Chapter 13
RACHEL
Work was not going well. What with Rachel spending a large part of the evening trying to figure out what the heck had happened in the water with Travis.
She knew what an erection was, and that thing he’d been toting around in the frigid lake was definitely an erection.
After an abundance of thought, she’d come to the realization that there were two potential reasons for that-which-could-never-be-mentioned-again.
One, he wanted something that was off-limits. Evelyn had been perfectly clear about Rachel’s off-limits status.
Or two, he wanted to stick it to Gavin, using Rachel as his latest method in their ongoing sibling rivalry.
Either option was a nonstarter for her.
The tap on the door jostled her from the spreadsheet in which she was elbow deep, creating Cassie’s latest social media posts. She scowled at the screen of her computer and the empty spaces that still needed to be filled.
“Come in,” Rachel called.
A piece of hair, from the mess of a knot she’d tied it in, fell in front of her face. She blew it away as she dropped in a funny graphic about making nutritious choices. The image involved a side salad having a discussion with a box of French fries.
Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect on her, because she now really wanted fries.
She glanced up when the door opened and did a double take as nighttime Travis strolled right through. His appearance made the mountain air feel even thinner in her blood. She gulped and hoped he didn’t notice.
Black, totally respectable pajama pants and an unremarkable black T-shirt that seemed like the extra soft cotton kind. His hair a little messy, and not like he’d tried to make it look that way. He had the just-out-of-bed rumpled thing going on.
She bit at the insides of her lips because she didn’t trust what she might say to him. Probably something about the near-meeting of their lips in the lake and what she felt going on below his waistband, even though the water had been freaking cold.
He had both dogs tagging along—they were still awake, but she wouldn’t complain about it, since they were his problem that night. He also had a heap of bedding under his arm. She wasn’t going to ask about it, because she needed to finish this up.
Rachel was not sitting at the desk. She was sitting on the not-so-comfy-but-it-looked-nice leather sofa. The big mahogany desk made her feel like she was running an evil empire of toaster tart products instead of a tidy, virtual personal assistant company.
She took a second to really look at him and he seemed off—a little grumpier than usual. He was scowling like he also needed to put together a social media spreadsheet.
“Everything okay?” She reached up to pull her hair loose. It fell out of the mess she’d pinned it in.
She liked to tie it out of the way when she focused, but it looked totally ridiculous when she tucked it up into the weird bun that yanked her bangs out of her face and also kept her hair off her neck.
“Everything’s fine,” he said, but he still frowned. He didn’t seem to be scowling at her, mostly at the world in general.
The dogs pulled at their leashes, trying to get to her, but Travis held them firmly. He seemed like he wasn’t really sure why he was there. Yet here he was.
She had that feeling a lot in life, so she understood. “I’m just checking out for the night,” he said, clearing his throat. “Thought I’d see if you needed anything.”
Oh, well, that was sweet of him. Look at him being nice. It was probably his erection from earlier talking. Loss of blood flow to the brain did that to a guy.
She pressed her glasses up against her nose—she didn’t wear them often, but she’d already removed her contacts for the night—and tried not to blush, because he was just being nice, nothing more.
Yet, his simple attempt at being nice had her cheeks heating. Go figure.
“I’m good.” She adjusted her flannel pajamas—the comfy two-piece kind with a string of buttons running up the front that went all the way to her neck, and the matching pajama bottoms that were one of the least sexy clothing items she owned.
Not that she needed to worry about wearing sexy pajamas when she was on a family vacation. Or ever.
She’d given up on satin and anything with lace because Brady and Kellan had the Frank stomach, and after getting thrown up on one too many times, she’d realized that flannel was much easier to clean. Flannel popped right into the washing machine without having to do anything special to the fabric.
Sure, she loved the feel of satin, but it’s not like anyone was around to feel her in the satin, so she settled for the pragmatic flannel.
Flannel was nice, too. Flannel was comfortable, and warm, and very much Rachel.
“We missed you at game night,” Travis said.
“I have so much work.” She waved to the open laptop. “And I missed a bunch of emails after the flight and then the…uh…impromptu swim.”
It’d been way too long since she’d been swimming. Too long since the water had wrapped around her like that.
Until today, she hadn’t realized she’d missed that feeling of being enveloped.
Then again, there weren’t a lot of spare moments to think about extraneous things like that.
“Sorry about missing out with you guys,” she said with a smile, gesturing to the room. “I had to come run my empire.” He fidgeted with the dog leashes, not saying anything.
Still frowny. Still just…off.
She squinted at him, trying to see if she could guess what was going on. He was being weird. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Other than the fact your kids wiped me out at poker, I’m fine.” He shifted the bulk of the bedding he carried with him and set it down on the side table next to the sofa.
Wait. Poker? Her children were gambling?
That was not what she’d agreed to. When she’d left the living room, Bob said they were playing cards. She’d assumed—apparently, incorrectly—they’d be playing rummy or hearts.
“Wait. Rewind a second.” She made a roll-it-back motion with her hand. “You played poker at game night?”
He lifted a shoulder like it wasn’t a big deal. “It’s tradition.”
“With my kids?” She didn’t have any beef with teaching her kids to gamble, she just figured they should be of a certain legal age first.
“Brady’s better than the rest of us. The kid is seriously gifted at bluffing.” Travis had relaxed as they chatted, drifting toward the sofa.
Rachel, however, was not relaxing. She gripped the sides of her laptop because it was the only thing she had to hang on to.
“Dad’s teaching him to count cards, I’m pretty sure.” Travis laughed low.
The low laugh was not helpful.
“He taught Gavin, too,” Travis continued. “Dane and I never took to it. Don’t worry, he gave the whole safe-poker speech before he started.”
“Safe-poker speech?” She made a mental note never to miss game night again.
“How to do it without getting caught.”
“Huh.” She’d need to discuss that with Bob and with Gavin and, especially, with Brady. “Why didn’t you guys play poker when I came last time?”
“We did.” He dropped the leashes to let the dogs run free.
They immediately ran straight to her for a quick scratch on the head.
“Where was I when all of you were playing?” she asked, giving the dogs a good rubdown. “Last time.”
“I think you were in new-mom-of-twins land.”
“That must’ve been around the time I was delirious enough to tell Gavin I wanted twin puppies for our twin babies.” Rachel made kissy faces at the dogs, and they bounced around the edge of the sofa at the invitation to play.
Travis glanced at the dogs. “So this”—he gestured to the pups—“is your fault?”
That interpretation was one option, yes. Although, since she hadn’t made the cash transaction, she was taking only part of the responsibility. She gave what she hoped was a yeah-maybe tilt of her hand.
Travis stopped his movement toward her and pulled himself up to sit on the edge of the desk.
Her heart dropped a little. She’d sort-of hoped he’d come sit next to her.
That was ridiculously unacceptable, though, because there was no reason for him to sit next to her or for her to hope that he would.
He started lining up the pens on the desk so they were end-to-end.
She glanced at her computer screen, really needing to get back to it. But Travis was there, and he obviously needed to talk.
If she were being honest, she’d been feeling lonely just before he came in. The kind of lonely that didn’t go away. Just standard lonely that happened even when the boys were around, or she was with her girlfriends.
“You’re acting strange,” she said, making a note of where she was in the file so she could easily pick back up later. Then she balanced the laptop on the edge of her thigh, giving Travis her full attention. “Spill it. I’ve got to finish this, and I’m guessing you’ll need sleep at some point.”
“And you don’t need sleep?” he asked.
“The sooner I can tie up the loose ends, the sooner I can go to sleep myself.”
The air between them seemed to stretch, and she didn’t like it. Not one bit.
She waited, not saying anything while he got his thoughts together.
“Dad caught me just now, before I came in,” he said, not meeting her eyes. His throat was working as he swallowed hard. If she didn’t know better, she’d think that Travis was experiencing a keen set of conflicting emotions.
“Is he okay?” she asked, because Travis was being so odd that maybe there was something wrong with Bob. She didn’t want to even consider that.
“Yeah, he’s fine.”
“Travis?” she asked, as gently as she could, because worry was starting to seep in. She was getting concerned about what it was exactly that he wasn’t saying.
Travis finally held her gaze with his, and that loneliness that she’d had earlier? Poof. Disappeared.
And that made the center of her face go a little numb with realization.
“Dad just wants sleep. He talked to me about it for a bit.” Everyone who knew Bob understood the man was not a talker. Even with his kids.
Evelyn was the talker. Bob was the listener. Rachel learned that early on.