Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
Isla
My stomach gurgles as I wait for the guys to arrive to get their calls for the day. Well, one guy in particular—Travis. I can’t believe we slept together last night.
I should probably feel guilty because I’d literally just broken up with Blake, but I can’t find it in myself to do so. No, now all I’m wondering is what this means.
Was it a one-time thing that was never to be repeated? God, I hope not.
Does this mean he wants a relationship? God, I hope so.
When he woke up this morning, did he regret sleeping with me?
The back door opens, drawing me from my thoughts. I tense in anticipation of who is going to pop out of the hallway into my office area as the sound of heavy footsteps on hardwood draws nearer.
Lucas appears with a smile.
I should have expected him. He’s always the first Abbott brother here in the morning, Josh being the last.
“Morning.” I smile at Lucas, hoping it appears normal.
“How are you this morning, Isla?”
He asks me this almost every morning, but for some reason, it feels as if there’s more behind his question today. Or maybe I’m just paranoid.
“I’m good, thanks, Lucas. You?”
“Looking forward to the end of the week. One more day.”
We chat for another minute, and I fill him in on how I changed around some of the filing last night in case he’s ever looking for something, explaining why I thought the change was necessary.
“That’s smart thinking, but you didn’t have to come in at night in order to do it,” Lucas says.
I wave off his concern. “It’s okay. I needed something to occupy my mind.”
The back door opens, and this time, I can tell that it’s Travis by the cadence of his footsteps.
“Everything okay?” Lucas asks.
I glance at Travis when he joins us, then I quickly look back at Lucas. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I broke up with Blake last night, so my head was a bit of a mess.”
Lucas frowns, and while I don’t look at Travis, I can feel his stare boring into me.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Lucas says. “Onward and upward though, right?”
I shift my focus to Travis for a beat and swallow hard when our eyes meet. “That’s the idea.”
Lucas turns to his brother. “Isla was just telling me that she was in here late last night working on organizing our files.”
“Was she?” Travis shoves his hands in his pockets, but his face shows no emotion.
“Isn’t that good of her to go above and beyond?” Lucas says, clearly trying to lure Travis into acknowledging my extra effort.
“Yeah, Isla’s a go-above-and-beyond kinda person from what I’ve seen.” Travis looks away from his brother and looks at me. “You must’ve gone at it hard last night.”
My eyes widen, and my breath seizes at his innuendo. I honestly didn’t know he had that in him.
“You know, in order to get it all done in one night.” One corner of his mouth lifts in a slight grin.
“Right, yeah, of course.”
“Do you mind dropping my calls for the day on my desk once you’ve assigned them, Isla? There’re a few things I want to get done before I head out,” Lucas says.
“Sure thing. I’m almost done. Shouldn’t be long.”
Lucas smiles and heads toward his office near the back of the house.
Travis watches down the hallway, then makes his way over to my desk. I’m still not sure what last night means, but I’m glad that he’s not avoiding me at least. I’d pictured him acting how he did when I first got the job here, which would have crushed me.
“How’d you sleep last night?” he asks in a low voice.
“Like a baby. You?”
He scrubs his palm over his short beard. “Not well, actually. Had this woman I couldn’t get off my mind. All I kept thinking about was how I wished she was in bed with me.”
I can’t help the smile that lifts the corners of my lips. Is this the same Travis? “She must really be something.”
“You have no idea. She’s so pretty and sweet, though somehow she’s sexy as hell at the same time.”
I press my teeth into my bottom lip while my nipples pebble in my bra. For some weird reason, my eyes water. I don’t think I realized until this moment how worried I was about Travis playing off what happened between us last night.
The grin on Travis’s face falls, and he steps closer to me. “What’s wrong?”
A part of me thinks I should lie and not tell him what I’m thinking, but I don’t want to start whatever this is on a lie. I want this time to be different. “I was worried you were going to regret last night and act like it never happened or just be a jerk to me.”
His chest heaves, and the corners of his mouth pinch together. “I hate that I ever gave you any reason to think that of me.” He pushes his hand through his hair with a sigh. “Last night, I was trying to give you space because you seemed like you needed it. And today I didn’t know if you’d want my brother to know what happened between us, so I was trying to play it cool when I came in.”
“What does that mean? What is this thing between us?”
Travis looks over his shoulder toward the hallway entrance. “We shouldn’t discuss this here. Come to my place on Saturday. I’ll make you dinner.”
I feel the stupid girlish grin on my face, but I don’t care. “Really?”
“Why do you look so surprised?” His eyebrows crease.
I shrug. “It just feels too good to be true after how things started between us. I thought that maybe you’d back off again.”
He places a quick kiss on my forehead. “Honey, you’re not getting rid of me that easy. Not this time.”
The back door opens and closes, and footsteps make their way up the hallway. Travis steps back from me before Josh appears a moment later, followed by Brady.
“You two come in together because you had a sleepover last night?” Travis says.
Josh rolls his eyes. “Screw off.” Then he looks at me. “Morning, Isla.”
“Morning, guys.” I smile at the two of them. “Give me a minute, and I’ll have all your calls sorted. Sorry, running just a little behind this morning.”
Truth is, I’ll probably be running behind all day because I’ll be replaying last night and this morning with Travis in my head. Oh well. I worked extra last night. We’ll call it a wash.
The Uber pulls into Travis’s driveway, and I’m filled with anticipation, excitement, and nerves. The last time I was here, things didn’t end well. I’m hoping for a different outcome tonight, but the truth is that beyond that one date, we really haven’t spent much time together. Yes, we’re physically attracted to each other, but you need more than that to make a relationship work—assuming that’s even what Travis wants.
I knock on Travis’s front door. He answers right away, almost as though he was waiting for me on the other side or maybe watching through the curtains in the front window. The idea he was makes me smile.
“Hey.” He looks behind me over my shoulder. “Where’s your car?”
“I forgot that I had it scheduled for maintenance today, so I took an Uber.”
He opens the door wider and motions for me to go inside. “I would have picked you up if I’d known.”
“You don’t need to do that. It’s no big deal.”
He doesn’t seem to like my answer, but he lets the subject drop. “It’s good to see you.”
He pulls me in for a kiss, and my heart beats triple-time when his tongue slides into my mouth. Oh, this man… I need to grab my bearings.
He closes the kiss way too soon. “You too. I feel like I should give you the tour since I didn’t do that the last time you were here.”
My cheeks heat at what we did the last time I was here. “That would be great.”
Travis takes me through the main floor of the house and shows me around. He’s clearly done a lot of work on the property. It’s all fairly new and updated, though it still has the bachelor feel with no artwork on the walls or extra pillows on the couch or bed. Then he takes me to the walk-out basement, where there’s a rec room with a giant flatscreen TV. From there, we make our way outside, and he takes me across the property to his workshop.
It’s set back away from the house, on the edge of the property where the forest starts. It’s bigger than I imagined, and when I step inside, I can see why. Travis is talented.
Pieces of furniture litter the space, all in different stages of completion. In one corner, there’s something tall with a sheet covering it, and tools are neatly organized on the wall, while other bigger pieces are set up in the middle of the room.
“Wow, this is really something.” I step forward, letting my hand trail along the edge of a coffee table he’s working on. “Travis, you’re really talented.”
Even with his short beard, I can see that he’s blushing. “Thanks, but you don’t have to say that.”
“I’m not just saying that, it’s the truth. This is so impressive.” I look around some more. “You really have never wanted to do this full-time for a living?”
Travis pushes his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shakes his head. “Nah. Wouldn’t be as much fun that way. I do it because I love creating something from nothing.” He shrugs as though it’s no big deal.
“Do you sell your pieces when you’re done making them?”
He steps closer to me. “Yeah, sometimes they’re commissioned by someone, and other times I’ll have an idea I want to try out, so I’ll just make something and list it for sale afterward.”
I’m surprised by many of the designs. They’re much more contemporary and artistic than I would have thought, based on what I know of Travis. When I first heard that he made wood furniture, I pictured traditional pieces, but these are not that at all. They’re swooping lines and sharp angles, and they’re interesting to look at. The artistry and intricacy are phenomenal.
“I’m really blown away by all of this, Travis. I can’t believe you made them.” I gawk around the space. “Have you already started working on the piece for the contest?”
He nods and steps past me to a work area farther away from where I’m standing. “I’ve been thinking about a pendant light I want to try, so I’m going to give that a go. It’s going to all be made from a single piece of cherry wood, and if it works out, it will almost look like a starburst.” He shrugs and points at the piece of wood.
I can tell he’s started working on it, but I have no vision for what he’ll make.
“We’ll see how it turns out.”
“Based on what I see, I have no doubt it will be amazing.”
He looks across the space at me, and I can’t quite name the expression on his face. But it’s there and gone before he says, “We should go back to the house so I can start dinner.”
At first, I think maybe he’s pushing me away, but he takes my hand, leading me back into the house, and I know that he’s probably just embarrassed by all the praise I’m bestowing on him.