Building on Love

by Kat Bellemore

  This was not the case for Thai. It looked more like art than writing.

  Travis pulled out a cell phone and sent a quick text before pocketing it. “I hear you’re driving up to Chiang Rai. You’re brave this time of year.”

  “It shouldn’t be too bad,” Kara answered, because Davis had no idea what the man was talking about. “We were in Bangkok last year, and you had to go searching for the festivities. I heard Chiang Rai is much better for it; it lasts a whole week. Besides, small towns are more Davis’s speed.”

  An uncomfortable lump settled in Davis’s throat. What lasted a whole week? What were they going in search of? And more important, why did Travis think of them as brave for going to Chiang Rai for it?

  “I wish you’d clue me in,” Davis said while readjusting his position. One of Will’s knees was currently jabbing one side of his butt, while Randy’s knee was jabbing the other. He glanced over his shoulder in time to see his parents share a look.

  Davis had been on the receiving end of that look many times in his life, but he was in his thirties now and was no longer blind to it.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Kara gave him the same expression that usually went along with the look. The one where she was trying to placate him and get him to stop asking questions—to stop worrying. “Nothing. Just that we’re catching a bus up to Chiang Rai, where I think you’ll better enjoy things. It doesn’t move as fast as the rest of the country.”

  “Unless you visit during Songkran,” Will muttered under his breath.

  Davis’s mother shot Will a warning look, and Davis knew his brother had hit on what everyone had been hiding from him.

  “What happens during Songkran?”

  And that was when Chloe showed up at the passenger side door, and everyone released a collective sigh, mistakenly thinking that her sudden presence meant that no one needed to answer the question.

  “All right, everyone out,” Chloe announced. “Bus station is only a couple of blocks away, but Travis has big plans for our week off, so we’re going to let him get going.” Her gaze settled on Davis. The last time they’d spoken was when he’d confessed he was planning on leaving early. He couldn’t decipher what she thought of him now, and he wished he didn’t care.

  To his surprise, her eyes crinkled in amusement, seemingly without Chloe’s permission, like she was trying to keep herself from laughing. “Comfortable?” she asked.

  Davis was sure he must look ridiculous, sitting on his brother’s knees, all hunched over and holding onto the driver’s seat so that he didn’t scrape the roof with his head.

  He smiled. “Very.”

  She smirked, then tore her gaze from his. “We have about an hour before our bus leaves. Plenty of time to stop and get some food on the way.”

  “I could join you,” Travis said. He said it like an afterthought, but his body was rigid, and there was a tension between him and Chloe that Davis hadn’t noticed before.

  “You have places to be, remember?” The last word came out more as a warning, and Davis wished they’d work out whatever this was in private.

  Travis finally relented and released a long sigh. He looked out his window and muttered, “Whatever.”

  The tension was so thick that Davis and his family didn’t need any reminders to unload. They couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

  “There’s a place I like just around the corner from here. They sell just about everything,” Chloe said as Randy jumped out last and slammed the door shut.

  “See you in a week,” Randy said to Travis through the open passenger side window. He’d always been the thoughtful one, aware of others’ feelings and wanting to smooth things over. Though usually it was to smooth things over that both he and Will had inadvertently done, never purposely hurting anyone’s feelings.

  That was not one of Davis’s talents. He was the avoider of the family—the one who always hid.

  Travis mumbled something to Randy and then drove away. This time it wasn’t slow or cautious. He peeled out, the scent of burning rubber following him.

  Chloe watched after the Jeep for a moment longer than necessary before giving a quick shake of her head. “Food. Right. This way.” And just that quickly, she seemed to have put whatever awkward moment she’d shared with Travis to the side, her smile returning. And Davis would have believed it if it wasn’t for Chloe popping her knuckles as they walked. It was something Davis always did when he was anxious. Chloe didn’t even need to use both hands for it, instead popping the knuckles on each hand simultaneously.

  “Where are your bags?” Davis asked as he and his family picked theirs up from the sidewalk and followed her.

  “In a locker at the bus station. Didn’t want to lug them into my meetings.”

  The city that had seemed relatively peaceful as they drove now assaulted Davis as they walked, distracting him from Chloe’s knuckle popping. The scents from multiple food vendors all competed for the same space, and mopeds skirted around vehicles, kicking up dust.

  One moped drove dangerously close to the edge of the road, enough so that Davis had to take a step back. A teenage girl sat on the back, both legs dangling to one side. She was in a uniform and held a bag, like she was coming home from school. A wave of panic moved over Davis and his breathing shallowed. He closed his eyes in an attempt to push down the nausea. That was a mistake because images of Bridgette popped into his mind. The ones after the motorcycle accident. Someone should warn that girl.

  Davis opened his eyes and pointed the girl out to his brothers, but they just laughed, like they’d seen it a hundred times.

  “That’s a motorcycle taxi,” Randy said. “Cheaper than regular ones, and more fun.”

  Davis watched as it weaved in and out of traffic, just like the others. That didn’t seem the least bit fun. In fact, it looked like a nightmare just waiting to happen. His brothers must have seen the horror on his face, because they laughed again, and Will clapped him on the shoulder. “Cheer up, you’ll be a pro in no time.”

  “I don’t want to be a pro,” Davis said. “And I don’t want to be dead.” It came out stiff and unyielding, and Chloe glanced back, surprise in her features. She hadn’t seen the full extent of Davis’s charming personality yet, and he hoped she would never have to.

  He just had to hang in there for another hour. Then he and his family would be on a bus to Chaing Rai, apparently. Davis pushed away any feelings of disappointment at the thought of not seeing Chloe again. It was better this way, though, for everyone.

  They rounded a corner, and Chloe beelined for a food vendor set up on the other side of the street. Davis checked both ways to make sure a rogue moped wasn’t going to run him down before crossing, his duffel bag thwacking him as he went.

  “What are you going to do with your time off?” he asked Chloe after she ordered for the rest of them. She had told him to trust her, but judging from the slabs of meat dangling from the top of the vendor’s cart, he wasn’t sure he was ready to do that quite yet.

  Once again, Chloe looked at him in surprise. It was getting to be a regular expression whenever she was with him. “Didn’t your folks tell you? I’m going with you. I don’t usually have time to play tourist, but I managed to secure funding for this project last time I was in Chiang Mai and was just here to sign a few forms. I even managed to squeeze in a second meeting to get funding for our next three projects.” She grinned, like this was quite the feat, and paid the man behind the vendor cart. Chloe stepped off to the side so the next person in line could order. “It has been ages since I’ve been to Chiang Rai, and your family invited me to join them.”

  When Davis didn’t respond right away, she sent him a curious glance, seemingly trying to decipher how he felt about that. Davis tried to meet her gaze, but he couldn’t do it—she’d have seen what that news did to him. How it made his stomach flip-flop and his breaths a little more ragged than before.

  “Is that okay?” she asked.

  �
��Sure.” Davis said it like it didn’t matter to him one way or the other. He had to.

  But when he saw a hint of disappointment flash across her open features…and then how those same features closed up…he immediately regretted it.

  A new type of fear settled over Davis as realization washed over him.

  After all this time, after all the safeguards he’d put up to protect himself, he was falling for someone he’d only known for a week. It was completely against his nature, and against everything he stood for.

  And yet, his rational side didn’t seem to care.

  And that scared him worst of all.

  12

  Chloe dipped her chicken satay into a small cup of peanut sauce. It was still warm, and right now, this was just what she needed. Nothing else existed. Not the back-to-back meetings she’d just had, procuring investments from local businesses so her organization could continue to function. Not Travis and his continual attempts to get her to see that they were meant to be together. Which they weren’t. Not the guilt when she’d messed up, and Preaw and Sunan’s hut had flooded as a result.

  And not Davis, who seemed indifferent to her presence.

  On a couple of rare occasions, Chloe had thought she’d felt a connection with him. Something other than just attraction, which was the only reason Travis was interested in her. And the fact that she was the only woman Travis ever consistently spent time with. She knew he had had a lot of flings with women, either volunteers or on his breaks in Bangkok, but he claimed he was ready to commit to one person. Settle down. That was difficult to do when you spent all your time out in the Thai jungles, and the choice of who to settle down with wasn’t hard when there was only one woman in the running.

  And Chloe wasn’t about to commit to something like that.

  Davis… He was the opposite of Travis. He was attractive, but he didn’t seem to care. He didn’t seem the least interested in anything other than his tools and his family. And don’t get her started on his personality. It ranged from easygoing and adorable to stiff and distant. Oh, and in between was the panicking, puking version. Chloe never knew which Davis she was going to get. Actually, she did. With her, it was usually the panicking and distant side of him. His family got the easygoing version.

  Which was what made him so intriguing. If Chloe spent enough time with Davis, could she also unlock that side of him?

  Chloe snorted, the thought striking her as funny. Honestly, just getting Davis home in one piece without him having a massive breakdown was going to be a victory in itself. The man was a ticking time bomb.

  She smiled as she finished off her satay. Gosh, this stuff was good. When she turned back to the Joneses, Chloe found that they had already finished theirs and were looking in the windows of a dressmaker. There were some beautiful traditional dresses hanging in the window, and the twins were trying to convince Kara to buy one.

  “Oh, I couldn’t,” Kara was saying, though Chloe could tell she really wanted to. “Where would I wear it? It would just hang in the closet.”

  “Wear it whenever you want,” Will said. “You could be the one that everyone calls ‘that crazy lady who wears the beautiful Thai dress wherever she goes.’”

  Kara crinkled her nose and stepped back from the window. “Thank you for that, Will. I’ll have to think on it.”

  Chloe sure loved this family and was grateful they had invited her to tag along for the week. Volunteers didn’t tend to want to hang out with their boss, and over the past six years, Chloe had spent a lot of time alone.

  She glanced at her phone. Time to go. Chloe clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention, then realized that was probably why no one wanted to hang out with her in their downtime. Right now, she wasn’t their boss. She was their friend. And she couldn’t go around clapping her hands and taking roll call.

  But now that she had everyone’s attention…

  “Since it’s been decided that Kara doesn’t want to become the crazy dress lady, it’s probably time to head to the bus station.” Her gaze scanned across the family, who looked eager to be rid of their bags. “Where’s Davis?”

  The rest of his family had apparently not noticed either that he wasn’t with them, and they scanned the street. He wasn’t there, and tension immediately loomed over them. Rick and the twins looked anxious, but Kara almost seemed scared. “Where could he be? That man knows he wouldn’t survive in the city on his own.”

  That seemed a bit harsh to describe her grown son like that, especially because Chiang Mai wasn’t nearly as big and busy as a place like Bangkok. “Do you have a cell number for him?” Chloe asked. “Now that we’re in the city, your phones will work.”

  Guess Chloe did need to do a roll call.

  “Oh, that’s right,” Kara said, immediately searching her purse. “I always forget when we come on break. Takes me two whole days to realize that technology is a thing here.”

  And as Kara frantically searched her purse, trying to figure out which pocket her phone was in and swearing she always slipped it into the front left one, Davis strode up. He held three sticks of satay in each hand while precariously balancing the peanut sauce on the side of one of his thumbs.

  “You were right,” he said, his mouth already full of chicken. ‘This stuff is amazing. They really should charge more for it. Can you believe I got all this for thirty baht? That’s like a dollar back home.” His gaze settled on Chloe, and the anxiety she’d seen in his expression just moments before had been replaced. Davis was genuinely happy. Because of a satay. “I really should have trusted you.”

  She returned his smile. “Yes, you should have.” Chloe tore her gaze from him and yelled, “All right, troops, move out.” She’d be the boss for now and save being a friend for when they had all made it to Chiang Rai.

  It was only a block or so to the bus station, and she pulled her ticket from her purse. Chloe saw Kara do the same, but then Kara paused, and her eyebrows dipped low. Chloe had known Kara for a little over a year, and it was enough time to know Kara’s moods. She generally only had one. Happy. Even when she was frustrated with the twins, she would still be smiling as she scolded them. But there was no smile lingering this time.

  “What’s up?” Chloe asked, stepping closer.

  “I’m not sure. I had Travis purchase our tickets a few days ago, and they were supposed to be for today. All five of them.”

  Chloe was afraid she knew where Kara was going with this, and she hoped she was wrong. “Yes, I know. I did the same thing when he came down with the early load of gear for the storage unit. He purchased mine too.” A quick glance at her ticket told Chloe that hers was correct. She was supposed to leave in twenty minutes.

  “Davis’s ticket is correct,” Kara said slowly, thumbing through the five that she held. Each had a name printed on it. Reserved seats. Her gaze snapped to Davis. “But the rest of us don’t leave for three days.”

  Chloe pulled in a slow breath. It wasn’t the end of the world. They had time to fix this. “No problem. Let’s just ask if we can exchange them.” But even as Chloe said it, she had her doubts. Songkran started the next day, and northern Thailand was a popular place to be for it. It was very possible that they had given Chloe and Davis the last remaining seats on the bus, and the rest of the family was placed on the next available day. Travis’s Thai wasn’t amazing, and there could have been a miscommunication along the way.

  Kara looked like she had her doubts as well, but she made a show of walking up to the ticket counter with Chloe and asking. Of course, the woman in the booth kindly told them that they were booked solid for the rest of the week. Which meant that Davis wouldn’t be able to switch his ticket to join his family either.

  “So…what do you want to do?” Chloe asked. “I can give you mine if you like, then at least one of you can go up early with Davis, and I could come up in three days with the rest of the family.”

  Kara hesitated. “Aren’t the seats reserved? Non-transferable?”

  Oh
, right.

  They’d reserved the nice bus. Any other bus, you hop on and off as you want. No one checked tickets on those. But they’d splurged for the three-hour trip. Padded seats, air conditioning, a movie and a snack. The works. Kara had thought it best with Davis being there.

  “I had forgotten,” Chloe said, her words slow as she tried to think of another solution.

  Turned out there was no need, though. Kara’s eyes lit up, like she’d just had a brilliant idea. Thank goodness.

  “You speak Thai fluently,” Kara said. “You can go up with Davis, show him the sights and help him get around until we arrive.” Kara said it like it was the most obvious thing and she didn’t know why they’d been freaking out in the first place. “Now, if it had been Will who needed to go up and show Davis around for three days, we’d be in trouble.”

  Everyone laughed, including Will.

  He raised a shoulder, still sporting a grin. “Can’t argue with facts. I still only know two words in Thai. Hello and toilet.”

  Everyone burst out laughing again.

  Minus two people.

  Chloe stared. Her gaze darted to Davis, who looked equally stunned by the proposition. “But…he came all this way to spend time with you, not some random person.”

  Kara waved off Chloe’s protests like they were meaningless. “You’re not random. You’re our friend. A mistake was made, and there’s nothing we can do to fix that. Besides, it’s only three days, and there’s no reason he can’t still have a great time.”

  Chloe wondered if Davis was going to speak up, make his mother see reason. But he seemed to have been struck silent. His lips moved, but there were no words. And then he turned his attention back to his last chicken satay.

  “I really don’t think it’s a good idea for us to leave you behind,” Chloe said, turning back to Kara. The words came out more desperate than she’d intended. “We don’t know how cell service is up there. It’s a pretty small city, and the mountains might cause interference. We wouldn’t be able to reach you.”