Chapter 3 #3
“Well, first I need someone to count up the calendar sales for the PTA and submit the order.” Rachel started a countdown on her fingertips.
“Then I have a new client who needs updates done for his website, but we’re still trying to track down the login information from his former assistant.
I have four ad accounts to check. Two bookkeeping files to update.
And about two dozen phone calls to respond to.
” She kept her voice neutral, as though reciting a grocery list. “Somewhere during that I’ll be figuring out how to explain the lake vacation situation to my boys without causing too many questions about why their dad won’t spend time with them.
Oh, and I’ll need to get everything set up, managed, and torn down for the party.
” She lifted her chin in that take-no-shit way of hers, but her lower lip trembled a touch and fuck it, he knew, she was barely holding it all together.
She needed a massage or something.
Dane had clearly been thinking more like: take the boys to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. That’s what Travis would’ve offered up, anyway.
“Rach.” Travis did a slow walk toward her. He shoved his hands into his pockets so he wouldn’t reach out and do something ridiculous like try to comfort her. “Has Gavin helped with any of the stuff for the boys? The PTA, the party?”
She got the lip wobble under control as she said, “He offered to hire a party planner.”
Dane whistled a low sound that somehow came out like the word “fuck.”
Which was apt. Even Travis knew what a blow that offer must’ve been to Rachel. She wanted help, yes, but she didn’t want it done for her.
Gavin helping was one thing. Gavin hiring someone else to help? That was a big ol’ middle finger to the way Rachel liked things done.
“Dane and I can help with the party. Mom and Dad, too. We mean it, whatever you need,” Travis said as Dane looked like he was still percolating on the summer solutions.
“Same thing for the summer. I get it, you want the boys to be with their parents. You come along with us. Whatever you need. We’ve got your back. ”
Rachel shook her head. He could practically see the mental gymnastics she was doing in her mind to sort out the summer without Gavin and the family sabbatical, which he guessed was a break she looked forward to.
Even if she wouldn’t admit it. “This summer is out. I’ll keep the boys here, find them a day camp or something while I’m working.
” Well, that was going to make Meemaw very unhappy.
First, she lost Gavin at her summer summit. Now she was losing her only grandchildren, too.
“Can you work from the lake house?” Dane asked. “Built-in childcare with a twenty-four seven Meemaw, Pawpaw, and the uncles. There’s a big office in the library you can have all to yourself when you need to work.”
Where Travis was clipped and brusque and to the point, Dane was smooth and calm and logical.
His tone got Rachel to pause.
“Free WiFi,” Travis added.
Dane glared at him as though this was precisely why he didn’t invite Travis on sales calls.
Before Rachel could answer, the doorbell chimed. Kellan and Brady barreled down the stairs like the house was on fire, and if they got outside, they could meet a real-life firefighter.
Color Travis impressed that even with their enthusiasm and the abundance of elbows thrown to the other, neither took a header into the railing.
“Mom!” Kellan bounced toward the door, screeching to a stop as he ran smack dab into her chest. “What did he send?”
Rachel placed her hands on Kellan’s shoulders as though to make him stop bouncing. It didn’t work, but she tried. “I don’t know. The door is still closed.”
He skirted to the left and around her, not even pausing for her to answer as he threw open the door. Brady cautiously followed.
Travis held the door as Rachel and Dane trailed after the boys. Rachel paused. Dane kept walking.
Travis stilled behind Rachel as the driver of the van removed two animal crates with a puppy in each one.
A golden retriever puppy in each one. Purebred if Travis had to guess.
Travis glanced at Dane. Dane, who now got to figure out what the hell to do with two puppies at the very-specific puppy-free Twin Lakes residence.
The only animal allowed there was his mother’s fake cat.
“I didn’t know you guys were getting dogs,” Dane murmured.
“Neither did I.” Rachel looked over her shoulder at him, her skin the color of ash and her eyes huge. She was grinding her teeth so hard, he could practically hear her dental bill increasing by the moment.
Uh. Damn. This was not good.
“Rach?” Travis asked. “You okay?”
“No,” she said. And he totally believed her.
The identical twins removed the identical little beasts. Travis grabbed leashes from a pouch on top of the crates and helped snap the leashes to their collars.
“There are two of them,” Rachel said to no one in particular. “Of course each kid needs his own. Because, of course.”
“I’m going to name mine Pete,” Kellan announced, hefting the squirming puppy into his arms and heading into the house. The blue leash dragged on the concrete walkway behind him.
“What about you, Brady?” Dane asked, handing out puppies like they were cotton candy at the Cherry Creek farmers market.
“Re-Pete, I guess,” he said with a shrug, lugging the second pup through the front door.
Rachel gaped as the boys rolled with the puppies like they were practicing for a jiujitsu match on Rachel’s pristine carpet.
“You both should say goodbye to Gavin,” she said, so only Travis and Dane could hear.
“Why?” Dane asked.
“Because I’m going to murder him,” she replied, her expression frozen.
Well, fuck.
She pulled out her phone and pushed a bunch of buttons before holding it to her ear.
“You think she’s ordering a hit?” Dane asked out of the side of his mouth.
Travis was 85 percent sure she was not. He gave a subtle head shake. “Nah. Too messy. She’s more creative than that.”
“Gavin?” she asked, the tether on her temper barely there, given how her voice wobbled and her cheeks reddened.
Gavin must’ve said something in response, because she was intently listening.
Travis caught Dane’s gaze and they shared a brotherly moment of silence for the wrath their sibling had brought down on himself via puppies.
“Great. So glad it’s going well,” she said, totally normal. “Hey, I have a quick question.” She paused only a moment before shouting, “Have you lost your mind?”
The riot act she read Gavin was remarkably well prepared, given that she’d found out about the dogs only a few minutes before. That did not matter, because her points were both concise and effectively maneuvered into her tirade.
Travis couldn’t help it. He smiled. He leaned against the exterior of her house and watched the show.
Sure, pissed-off Rachel was kinda scary, but also oddly adorable.
Man, he ran his thumb over his bottom lip, he could just listen to Rachel yell at his brother for days and not get tired of it.