20. Travis
twenty
Travis
I stretched and yawned, finally stirring from sleep. I’d just come off my second twenty-four-hour shift, and after last night’s fires, I’d been exhausted. We’d had a few bigger ones break out—two containable forest fires started at campgrounds by campers not being careful enough and a larger house fire courtesy of fireworks being let off and going wrong. We’d gone from one emergency to another, and I’d been up all night.
I had one more twenty-four-hour shift before I got four beautifully long days at home.
I touched the bed where Carina had been curled up in my arms when I’d gone to sleep. The sheets were cold. She’d been tired lately, napping during the day, but she insisted she was fine. Still, I didn’t like that she was feeling run down. Maybe she needed iron or vitamin B. I made a mental note to grill some steaks and suggest she get a blood test.
I rubbed my eyes, shaking off the sleep, then wandered out into the living room to absolute silence. I saw Carina lounging by the pool, and when I opened the sliding door to go to her, I heard Rusty’s machines running. I had no idea where Jacques was, but his SUV was gone when I’d pulled my truck into the shed.
“Hey, darlin’. Can I get you a drink?” I asked.
Carina’s face lit up, and she put down the e-reader, uncurled herself from the lounger, and sashayed over to me. She wrapped her arms around my waist, and I hugged her closer, inhaling the floral scent that always clung to her. I met her halfway when she reached up on tip toes and kissed me sweetly.
“No, thank you. Are you hungry?”
My stomach growled aggressively, and I snorted out a laugh. “Mmm, apparently I could eat.”
She led me into the kitchen where she pulled out bread to toast and the ingredients for an omelet stuffed full of peppers, mushrooms, and bacon. I squeezed the juice—the only thing she’d let me help with—then watched her work from the other side of the counter.
“Still tired?” Carina asked when I yawned again. “You shouldn’t have driven home when you were so tired. We could have come and picked you up.”
“I’m okay, darlin’. Still waking up, and y’all don’t need to worry. I was fine.”
She pursed her lips and pointed to the television that was hanging dark on the wall. “I watched the news. Were you at the campgrounds?”
“I was.” I nodded and she swallowed hard. “We got it under control pretty quickly.”
“It looked bad.”
“Eh, it wasn’t anything we haven’t dealt with before. Campers didn’t douse their campfires properly, and embers jumped into the leaf litter on the ground. We put it out after a few hours.”
“Still, it’s dangerous.”
“It is, but I’m trained, and we have specialist equipment to keep us safe.” I stood up and made my way around the countertop to take her into my arms. “I’m sorry you were scared.”
“How do Jacques and Linc deal with it? I’ve been pacing and freaking out during every one of your shifts. I keep the news on, waiting to hear the worst.”
“Oh, darlin’.” I tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and pressed a kiss to her forehead. I breathed her in and held her tighter when she burrowed into me. “They don’t watch the news.”
“That’s it?” She pulled back and shook her head, her brows furrowed and her umber eyes troubled.
“They also trust me to come home to them. I won’t let you down, Carina. I’ll come home after every shift.”
“You can’t guarantee that.”
“I can’t guarantee I’ll be safe crossing the street either. But I take care of myself and my team, and we all come home.”
She nodded, and I checked the pan. The omelet needed flipping. I shuffled us closer to the stove and flipped the egg mix while Carina was still wrapped around me.
The front door opened just as she was plating it up for me. Jacques and Hux walked through the door a moment later. They were laughing at something, but Jacques’s smile grew and his face lit up when he saw me.
“You’re back,” he greeted. He squeezed my shoulder, his touch lingering a moment longer than a casual touch warranted, before he went to Carina to kiss her hello.
“You know, you’re in your own home,” Hux said, his gaze ping-ponging between us from where he was leaning against the counter near me.
“And?” I asked, confusion coloring my voice.
“You don’t have to hide your relationship from me.”
I opened my mouth then snapped it shut again. How did he know? We were careful. We’d had years of practice keeping our relationship under wraps.
“Jacques, you came out to me when I needed someone on my side. You were there.” Hux shrugged, but I could see how much it meant to him to have Jacques’s friendship. He looked down, playing with an imaginary piece of lint on his shorts.
“I’ll always be there for you,” Jacques said carefully.
“Exactly. You’re helping me fill in my time to get me out of my head and fixing my reputation at the same time.”
When he looked up at Jacques, then at me, I could see the oath shining in his gaze.
“You know I won’t break a promise I’ve made, but I didn’t think I actually needed to spell out that I wouldn’t say anything. But this is me, promising to never share that you’re in a relationship.” He gestured between us. “Unless I’m reading things completely wrong, and the four of you aren’t fucking. In which case, ignore me.”
Jacques huffed out a laugh and clapped his hand on Hux’s shoulder before drawing him into a back-slapping hug. “I appreciate that.”
He looked to me, and I nodded, holding my breath. Was he actually going to come out to a teammate?
“Yeah, we’re together. Rusty and Carina are only friends, but the rest of us are together.”
The breath rushed out of my lungs, and it took everything in me to stop myself from kissing him. But I didn’t need to. I could kiss him. I prowled over to him, cupped his nape, and drew him in for a kiss. Jacques deepened it immediately, parting his lips and snaking his tongue out to touch and tease mine.
“Ew. Mom, Dad’s kissing my other daddy,” Hux teased.
I couldn’t help the bark of laughter that bubbled up from my chest, and it only got louder as Jacques pulled back and banged his head on my shoulder.
“Please make him stop talking,” he begged.
I hugged him tight to me and chuckled more. “He called me daddy,” I teased Jacques, wiggling my brows when he pulled back to look at me, horrified.
“Don’t you start!”
“Hey,” Rusty said as he walked inside from the back door. He took in the room, his gaze bouncing from Jacques and me to Carina’s soft smile and then Hux, who was wearing a shameless grin. He pressed his lips into a tight smile and went for the refrigerator, taking out one of the glass bottles we kept sweet tea in. He poured himself a glass without another word, his shoulders rigid and his jaw clenched.
Jacques went to him and touched his cheek. Rusty turned to him, his eyes filled with a pain that stole my breath. Jacques didn’t hesitate, taking the glass out of his hand before cupping his cheeks and drawing their lips together. He kissed him slowly, deeply, banishing the hurt in Rusty’s pale-green eyes. After a moment’s hesitation, Rusty wound his arms around Jacques’s back, and he held onto Jacques’s shirt in a white-knuckled grip.
“Hi,” Jacques whispered when they finally pulled apart, still with only a hair’s breadth of distance between their faces.
“Hi,” Rusty replied, his voice barely more than a rough rasp.
Carina quietly wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. She’d been watching them, pride shining in her eyes and a small smile tilting her lips up. She and Rusty may not be together, but they both adored each other in their own way.
“So Hux knows about us,” I supplied, stating the obvious and trying to take down the UST a notch.
Rusty laughed and pressed his lips to Jacques’s again, lingering a moment longer like he couldn’t get enough. “I can see that,” he said with a grin that lit up the room. “How was the pound?”
“So many gorgeous pups,” Jacques said. “I wanted to bring all of them home, but this one talked me out of it.” He gestured to Hux, who rolled his eyes.
“You’ve picked out at least five dogs every time we’ve been there. You’ll have a menagerie if someone doesn’t stop you.”
“Anyway,” I interjected—Jacques really would bring home every animal in the shelter if given the chance. “I was thinking we should have a few drinks and go dancing tonight.”
“You’ve got a shift tomorrow, don’t you?”
I nodded and grinned. “Whiskey Riders are playing at the roadhouse.”
I’d had a visitor from the band and a personal invite to their Sunday session. Jacques rolled his eyes and huffed. “Of course they are, and let me guess, good ol’ Billy came down to the firehouse to personally invite y’all line dancing.”
“Why, he did. How did you guess?” My smile had turned wicked, and I didn’t even feel guilty about pushing his buttons. Billy was a friend, nothing more. Jacques thought he was trying to hook up with me, but Billy wasn’t my type. He reminded me too much of my older brother.
“Where’s the roadhouse, and who is Billy?” Carina asked, picking up on the tension between us.
“Billy has been trying to get into Travis’s pants for years.” Jacques raised a brow at me, waiting for me to object.
I didn’t bother. I kind of liked Jacques and especially Rusty jealous. They liked to stake their claim clearly and unequivocally whenever we got home after watching the band play.
“And the roadhouse is our local bar,” Jacques continued. “It’s only ten minutes away.”
“I’ve never line danced before,” Cara mused.
“We have to try it, then,” I decided.
“Alec, would you like to join us?” she asked.
He looked between us and laughed. “Sure, if it means I can see Gauthier getting all jealous without being able to do a damn thing about it.”
“Shut up,” Jacques muttered, and I barked out a laugh.
I circled the island counter and smacked a kiss to his lips. “Don’t worry, baby, I’ll be shaking my ass just for you.”
“I’ll go get changed,” Cara said.
Rusty and I followed her down the corridor, past her room, and into ours. Ten minutes later, we were all ready. Cara wore a white dress with pink flowers on it. It was cute and frilly and sat just below her knees. She’d paired it with a pair of white sneakers.
“Does this look okay?” she asked. “It must have shrunk when I washed it—it’s a little tight.”
“The dress and you are gorgeous,” Jacques said, and he ran his hands down her arms and linked their fingers together. “I can’t wait to be able to dance with you.”
“You need to dance with Trav and Linc too,” she ordered.
I smiled at her. She was always looking out for us. It might not be possible for us to dance together in public, but we would absolutely do it in private.
***
The bar was busier than I’d expected, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Whiskey Riders were on the cusp of making it big. They’d been announced as the backup band for the stateside tour of one of the biggest country acts around, and their original song had gone TikTok viral.
We scored a high-top table with a few chairs to the side of the bar that provided us with a little bit of privacy.
“What are you drinking, Carina?” I asked. “Should I order lemon drops again?”
She shook her head, and pressed her lips together. “No. I’ll just get a soda or a juice. The thought of drinking again makes me queasy.”
I got beers for the rest of us and a cranberry and soda for Carina and came back to the table to see the four of them laughing. I fucking loved seeing everyone happy.
Carina shook her head and held her hands up. “No, it’s been years.”
“What’s been years?” I asked as I handed out the drinks.
“Carina plays the violin,” Rusty explained. “I suggested she get up there and play with Whiskey Riders. You’d be able to talk good ol’ Billy into it.”
“I would.” I grinned. “Might just do that.”
“No, no,” Carina protested again.
“But first, darlin’, let’s dance.” I grinned and held out my hand.
“When you said line dancing, I didn’t realize you meant actual line dancing. I’ll make an idiot of myself up there.”
“But you’ll have fun. Come on, Jacques, we need to teach your wife how to line dance.”
We made our way over to the edge of the dance floor just as the song finished and Whiskey Riders launched straight into “Cupid Shuffle.”
“This one’s easy,” I said to Carina, moving to her other side so she was bracketed between Jacques and me.
We followed the steps, and by the third turn, Carina’s look of concentration— furrowed brow and teeth pressed into her bottom lip—were replaced with a smile and an extra swish of her hips with each step. Jacques had given up trying to keep his hands off her, so he was standing behind her with his arms around her waist while following her steps.
She threw her head back and cheered and clapped for Whiskey Riders when the song finished. I watched in awe when she dashed up front and tapped on Billy’s leg before they started the next song. He bent down and spoke with her for a moment. She gestured with a thumb over her shoulder, and he up-nodded us. Then he turned to the band.
Carina sauntered over to us with a cheeky smile and had opened her mouth to speak when Billy announced, “A’right, here’s one for the li’l lady and her groom.”
“Let me show you how it’s done.” She took Jacques’s hand and grinned at me.
The first strains of a guitar sounded, and my brow furrowed. Was it “Nutbush City Limits”?
“God, I haven’t done this in years,” Jacques replied and laughed.
They dragged me into the center of the dance floor, and we were soon joined by Rusty and Hux.
Carina held her hands above her head and started moving first her right leg, then her left. She went back to moving her right leg, this time behind her, and then did some fancy jump after crisscrossing her legs and ended up facing side-on to the stage. Jacques was following easily, but the rest of our group was pretty hopeless. When I looked around the dance floor, some people were dancing while others were watching our group and recording Carina and Jacques. She’d turned and was doing the steps backward so she and Jacques were in sync. Their hands were joined, and they never tore their gazes from each other, their smiles warming my chest.
I shifted closer, trying to block the view of the people recording, and Hux and Rusty did the same. It didn’t matter, though. There were too few of us and too many people who were filming for us to stop anyone. Neither Carina nor Jacques seemed to mind, though. They were laughing, and when the music finished, Jacques wrapped his arm around her waist and dipped her low, earning a squeal of delight from Carina. Clapping and cheers broke out around us, and Carina flushed a pretty pink and fanned herself.
I knew exactly how far that flush travelled down her delectable body, and I wanted to see it right now. Then I wanted to lick the bead of sweat on her throat, follow it down to those breasts I couldn’t get enough of, and bury my face between them.
Excusing myself, I headed to the bar, in need of another drink.
“I’m heading out, bud,” Hux said, gripping my shoulder and squeezing it gently. “Have a good night and be safe tomorrow, okay?”
“Thanks, man.” I shook his hand and downed half the beer the bartender handed over.
The others were still dancing, so I made my way back over to the table and leaned my elbows on it. A few minutes later, as I drained the rest of the bottle, Billy announced that Whiskey Riders were taking a break, and a slow song started playing. There was no way I was leaving Rusty out there by himself, and this was far too good an opportunity to dance with my guy to turn down. I headed back out, grasped Rusty’s hand, and pulled him into position. There was no part of us touching except our hands, but I got to slow dance with him.
Butterflies took flight, and my belly flip-flopped. I grinned at Rusty, desperate to kiss him, but I resisted. Barely. His responding smile lit up the room, and my breath caught. This, right here, would have been impossible a few months ago. We would have had a few drinks, I would have danced for a bit with or without a girl, and then we would have headed home. There would have been laughs and we would have had fun, but Carina was something else. She was like the glue that filled our gaps. She brought us closer together and bonded us more tightly. I fucking loved it.
I loved her.
Billy was making his way to the stage when I flagged him down, then edged us to the side of the dance floor so I could talk to him.
“Hey, Billy,” I greeted. We shook hands, and he did the same with Rusty.
“So Jacques got married?” He eyed them, still wrapped around each other on the dance floor, and quirked a brow. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“She’s great.” I couldn’t help my grin, and when I glanced at Rusty, he was doing the same. “She also plays violin, but it’s been a while. Can I persuade you to call her up to play a song?”
He looked at the other guys and girl—their drummer—and their fiddle player shrugged.
“How well does she play?”
“She was invited to play for a youth orchestra but had to give it up. Don’t think she’s played anything publicly since she was a teenager, but from what I can gather, she’s good.”
Billy ran his gaze down my body and licked his lips. Holy shit, Jacques was right. He was coming on to me.
I swallowed and forced a laugh. “What d’y’all say?”
“Sure, why the hell not,” Billy responded, stepping closer.
“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not on the market, Billy.”
“Hmm,” he responded, not giving me any indication of whether he would back off, but he did shift, increasing the space between us.
Barely a second later, Carina slid her arm around my waist and gushed, “That was so much fun. Thank you for playing “Nutbush . ””
“Our pleasure. So I hear you’re a violinist?”
“Oh, I was.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I haven’t played in forever.”
“It’s like riding a bike,” the fiddle player said and held out his hand. “I’m Clarke. Pleased to meet you.” They shook, and he added, “Want to play a song with us? Your pick—we’ll see if we know any of the ones you know.”
“Oh, I couldn’t. Not in front of a crowd.”
“Sure you can.” Billy grinned, then turned to Jacques and smirked at him. “Congratulations are in order.”
“Thanks,” Jacques said with a forced smile, his tone professionally polite to anyone who didn’t know him as well as we did.
Carina brought their clasped hands to her lips and kissed Jacques’s knuckles.
“I used to play “Country Roads” for Cara. The John Denver song. Do you know that?” she asked, clearly reading the tension between Jacques and Billy.
Billy chuckled. “Of course, li’l lady. It’s a favorite of ours.”
“Then sure, I’ll give it a go. If I murder it, it’ll be all over social media so I never forget it.”
We watched her follow the band onto the stage, and she picked up the fiddler’s instrument, getting familiar with it. When she smiled and nodded at something he said, I sucked in a breath and waited.
The others were already in place, and their guitarist started playing, followed by Lana, Billy’s sister, on the drums. Carina closed her eyes and played, the notes of the violin quieting the whole of the bar before it broke out in cheers and whistles. When Billy started singing, the entire crowd joined in.
I did too.
She was crying by the end, a smile as big as Texas on her face. Jacques, Rusty, and I screamed the loudest as she handed over the violin, accepted a quick hug from Billy, and grasped Jacques’s hand as she hopped off the stage.
“Let’s all hear it for Carina Gauthier,” he said, and we cheered louder.
Jacques wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hard. Rusty leaned in close and gripped my hip.
“Let’s head home,” he said, his voice rough.
I knew exactly what he had in mind. I groaned. “Bring the truck around,” I ordered and handed him my keys.
Ten minutes later and we were pulling into our meandering drive. I expected Rusty to stop at the homestead, but he kept going, pulling into the grassy field that Zeus loved to run around in. Jacques hopped out from the back seat, Carina following him closely.
“Get the lube, Travis,” Rusty reminded me. “We’re going to show you exactly who you belong to.”
I shivered. I didn’t need any persuading.
He tugged the blanket out and spread it out on the grass. The sun had set long ago, the stars and full moon now bright in the sky.
I wrapped my arm around Carina’s waist and speared my fingers into her luscious hair. I nudged my nose against hers, then kissed her, my tongue teasing hers as she moaned against my lips. Listening to her play was like a jolt of adrenaline in my veins. My dick was hard, and my heart was pounding. “Get naked, darlin’,” I instructed.
She gasped and flicked her gaze to Rusty. “Remember our first time at the stream when you told me how freeing it was to be outside. Naked. Fucking.” She moaned again and pressed close to me.
“Jacques and Rusty are gonna remind me who I belong to. I want to be buried in you when they do.”
“God, yes,” she moaned.