The Bet

by Rachel Van Dyken

  She felt her face flame with heat as a knowing smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Find something you like?”

  “No.” She looked away and began inspecting her nails. “So why macaroni?”

  “Why not?”

  Men.

  Travis shrugged. “I have it on good authority that it was the only food you’d eat until you turned eight.”

  “Please.” Kacey rolled her eyes. “I ate other things too.”

  “Name them.”

  Kacey searched her memory, but the only thing she could come up with was even lamer than macaroni. “I may have had an obsession with Spaghetti-Os.”

  “With or without meatballs?” Travis asked as he lunged for her and wrapped his arms around her body, trapping her within his hold.

  “With.” She leaned up and kissed his chin. “Why? Are you going to make me those too?”

  He shrugged. “If I burn the macaroni, we may have to rely on the microwave to fix up some Spaghetti-Os.” He kissed her forehead then moved down to her cheek. “I have a confession to make.”

  “What’s that?” Kacey shuddered beneath his touch.

  “I can’t cook.”

  No, but you can kiss. “Well, I guess that means I can’t sleep with you.”

  “Thought you’d say that.” His mouth found her neck as he tilted her back. “But we had a good run, didn’t we?”

  She wondered if that was a rhetorical question as his lips pressed against the base of her throat.

  Travis pulled away. “Sorry, I tend to get carried away when I’m hungry.”

  Kacey raised an eyebrow.

  “For food,” he clarified and then cleared his throat. “Um, anyway, let’s, uh, let’s just finish this up and we can get going.”

  “Get going?” Kacey grabbed the next box and began pouring it into the now boiling water.

  “Yeah, I have a plan.”

  “Oh,” Kacey said laughing and threw the box at Travis. “So the food wasn’t the surprise.”

  “Hell, no.” Travis shuddered. “I’m not sure if I should be offended or thankful that you think I lack that much originality.” He seemed to think about it a moment then nodded. “Thankful. I’ll take thankful. Now pour in that orange stuff so we can get on to the surprise.”

  “Carbing up for something, are we?” Kacey teased.

  Travis growled and pushed her against the counter. “You have no idea.” His lips found hers in an aggressive kiss. Just as Kacey wrapped her arms around his neck, she heard steam hitting the stove.

  Travis cursed and turned to the pot of macaroni, which looked pretty pathetic with the orange stuff in it. “I forgot to drain the water.”

  “Yup.” Kacey nodded.

  “Pizza?”

  “Chinese?”

  “Thai?”

  “Italian,” they said in unison. Kacey went to the house phone while Travis got on the Internet on his phone to find some Italian take-out.

  A quick thirty minutes later and they were sitting over chicken alfredo and opening up a bottle of red wine.

  “So… good,” Kacey murmured between bites.

  “I can’t cook, but I can order…” Travis boasted as he held out a piece of bruschetta with goat cheese to her lips.

  It was the type of meal she would never eat on a first date.

  Possibly not even on the second.

  Way too much garlic.

  It was comfort food at its best, and she couldn’t imagine a more perfect meal to share with Travis. They’d ordered enough to feed a small country, but there was something about having so many choices laid out around them.

  “I can’t do it,” Kacey said as she exhaled and took a gulp of wine. “I’m done. I seriously cannot eat another bite.”

  Travis put his hands behind his head and leaned back on his chair. “That’s too bad.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Part of your surprise is dessert.”

  Did his version of dessert include lots of skin, whipped cream, and chocolate? Because at this point Kacey was beginning to think she would really like some more food. Mouth watering, she leaned forward. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

  “So, you’re game then?”

  He was talking about going upstairs, right?

  “I am if you are.” Her heart skipped a beat as Travis walked around the table and pulled her into his arms.

  “Music to my ears. Now, go grab a sweatshirt.”

  “Huh?” What the heck kind of foreplay was this?

  “For dessert,” he clarified, a mocking twinkle in his eyes.

  Kacey bit her lip and stepped out of his embrace. “Fine, but this better not be a trick.”

  “Please.” Travis held up his hands. “Like I’ve ever tricked you.”

  “Says the one who put frogs in my bed when I was ten.”

  “In my defense, they were dead.”

  “Yes, Travis,” Kacey said, rolling her eyes. “That makes it so much better. Dead frogs. Seriously?”

  “Just grab your sweatshirt.” He suddenly looked nervous and insecure as he stuffed his hands in his jeans and looked at the ground.

  “Okay.” Kacey took off at full speed and grabbed the first sweatshirt she could find in her bag. When she ran back down the stairs Travis was already grabbing the keys and leading her outside. “Okay, where are we going?”

  “It’s all part of the surprise.”

  “Right.” Kacey hopped into the truck.

  “And my charm.”

  Rolling her eyes, she pulled a piece of gum out of her purse and waited while Travis’s truck pulled out of the long driveway.

  It took all of ten minutes for them to reach their destination.

  And Kacey honestly couldn’t have guessed it.

  Not even if someone had given her hints.

  Because it was the place where Prom had been held her senior year of high school. It also used to be her parents’ restaurant before they’d died. So many memories threatened to escape from her. She had to hold her breath to keep them in. Swallowing, she forced herself to exhale slowly as the lights flickered in front of her. It looked exactly as she remembered it.

  Nestled beautifully on the Columbia River, it had been one of the hot spots for locals. The beer selection had been legendary. It had had so many wines from around the Columbia River and Yakima Valley that people often had joked that the best place for all-day wine tasting was a table at River’s Edge.

  “River’s Edge,” she whispered and looked down at her hands. They were clenched together as if to keep the pain in. All the memories… her parents’ death, the times she and Jake would come here and try to convince her dad to have just one glass of wine, even though it was illegal…

  He never would, but still.

  Her many stolen kisses by the waiter’s entrance in the back.

  It was also the only place Travis and Kacey had talked in the last five years.

  She remembered it like it was yesterday. Her parents had left the business to her, naturally, but she’d wanted nothing to do with Portland or her old life, so she had sold it to a family friend and taken the money to buy a car and pay off her parents’ debts. It had also been an escape, which is exactly what Travis had told her the day she’d signed the papers.

  “What the hell are you doing, Kacey?”

  She remembered the rabid look in his eyes, like he was ready to tear something apart but couldn’t find an object. Now that she thought about it, he had been really good-looking at the time, but she had been so frustrated with him, so angry that he would make light of her pain, he seemed ugly and unbearably frustrating.

  “It’s my life!” she’d screamed.

  “It’s their legacy!”

  “I don’t want it!” She’d beat against his chest over and over again. But he hadn’t budged. Instead, he’d held onto her as if he’d never wanted to let her go. He’d then whispered in her hair that it would be okay.

  “Let it out, baby girl.”


  “I’m not your baby.” She’d sobbed into his chest.

  “Don’t I know it,” he had said sadly as he wiped large alligator tears from her puffy cheeks.

  “Everything okay back here?” Grandma Nadine had called, right before she’d walked around the corner.

  “Fine, it’s fine.” Kacey had frantically wiped her cheeks and had pasted a smile on her face. “No biggie. You know how Travis and I can get.” She’d lamely punched him in the shoulder and walked off. But she hadn’t remembered until now what Grandma Nadine had said to Travis when she’d thought Kacey was out of earshot.

  “She’ll come around one day, Travis. Don’t give up.”

  “Damn, Grandma,” Travis had mumbled. “That girl wasn’t ever mine to give up in the first place.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Travis watched the display of emotions wash over Kacey’s face. Hell, as long as he lived, he would never get tired of watching those eyes squint when she was thinking, or the way she held her lip captive between her front teeth when she was trying to keep herself from saying something she’d regret.

  And finally, the worst of all, her tells. The way she clenched her hands in her lap as if that simple gesture would hold all the walls firmly in place.

  “Kace, say something.” He reached for her shoulder and gently placed his hand across it.

  “The last time I was here was with you.”

  “Yup.” Figures she’d remember that first.

  “You were so angry at me.”

  “Kace,” Travis said, turning off the truck. “You were angry at yourself. I was angry at you for giving up — or at least in my mind, giving up something that I thought you wanted. But mainly, Kace, I was angry that when things got rough, you ran.”

  “What did you expect me to do?” Kacey screamed, causing Travis to jump.

  “Fight. I expected you to fight.”

  “Against what, Travis? Myself? There was nothing left to fight for! I lost my parents, I lost my best friend. I lost everything!”

  Travis scowled and pulled back his hand. He couldn’t touch her, not with what he had to say. “You didn’t lose everything. You still had my family, and you still had Grandma. Geez Kacey, you had me. You lived! But that was the day I watched part of you give up, and you let a part of yourself die. Maybe that’s why Grandma wanted you here in the first place. You really do need to find yourself, Kace. And if that means I lose you… again, in order for it to happen, so be it.”

  “What?” Her head whipped around to face him. “What do you mean lose me again?”

  Shit. “That day, the day you walked away from me, from us, from everything. I uh… I followed you.”

  “To?”

  Travis gulped. “Seattle.”

  “Why?”

  Travis closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the seat. “To bring you home, Kace. To bring you home.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Of course she wouldn’t. Travis groaned aloud and fought the urge to hit the steering wheel or at least strangle something. “You never belonged apart from us…” He gulped. “Apart from me. You never belonged apart from me.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying…” Could he do it? Could he say he loved her? Travis looked at her moonlit face and chickened out. “All I’m saying is, I was an idiot and chased after you to bring you back home. It was stupid that you would run to another city after your parents died. I know you needed a fresh start, but why couldn’t you lean on us? Why couldn’t you allow us to support you?”

  “I can’t talk about that.” Kacey looked away again.

  Damn his idiot brother. He’d do anything to know what else happened that night besides sex. No way did sex ruin people the way it ruined Jake and Kacey. Was she really telling him everything? Part of his heart clenched at the thought.

  “I bought it,” he blurted, much like an eighth grader with no skills with the female sex, or communication for that matter.

  “Pardon?”

  “The restaurant. I bought it.”

  “Today?” Kacey gave him a horrified look.

  “No.” He felt suddenly embarrassed. “The day you signed the papers, you signed them over to my business partner. Three years ago I bought him out. It’s all mine.”

  “Why?” Kacey’s lip trembled.

  “Because I’m a good businessman?” And he got an enormous trust fund when he was eighteen.

  Kacey rolled her eyes.

  The inside of the truck fell silent except for Travis’s heavy breathing. The windows would be steamed any minute. He wondered if she could hear his heart hammering in his chest. “Because of you, Kace. Everything I do, everything I’ve done in my life, it’s all because of you.”

  There, he said it. Now she could rip out his heart and stomp on it.

  With a sob, she lunged across the console and into his lap, grabbing his lips between hers in such a forceful kiss he was breathless.

  “You knew,” she said while kissing his jaw. “You knew how much this place meant to me, Travis.”

  Adrenaline-mixed with lust slammed through him as she wrapped tighter and tighter around him. It was hard to think straight, let alone do anything but strategically plan for ways to remove her clothing in the fastest way possible.

  “I knew.” He shuddered as she licked his ear.

  “I think I l—”

  “What the hell kind of place is this?” a man’s voice shouted outside the window.

  Alarmed, Travis turned, then relaxed and grinned. Old man Casbon was smiling from ear to ear and already pulling open the truck door. So much for privacy.

  “Mr. Casbon,” Kacey sputtered. “Didn’t know you’d, um, be here.”

  “Yeah, well, the woman always sends me out for dessert. Got a phone call a bit ago saying she needed me to bring her some chocolate to her cottage. Hearty appetite that one. Besides, I know the owner.” He nudged Travis and continued. “She had an itch for some sort of chocolate soufflé, so I drove on out to grab her whatever her heart desires.”

  “Sounds like love.” Sadly, Kacey hopped off Travis’s lap and leaned against the truck.

  “Oh, girlie, it is. Though sometimes I wonder if I rate above that chocolate she likes. Say, Travis…” He turned to face him. “Got any more of that stuff left?”

  “Sure thing, follow me.” Travis turned off the truck and led them into the restaurant. It was nearly closing time, meaning there were only a few people scattered about.

  He hoped that Kacey wouldn’t be too alarmed with the changes he’d made. When her parents owned the place it’d had a sort of Italian café look. Nowadays, it looked more like an old world café. It boasted original wood floors, thick rugs, modernized furniture, old clocks and pictures, as well as a few hanging lanterns.

  Kacey tightened her grip on his arm. “I really like it.”

  Her eyes lit up as she broke away from him and began walking the perimeter. His favorite part of the restaurant had to be the outside. The balcony overlooking the water was beautiful. It was decorated as a plantation-style deck complete with ceiling fans. His personal favorite.

  Kacey walked outside, so Travis turned to Mr. Casbon. “Soufflé? Right. I’m on it.” He ran to the back and nodded to the manager as he grabbed a to-go box and stuffed in a few treats for Grandma.

  Mr. Casbon pulled out a fifty.

  Travis shook his head. “Nah, you’ll need it for next time. It’s on the house. I know the owner.”

  With a wink and a pat on the shoulder, Mr. Casbon shuffled out, and Travis went in search of Kacey.

  When he reached the deck he noticed her sitting in a chair closest to the water.

  “This was my dad’s favorite spot. He’d say he could see all the way to China from this spot right here.”

  “Hmm.” Travis kneeled down next to her. “Not China, but maybe, just maybe Vancouver though.”

  Kacey sighed heavily. “I don’t even know where to start. Do
I say thank you for doing something I didn’t have the guts to do? Do I say I’m sorry for treating you so horribly? Do I apologize to my dead parents for being less than what they brought me up to be—”

  “Whoa! Wait right there.” Travis jerked her to her feet. “Don’t you ever say that. I will throw you over my shoulder and jump into the river next time you say such stupid things.”

  Kacey’s eyes began to tear.

  “Oh baby, you can cry. Cry all you want, but you need to hear this, hear it from me, okay? This wasn’t your dream. I know that. And you probably should have gone away for a bit to try to heal. I did this for you, for me, for your parents. I loved them too, you know. And it worked out in the end, didn’t it? Your parents…” He swallowed so he wouldn’t begin to get choked up. When he felt he had control over his emotions again he continued, “I count myself lucky every day I get to see you breathe, let alone walk and talk at the same time. Because each day you do those things is one more day that your parents didn’t. To me that’s living. You are living, and that is what your parents would want, Kace. They wanted you to live, to love, to hurt, to laugh, to cry. They wanted it all because they lived it all. Here look at this…”

  Travis lifted the chair Kacey had been sitting in and flipped it over, reading, “X marks the spot. Here lies my treasure.”

  He turned to look at her. “My treasure is right next to me.” A red arrow pointed directly to the other chair, and then, as if there was ever any doubt of who the message was talking about, a tiny picture of Kacey as a baby was taped to the bottom.

  “Did you put this here?” Kacey choked.

  “No.” Travis grinned. “Your parents did, or at least I’m assuming they did, considering it was like that when we bought the place. I’ve just kept it in pristine condition, which would have been easier if they had taken precaution to laminate the picture. No worries though. I’ve got stalker in my genes. I just swapped the photo out with another one from your baby album.”

  “Which you got from…”

  “Mom…”

  “How does she even have those?”

  Travis shrugged. She didn’t need to know his family had an entire shed full of the stuff Kacey refused to look through after her parents’ death. “We had it around.”