“I don’t know what happened with you guys, but I know there has to be more to this story. There’s no way you would just walk away from Caroline like that.”
“Well, I did. And unless you know the reasons, it’s best for you not to give me your opinion.”
Dusty was standing there shaking his head. When he’d come in and seen Travis, he’d questioned why he wasn’t on his way to the airport. Travis didn’t want to get into details so he’d just said things were over with him and Caroline, hoping that would be the end of it.
He should have known better. Dusty wasn’t letting it go.
“Sorry, but you’re getting my opinion whether you like it or not. Do you love her?”
Travis quickly looked up and glared at him harder. “That’s none of your concern.” He’d never come close to hitting anyone in his life, but if Dusty didn’t back off, he might just have to do it.
“It’s a simple question, Travis. It shouldn’t be hard to answer.”
Travis clenched his teeth together and leaned back in his chair. “I do. But you don’t know the reasons—”
“I don’t care what the reasons are. Unless Caroline just told you she secretly hates hockey and only watches football, I can’t see any reason to keep you two apart. There have never been two people more made for each other.” He pointed toward the glass door where Bentley was sitting outside meowing to get in. “Her cat even thinks so. He chose you for her, for crying out loud.”
Travis sat and stared at Bentley, suddenly not feeling any fight left in him. He’d been devastated since the moment he’d hung up the phone and was sure his entire world was crashing down around him. He would never believe he’d done the right thing, but he had to do what would be best for Caroline. And if that meant making things easier for her to stay there, then he had to do it.
Or, was Dusty right for once in his life?
“It’s complicated.”
“No. You’re just making it complicated. Either you get down there and tell her how you feel right now and make her tell you to your face that she doesn’t want you in her life, or I’m going to head down there myself and pick up the pieces. Because a girl like Caroline doesn’t come along every day. Not for someone like you, anyway.” Dusty’s grin eased some of the sting of his words.
As much as it pained him to admit it, Dusty was right.
He should have talked to her about it. Caroline was a grown woman, and she was strong enough to make her own decisions. If she’d thought she needed to stay with her dad, he knew it would have been hard for her to tell him, but she’d have had the strength to do it. She’d shown just how strong she was by coming here in the first place.
But he’d taken that decision away from her.
He’d been a jerk, and now he had to figure out a way to tell her how sorry he was. Even if she didn’t plan to come back to Quinn Valley with him, he owed her an explanation and a chance to make up her own mind.
And if nothing else, he just wanted her to know how much he loved her.
Chapter Eighteen
“Caroline, I know you don’t want me here, but I just have to let you know I’m here if you need me. I know how hard this must be for you.”
Caroline sighed and leaned forward, letting her head rest in her hands. Thankfully, her brother had run home for a shower, so she didn’t have to worry about a full-on brawl at the moment. But she knew he’d be back soon, and seeing Lawrence here wasn’t going to make him happy.
She stood up and faced him. “Lawrence, I don’t know what else I need to say to make you believe things are over with us. You keep coming around, hoping to wear me down like you always had before. But it won’t happen. Not anymore. I’ve realized how to be happy again and I won’t ever let you take that from me.”
He gave her a wounded look and tried to take her hand. She pulled it away and moved back. “Are you going back to Idaho?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Lawrence. Until my dad is better, I’m not making any decisions.”
“But I thought you had a new boyfriend up there? What will happen with him?”
She took a deep breath to keep her anger under control. “I never said I had a boyfriend. You’re the one who assumed it. Whether or not I have someone new in my life isn’t any of your business. It doesn’t change anything. You and I are finished, even if I do end up staying here.”
“I’m not going to push you into anything you aren’t ready for. I just want to be here for you. That’s all.”
Finally, she snapped. Years of him playing with her emotions; months of trying to get herself back; and now everything else that had happened to her over the past few days brought her to the boiling point.
She was done playing nice with Lawrence.
Her finger came up and poked him in the chest. As soon as she started to speak, nothing more than a low hiss came through her clenched teeth, he slowly backed away. But she stayed right with him.
“I don’t want anything from you, ever again. Do you hear me? You have no right to talk to me, to look at me, or even to think about me—ever. I am no longer a victim to your mind games or to anything else you want to try doing to me. The day I left you was the day I got my life back. So now, you need to get away from here before I scream so loud, the entire hospital comes running. Because so help me, if I ever see you here again, I won’t stop my brother from doing to you what I should have let him do a long time ago.”
His eyes were wide, and his throat moved as he swallowed.
“And trust me, there’s nothing I’d rather do than follow through.”
The sound of her brother’s voice behind him made Lawrence spin around. She was past caring if Dylan did cause a scene here. Right now, she was beyond tired.
Tired of everything and she just wanted to run away and hide from it all.
She’d been so caught up in her anger and frustration, she hadn’t seen her brother walk up to them. Or, the man who stood beside him.
“Travis? What are you doing here?”
Her voice came out like a screech, filled with the confusing emotions she was going through.
“I wanted to come and talk to you in person. To talk about things between us, and our future. I met up with your brother in the lobby when I was asking the desk what room your dad was in.”
“Yes, and I think it’s perfect timing since Lawrence is here too. This should be fun, don’t you think, Lawrence?” Dylan walked closer to Lawrence, never taking his eyes from his.
Caroline didn’t know what her brother was talking about, and when she glanced at her ex, she could see the color had drained from his face. But his eyes were already narrowing, showing the anger he was fighting to hold back.
“What’s going on, Dylan?”
“It would appear I made a phone call to Travis. And the funny thing is, I don’t remember doing that. I wonder why that would be.”
Caroline was seriously worried her brother was going to end up doing something he would regret if someone didn’t stop him. He was moving so slowly toward Lawrence, trying to fight the anger that was boiling over. Thankfully, Travis went over and grabbed his shoulder.
“It doesn’t matter now. Just let him go. He isn’t worth it.”
“No, I want to know exactly what he hoped would happen. Not to mention, how he even knew how to get a hold of you.”
Caroline’s mind was spinning in confusion. She looked at Travis for an explanation. She could see that her brother was too angry to even speak a proper sentence right now.
“I got a call yesterday, from who I thought was your brother. He explained that you needed to be here. You needed to stay here, with your family. He knew it would be too hard for you to have to hurt me, so said it should be up to me to do it.”
Her mouth opened, and she glared at her brother. “You what?”
Dylan shook his head. “No. He did.” He pointed at Lawrence.
Her eyes held Lawrence’s, and she finally understood what had happened.
&
nbsp; “You pretended to be my brother? To get Travis to break up with me?” She was having a hard time breathing she was so angry right now. “How did you even find him?”
Lawrence shook his shoulder free from Dylan’s grasp. “Well, I knew where you worked. My mom had found that out from one of your friends. I sent you flowers there, remember? So, I called there and all I had to do was pretend I was your brother looking for the boyfriend of Caroline MacGregor. Everyone was quite helpful.”
He started to walk away, shaking his head. “I just wanted what was best for you, Caroline, but once again, you don’t appreciate it. You know what? I’m tired of trying. You can go off and have your fairy-tale dream life with your country boyfriend.”
As he walked away, she couldn’t tell which one was going to hit him first—Dylan or Travis. They both stood side-by-side, fists clenched at their sides. She stepped in front of them and shook her head.
“Let him go. At least now he’ll finally be gone from my life.” She couldn’t believe everything she’d just heard. She’d known Lawrence was manipulative and always liked to have his way, but she never dreamed he would do something so horrible.
If Travis hadn’t come down here and bumped into her brother, she might never have found out the truth.
“How did you figure out what he’d done?” She looked between Travis and Dylan, trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened.
“Well, when I met up with Travis in the lobby and told him I was your brother, he looked like he wanted to hit me. I offered to bring him up to see you, but when he asked me why I’d do that, I was a bit confused. He said after my phone call, he thought I wouldn’t be happy to see him here. It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened, and who had done it.”
She looked over at Travis. “I thought you said you weren’t coming anymore. Why did you change your mind?”
Her brother threw his hands up and backed away. “Listen, I’ve told you what I know, so this isn’t anything I need to be a part of now. I’ll be in Dad’s room, if you need me.”
Travis watched him walk away, then slowly turned back to face her. He swallowed, pushing his hands into the pockets of his pants as he took a deep breath.
“Because I love you.”
He blurted the words out so fast, she almost wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. She pulled her eyebrows together in confusion.
“I changed my mind, because I love you. Because I couldn’t imagine my life without you, and I wanted to give you the chance to make the decision for yourself. I was a jerk to not let you have any say in what happened, thinking it was best for you if you didn’t have to choose between staying with your family or hurting me.”
He still stood away from her, watching her closely to see her reaction.
“I would never have had to make that decision. I was always planning to stay until my dad was better, but I never would have stayed for good. And my dad wouldn’t have let me. I wanted to go back to you. To the future I’d hoped we would have together.”
He started to move closer to her, taking his hands out of his pockets and reaching for hers.
“Is it too late for that?” His voice was spoken so quietly, she barely heard it. But she heard the emotion behind the words, and she knew without question how much he truly did love her.
It was a love she’d never believed possible.
She smiled and shook her head as she gripped his hands. “No, my future is with yours. I was never going to let you get away with breaking up with me like that. Trust me, you aren’t getting rid of me that easily. I fully intended to find you and give you a piece of my mind when I got back.”
He grinned and pulled her up over to him, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Well, I’d honestly hoped that when I told you how much I loved you, we would be standing somewhere a whole lot more romantic than a hospital waiting room.” He looked around the small family room she’d been calling home for the past couple of days. “At least there’s no one else in here. I guess that’s something.”
She reached up and cupped his cheeks, letting the stubble scratch against her skin. “Travis, I wouldn’t care if we were standing in the middle of an insect infested slough at the moment. All I heard, was that you love me. And I love you too. I never dreamed I’d find someone who makes me feel so alive, and so free. You’re everything I didn’t even know I was dreaming of finding.”
Her fingers moved over his dimple as he slowly began to lower his lips to hers. When they touched, she knew beyond a doubt, this was the man who would give her the happiness she’d always wanted.
Raising his head slightly, he held her tightly to him and smiled down at her. “Well, technically, I think it was Bentley who found me.”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “I don’t care who did the finding. I’m just glad it was you who was found.”
When his lips started to lower again, she closed her eyes in anticipation. Suddenly, a throat cleared loudly behind them. She turned to see her brother standing there, awkwardly waiting for them to notice him.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Dad’s awake and he wants to see you. Both of you.”
Caroline burst out laughing at the sudden look of fear on Travis’s face.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll love you as much as I do.”
As they walked toward the room, with Travis’s hand in hers, she knew without a doubt her dad was going to approve.
Travis had her heart, and she knew all her dad wanted was for her to be happy.
And for the first time in a very long time, she could truthfully say that she was.
Epilogue
“So, I was secretly watching Bentley when he thought I was asleep. He has figured out how to pull the screen away from the window to get out. And he’s so quiet about it, unless I’d been watching him, I never would have known.”
Travis looked closely at the screen above the side window in the apartment that Caroline was pointing to. When he pressed on it, the whole thing moved slightly, but not enough to fall all the way out.
“Well, that solves one mystery. But I still don’t know how he was getting in and out of my house when he stayed there. Makes me wonder just how safe I really am.”
Caroline laughed at the pretend look of fear Travis shot in her direction. They’d just gone out to Quinn’s for her birthday supper, where his cousins had spoiled her with delicious food. Everyone in his immediate family had shown up, surprising her that they would all take the time to come to a celebration for her.
It was just one more reason why she was in love with Quinn Valley and her new life here.
She walked over to the end of the couch where Bentley was sleeping and scooped him up. He immediately stuck his nose up to hers and let her snuggle him in close to her. “You’re a smart little man, aren’t you, Bentley? You managed to outsmart both of us.”
Travis came over and scratched the cat behind the ears, and they both laughed as his purring grew even louder. He knew he was the center of attention, so he was going to enjoy the moment.
“Well, he was smart enough to know when two people are supposed to be together. And he made sure it happened. Just think what might have happened if I’d had to find some other excuse to see you all the time? Bentley made sure I had a reason to see you every day.”
Caroline laughed as she kissed the top of the furry head. “He knew you were a good man. So I guess he wanted to make sure I knew it too.”
Travis took Bentley from her arms and set him back on the couch. He led her over to a chair and motioned for her to sit down. “Now, I was waiting to give you your birthday present when we were alone, so just sit here and let me get it for you.”
Her heart beat faster with excitement, wondering what he’d gotten her. They hadn’t had much time to be alone since coming back to Quinn Valley, so she was glad for these special moments.
They’d only been back in town for a few days, after having to stay in Florida for another day. Her dad had
pulled through everything and told her in no uncertain terms he didn’t need her doting all over him.
The doctors said everything looked good, and they’d all agreed if he needed her, she could come back. But he’d said it was time for her to just go and enjoy herself and stop worrying about him.
Plus, Dylan had reminded her he was quite capable of looking after their dad.
“Okay, promise me you won’t cry with happiness when you see it.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “You bought me something that will make me cry?”
He was grinning like a little boy and she wondered exactly what he was up to. He handed her a box and stood back to watch her open it. She pulled on the bow and tried to hide the glimmer of disappointment at the size of the box. She knew it was probably way too soon to have been thinking marriage, but knowing how the Quinn’s seemed to do things so quickly, she’d actually deep-down been hoping maybe…
As the ribbon let go, she lifted out the envelope, looking up at him and pretending to shake it near her ear. “I don’t know what it could be. Is it perfume? Jewelry?”
He rolled his eyes and motioned with her to hurry up. “Just open it.”
She laughed and tore open the envelope, pulling out the thick paper inside.
When she realized what they were, she shouted in happiness. “Tickets to a Panthers game in Las Vegas! I didn’t even know the tickets were on sale yet.”
He shrugged and came over closer to her, taking one of her hands in his. “I just wanted to show you that since I love you so much, I’m even willing to sit through a Panther’s game for you.”
She shook her head and laughed. “You’re a true hero for making such a sacrifice.” She looked down at the tickets for the date. “Still a couple of months away, so maybe by then you will see how cheering for a winning team really can be.”
As she went to tuck the tickets back into the envelope with her free hand, her heart dropped to her stomach as Travis bent down on his knee and pulled another box out from behind him.
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