22. Isabella
22
ISABELLA
B ella glared at the half-eaten sausage patty on her plate. She’d never wanted anything more in her life, but her stomach had already rejected the first half. Now, she was trying to convince herself sausage would taste awful with the lingering toothpaste in her mouth.
The nausea only came around at inopportune times and usually whenever she tried to eat the foods she craved. Suddenly and violently, the sickness sent her running for the nearest safe place to empty her guts.
The warm scent of spiced meat hit her nose and rolled her stomach. Giving up on breakfast, she dumped the food into the trash and washed the plate in the sink. If she didn’t have anything in her stomach, she wouldn’t have anything to vomit.
The front door opened, and heavy footfalls entered the cottage.
“Anna!”
Dean was back from his latest trip and making his grand entrance. The mere sound of his voice had her teeth grinding against each other.
Waiting until he disappeared down the hallway, Bella slipped into the living room and scanned the place for her shoes. Oh good, she’d been coherent enough after work yesterday to leave them by the door like a decent human being. The evening exhaustion made her morning fatigue look like a walk in the park, and she’d been known to fall onto the couch after work and sleep until the next morning more than once last week.
“You said you would be ready by seven,” Dean barked from the other side of the cottage.
The welcome noise of Travis’s truck distracted Bella from thoughts of telling Dean where he could go for talking to Anna like that. How did she end up with him? Anna and Dean were nothing alike. She was as kind as he was rude, and Bella had tried bringing it up to her friend more than once without any success. Anna was smitten and continued to go out of her way for her loser boyfriend.
Bella finished tying her shoelaces as Travis’s footsteps beat a steady rhythm on the porch. Huffing and puffing, she got to her feet and opened the door before he could knock.
Travis was a picture of perfection in his usual baseball cap, T-shirt, jeans, and boots. He always looked handsome when they went to work together at Silver Falls Ranch, and she barely managed to look better than a troll that lived under a bridge.
His mouth turned up in a grin that sent a tingle up her spine as soon as she opened the door. “Good morning.”
She hadn’t seen him in two days. Just two days apart, and she’d missed him like they’d been separated for weeks. The hunger in her stomach shifted to her chest. She didn’t need breakfast. She needed Travis.
The fact that he’d been incredibly nice ever since she found out about the pregnancy only made her feelings for him stronger. He hadn’t left her the way she’d expected him to. Instead, he’d been a model gentleman–always there to help while keeping a safe distance.
She still had no idea who could be the father of her baby, but she didn’t feel alone. The people of Blackwater had rallied around her. They could have cast her out. She was a possibly unwed mother-to-be, but they’d shown her nothing but kindness.
When Dean’s barking voice drifted down the hallway again, Bella quickly closed the door behind her and stepped around Travis. “Let’s go.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yep.” Bella dove into the truck like the devil himself was chasing her and closed herself in the cab.
Travis got in on the other side and turned to her. “What’s wrong?”
“Dean! He’s awful.”
Travis started the truck and shifted into gear. “Oh yeah. I can’t stand him either.”
“Why is Anna with someone like him? She’s so good, and he’s so…not.”
Travis huffed. “Sometimes, I wonder if anyone would notice if he came up missing.”
“Anna would, but I don’t know what she sees in him.” Bella released a very unladylike growl, but she couldn’t find it in her heart to care what anyone thought of her right now.
“You’re pretty wound up this morning. Is there something else bothering you besides Dean?”
She released a deep breath and sat back against the seat. “I’m sorry. It’s the hormones. That’s not a good excuse, but I didn’t get to eat this morning. Dean was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Why didn’t you get to eat? We can stop and get you something on the way.”
Bella held up a hand. “No, thanks. I can’t eat. That’s the problem. Nothing stays down. At least nothing that I want. The doctor said the morning sickness might be the worst between weeks six and twelve but also let me know that it could last the whole pregnancy.”
Travis kept his attention on the road as he reached into the back seat and pulled out a box of crackers. “Would this help?”
Bella took the box and inspected it. “You keep crackers in your truck? A whole unopened box?”
“Since you weren’t able to eat breakfast the last time we went to work, I figured it might be a new trend.”
Bella stared at the box as tears began to prick behind her eyes. “Thank you.” She opened the box, pulled a cracker out, and shoved it into her mouth before the emotion had time to claw all the way up her throat.
“Tammy said she had something new for us to work on today. Any idea what it is?” Travis asked.
Bella shook her head as she nibbled the rest of the cracker. “No clue.”
When they parked in front of the Bensons’ house, she was already waiting for them on the front porch.
“It’s a beautiful day!” Tammy said with her arms spread out wide.
“It sure is,” Travis said before pointing to the pallet of plywood and bundles of wood. “What’s this?”
“Your new project. You’re replacing the floor in one of the cabins.”
Bella clapped her hands together. “Fun. I’ve never done that before.”
“Travis knows what he’s doing,” Tammy said with a slap on his shoulder. “Matt’s gone to get the forklift, and we’ll get you loaded up.”
Bella looked up at Travis. “Am I going to be able to carry this stuff?”
“Nope. No carrying for you.” He turned and opened the toolbox on the back of his truck. A few seconds later, he pulled out a handheld machine that looked a lot like a drill. “Have you ever used a nail gun?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“It’s easy. You pull this trigger, and it shoots a nail out.”
Bella’s eyes widened. “It shoots a nail out?”
“You can handle it. Just be careful.”
Bella took the tool from him, careful not to touch near the trigger. “No big deal. I can do this.”
Tammy clapped her hands and turned to head back into the house. “Oh, I almost forgot. I packed you a snack bag.”
Matt drove the forklift over, and the noise saved Bella from having to respond right away. Matt and Tammy had been supportive from the start, but how could Bella ever get used to their kindness? It went above and beyond sometimes.
When Tammy reappeared with a bag of snacks, she handed it to Bella with a hug. “Come back for lunch. I have beef tips in the slow cooker.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Bella got back into Travis’s truck and waited for Mr. Benson to load the rest of the supplies.
Travis took his place at the wheel and headed toward the row of cabins off to the east of the main house. “Looks like they’re planning to offer housing when they start hiring wranglers.”
“Is that common around here? It seems like a huge perk. Jobs don’t usually provide housing for employees.”
“Wranglers are sometimes seasonal help, especially around here when the calving and hay seasons are in the spring, summer, and fall. Winter is for maintaining and making sure the herds have food and water, but you don’t have to work the calves as much. A lot of wranglers move to Texas and the southern states for the winter because they can work cows year-round.”
“So they’re nomads?”
“Kinda. They’re usually bachelors without much family. It’s a different lifestyle.”
“Sounds like it. I can’t imagine having a family and moving around all the time.”
Even though she hadn’t had much time to think about what the future of her tiny family might hold, stability was something she’d been craving lately. Would she even be able to provide that for her child?
She glanced over at Travis as he drove. He was the epitome of stability and safety. No one would ever doubt he was a man who could love and provide for the people in his life, but anyone who crossed him had better have a death wish.
“I wonder what kind of mom I’m going to be,” she said low.
“You’ll be great. I don’t doubt that for a second,” Travis quickly replied.
“But how do you know that? I don’t know anything about being a mom. What if I do something wrong?”
“You’re going to mess up. Let’s just get that out of the way. But you have a lot of people around you can ask for help.”
“I’m afraid I’ll end up like my parents,” she confessed.
“I don’t think we have to worry about that. You’re not like that.”
He was right. She’d do whatever she had to do to make sure she didn’t treat her child the way her parents had treated her. Her hand slid over her flat stomach on instinct. She’d do anything to protect her baby.
Bella looked inside the snack bag Tammy gave her. “Matt and Tammy don’t have kids?”
“Nope.”
“That’s too bad. They would have made great parents.”
“You’re right about that. At least half a dozen friends of mine consider Matt and Tammy to be their second parents.”
“Including you?” Bella ventured to ask.
Travis nodded slowly but didn’t take his attention off the path ahead. “Including me.”
“You haven’t talked about your parents,” Bella said softly. “What are they like?”
The muscle in his jaw tensed. “They weren’t the best, but they weren’t as bad as yours.”
Bella studied him for any sign of exaggeration. “What do you mean?”
“I was their second boy, and they wanted me even less than the first one. Mom wanted a girl, but she never got one. We were just reminders of how she’d been dealt the wrong hand.”
“Are you kidding me?” Bella asked, high-pitched and loud. “That’s awful.”
“Mom didn’t want to have anything to do with us. I think Dad wanted to like us, but Mom disliked us so much it was hard for him to give us much of his attention. Anyway, they were glad when Greg and I moved out.”
Bella stared at the man who had gone out of his way time and time again to make sure she was cared for and couldn’t reconcile the kind man with the sadness he’d grown up in.
“It’s not like I was a saint. I caused plenty of trouble just trying to get them to notice me, but they never cared. At some point, I realized I was hurting myself instead of them and quit doing stupid stuff.”
It was hard to reconcile the man she knew with the menace he claimed to be. Travis was so straight-laced, she couldn’t imagine him any other way.
“Do you talk to them now?” she asked softly.
“Not much. They call about twice a year.”
“What about your brother?”
Travis tightened his grip on the wheel. “We don’t talk.”
The finality in his tone implied the conversation was over. All of the hurt that had torn his family apart was still new and fresh to him. For a man who tried his best to do what was right for others, he’d probably gone out of his way to mend fences more than once.
They arrived at the first cabin, and Bella grabbed the trusty snack bag. “Travis?”
He turned to her, giving her his full attention in those warm brown eyes.
“Thank you for being so good to me,” she whispered.
He let her words hang in the air for a moment before nodding once. “You’re welcome.”
Without another word, he got out of the truck, leaving Bella with the memory of the sadness in his eyes.