Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
Travis and Liana were quiet on the three-hour ride to Beck’s cabin in Holderness, New Hampshire, both of them struggling to process the change in direction their emotionless fling had taken. Through Boston and into New Hampshire, the radio provided the only soundtrack to the scenery.
From the driver’s seat, Travis stole occasional glimpses at her as he tried to stay quiet and give her the time she needed to get used to the idea that he loved her.
That poor lip, he thought, wishing he could stop the car and take her into his arms. Soon enough we’ll be at the cabin, and I can hold her for two days.
She loves me, too. That’s all that matters.
We’ll figure something out as long as we both feel the same thing.
Before she leaves on Sunday I’ll ask her to marry me.
I can’t let her go—even temporarily—without telling her I want us to have a life together.
I know she has commitments and obligations, but I can wait until she’s free.
As long as I know she loves me, I can wait.
He reached for Liana’s hand and laced his fingers through hers.
She looked over at him and smiled, but her eyes were sad.
Determined not to let anything take away from the giddy joy he felt at the moment, he chose not to question the sadness. He would do everything he could over the next few days to show her that love was not something to be feared or regretted—and it certainly shouldn’t make her sad.
“Have you spent any time up here before?” Travis asked when the silence in the car began to get long as they headed toward the White Mountains.
“My parents and Enid’s parents used to bring us up to ski every winter.”
“Were you two always close?”
She nodded. “We were both only children, so we were like sisters only better. We could go to our own homes at the end of the day and weren’t on top of each other all the time the way sisters are.”
“And brothers,” he added.
“You would know about that. How many do you have?”
“Four brothers, two sisters, seven nephews, and three nieces.”
Liana shook her head. “I can’t imagine having such a big family. Are you close to any of them?”
“Just Evan, really,” he said, looking almost pained. “The others not so much. Our lives have gone in different directions since I left home. None of them went to college, and they kind of hold it against me that I did.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
He shrugged. “What they fail to get is I had something none of them have ever had—ambition. Even without the athletic scholarship I would’ve found a way to go to college. That’s the difference between me and them—they’d rather bitch about not going than do whatever it took to get there.”
Liana twisted around in her seat so she could see him better.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said with a bitter grimace. “None of them have any trouble asking me for money—often.”
“Do you give it to them?”
“Most of the time, but I’ve started saying no a lot more than I used to.”
“I’m sorry, Travis.”
“It is what it is. You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family,” he joked. “Luckily, I have Evan. I’d take ten of him over one of the others.”
Liana smiled. “What’s the age difference between you?”
“I was eleven when he was born, and I adored him from day one. While everyone else was caught up in what was wrong with him, all I saw was the cutest baby ever.” He glanced over at her. “Remember when I told you I set my parents up before I spent any money at North Point?”
She nodded.
“I kind of blackmailed them into making me Evan’s legal guardian before I gave them the money. I didn’t like the way they were treating him, so once I was his guardian I got him placed in a good group home and helped him find a job he loves.”
“Where does he live?”
“In Newport.”
“Really? I didn’t realize you had him so close to you.”
Travis nodded. “He spends a couple of weekends a month with me, and we talk most days on the phone.”
“Do you think I could meet him?”
“I’d love for you to meet him.”
She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
“What was that for?”
“For being a good guy.”
“I guess that’s better than sensitive.”
“That, too.”
He groaned. “We’re almost to Holderness,” he said, anxious to change the subject.
Liana glanced out at the lake region scenery. “It’s so pretty, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” he said, looking at her and not the scenery. “It sure is.”
“You seem to know exactly where you’re going.”
“Beck and I come up here to go fishing all the time.”
“Can’t you do that at home?”
“I find it hard to relax when I’m within a hundred miles of North Point,” he confessed. “Plus the skiing is better here than in Rhode Island.”
“That’s true. How did you meet Beck?”
“We played football together at Ohio State. He was my favorite receiver. His grandfather built the cabin and left it to Beck when he died.”
The SUV bounced along the unpaved road that led to the cabin. Travis parked the car and walked around to open the back door for Dash and the passenger door for Liana.
She got out and took a deep breath of the pine-scented fresh air. “Oh, this is beautiful,” she said, taking in the view of the lake in front of the log cabin.
“Go check it out. I’ll unload the car and come find you.”
“I’ll help.”
“I’ve got it.” He lifted the cooler out of the car. “Go ahead. Keep half an eye on Dash.”
“All right.”
Liana wandered toward the path that led through the trees to the lake where Dash already splashed about.
She sat on a log and watched the dog play.
For the hundredth time in the last few hours she thought about Travis professing his love for her.
What am I going to do? All I think about is him. All I want is to be with him.
Dropping her head into her hands, she thought about the months of work she had ahead of her.
On Sunday she’d be on her way back to Milan for two days to redo portions of the Vogue job that, fortunately, they had been unable to reschedule during her vacation.
Then she had three weeks in Spain to shoot the first part of the next Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
After that came the fall fashion shows in Paris, Milan, and New York, followed by two weeks or more in the Bahamas to finish Sports Illustrated.
Then there was a catalog job, a couple of charity events around the holidays, and whatever else Artie had committed her to since she’d been on vacation.
Just the idea of all that work brought Liana to tears. How am I going to get through that when I only want to be with him?
That’s when Travis found her. He dropped to his knees in the sand in front of her and put his arms around her. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
Liana clung to him.
Dash whimpered and lay down in the sand, her head on Liana’s foot.
Travis held Liana close to him for a long time.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He wiped the dampness from her face. “Don’t be sorry, sweetheart. Just tell me what I can do for you.”
“Nothing.” She caressed the face that had become dearer to her than any other. “I’m the only one who can do what needs to be done.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Would you believe me if I told you it has nothing to do with you?”
He kissed her hands. “Would you believe me if I told you that after this morning everything about you has something to do with me? I want to make you happy, Liana. That’s all I want.”
She combed her fingers through his thick dark hair as she studied him. “You do make me happy.”
He stood and tugged her up off the log. “Come see the cabin.”
“Is that a line?” she asked with a weak grin, hoping to salvage their day after her mini-meltdown.
With his arm around her shoulders he smiled and escorted her up the path to the house.
Liana took in the rustic furnishings, the huge fireplace, and the knotty pine walls and floors. “Oh, what a great place!”
“I’m glad you like it.” He went into the kitchen to unload the rest of the groceries. “I thought it would be a good place to hide out for a couple of days.”
She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. “It’s perfect. Thank you for bringing me here.”
He squeezed her hands. “I just want you to relax and enjoy yourself, all right?”
“Mmm.” She rested her face against his back. “I can do that.”
He pulled a box of cereal from the bag, and the tabloid newspaper dropped to the floor.
Liana bent to retrieve it. “Oh,” she exhaled when she saw the photo of them in formal attire kissing.
Travis turned to her and reached for the paper. “Give me that, Liana. You don’t need to be looking at that. I don’t know why I bought it.”
She waved him off and took the paper into the living room where she sat down to read the article that accompanied the photo.
“Listen to this: ‘Travis and Liana celebrated their recent engagement with a formal dinner at Travis’s exclusive North Point Country Club. They plan a New Year’s Eve wedding at North Point, where they met just a week ago.
The whirlwind romance has taken one of the world’s most beautiful women off the market and has broken the hearts of men everywhere. ”
“They just make shit up,” Travis said, incredulous. “Except for the world’s most beautiful woman part, of course. I’d sue them if I thought it would make any difference.”
“It’s not worth the bother.”
“Let’s put that where it belongs.” He joined her on the sofa, eased the paper out of her hands, and tossed it into the fireplace to be burned later.
Turning to her, he brought her closer to him and tipped his head to kiss her softly.
“What do you feel like doing this afternoon? We could swim, take the canoe out on the lake, go fishing. What sounds good to you?”
“Whatever you want to do is fine with me.”
He hooked an arm around her neck and kissed her with more passion this time. “Or, we could spend the afternoon in bed . . .”
“That’s an option?” she asked with a teasing smile.
“Sweetheart, that’s always an option.”
Kissing his neck, his jaw, his face, and then his lips, she said, “Why don’t we take a little ‘nap’ and then go fishing?”
He pretended to think it over. “Is sleeping required during this nap of yours?”
“Strictly prohibited.”
“How about pajamas?”
“Also prohibited.”
He moved so fast she had no time to react when he scooped her off the sofa, tossed her over his shoulder, and carried her to the larger of the cabin’s two bedrooms.
She laughed as he deposited her on the bed.
He made slow love to her and told her over and over again that he loved her while telling himself it didn’t matter that she didn’t say it back.
Travis built a bonfire on the beach to cook the rainbow trout they had caught on their fishing expedition in the canoe. After dinner Liana took a flashlight and walked back to the cabin to get the marshmallows they had forgotten to bring to the beach.
On her way through the living room, she bent to retrieve the tabloid from the fireplace grate, tore off the front cover, and returned the rest of the paper to the fireplace.
She studied the picture for a long moment, remembering how annoyed she’d been by Travis’s audacity in front of the press.
Now it was hard to take issue with the beautiful picture they made with the sun and the bay behind them as they shared an intimate moment with the world.
She folded the page and went to tuck it into her suitcase, knowing that soon pictures and memories would be all that remained of their blissful idyll.
She rejoined Travis at the beach and handed him the marshmallows.
“You were gone a long time. Did you have trouble finding them?”
“No, they were right where you said they’d be.”
“Everything okay?”
She crouched down next to him, rested her arms on his shoulders, and kissed his cheek. “Everything’s perfect—the lake, the trout, the cabin, you.”
“In that order?” He lifted an eyebrow in amusement. In the firelight he was even more handsome than usual.
“No, not in that order.”
He put his arm around her and brought her down next to him on the blanket they had spread on the sand. The fire provided some welcome warmth against the cool breeze blowing in off the lake.
Travis gave Dash the first two marshmallows.
Liana laughed as the dog attacked the sticky gob. “She is so spoiled.”
He shrugged but didn’t deny it as he presented Liana with a golden marshmallow.
She slid it off the skewer and popped it into her mouth. “Oh, that’s good.”
Travis reached for her hand and used his lips to clean up her sticky fingers before he reloaded the skewer.
“It’s so peaceful here.”
“It really is, but of course anywhere is peaceful when a hundred reporters aren’t chasing you.”
“That’s true. I’m sorry it’s turned into such a circus at home.”
“I told you before you don’t have to be sorry.” He pulled the skewer out of the fire and Liana fed one of the marshmallows to him. Tossing the skewer into the sand he pulled her to him and kissed her with a mouthful of warm marshmallow.
“Mmm,” she said. “That’s yummy.”
“Yes, you are.” He urged her down to the sand beside the bonfire and kissed her again.
“Guess what else I’ve never done?” she whispered when they finally resurfaced.
He trailed his tongue over her bottom lip. “What’s that?”
She trembled with desire from what he was doing to her lip and from the warm skin she had discovered under his Ohio State sweatshirt. “Sex on the beach—and not the drink.”
He chuckled. “It’s kind of chilly for that tonight, sweetheart.”
Liana reached for the blanket and rolled them over so she was on top of him and the blanket wrapped around them.
“Well, when you put it like that. . .”
She laughed and bent to kiss him.