Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Travis
“Did you notice Kylie hasn’t said anything about her weddin’ ring?” I asked Gage as I steered the SUV toward the resort.
I could feel his eyes on me, knew he was trying to figure out where I was going with this topic.
“What the hell are we supposed to do?” I asked when he didn’t answer. “We melted down her damn rings. They’re gone forever.”
“They’re not gone forever,” Gage said, his rational tone infuriating me further.
Because I was driving, I couldn’t wave my ring in his face, so I grabbed his left wrist and shook his hand. “Her rings are gone.”
“They’re not gone,” Gage repeated, pulling his arm away.
I huffed, staring out the windshield. On some level, my brain processed the scenery, but it was a sort of tunnel vision.
I’d done it so many times, I could probably drive to work with my eyes closed.
Good thing, too, since my mind was preoccupied with thoughts of my wife.
She’d been home now for three weeks, and things didn’t feel any different than they had the first night she was back.
She was still walking around as though she didn’t belong. And worse, we were letting her.
“We can take our rings, have them melted down,” Gage said.
I glanced over, urging him to continue.
“The jeweler can add more metal and create new ones for all three of us.”
I turned my attention back to the road. I saw the resort in the distance. We were two and a half minutes away, a fact that seemed ridiculous to know.
As I steered, my attention shifted from the road to my left hand and back.
The ring on my finger was a combination of all of our rings.
Something Kylie had requested we do in the letter she had left for us.
The diamonds had been removed from her rings, used to create necklaces for the girls.
And the metal had been melted down and used to create two bands, one for Gage and one for me.
We’d put those rings on each other’s fingers the day we got married in front of the magnolia tree in my parents’ front yard.
Because there was more I wanted to discuss and I didn’t want to wait any longer, I pulled into a parking spot rather than up to the valet. I put the truck in park and sat back, staring at the resort my brothers and I had built.
“I talked to a lawyer about our marriage,” I told Gage, hating that we even had to discuss this.
I could feel his surprise.
“And?”
“He said it’s complicated.”
“I can only imagine.”
I continued to stare straight ahead. “He said that technically, because there was a death certificate, my marriage to Kylie was dissolved in the eyes of the law. And our marriage—yours and mine—still stands because we entered into it in good faith.”
“That makes sense.”
My gaze cut to him, my fury igniting. “Does it?”
As he was known to do, Gage took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I didn’t say it was fair, Travis. I said it makes sense. I’m sure we can get a lawyer and go through proceedings to get it fixed.”
I frowned. “Get what fixed?”
“Get our marriage nullified, and your marriage to Kylie reinstated.”
I stared at him, both shocked and hurt. “You don’t want to be married to me?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then why would we do that?”
“For Kylie,” he said simply.
I turned my attention out the window again.
“Isn’t that what you want?” Gage asked.
“Yes. No. I don’t know,” I said honestly. I’d thought about it. Which was why I’d called a lawyer. I wanted to know what our legal options were.
“Travis?”
“I want to be married to you both,” I bit out.
It was all I’d wanted since the day the three of us decided to live together, to share our lives.
Kylie and I had been married, so we’d left things as they were.
Not because that was how I wanted it, but because it had been the easy answer to everything.
Legal documents had covered everything else once we started having kids.
Our relationship had never been simple. Not in many ways, but especially when it came to a legal perspective. We were committed to one another, but the law didn’t afford us legal protection the same way it did for a couple.
“I don’t know that I want to change it,” I admitted, hating myself for feeling that way.
“You don’t?” The surprise in Gage’s tone nearly broke my heart.
I met his gaze. “I love you. I love bein’ married to you. But I loved bein’ married to her.” I took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “No, I don’t wanna change it.”
“I thought for sure you’d want…”
I swallowed hard, reaching for Gage’s hand. I twined our fingers as we sat there, staring out into the early October morning.
“This has never been easy, Gage. But you’re not a goddamn afterthought, or a fucking consolation prize because we thought she was dead.”
His fingers tightened on mine.
“We’ll talk to her,” I said, although I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject.
Ultimately, I wanted to give Kylie her life back.
I would walk through fire to make her happy, but there was no denying that some things had changed.
And while I was grateful that she was home with us, I wasn’t sure that taking away from one person to give to another was the right thing to do.
Hell, I wasn’t really sure about much of anything right now.
Kylie
Once the kids were off to school and the house was quiet, I found I couldn’t sit inside.
While my surroundings were vastly different, the silence reminded me of being locked in that shit hole.
So instead of letting the silence choke me, I opted to sit on the front porch and watch the neighborhood come to life.
I’d done it enough now that it had become routine, and I found I looked forward to it.
As I sat on the porch swing, a cup of coffee in hand, I tried to tell myself that this new normal was okay.
It wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned when I’d been trapped in that shit hole, but it was better than being chained to the floor, starving to death.
No, maybe Travis and Gage didn’t look at me the same as they once had, and my kids didn’t recognize me as the mother they had mourned before, and my family didn’t reach out to me for questions or advice anymore, but it wasn’t necessarily bad.
“It’s bad,” I muttered, hating that my subconscious was having a battle with itself.
The roar of an engine pulled me from my thoughts, dragging my attention toward the end of the street. A moment later, a motorcycle appeared. I watched as it crept up to the house slowly, the throaty rumble of the engine almost soothing. Right up until it turned into the driveway.
I swallowed past the panic, forcing myself to sit there rather than race into the house and lock the doors.
This person would quickly realize they had the wrong house.
And they had to have the wrong house. I mean, it was the middle of the day.
Surely he wasn’t coming to kidnap or kill me. Someone would see.
My gaze snapped to the houses across the street. There were no cars in the driveway.
Okay, so maybe people weren’t home because they were at work or at school. But there were cameras. Two on our house, even. And they were visible from the street.
I looked back at the driveway. The man remained seated on the motorcycle after he turned off the engine. He proceeded to remove the helmet and the sunglasses shielding his eyes. As soon as he did, I exhaled heavily, a little dizzy from holding my breath.
“Mornin’, Kylie,” Archer Halligan called out as he dismounted.
“Mornin’,” I replied, hoping he did not hear the retreating panic or the way my heart was pounding in my ears. “Nice bike.”
I took a few more deep breaths and forced my shoulders to relax.
He flashed a grin, and it was then that I realized Archer Halligan was ridiculously attractive. And I meant that in the most platonic way. I had the right to appreciate a good-looking man, didn’t I? After all, I was married, not dead.
The thought made me snort. I definitely wasn’t dead, but technically, I wasn’t married, either. But that was something to ponder another day.
Archer made his way up to the porch slowly, his gaze swinging around, taking it all in.
“Sorry to drop by unannounced,” he said as he stopped at the base of the stairs as though he feared he would scare me if he moved too fast. “I just wanted to come by and see how you’re doin’.”
“I’m good. Thank you.” Remembering my manners, I smiled. “Would you like some coffee?”
“No, thank you.”
Yep, he was definitely going out of his way not to overwhelm me.
I patted the chair beside me. “Would you like to have a seat?”
He chuckled and his grin widened. “I would, but I’m not sure I could explain to your husbands when that thing fell from the rafters.”
I laughed, and it felt good. No, it felt amazing. “At the very least, come up here.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He took the steps two at a time.
“Do you live around here?” I asked, trying to make conversation.
“Right now, I’m stayin’ at the B and B.” Archer turned and pointed. “But we’ll be movin’ in a few doors down at the end of the month.”
“We?”
“Simon and Violet and me.”
“Oh.” I processed that. “I didn’t realize…”
Archer chuckled. “Not like that. They bought a big ol’ house, and I’m gonna camp out in one of the guest rooms for a while.”
“Ah.” I nodded. That made sense. Well, not really, but I pretended it did because that was something I would’ve known if I hadn’t been gone for so long.
Leaning against one of the posts, Archer looked comfortable. “How’re you doin’?”
“Tryin’ to find my footing,” I admitted, though I wasn’t sure why.
“How’re the kids doin’? I bet they’re happy to have you home.”
“I think they’re gettin’ used to it. It’s a process.”
“I’m sure it is.”
We stared at each other for a moment, and I could tell he didn’t know what to say either.
Finally, Archer stood tall. “Okay, look. I’m gonna be honest because I don’t know how else to be.”
I smiled. “Okay.”