Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Daphne
Travis nuzzled my neck as we walked across the breezeway to the main part of the house where his family was gathering for a late brunch. We were supposed to be down there fifteen minutes ago, but we got a little sidetracked.
“Are you sure your sister won’t be mad at me? You know, the contest rules and everything.”
He slipped a hand around my waist. “First of all, it’s me she would be mad at, but she’s not. And as for you, she’s had your back from the beginning. Annoyingly so. Besides, I already told her I was picking you at the end.”
Heart stuttering in my chest, his words stopped me in my tracks. “You told her before you told me?”
“I had to. She’s been hassling me for not spending much time with the other contestants, and I told her it was because...” He studied my face like he was searching for what to say, and something dark passed behind his eyes. “...I was falling for you.”
The physical chemistry was definitely there, but to hear that he was feeling something deeper too, made my knees a little weak.
He ran a hand through his hair, still damp from the shower.
“I tried hard not to pursue you. Heaven’s Moon, I tried.
You were thrown into a contest in a world you only just learned about, and it was so unfair to you.
I kept telling myself to send you home, but I couldn’t go through with it.
Every. Damn. Time. You’re just so—” He sighed heavily and made a grumbly sound of frustration.
“I like every fucking thing about you, okay?”
I laughed. “And I like every fucking thing about you too. Plus, some of the non-fucking things.”
With a low groan that sounded suspiciously like a growl, he hoisted me up so that my legs bracketed his waist. “Only some of them?”
“Okay, most of them.” I cupped his jaw with both hands and pressed my lips to his. But before things got even more heated, little footsteps sounded on the breezeway, and Travis quickly set me down.
“Look what I have, Uncle!”
I turned to see Ginnea and gasped. She was holding George in her arms like a rag doll. If he scratched or bit her...
“Wow, honey,” I said as gently as I could, bending down to her level.
I didn’t want to make any sudden moves or say something to scare or startle George.
That could be disastrous. “Where did you find him?” I looked up at Travis.
He seemed to be as confused as I was. Our bedroom door had been locked all night.
Was there another way into his suite? Had we left a window open and George escaped?
The little girl laughed. “I didn’t. I woke up this morning and he was on my bed purring. He loves me.”
George was on her bed? I shot Travis another glance and he shrugged.
“Guess I left the door open when I went to the kitchen for that water.” Both of us had been parched. My little cup of tea didn’t quite cut it after all the… activity. “I’m not used to having a cat around. He must’ve run out then.”
“His name is George,” I told her. “I think maybe he wants to walk now. Do you think you can put him down?”
She plopped him on his feet and turned back toward the main house. “Come on, George. Let’s go play in my room.”
And wouldn’t you know it? George padded dutifully after her, tail stuck in the air, without a backwards glance at me.
Travis’s family was sitting around a huge table in the sun-drenched kitchen when we walked in, silverware and glasses clinking, and he introduced me to each of them.
There was Matthew, his sweet brother-in-law, who asked if I’d like a vanilla latte with a sprinkle of nutmeg, to which I replied that I’d love one.
Travis had obviously remembered my preferred coffee drink and had told him at some point.
There were his two other nieces—Anna was the oldest at seven years and then Helena who was five, his twin brothers Rhylan and Reece, who were in college here on the island, and of course, Jada.
She gave me a broad smile, held out a chair for me, and pushed a plate of pancakes in my direction. Guess Travis was right—she wasn’t upset about us.
“Travis told us about the break-in,” she said. “That’s terrible!”
Matthew leaned over and chimed in. “That must’ve been so scary for you.”
My hand paused, pancake speared on my fork. Travis was looking at me from across the table, concern knitting his forehead. You okay, he mouthed. I gave him a quick nod.
“Thankfully, your brother was with me,” I told her, realizing that my hand was shaking. “I’m not sure what I’d have done if he wasn’t.”
Jada reached over and gave my back a little pat. “I’m so glad he brought you here, Daphne.”
Emotion welled up inside me at her genuine concern. I didn’t trust myself not to cry, so I just nodded again and swallowed at the brick in my throat.
“If Rhy and I find out who did it, we’ll take him out behind the woodpile and—”
“Reece, please,” Jada said, giving him a stern look and then glancing at the girls.
After everyone went back to eating and talking, she turned to me again. “So, how did you sleep last night? And how was that mattress? It only arrived a few days ago. Poor Travis has been sleeping in the apartment out in the garage. Not exactly appropriate quarters for the pack’s new Alpha.”
I bit my lip. “Um good. It’s really... comfortable.”
As Jada reached for the syrup, I saw a knowing spark of amusement in her eyes.
I ate my blueberry pancakes slathered in whipped butter and maple syrup, while Travis sat opposite me and ate his.
He was having a somewhat passionate discussion with one of his little brothers about some sports team I’d never heard of, but every so often, he’d glance over to check on me and I’d see a flash of that dimple again.
“I hope this,” I said to Jada and twirling my finger to indicate Travis and me, “doesn’t mess up the contest.”
“Not at all.” She consulted a small notepad on the table next to her plate. “We only have two days of filming left, anyway. The group dinner and then the final charm ceremony. Although it’s probably best if you don’t share this,” she mimicked my twirling finger gesture, “with any of them.”
I thought about Mia and the others. “Definitely not.” I was glad I wouldn’t have to lie to Sarah. She was on a weeklong guided rockhounding trip, courtesy of Date-A-Wolf, and was currently on the other side of the island.
After we finished eating, Travis and I cleared the table while Jada and Matthew loaded the dishwasher. We had just finished tidying up when the front door opened at the other end of the house. We could hear someone rustling around in the entryway, probably taking off their shoes.
Travis looked at Jada. “You expecting anyone?”
She shook her head. “It can’t be Mom. She’s still on the East Coast. And the kids are outside on the sport court.”
He called out, “Hey, Rubes, is that you?”
“Trav-ey?” A moment later, a woman about my age came bounding into the room. She threw herself into his arms and he spun her around. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
“Yeah, well, there’s this crazy dating contest our older sister cooked up,” he told her, finally setting her back on her feet.
“Of course, I know about that, silly.” She pulled off her beanie and shook out her long, auburn hair.
So this was his little sister, Ruby. Not his fiancé like I once thought. I bit back a smile at the wrong conclusions I’d jumped to in the emergency room.
“I just wasn’t expecting you to be here on the ranch and not—” She spotted me and stopped mid-sentence. “Oh my gods, are you Daphne?”
I stood there, feet rooted to the floor. How did Travis’s little sister know about me too? Had Jada told her? Had Travis? “Depends on what you know and who said it.”
She grinned. “All I know is that Jada messed up and accidentally invited a human that Travis then fell for.”
As she came over and hugged me, I thought about how astonishing it was that yet another member of his family knew how he felt about me.
Travis shrugged. “That’s pretty much it.”
I needed to set the record straight for Jada’s sake. While Ruby made herself a latte, I told her about my former addiction to online quizzes and how I’d used my secretly supernatural friend’s wi-fi.
She took a sip of her oat milk latte. “Jada is Miss Perfect all the time, so it’s fun to point out when she’s not. Imagine if she were your big sister and you had to live up to that in school.” She set down her mug and put her hands to her mouth like a bullhorn. “It was torturous.”
“Don’t listen to her, Daphne,” Jada said from the table. Helena was on her lap and she was braiding her hair. “She’s the dramatic one in the family.”
And as I thought about Travis’s beautiful, boisterous family, who seemed to know everything about each other, I couldn’t help remembering how Gavin hadn’t told any of his relatives that we were even engaged until a few weeks before the wedding. It was a surprise to all of them.
I put my hand to my chest, expecting to feel that familiar pang of not being enough for someone else to love me, but surprisingly it wasn’t there.
When Ruby found out that no one had shown me around the place yet, she took it upon herself to be my tour guide while the boys planned to shoot hoops.
The Big House was an impressive old lodge with lots of wood and high beamed ceilings.
Worn leather chairs and sofas adorned many of the rooms as did several deer heads and mounted antlers.
I wasn’t a fan of dead animals, but it worked with the decor.
They were a family of werewolves so I guess that meant they killed things.
Ruby pointed to a wall of old photos. “That’s a picture of the old ferry docks before the boardwalk was built. And that one’s when the Governor came and stayed at the ranch.”
“The Governor of Washington is a supernatural creature?”
“Not the current one,” she replied. “No, this was several governors ago. I can’t remember his magical ability, but several of his daughters were very talented spellcasters.” She pointed to another photo. “And that’s the old ski resort.”
“On the backside of Mystic Mountain?”
Ruby’s eyes lit up. “You’re a skier? You’ve been there?”
I laughed. “No, no. I just read about it in one of the guidebooks. I heard that it’s haunted.”
She gripped my arm enthusiastically. “I can teach you, if you want.”
Travis’s voice boomed from the other room. “You’re not teaching Daphne how to ski, Ruby!”
Ruby frowned. “Why not? I’m an excellent skier.”
“Because the last person you tried to teach got hauled off the mountain by the ski patrol.”
She chuffed and rolled her eyes. “How was I to know he was going to break his leg?”
We headed down a long hallway, and she paused at the doorway to a cluttered office piled high with packing boxes. “I’m glad to see my sister is clearing this out.”
“Your father’s?”
“Yep,” she said tightly. “I should probably offer to help, but...” She walked in and as she looked around, her shoulders visibly relaxed. “I can’t tell you how different this place feels without him. I’m not sure what Travis has told you about our dad.”
“He’s told me a little.”
Ruby grabbed a stack of magazines, including Paranormal Paradise, pushed aside a few boxes on the leather sofa and motioned for me to sit with her.
“He wasn’t an easy man to be around, and that’s being generous.
But he looooved the fact that his eldest son was a famous actor and collected every article he could find about him.
I’m sure he showed them to all of his barely legal mistresses.
He’d have his hunting buddies over and casually have one of these magazines open.
It was comical, really. If you weren’t one of his other children. ”
It couldn’t have been easy for Travis, either, to have his father so obsessed with his outward fame yet care so little about the person he was inside.
As I paged through a few of the magazines, I couldn’t help but notice that Travis had been photographed in many glamorous places—movie premieres, private jets—and was often accompanied by very attractive supernatural women.
While I knew theoretically that comparison was the thief of joy, a tiny part of me wondered what he saw in a human girl from the Midwest who thrifted most of her clothes and whose idea of a good time was going to a bookstore that served cocktails.
“So, you live on the mainland?” I asked Ruby.
She nodded. “In West Seattle, near the water. It’s quirky, like Darkaway, but without the magic or emotional baggage.”
Seemed as though their father had done a number on her as well.
“But I’m not there much,” she continued. “I’m an investigative journalist and travel around a lot.”
“Sounds exciting.” I pointed to the stacks of magazines. “Did your father save any of your articles too? I’d love to read your work.”
She scoffed. “Are you kidding? He cared only about my brother’s glamorous life.” I was glad she didn’t seem to harbor any ill feelings toward Travis and put the blame solely on their father where it belonged.
We talked about some of the favorite places she’d traveled to and about a few of the scandals she’d uncovered.
We thought it was funny that both of our mothers were having solo adventures later in life—although mine was with her girlfriends and hers was with a ‘gentleman friend.’ When I told her about being a lab tech and what had happened with Pharma-Douche, she got just as pissed as Travis and wanted to rip the guy’s liver out. God, I loved this family.
“How about you?” I asked. “Anyone special in your life?”
Ruby shrugged. “No, not really. I’ve been seeing this one guy for a while, but I’m kind of getting bored with him.”
“Why don’t you break up then?”
She gave a little laugh. “Because he knows where the clit is.”
I snorted. Her brother did too.