad at me?”
She gave him an indulgent look and patted his cheek. “Because you went all Neanderthal on me? No, I took it in stride.”