Chapter 13 #2
“He told me not to spend time with you,” Travis said, matter-of-factly.
Well, crap. She did not expect that.
Rachel’s eyebrows rose. She did not appreciate her ex-in-laws inserting themselves into a conversation about who she spent time with. That was up to her, and only her. Well, and whoever she elected to spend that time with, too.
In any case, Bob and Evelyn didn’t get a say. “Seriously?” she asked.
“Yep.” Travis nodded, and he wasn’t doing the distant thing anymore. Actually, he was checking her out. The full body scan, the heat of the gaze, the small part to his lips.
He wasn’t being obnoxious or anything. More like he was just observing and appreciating. Her stomach flip-flopped, this time with tingles along the tips of her ears.
She glanced down to ensure she hadn’t dropped chocolate on her shirt or something, because wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
Also, very on-brand for her.
“Your dad told you he’d prefer if you don’t spend time with me? Then you came by here to see me when I’m by myself?” she asked, a little confused by the conversation but choosing to go along with it, since the lonely ache had dissipated.
“Yep,” he said again.
“Sounds like everyone wants us to stay apart. First your mom, now your dad…”
“Pretty soon they’ll have Dane in on the rotation.
” Travis slid off the desk and moved to stare into the black darkness at the window.
The longing look in his gaze as he stared outside nearly made Rachel jealous.
And that was ridiculous, because it was the forest, not a person, but mostly she had no reason to be jealous. None at all.
He turned from the window and speared her with hunger in his eyes.
This time she felt the tingles at the tips of her ears again, and also in another, more intimate location between her legs.
Rachel’s computer chimed, and she glanced at the screen. “Give me a second,” she said as she typed something out. “The Australians are being needy.” Quickly, she finished typing a message. Then she closed the computer and set it aside.
She was feeling all tingly with him, and he was being all weird, and Bob and Evelyn were being extra-invasive.
She and Travis needed to communicate the hell out of this situation. That way they could move on and she could get back to work.
“I think we should talk about what happened at the lake today,” she said, folding her legs up underneath herself. The sober way she’d said that made it seem like the near kiss hadn’t even phased her, when in fact, it had. But good for her, for being able to sound so laissez-faire.
“I…” he started to say.
“Because if we talk about it, it won’t be a big deal. I’ve always found it’s the things we don’t talk about that become issues.”
“That’s very deep,” Travis said, focusing on Pete, who was now sniffing around the edge of the rug.
Rachel trailed her gaze to the puppy. He usually came to nudge her first before he relieved himself.
“If you want to sit next to me, I won’t tell your parents.” She patted the sofa. “I also won’t deflower you on the sofa,” she continued, because for some reason it seemed like the right thing to say. But as soon as the words left her mouth, she wanted to stuff them right back in.
Thankfully, Travis grinned, and his voice went deep as he said, “I hate to break it to you, Rach, but I’ve been deflowered for a while.”
“Good, because that’s always such a thing,” she said, rolling her eyes dramatically.
They’d participated in nearly an entire conversation, and neither of them had gotten defensive. This was…new.
He chuckled, deep and low, and her insides warmed at the sound. She didn’t feel like she was wearing puke-flannel right then. The way he was looking at her with that glint in his eyes made the fabric—and her insides—feel like satin.
What were those reasons she shouldn’t get in deep with him again? There were two and she couldn’t quite remember what they were.
She shifted to make more room for him beside her, hoping that he would sit.
If he sat with her, maybe they’d even touch a little. No big thing, she could brush her hand against him and see if there were more sparks—like at the lake.
It’d be an experiment to determine if there were some kind of enduring chemistry going on. And, since it was just going to be a little observational touch, if the sizzle dissipated, then she could pass it off as platonic. She’d accidentally touched Dane lots of times, and it wasn’t awkward.
“I think we should try being friends,” Rachel announced, a little too loud. She softened her tone, saying, “We’ve never had the chance to be friends.”
“Rach…” He sat next to her on the sofa. Not close, though. There was a respectable distance between them she was pretty sure his mother would approve of. “I…I don’t really want to be your friend.”
Her warm, satin insides turned to cold polyester. Oh, well that stunk. “Then what do you want?”
The words came out strong, thank goodness, because inside, the empty ache of rejection sat heavy in her stomach.
He shook his head. “What I want, I shouldn’t have.” Didn’t they all?
There was hardly any room behind her, but she scooched back anyway, until her back hit the arm of the sofa. If she went any farther, she’d fall on her ass and then that really would be embarrassing.
“If I’m making you uncomfortable,” she said, “we can be sure we’re not in the same place while I’m here.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Rach—”
“Do you want to set up a schedule so we don’t have to see each other?
” she asked, hoping that the light tone was back, and he wouldn’t see how this was kind of wrecking her.
The lump in her throat was not a good one.
She could use a minute alone, to take some deep breaths and prevent her eyes from getting watery.
Which was silly, because she wasn’t really sure what upset her.
“No,” Travis said. “I don’t want to make a don’t-see-Rach schedule.”
“Then why did you come in here?” she asked. “Tonight, why’d you knock on the door?”
“Honestly?” he asked, turning to her. “I have no idea. I wanted to see you. I saw the light on. I came in.” He ran a hand over his hair. “I want to ignore my parents totally on this. I like you. Like how I’ve been feeling around you.”
She sucked in a breath. Oh. Okay. All righty then, that’s why he didn’t want to be friends. The way he looked at her with the same carnal expression from the lake made the air in the room shift dangerously into Molly-suggested territory.
“How do you feel around me?” Rachel asked.
“Like I’m not flying solo.” He had the deep, rumbly, genuine note back in his words.
His nonsense started to make a little sense. And that made no sense, because the heavy feeling in her belly still weighed her down.
“Do you feel that way often?” she asked, because, boy oh boy, did she feel that loneliness creeping into her marrow all the freaking time. Especially at night when the chaos of life finally took a chill pill and things were quiet.
He nodded. “I don’t think I realized how often until recently.”
She nodded because she could so totally relate.
“Can I make a suggestion?” Rachel asked, hoping she mirrored his sincerity. “Well, it’s Molly’s suggestion. I called her when we got back from the lake after the whole…” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, she was with April and I told them what happened between us.”
“What do you think happened between us?” he asked.
Okay, here was the thing. His knee brushed hers. Like not a big deal kind of brush. It could’ve been an accidental brush. Nevertheless, it was nice. Really, really nice. Connection nice.
Like jumping in a lake nice.
“I think that there was a moment when we almost kissed,” Rachel said, answering his question. “Is…is that what you think?”
A beat of silence descended. Her cheeks heated. What was she thinking? She should be less direct with him. Here she was opening herself up like it was no big deal.
It was a very big deal.
Perhaps communication wasn’t totally necessary in this instance.
“That’s exactly what I think.” He nodded and, honest to goodness, he reached out to toy with the end of a chunk of her hair.
Her hair didn’t have the ability to feel, so it made no sense that she felt all buzzy and heady at the touch.
“Molly had a suggestion?” Travis asked, and he seemed unsure about Molly’s potential suggestion, but he was still toying with Rachel’s hair and he’d moved closer and they were not-really-platonic close anymore.
Rachel nodded, swallowing hard. “She did.”
He chuckled, dropping her hair and leaning against the side of the sofa. “Does Molly’s suggestion involve a pineapple?”
“Ha. No.” She leaned in to him, since he’d touched her, and she figured turnabout was fair play.
Except, she wasn’t quite sure what to do once she was in his space.
His hair wasn’t long enough to toy with, he was sitting like he was super comfortable, so he didn’t need her to offer a pillow or anything.
Finally, she decided to set her hand on his knee. There, that wasn’t weird.
“Am I supposed to guess?” he asked, giving a long look at her hand.
“Guess what?” she asked, distracted by the knee touching.
“Am I supposed to guess what Molly suggested?” His hand covered hers, and for a split second she worried he’d try to push her hand away.
He didn’t. Instead he rolled her palm over and linked their hands together.
Oh, that was nice. They were touching and her body liked it very, very much. She liked it very, very much.
“Molly thinks we should kiss.” Rachel said the words in a rush. “Just do it. Get it over with. That way we’ll both get whatever this feeling is out of the way and we can decide what to do next.”
“And you think a kiss is going to do that?” He was now tracing her knuckles with his thumb.
She liked the tracing thing a lot. A whole lotta lot. “Molly suggested that we are at the jump-in-a-lake stage,
not necessarily the jump-into-bed stage. So we should just kiss and try that out before we make any other decisions.”