Chapter 7 Travis
SEVEN
TRAVIS
Fuck if I wasn’t about to spill my guts, past and present, to Joey right there in the damn cab of his truck.
I wasn’t known for being one to get all emotional and up in my feels, but the day had taken a toll on me, I guess.
The frustration from that morning—which now seemed like a million years ago—piled on top of the shitty travel, added to the nostalgia of being back home, and I was feeling things rather deep.
The fact I’d made myself dizzy going between excitement, dread, anger, uncertainty, elation, and now curiosity plus anticipation all in the span of a few days had set me off kilter ever since receiving Grandpa Pete’s letter.
I wasn’t against telling Joey how I felt back then, talking more about how everything went down, and admitting I still had a big heart boner for him. But I wasn’t sure our first day back in each other’s lives was the time to do it.
No question, though, I’d had to apologize.
There was no way I could live with him, share a bed with him, and work with him without acknowledging what an ass I’d been.
I’d spent too many years with an absolute asshole father to be okay with letting something like that fester between us.
True, it had taken several years in the military to get me to a point where I could own up to my mistakes—and yes, the better time to apologize would have been back then…
or better yet, I shouldn’t have done what I did.
Period.
But recapturing time was like trying to scoop up water with a sieve. Apologizing now was better than not apologizing at all.
“Um, you okay with me taking a shower?” Joey asked, his hesitation and nerves written all over his face.
“This place is ours, not just mine. You’re not a guest, and I’m not treating you like one.” I waved my hand toward the bathroom. “Go shower.”
Joey smirked. “Thanks. Just didn’t know if you wanted the bathroom first.”
“Nah, I’m good. I’ll shower in the morning.”
Twenty minutes later, I was propped up with our notes in the massive bed—after emptying the linen closet of its three extra blankets and covering every square inch of the mattress before I put the clean bottom sheet on.
The huge quilt folded up on the linen closet shelf would likely be enough for Joey and me to stay warm since I knew from experience we were both hot sleepers.
Joey came into the room, glanced around, and tossed his dirty clothes into the corner. “Figure they would have said something, but I sure as hell hope the laundry facilities are functional.”
I scribbled on the paper. “Good thinking. Tomorrow, we can walk the property and check on everything. Laundry, the showers, the bathrooms, all of it.”
“Better do an inventory of the work shed,” Joey suggested.
He only hesitated slightly before he climbed onto the bed. Truly, the thing was so big two adults could have fit between us if we both stuck to our own side.
But having him right there, so close—knowing he was going to be sleeping by my side—had my chest tight and my heart being ridiculous.
“While we’re doing an inventory out there, might as well take a look at the bait shop and get ideas for what needs ordered.” I made note of the new ideas we hadn’t touched on at the bar.
“What time you want to get up?” Joey asked as he plugged his phone into the charger on the little ledge next to the bed. “I’m thinking it’s not a good idea to make Glazed Buns an every morning type thing, but until we get some groceries and supplies, it might be our only option.”
“I’m good with early,” I said.
“Army make you an early riser?” Joey asked.
I snorted. “Yeah, used to hate it, but now I don’t mind.”
“Up early, breakfast, groceries, then get to work?”
“Works for me.” I got up and sidestepped around the mattress to the door to go piss and brush my teeth.
By the time I got back, Joey’s bedside light was off, and he was curled on his side.
I wasn’t sure if he was truly asleep or just pretending, but I wasn’t going to complain.
For two people who’d shared many of the same sleep locations over the years, I was sure as shit feeling some sort of way about how our first night back was going to go.
Turned out, our first night sharing space went exactly how I’d remembered it always going. Thanks to the huge-ass bed, we had farther to travel, but our bodies were like opposite ends of magnets throughout the night, and we migrated to the middle over and over.
Every single time I woke up, both of us had moved from our own side to the middle, our bodies pressed together. Just like when we were kids, there wasn’t anything sexual about it, but it was as comfortable and intimate now as it used to be back then.
Not that I didn’t want it to be sexual now that we were both consenting adults with our heads screwed on pretty close to right.
But it was kinda sweet how our hearts seemed to remember and sought each other out like the old days.
I slept like shit that night.
New bed.
New sounds.
Same old internal furnace.
And my good ol’ best friend who still didn’t know I’d been in love with him back then—and was pretty damn sure I was even more in love with him now.
In some ways, falling for Joey then and now made no sense. We were just friends. Buddies. We liked to fish and camp and enjoy nature. There was no rule that said best friends had to fall in love. In fact, most friends didn’t.
But in other ways—in all the ways that counted—loving Joey was the only thing that had ever made the most perfect sense in my entire life. He was my heart back then, and returning to Haven Grove to find him was like two estranged halves of a whole finally clicking back into place.
Joey was my person all those years ago, and the moment I’d seen him that morning, something caught fire inside me. He was still my person. I knew that with every single fiber of my being.
Find love, luck, and pleasure in the simple life.
An explosion of happy contentment and anticipation shot through me.
As long as Joey would have me, I had a feeling my fortune was going to come true.
And he’d be right by my side as we lived it.
Together.
I came awake slowly, the realization that Joey’s front was pressed against my back, and his arms curled around me. The same happiness and hope for the future I’d fallen asleep with flamed to life deep in my soul.
Keeping my eyes closed to savor a few more moments of cozy warmth wrapped in Joey’s arms, I let myself doze and imagine waking like this day after day as we built our life together.
Something tapped at my nose.
I would have believed Joey was pressing butterfly kisses to my nose except he was behind me with no physical way to kiss the front of my face.
Cracking an eye, I grunted, startled by big golden eyes staring back at me.
When the cat made a noise much closer to a growl than a meow, I jerked back with another sound of shock and fear.
“Shit, sorry,” Joey mumbled, extricating his arms from around me.
I grabbed him and held on tight. “No, don’t go. Where the fuck did a cat come from?”
“Huh?”
“A. Fucking. Cat.” I opened my eyes again, and the cat was still there, its eyes boring straight into my soul. “It looks like it wants to hurt me. And it probably has rabies.”
I swear to god, the cat huffed and climbed over me to cuddle with Joey. No lie, the damn evil thing had just been glaring at me and growling, and now it was rubbing against Joey and purring like they were the best of friends.
Sitting up—and immediately missing Joey’s warmth and the press of his body against mine—I moved to prop against the headboard to study the cat from what was hopefully a safe distance.
“Awww, he’s a sweetie,” Joey said, scratching the cat under the chin. “He looks clean, I don’t think he’s rabid.”
“Fleas? Worms? Distemper? Probably something.” I frowned.
The cat gave me an annoyed glare and settled itself next to Joey.
“No, he’s a good boy, aren’t you, baby?” Joey cooed. “Did Pete have a cat?”
I gave my best disgruntled huff, crossed my arms over my chest, and narrowed my eyes at the cat. “Not that I know of. Did Wendy?”
“She never talked about a cat,” Joey answered. “He’s so pretty.”
The cat actually was gorgeous. I just didn’t like the way he’d so rudely woken me up and the attitude he was currently sending out in waves of hostility.
“Pet him. Let him sniff your hand first,” Joey said.
I sighed. Why was I such a sap when it came to this man? Always had been, always would be. Pushing aside my annoyance at the attitudinally challenged feline, I slowly extended my hand to offer the sniff test.
That piece of shit growled and batted at my hand, tail whishing angrily.
“Ohh, he really doesn’t like you. I wonder if you offended him in a past life.”
I scoffed. “I did no such thing.”
“We should take him to the vet and see if he has a chip or something. Maybe someone is missing him.”
“Who would miss an asshole cat?” I climbed from bed, sad to be moving away from Joey, but I had to pee. And we had plans. I wasn’t sitting in bed all morning to be glared at by a cat.
Joey lounged for a bit while petting the cat and scrolling his phone. By the time I was showered, dressed, and sitting in a tiny kitchen chair, Joey emerged from the bedroom in jeans that made his ass look even better than I remembered and a hoodie.
“There’s a vet up the road. Hughes Brothers Veterinary Services.” He bit his lip and studied me. I was unsure how to take the mixture of curiosity, amusement, and fire in his eyes. “Do you want to wait here for me to get back? Or go with me?”
Huffing, I shook my head. “Well, there’s no reason for you to go by yourself. I’m probably not getting any work done until you’re back here.” I grabbed my keys. “You think Satan will enjoy a car ride? My bet is he shreds you to bits.”
Joey grinned. “The old guy who owned my truck before me had a cat or small dog. He left a travel pet carrier behind the seat.” He held up a finger to tell me to wait before rushing out the door.
He was only gone about two minutes, but that damn cat shot daggers my way the entire time.
“Fuck off,” I muttered.
The cat squawked out a menacing meow.
“Okay, pretty kitty,” Joey announced when he returned. “Let’s get you to the vet to see who you belong to.”
“How did he get in here?” I asked, glancing around the houseboat while Joey scooped up the demon and deposited him with zero fuss into the travel carrier. “I don’t think he was here the whole time.”
“There must be some sort of door,” Joey said as he headed out to the truck.
“Pete and Wendy have a shit-ton of explaining to do,” I groused as I locked the door behind me and followed Joey to my truck.
The Hughes Brothers Veterinary Services ended up being a nice operation just up the road.
The vets were twin brothers who had been running their business for several years.
Joey had called ahead to ask if they took walk-ins for a chip check, and we’d lucked out to be one of the first to show up when they opened.
Dr. R. Hughes greeted us and took us to an exam room. “Sorry, we get here earlier than our receptionist because she has a little one to get on the school bus.” He held his hand next to the carrier and let the monster sniff him. “Let’s get this little guy scanned and back home.”
We chatted with the doctor for a bit before his brother, Dr. C. Hughes, appeared with a paper. “Good news,” he declared with a smile. “This is Ward.”
“Ward?” I repeated. “Like a ward of the state?”
“No, his name is Ward.”
“Who in their right mind names a cat Ward?”
The doctors chuckled.
“I thought it might have been him,” Dr. R. said, absently rubbing his fingers through Ward’s fur. “But I didn’t want to make a guess until we’d scanned him.”
“His name is Ward?” I asked again.
Dr. C. handed me a paper with what looked like a health record.
“Ward was left behind at the campground a few years ago. Miss Wendy brought him to us to see if we could find his owner’s information.
Unfortunately, we found his name and an address of an elderly lady who we soon figured out was deceased. ”
Dr. R. chuckled as Ward rolled to his back and let his belly be scratched. “Wendy decided to let him stay. She got all his shots done over a period of several months. Last time she was in, she told me all about how Ward was the campground cat.”
“Supposedly,” Dr. C. said, picking up the story from his brother, “Ward goes from RV to camper to bait shop to houseboat on a continual loop. Miss Wendy said she almost never goes more than two or three days between seeing him.”
“So, he’s healthy?” Joey asked.
I rolled my eyes. I already knew the cat was going home with us.
We had a cat now.
A cat who wanted to claw my eyes out.
A fuckin’ cat named Ward.
Several minutes later, after a clean bill of health, making a donation to the Hughes brothers’ spay and neuter services, and setting up an appointment for Ward to be checked out in six months, we were back in the truck.
When we arrived home with our breakfast from Glazed Buns—we attempted to go healthier with oatmeal, egg white omelet burritos, and yogurt with granola since we had leftover cake to share—I jumped out of the truck to open Joey’s door and help with the bags.
In a show of goodwill, I took the carrier when it was handed to me.
Ward went absolutely bat-shit.
Joey winced, took the carrier back from me, and handed over the breakfast bag before sliding out of the truck. He touched his hand to the small of my back. “We’ll just have to get the two of you used to each other.”
Ward scampered from the carrier when it was opened, threw a disgusted look my way, and purred around Joey’s legs for a few moments before wandering off.
We ate breakfast and headed out to check the campground facilities and start our inventory. Throughout the day, we saw Ward here and there.
I was a cat dad now.
It was fine.
Joey was thrilled to have a cat—and he even loved the name Ward—and I had quickly fallen back into the habit of being happy if Joey was happy.
I mean, I was probably going to die in my sleep because a cat named Ward slashed my jugular.
But everything was fine.
My heart caught in my throat as I watched Joey squint against the cold winter sun, his blond hair ruffled by the brisk breeze.
I’d let that man keep the damn cat a million times over if it meant I got to keep Joey for the rest of my life.