Building on Love

by Kat Bellemore

  She laughed and grabbed Randy, who was about to tackle Will to the ground. “Okay, okay. With all that noise you two were making, I’m still not sure what’s going on here.” She turned Randy so he faced her. “Now, what was it you were trying to tell me?” She winked so he’d realize she knew it had been him who had actually won the race and therefore had the right to tell her the news.

  Randy grinned and spoke quickly so his brother wouldn’t be able to interrupt this time. “We’re done. All the huts. And both Travis and Davis double-checked everything to make sure there will be no leaks this time around.”

  Dean heard, though still on the roof of the hut, and yelled down, “You make one mistake and everyone makes a big deal about it. What about Will and Randy? They’re always messing up.”

  “We haven’t forced anyone out of their home,” Will yelled back. “You know we could build a hut in two days by ourselves. And it would be the best hut here.”

  “Yeah,” Randy added, folding his arms across his chest and giving a curt nod.

  Will glanced at his twin, rolling his eyes. “Real helpful.”

  “What? I was backing you up.”

  Chloe needed to regain control of the conversation. Arguments between Dean and the twins never ended well. Even though Dean was twenty-four and nearly a decade older than Will and Randy, he wasn’t any more mature.

  “That is incredible news,” she interrupted. “That means we should be out of here this weekend. Are you looking forward to your break?”

  The boys nodded eagerly. “Normally our breaks are pretty good, but we have some epic stuff planned for Davis,” Randy said. “We’re going to do it all. Feed some elephants, waterfall hikes, shopping at the floating market, maybe some cultural shows…”

  Will grinned. “Davis is going to hate every minute of it.”

  Chloe raised an eyebrow. “He really doesn’t like that kind of stuff?” She had thought they had been exaggerating earlier.

  “He’d rather die,” Will said, though still smiling. “He hates crowds and tourists and new foods and…”

  Davis had just walked up with his parents but must have caught at least some of what Will was saying, because color creeped up his neck and he grabbed Will around the waist, hoisting him over his shoulder.

  “What are all these lies you’re spreading about me?” Davis asked, now holding Will by his feet and raising him a foot above the ground. His muscles showed through his T-shirt, and Chloe was once again struck by how strong the man was. Before his arrival, his brothers had described him as a glorified handyman because no one in Starlight Ridge knew the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver.

  His physique told a different story.

  “They ain’t no lies, and you know it,” Randy said as he sprung onto Davis’s back, making Davis stumble.

  “Randy, what are you doing, trying to make him drop me?” Will screeched as his hands swung wildly in the air.

  Randy wrapped his legs around Davis’s waist and tightened his hold. “I thought that’s what you wanted.”

  Kara and Rick didn’t seem concerned, laughing instead. They shared a look that said it all. It was good to have the family back together.

  The attack ended with Davis gently lowering Will to the ground, then holding his hands up and saying, “I surrender.”

  “Damn right you do,” Will said, straightening and puffing out his chest, as if he’d planned the whole thing and been in control the entire time.

  “Will,” Rick said, his tone full of warning. “What did we say about your language?”

  Will gave an annoyed shake of his head as Randy released his legs from around Davis’s waist and dropped to the ground. Randy folded his arms and gave his brother a stern look, mimicking their father.

  Will muttered, “That cursing isn’t becoming of an upstanding young man such as myself.”

  “That’s right,” Rick said. “We can have another family discussion if that would help you remember the type of man you are meant to be.”

  Will’s panicked gaze bounced wildly, from Randy, who was smirking, to Davis, to Chloe, up to the roof where Dean sat, taking a break and enjoying the show, and back to his father. “Can we talk about Davis instead? That’s what started it all. I didn’t deserve being strung up by my feet just for telling the truth.”

  Davis obviously didn’t love that the attention was back on him. His expression mirrored Will’s from moments before. He backed up a couple of steps. “Actually, I forgot my tools over by the last hut. I should grab them.” He turned quickly to leave, but his brothers jumped in front of him. It was amazing the synchronicity they had, without ever needing to speak.

  “We’ll grab those for you, brother,” Will said, and then they ran off toward the hut at the far end of the clearing, laughing all the while.

  “It’s never good when we’ve finished a project and they have too much time on their hands,” Kara said, though she looked more amused than anything. She gave a pointed look to her husband. “Shall we?”

  He took her hand, and she and Rick followed the twins, as if to make sure they weren’t already causing trouble. The boys wouldn’t do anything malicious, but they would definitely pull pranks that others didn’t find nearly as amusing as they did.

  “Your brothers are something,” Chloe said with a smile as she watched Will pull a parkour move off of one of the palm trees, only to land on his butt in the mud. The ground wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been the previous evening but wet enough that Will now had a slimy back.

  “That they are,” Davis said, though he didn’t seem interested in small talk. In fact, he looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. His feet shifted in the mud, like he was ready to run at the first sign of trouble.

  Chloe folded her arms and studied him. “Do I make you uncomfortable?” she finally asked. “Or is there something I’ve done to offend you?”

  Davis no longer fidgeted, his gaze snapping to her. He seemed genuinely surprised by the question, like the thought had never occurred to him. “Why would you think that?”

  “Because even now you are looking for a way to escape. But you’re too nice a guy to just walk away, and so you are trying to come up with an excuse.”

  Chloe was surprised at her own bravado. She was never that forward with anyone. Except Travis, but they’d known each other too long and he’d asked her out too many times for anything other than blunt conversation.

  An awkward silence fell over them as they studied each other, trying to get a feel for what the other was thinking. Davis finally broke the quiet. “Yes, and no.”

  When he didn’t follow it up with any type of explanation, Chloe prompted him. “Meaning?”

  Davis shoved his hands into his pockets and looked away. “Yes, you make me uncomfortable, but no, you haven’t offended me.”

  Well, at least he was honest. Chloe tried to think of ways she might have inadvertently made him uncomfortable. As the director of a service organization, that was the last thing she wanted. And the last thing she needed. She relied on her reputation of professionalism and fairness towards both her volunteers and those they were serving.

  There was the time she’d walked in on him changing, but that had been an honest mistake. Maybe it was the way she joined the volunteers for a few rounds of poker to win some peanut M&Ms. Did he see that as unprofessional? It could have been the way she’d handled the rubber tree oil incident. He did seem to take his job very seriously, no matter how temporary.

  Yes, that last one must have been it.

  “I’m sorry if you see me as unfit for the position I hold,” Chloe said. “But I assure you that I take the utmost care—”

  Davis turned so he fully faced her and held up a hand. “I don’t see you as anything but capable. I see how much the volunteers care for you. You do amazing things here, and if you weren’t up to the task, my parents wouldn’t have stayed as long as they have. I know them, and they don’t suffer incompetence.”

  Chloe
wasn’t sure, but she thought that might have been a compliment. “Thank…you?” It came out as more of a question.

  Davis rubbed a hand over his eyes. “What I mean is that my being uncomfortable is not your fault, and I didn’t want you to misunderstand. I’m always uncomfortable. Even at home. And this, well, this is something else entirely. I thought I was just going to come here and spend time with my family, build some huts, do some good… I hadn’t realized it would be so…”

  “What?” Chloe pressed.

  He hesitated, like he was trying to find the right words. “I didn’t think we’d be leaving the work site. Thailand—it’s all been a bit overwhelming. And I just started getting used to everything. The smells, the sounds, the tastes, the…you.”

  Davis froze, like he’d said too much. Shared more than he meant to. And now he had that look again, the one where she could tell he wanted to run.

  Chloe quickly moved to change the subject, ignoring all of the questions her mind demanded answers for. She wasn’t going to get them by chasing Davis away. “You have big plans for your last week in Thailand, or so I hear from a very reliable source.”

  Davis seemed to relax at that, and he actually laughed. “Yeah, with a source like Will and Randy, I don’t know how reliable that is.”

  “Oh? No elephants in your future, then? Because really, you can’t come to Thailand without getting at least one picture with an elephant. It’s written in the law, or something like that.”

  Davis raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Is that right?”

  “On my honor.” Chloe used a finger to make a cross over her heart.

  Davis held her gaze for a moment longer than necessary, his eyes bright. But then his smile dipped. “That’s unfortunate, because I might be heading home early. Can’t be gone from the store too long, you know. Starlight Ridge needs me.” The words seemed forced, like someone else was saying them.

  Chloe stared. “You’re…leaving? But your family thinks they have another week with you. I’ve seen the way Will and Randy look at you. They’ll be devastated.”

  “Seeing my brothers again—it’s been better than I ever expected. But…” He looked away, and his voice dropped to barely a murmur. “It’s better they remember me from today.”

  What did that even mean? As opposed to them remembering their brother after another week of traveling the country, seeing the sights, and being able to do something other than holding a hammer?

  Or maybe that was how he preferred it. Maybe he was the type who was going to die holding his hammer.

  “You do what you need to do, I guess,” Chloe finally said. “We’ll all help clean up tomorrow, then start taking shifts heading out. Travis can’t take everyone at once. It will be tight, and you may be on someone’s lap, but you can leave with your family if you’d like. That way they can say goodbye at the airport.”

  An undecipherable expression passed across Davis’s face. Almost like he didn’t want his family there with him. “You weren’t planning… You weren’t going to leave without saying goodbye, were you?”

  And that was when the guilt showed up, and Davis didn’t need to say a word.

  Chloe shook her head and turned back toward the tent. “And here I believed your mother when she told me you were a good guy.”

  As she walked back to the tent, anger swelled within her. What kind of man pretends he loves his family, then secretly plans on ditching them after not seeing them in over two years? She’d send Travis to the city with an early group, first thing the next day.

  Because Chloe wanted nothing more than to be rid of Davis Jones.

  11

  Davis sat outside on the tent’s steps that evening, unable to decide if he needed a sweatshirt. One moment he felt perfectly content, not warm or cold—it was the absolute perfect temperature. The next moment, he was freezing, wondering if he needed not just one sweatshirt but two. Except, it felt like he was freezing from the inside out rather than the other way around. And it was whenever his thoughts drifted to his conversation with Chloe Rodgers earlier in the day. The look she’d given him when he’d voiced what he’d been thinking for the past couple of days. That he should leave early.

  It haunted him.

  It was a look of disappointment and anger and loathing all rolled into one. Like he was the most disgusting person she’d ever laid eyes on. At first, she’d tried to hide it under a layer of politeness.

  And then there were her final words, where all pretenses had disappeared.

  The ones where she’d accused him of not being as good a person as his mother thought he was.

  Was he really that horrible a person for wanting to go home early? He knew that many people tired of a vacation and wished to leave prematurely. The only difference was that most of them didn’t actually do it. They stuck it out because that was what they were supposed to do—they were on vacation, for crying out loud. They should be enjoying it. They shouldn’t want to leave early. And so, they didn’t.

  At least Davis was being honest about it. He didn’t want to deal with the noise and chaos that accompanied being a tourist. It sucked the life out of him, and as much as he’d be trying to enjoy spending time with his family, he’d be miserable. Why stand in line to see something that everyone was supposed to but he didn’t at all care about?

  Why couldn’t they go camping or somewhere quiet to finish off their time together?

  Because there are pythons here, he reminded himself.

  Okay, that was a good point.

  But he still didn’t understand why this made him such a bad person.

  Except, Davis did know. Because he was in Thailand to see his family. And it wasn’t going home early from vacation that was the issue. It was that he was going to leave them.

  Davis shook his head, trying to clear it from the demons that plagued him. Working with Chloe’s organization that past week—it had calmed him. Building huts with his family by day, eating outdoors at night—it had been nice.

  Why ruin it all?

  That was what Davis was most afraid of. That leaving this place would remind his brothers what Davis was really like. They’d remember what would happen when he strayed too far from his comfort zone. Was it too much for them to remember the man he was at that moment? The one who knew how to work hard but could also relax and have fun?

  Davis heard the raucous laughter of his brothers inside the tent. They were probably cleaning everyone out of their M&Ms. They’d always been a little too good at poker, and Davis wouldn’t doubt that they wagered real money when their parents weren’t looking.

  A deep love for them swelled, overtaking the panic and anxiety. And in that brief moment, he understood what Chloe had been talking about—what had angered her.

  Davis was ready to leave his family after not seeing them for two years, not knowing when he’d see them again. And they wouldn’t recognize his love for them, only that he couldn’t escape fast enough.

  Was he really willing to let his discomfort overshadow everything else?

  Davis thought his mom and dad would understand. They always did, which was why he hadn’t thought it a big deal to leave a bit early. But his brothers wouldn’t. They were the ones he was worried about—maybe the ones that Chloe had been thinking of too. She’d said they’d feel betrayed.

  Maybe she knew them better than Davis did at this point.

  That was a sad thought.

  He heaved a long sigh and stood from the step he’d been sitting on.

  Time to cancel his early morning ride.

  Davis would be staying another week.

  Anything for his family.

  * * *

  “How much longer?” Davis asked as they drove to Chiang Mai.

  “Another thirty minutes,” Travis said.

  You love your family over discomfort, Davis told himself.

  They mean more to you than someone’s knee in your butt.

  Or your head repeatedly hitting the ceiling.

  Why
isn’t Will or Randy sitting on someone’s lap? They’re the youngest.

  They are almost as tall as I am, Davis reminded himself.

  But Davis was also the one who got the most carsick. Really, he thought he should have had dibs on the front seat, except his dad had a bad knee that acted up occasionally and needed to be stretched out. And this morning it had had the audacity to rear its ugly head.

  Fine. Davis would suffer.

  But if he puked on anyone, it wasn’t his fault.

  It was a longer drive than the first one from the airport. Chloe had traveled to a storage unit in Chiang Mai with the site’s gear the previous afternoon. She had a business meeting first thing that morning, and it hadn’t made sense for both her and Travis to go. Except, Travis was ending up going anyway. Davis’s parents had decided that Chiang Mai would be a good place to start their adventures, so here they were, bouncing around in a Jeep that was meant for five people but was holding six.

  Once they pulled into Chiang Mai, Davis relaxed a little bit. Part of it was that he knew he’d be able to stretch his legs soon. But also, Chiang Mai wasn’t as big as he had imagined—not as crazy. He might be able to enjoy himself there.

  Travis pressed hard on the brake, even though they weren’t yet at their destination, and Davis had to brace himself against the front seat to avoid flying forward. Davis couldn’t figure out why the man was driving so slowly. He had assumed Travis didn’t even know where the brake was, based on past experience. Then Davis realized that a dozen mopeds were weaving in and out of traffic, going where they pleased, and Travis was attempting not to run them over.

  “Aren’t there traffic laws?” Davis asked as he noticed a blue moped driving in the opposite direction of traffic. No one seemed to give the motorist a second glance.

  “If there are, people don’t follow them,” Travis said with a good-natured laugh. Apparently, this didn’t bother him as much as Davis thought it should. It left him feeling queasy.

  Travis pulled up in front of a building with strange writing on the front. Usually Davis could recognize letters in other languages, even if he had no idea what the words meant.