Chapter Seven
Travis
Travis dropped Parker’s hand, feeling like his skin had been marked for life.
Never before has his whole body felt so aware of someone else’s.
With each move she made, his entire being seemed to want to mirror it.
When she’d relaxed into the chair, he felt himself sinking into his own and when she made to stand, he felt his heels lift, ready to follow her wherever she went.
It was the strangest feeling in the world, and the most welcoming one.
Confused beyond belief, Travis tried to focus on helping the down-on-her-luck mom get back on her feet instead of thinking of all the ways he wanted to try and sweep her off of them.
With the very limited experience he had, that was a foolhardy notion anyway.
With a smile he was sure looked more like a grimace, Travis gestured toward the door that led back into the house. “Want to give your daughter the good news?”
Parker stood up, Travis following along like a lost puppy.
He’d watched his brothers acting the same way around their significant others, but this couldn’t be that.
Surely he just felt bad that the two had been through so much and that was why he felt so fiercely protective of the pair after barely knowing them for a couple of hours.
Anything else would be like something out of one of his mom’s romance novels, and he was hardly the hero of the story.
He wasn’t even the villain, but a side character doomed to be forgotten to time.
Parker nodded, the smile returning to her face and looking so bright that it was probably able to light up the whole orchard on the darkest night of winter. “Sounds good.”
As she stepped back into the house, Travis let himself hang back a second to try and process exactly what he’d just done.
He’d already presented his idea to his dad before they’d all sat down for breakfast, and he knew his mom would be overjoyed at the prospect of having a little girl around to spoil.
Travis just hoped that he wasn’t doing more harm than good by giving them so much when they’d had so little.
As long as he helped them at the end of the season, he reasoned that they would be just fine.
When Travis walked into the kitchen, he saw Kit jumping up and down before giving her mother a tight squeeze.
“This is the best day ever!” she exclaimed.
“I can’t wait to feed the chickens every morning.
Can that be my job?” She turned toward his dad, her big brown eyes pleading. “I’ll be so good at it, I swear.”
Travis’s father laughed deeply and ruffled Kit’s hair. “Absolutely, but only if you promise to help me get their eggs after they’re laid as well.”
Kit’s already big eyes widened comically. “I can do that too?” She spun around with her hands on top of her head. Travis chuckled at the sight. She was the most animated kid he had ever seen, but when he looked over at Parker, she looked as though she might cry.
Needing to save her from whatever was causing her pain, Travis nudged Kit on the shoulder. “Want to see the apartment?”
Kit, who Travis was certain hadn’t blinked once in the last three minutes nodded so quickly he worried her head might fall off. “I absolutely do.”
Sprinting for the back door, Kit was already a good ten feet in front of Travis and Parker by the time they were outside.
“Thank you,” Parker said to him. “Not just for the job and the place to stay, and well, the food.” She shook her head as if she couldn’t believe her good fortune.
Travis frowned, wondering just how shitty her life must have been up to that point.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to think about the two of them struggling so much, and luckily he was saved from doing so when Parker kept talking.
“I’ve never seen her look so happy or heard her talk this much. ”
Travis’s feet stilled in the grass. “Really?” From what he’d seen the girl was a veritable chatterbox, talking his parents’ ears off at breakfast and not seeming to stop to even catch a breath.
Parker nodded, a sad smile on her face. “Really. She’s actually pretty surly most of the time.” Travis couldn’t picture it, the little girl seeming far too happy to be moody. “I guess I haven’t given her many reasons to smile.”
Travis opened his mouth to dispute that, but he didn’t know what he could possibly say to make Parker feel better.
He didn’t even really know the woman or her daughter.
In fact, two hours ago he was going to call the sheriff on them.
Feeling like the biggest dickhead that ever lived, he shuffled his feet.
Travis knew he should apologize for how he’d acted, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it.
“Are you guys coming or what?” Kit asked. Her tiny hands were on her hips and her chin jut out defiantly. The little girl didn’t even know where they were headed and yet she was pissed that they weren’t following her closely enough.
“Coming,” he said, nodding at the barn. “Just above that building there.”
Kit ran off again as he turned back to face Parker who had an I told you so look on her face.
Travis rolled his eyes, but bumped her with his shoulder, amazed at how easily interacting with her came to him.
Usually, he was a bumbling mess around women.
It was a miracle he’d ever even been kissed when he was younger.
Of course back then, he hardly talked at all, just threw a nod at anyone willing to give him a second look.
That was then and this was now, however, and flirty nods weren’t appropriate for his new employee.
“See what you meant ‘bout the surliness,” he admitted.
“Uh-huh,” Parker replied, a glint in her eye.
She really was too damn beautiful to be working on a farm.
With her willowy frame and gorgeous curls, she could be a model.
The reason for her thinner frame hit him like a ton of bricks and he chastised himself once again for being so unobservant when it came to people he wasn’t related to.
Vowing to make sure she never went hungry for as long as he could help it, Travis led Parker into the barn.
His fingers brushed the small of her back, and as much as he wanted to keep them there, he pulled away.
Normally so used to maintaining boundaries, Travis wondered how long he would be able to last without intentionally blurring the lines that laid between him and Parker in that moment.
Maybe he would go into town and try another fruitless attempt to pick up someone else, but something told him no matter who he met later that night, they wouldn’t come close to the woman looking up at him now.
“Do you want to keep going, or are we sleeping in the barn?” she asked, her brown eyes sparkling with laughter. “Not that I would mind. A roof is a roof.”
Travis rolled his eyes at his daydreaming and gestured over to the stairs as he extracted the keys from his pocket.
The jangling must have alerted the barn cat to their presence because soon enough the orange and white tabby was slinking over to them, winding her way around his calves, her tail brushing up against his jeans.
Kit squealed with delight. “Oh my god. You have a cat?”
The little girl leaned down to run her hand over the cat’s back, but Parker stopped her. “We don’t know where that cat’s been.”
Travis waved off her concern and knelt down next to the feline, smiling when she automatically went under his hand and let him pet her. “She’s fine.” He scratched under the cat’s chin, earning himself a little purr. “Had all her shots, is well fed. She won’t do any harm.”
Travis usually didn’t let it slip that he’d taken the old barn cat to the vet and gotten her up to date on all her shots as well as having her fixed, but he seemed to be unable to hold his tongue around Parker.
Even his parents didn’t know that, nor did they know that Travis kept his window open in the warmer months to allow the cat to sleep at the foot of his bed.
Apparently taking in strays ran in the family and he was as guilty as his mother.
Parker nodded and Kit’s knees hit the ground next to him before she started petting the cat. It was a little rough at first, so Travis took her small hand and helped guide her into a gentler stroke. “What’s her name?”
Travis huffed, also never having admitted that he named the cat about three years ago when she’d first started coming around the barn. “Uh, well. Boots.”
As if sensing his hesitation, Parker nudged him with her shoe. “Is that her full name?”
Travis smiled at the teasing tone of her voice and decided there was no harm in being completely honest. “If you’re asking her full legal name, it’s Little Miss Sassy Boots.”
Kit rolled onto her back and started laughing. “Little Miss Sassy Boots? Oh my God that is the best thing I have ever heard.” Kit continued to roll around, either oblivious to or uncaring about the fact that she was getting dirt and straw in her hair.
Smiling at the joyous little girl, Travis grabbed one of the cat’s feet and lifted it up to Kit.
“See the white all over her feet? Tell me those don’t look like boots to you.
” He stood and dusted his hands off on his jeans, reaching down, he held out a hand to help her up.
“Come on, Giggles. Let’s get you upstairs.
” Travis lightly poked her shoulder, earning a smile from the little girl before she bounded up the steps.
When he turned back to face Parker, she had a strange look on her face. “Everything okay?”
Parker nodded slowly as they walked up the steps. “I think so,” she said quietly. When they got to the landing, Travis noticed that her gaze had turned speculative. “You ever find yourself getting a glimpse into another life you could have lived had things been different?”
Thinking over her question for a minute, Travis finally shook his head.
“Not really.” He unlocked the door to the apartment and pushed it open.
Kit flew inside and ran around every inch of the space.
Parker stepped in more cautiously, looking at everything like it might disappear at any moment.
“Don’t get out often, so I don’t get glimpses into much of anything really.
Life on the farm...it’s all I know, all I want to know.
” He wouldn’t mind having someone special to share that farm life with, but Travis was far too particular a man for most women to want to deal with.
Parker smiled sadly. “I don’t blame you.
I’ve been around plenty of places and glimpsed a lot of different ways of living.
It seems like the life you have here is pretty wonderful.
” She stepped further inside, her eyes widening at all the furniture that was already in place from when Felix and Autumn used to live there.
It was a stroke of luck that they’d not taken anything with them really, so Parker and Kit were good to go. “This all comes with the apartment?”
Travis nodded. “Kitchen’s stocked with dishes and stuff, though we’ll have to go to the grocery store later.
Get you set up with some food. Unless...
you want to have meals at the big house.
” The invitation had been automatic, and while Travis knew his parents would have likely extended the same offer later, he felt the need to get it out as soon as possible. “’S no trouble.”
The bubble of hope that had risen in his chest at the thought of the two of them coming to dinner every night burst the moment he saw her polite smile.
“I really appreciate that, and maybe we’ll take you up on it sometimes, but we don’t want to be more of a bother than we already have been.
” Travis wanted to reiterate how little trouble it would be, how much he’d already started enjoying their presence, but something in her eyes stopped him.
There was a sadness there that he knew had nothing to do with him and everything to do with what she’d experienced in her young life.
“Understand.” He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “I’ll let you get settled. Later we can do that shopping, talk more about the job.”
Parker nodded, a few of her chocolate curls bouncing along with her head. “Sounds good.”
As he turned to leave, Travis heard Kit tear back into the room, squealing happily about getting to actually have her own room for once.
The sound of her happy voice lifted his spirits, but her words had him feeling awful at the same time.
Even in a house filled with brothers, Travis had always been given his own space.
Some of that was due to his sensory issues, but it was also because they’d always simply had enough to go around.
Thankful for the circumstances he was born into and raised in, Travis made his way down the steps and back over to the main house, pulling out his phone to text Felix, knowing at least one way he could spread the good fortune he’d lived most of his life with around just a little more.