Chapter 3 Travis
THREE
TRAVIS
I saw red when I pulled into the campground and saw Jackass’s truck parked by the bait and tackle shop.
Who had I pissed off in the universe to have my day just keep going to shit, shittier, and shittiest with every passing minute?
I killed the engine, flung open the door, and slammed it shut. Did it help my anger? No, but it was satisfying all the same.
My work boots thudded against the frigid ground as I marched through the cold air toward the bait and tackle shop. The shop was dark, but a warm light glowed and caught my attention at the campground office off to my left.
Detouring, I let my anger lead me toward the office.
Stomping up the steps, I yanked open the door, and barely contained my growl when I saw Jackass’s backward ball cap. If my grandpa had rented this jerkoff a space for a tent or some shit like that, I’d refund his money so quick his damn pretty, blond head would spin.
“Travis Dean,” Wendy exclaimed at the exact same moment I demanded, “Who the fuck do you think you are, and what the fuck are you doing here?”
Wendy winced and gave me that look only a disappointed grandmother-type can.
Grandpa sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
And Jackass turned around, his eyes wide with shock.
Eyes the color of golden honey.
Eyes I knew as well as my own.
“Trav?” he croaked.
The eyes.
The voice.
The same straw-colored hair, no longer in a buzz-cut, but the color hadn’t changed.
Joey Morton.
The first boy I ever fell for.
The only man I’d ever truly loved if I was being honest with myself.
And the guy I ruined things with all those years ago.
Yeah, it was likely a dumbass move to think I loved someone I hadn’t seen in a decade, but the way my heart clawed and scrambled its way up my throat was proof positive I’d fucked shit up back then, and I was nowhere close to being over him.
“What’s on your shirt?” Joey asked.
I glanced down at the coffee stain on my shirt.
“You made me spill coffee, jackass.” It was probably best to hold onto my anger for as long as I could.
Joey had always had me wrapped around his pinky—well, until the day I stormed off like a child.
He’d been my best friend as a kid, and we’d been thick as thieves as teens.
“What? Me? How?” His pretty honey-gold eyes blinked innocently.
I grasped desperately at the irritation I’d been stewing in just moments before.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” The way he winced had me backtracking. Being mad at him wasn’t something I did a lot back then. Which was probably why walking away from him after things went down hurt so bad. “Sorry, it was a shitty trip getting here, and you fucked up an already bad morning.”
Joey’s face held a mix of wry amusement, curiosity, and unwarranted guilt.
The tiny grin cracking his lips, that crooked incisor peeking through, and I broke.
Before I could think better of it, I pulled him into a back-slapping hug.
There was no way to miss his slight, stiff hesitation, but a split second was all it took for Joey to relax into the hug.
“Don’t know what I did to make your morning worse,” he mumbled into my shoulder. “Sorry?”
I chuckled, letting go and putting some space between us because my heart and body had taken immediate interest in having Joey so close. “Got a ticket tryin’ to race you.”
Joey winced. “I saw the cop out there on the long stretch heading this way.”
I nodded. “Yeah, he got me for speeding and a taillight out.” I shrugged at the apologetic look on Joey’s face. “And you ordered all my favorites at Glazed Buns,” I mumbled, heat rising to my cheeks. “Took the damn last of everything I wanted.”
Joey’s pretty eyes went wide. “What? No way. All of it?”
I nodded, feeling like a petulant child. “Hope you enjoyed my Maple Monster.” I gestured toward the coffee stain on my shirt. “And the light roast isn’t even worth the spill.”
“I’m sorry,” Joey said with a grin of true apology mixed with mischief.
“Probably couldn’t have pulled that off even if I’d tried.
” He elbowed me. “Guess fate was letting you know you didn’t need the extra caffeine.
” His eyes caught mine, all the history we shared glinting fiercely.
“Or maybe the universe thought you needed a payback.”
Ouch.
Okay, I probably deserved that.
I bumped my shoulder against his. “Fuck you,” I said with a chuckle, the earlier anger not completely gone, but melting like a pile of dirty snow on a sunny winter day. “Burrito wasn’t a bad substitute.”
“Nothing from Glazed Buns is bad,” Wendy cut in with a knowing smile.
Her words popped the bubble I’d put around Joey and me.
Blinking to bring myself back to the present, I took in Wendy and my grandpa. Both smiled indulgently, knowing eyes glancing between Joey and me.
“Shit, sorry,” I said, then winced. “Sorry.” Grandpa wasn’t a fan of cussing back when I was a kid.
Grandma Annie would have washed my mouth out with soap.
It wasn’t that I didn’t cuss—I could keep pace with the best sailors—I just usually did a better job of curtailing what spewed from my mouth depending on who was around.
Grandpa gave me a wink and stepped forward for a hug. “Glad to have you back home, son.” Such simple words, but they meant the world to me. I was back home, where I belonged, and someone was glad for it.
My dad had grown up in Haven Grove, but he hightailed it out when my birth-giver ran off—seriously, I probably deserved more credit for not being more fucked up than I was with the parents I was dealt.
Only when dear ol’ Dad figured out having a kid around was completely cramping his style did he opt to let me live with Grandma and Grandpa. It started as school breaks and summers in Haven Grove, but by high school, I was living there full time.
Of course, Travis Cooper made it seem like he was giving his only child a good, small-town upbringing like he’d had himself.
And technically, he was.
But I figured out real quick Dad didn’t let me live in Haven Grove with my grandparents to give me what was best. He was a mean, selfish, uninvolved fucker who had no interest in being a father.
Honestly, I sometimes thought my mother did the more humane thing by just walking out of my life completely rather than Dad’s half-assed, failed attempts at being a father.
Living in Haven Grove did turn out to be what was best for me, but Dad didn’t do it out of the goodness of his own heart.
Everything worked out for the best though.
I grew up in a great town, got to spend every day with my best friend, and had amazing grandparents who raised me the way they’d tried to raise their son.
My father had never once told me he was glad to see me or proud of me. Never set up a time to visit. Never asked about how my life was going. Hell, for all I knew, he didn’t know if I’d made it out of the military dead or alive.
Shoving down the daddy issues shit—truly, his absence had shaped me in good and bad ways, but I chose to focus on the good of not having that fucker in my life—I hugged Grandpa Pete tightly.
“Good to be here,” I replied with one hundred percent honesty.
Grandpa backed away but kept a hand on my shoulder and turned me toward Wendy. “We know it might be a bit of an adjustment for you boys,” he started, “but Wendy and I wanted you to know we’re really happy together.”
Wendy, Joey’s grandma, had been like a second mother to me growing up. It was definitely different thinking about Wendy taking my grandma’s place in Grandpa’s life, but it kinda made sense.
Pete and Annie Cooper had been best friends with John and Wendy Morton since they’d gotten married right out of high school all those years ago.
Annie and Wendy had both become mothers fairly quickly after marriage.
The families built their businesses right alongside each other.
Their friendship was the foundation of every business decision they made.
Cooper’s Campground and Morton’s Bait & Tackle had grown from nothing to thriving businesses which allowed both families to put down roots and become respected names in Haven Grove.
Outside of the Riggs family who owned a peach orchard, general store, and restaurant in town, our families were probably the most well-known.
Folks drove from surrounding counties, some even from other states, to camp, fish, and boat in Haven Grove, and Cooper’s Campground and Morton’s Bait & Tackle were always where they stopped first.
I hugged Wendy. “If you’re happy, we’re happy.” I wasn’t one hundred percent sure Joey felt the same, but I wasn’t going to give Grandpa and Wendy any reason to think there was a problem with them turning to each other when their significant others passed away.
“We are,” Wendy said, her eyes glinting with tears. “It wasn’t something we saw coming, but I can’t help but think John and Annie would be happy we have each other.” She took Grandpa’s hand.
Grandpa smiled and brought her knuckles to his lips. “She’s my Wendy.”
“And he’s my Peter.”
My grandpa winked. “She takes me to Never Never Land.”
Joey’s strangled laughter sounded enough like a cough the older two didn’t catch it, but I knew he was about to lose it.
Clearing my throat, I steered the conversation away from less awkward topics. “When are you planning on heading out?”
Wendy’s eyes sparkled, and Grandpa looked like a kid on Christmas morning. “Well, we said we’d wait until you both got here,” he said, leaving me to figure out the answer to my own question.
I glanced at Joey as understanding dawned.
They were leaving the businesses to both of us.
“Wait—” I started.
“You’re leaving now?” Joey asked.
“RV is all packed. Papers are ready for you boys to sign. We’ve already turned off our phones—we have emergency-only access on one of them, so don’t try texting or calling.
” Grandpa shuffled through some papers on the counter.
“With it being winter, business is slow—you boys know how it is. Quite a bit needs spruced up before spring. Take a look around, see what you can get to in these slow months.”
He handed me a pen and then passed one to Joey. Opening a red folder, he spread several papers on the counter.
“Hold on—” I tried again.
“You’re leaving now?” Joey squeaked again.
“This cold is terrible for our arthritis these days,” Wendy said.
“Weather for the next week looks pretty good,” Grandpa added.
“We’ll take our time getting down there, but our spot at the campground is ready for us.
We’ve got sunshine to soak up.” He pointed to a spot on the paperwork marked with a yellow sticky note.
“The attorney took care of everything. Paperwork is such that you each own your own family’s business.
You can have the paperwork tweaked later on if needed.
Only provision for now is you both have to agree to sell if that’s an option, and if only one of you wants to sell, you have to offer it to the other at a fair and reasonable price below the market value. ”
Wendy stepped closer to Grandpa. “I know we don’t have to tell you boys that we very much want the business to continue on in the family.”
Grandpa pulled her to his side. “We understand if you opt to sell later on, but we’d like to know you gave it a fair shot.”
“You two always had such big plans for running the place,” Wendy said with a soft smile. “I know you’ll do great things with it. The Cooper and Morton names will live on through you.”
Through a blur of signatures, goodbye hugs, and promises to call once they were settled in, we ended up standing on the porch of the campground office watching Grandpa and Wendy wave as they drove away in their RV.
“What the hell just happened?” Joey asked.
I snorted. “Pretty sure we just became business owners.”
“I can’t believe they just left.”
It did sting a bit that our grandparents hadn’t wanted to stay to visit, but I also understood their desire to get on the road. And it wasn’t like Joey and I had been around lately.
Well, I knew I hadn’t been around.
“When was the last time you were here?”
Something like regret passed over Joey’s face. “It’s been a while. I saw Grandma when she came to the city, but I haven’t been back here much since…”
I cleared my throat. “Same. I came back—” Glancing away, I cleared my throat again. Why was this so damn hard? “The summer after. You weren’t here. I joined the Army not long after.”
Joey nodded. “I came back the summer after you joined the Army. Pete eventually got your contact info to me, but I figured you didn’t want to hear from me.”
I wanted to argue and say I would have loved to hear from him.
The man I was now knew the kid I was back then truly, deep down, would have loved to hear from his best friend. But I also knew I’d run for a reason, and when I’d first joined the Army, I wasn’t in a place to work through all of that.
It took me several years to finally accept who I was and understand why I regretted running away from Haven Grove.
But that was a lot to say to the best friend you just saw for the first time in a decade, so I kept my mouth shut, and we soaked up the quiet moment.
Finally, when words felt right, I said, “Guess we have some catching up to do.” A weird sensation fluttered through my gut.
“And some businesses to run,” Joey added. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Let’s do this.”