Chapter 24
RACHEL
Gavin was moving? Gavin was moving?
Whatever she thought could’ve happened after his appearance didn’t hold half a candle to this.
Boston was much, much worse than anything she could’ve cooked up with her imagination.
So much worse. The worst.
Moving across the country meant rehashing custody agreements, child support, explanations to the boys.
Rachel couldn’t seem to get her limbs to move.
“What?” Rachel finally asked. “What’s in Boston?”
“Dakota.”
“Dakota?” Now she was just repeating him, and that was ridiculous. “Dakota lives in Denver.”
“She’s opening a gallery in Boston.”
Why Boston? Couldn’t she get animal inspiration anywhere? And Rachel happened to know for certain that there were plenty of bathtubs to use for inspiration in Colorado. Animals, too. Loads of animals and bathtubs. Dakota didn’t need Boston when she could have the Rockies.
“But your family is in Denver. The boys are in Denver,” Rachel said, instead of the other stuff that she was thinking but was best left unsaid.
Thank goodness she hadn’t dropped her filter in the midst of this ridiculousness.
Yes, his family was the obvious reason he should stay, but it also seemed that in this case, the obvious was the most pertinent.
“How do you feel about bringing them to Boston?” Gavin asked, glancing up at her with Brady’s same piercing eyes full of hope.
“For a visit?” It would totally wreck her schedule, honestly. Even if Travis agreed to fly them out in the company plane.
Wait.
That look on Gavin’s face. Shit.
He didn’t mean a visit.
“You don’t mean for a visit,” she clarified, sitting on the leather sofa because her legs didn’t seem to be able to hold her up anymore.
Her face had turned numb.
Damn. Dammit. No, he didn’t mean for a visit.
She gripped the edges of the cushion. “I feel like you’ve lost your mind to even ask me that.”
“Okay.” He ran his hands through his hair. “This is okay. We’ll just have to adjust our schedule with them. They can fly out to Boston a few times a year.” His voice got pitchy.
She got splotchy when she got upset. His voice got pitchy.
“Your job is in Denver.” Rachel could not believe this was happening. He couldn’t be serious, asking her to uproot their kids to move across the country.
He paced. Again. “I can work virtually, like you do.”
Working virtually was not a walk to the lake. It was a full-time, all-the-time exhaustion fest that drained a person. It would be extra hard for him, given he was in charge of the actual staff in the Denver office. Of course, it was possible.
Still…
“Don’t do this to the boys,” Rachel whispered. Don’t take away their dad, too.
She could be a lot of things for her kids, but she was beginning to think she couldn’t be everything.
“Rach…” He studied his feet. “We’ll figure this out. We always figure this stuff out. This time, it’s no different.”
“Is this really what you want?” Rachel asked. “You want to upend our boys? Even if it’s just you who moves to Boston, their whole lives change.”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s not what I want.”
“Then why are you even considering it.”
“Because if I don’t go with Dakota”—he stood, paced to the window, then back again—“she’s going without me.”
That didn’t sound like an excellent start to their soon-to-be marriage. Not that Rachel was the expert on that kind of thing.
Rachel’s cell rang. She checked the caller ID. Cassie. Gah.
She clicked it off and shoved it in her pocket.
“Do you need to get that?” Gavin gave a pointed glance at the pocket where she’d shoved the phone.
She did need to get it, but for once she didn’t have to question her priorities. “This is more important.”
“Rach.” Gavin sat next to her on the sofa. “I have to figure this out because it’s my issue to sort. But we’ve always worked together when it comes to the kids. I don’t want that to end.”
“Do you love Dakota? Do you love her enough to see your kids only a few times a year?” she asked.
“Honestly?”
“I think we’re being honest here, aren’t we?”
“No.” He dropped his face to his palms. “I don’t love her like that. But it’s what I’ve got.”
The silence that descended wasn’t awkward, but it was heavy. She had the intense urge to reach out and hold his hand, but it wasn’t her place.
The deep inhale that came from the other side of the room clearly shocked both of them, given the way both of their heads twisted in that direction.
“I guess it’s a good thing we discover this now, before the exchange of vows,” Dakota said.
Rachel rolled her lips between her teeth and stared at Dakota standing at the entrance to the room.
Huh. Dakota’s neck did the same splotchy thing Rachel’s did when she got upset.
Gavin stood, wiped his palms on his slacks, and with a nod to Rachel, he moved to his next future-ex.
And Rachel? Rachel wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself.
So she went to search for Travis.
She didn’t really know why she needed to find him, but it felt important. Important to her.
…
TRAVIS
Dakota was pissed. Really, really pissed.
The family lake house had, apparently, totally wrecked her mellow. What with all the yelling going on behind the door of the study.
Dakota was yelling. Gavin was not. Gavin was, surprisingly, calm and doing his best to utilize reason. Travis never thought he’d live to see the day that Gavin was the reasonable one in a relationship. Turned out anything could happen at Twin Lakes.
“You think they’re okay?” Rachel asked. She wasn’t talking to anyone in particular. Because they were all standing outside the door.
Well, technically it was the living area right off the study. Even Mom and Dad were there. They kept giving each other looks that communicated a lot more than words. And Mama kept side-eying Rachel like this was just the opportunity she’d been waiting for to nudge Rachel back into Gavin’s arms.
Travis did not fucking think so.
Dakota was really on a roll, and this was the kind of thing the boys probably didn’t need to hear when it came to their dad.
“I don’t think they’re okay,” Dane said, shooing the boys toward the kitchen when they came out after a particularly loud Dakota f-bomb.
Travis didn’t think they were okay, either. This was definitely mid-relationship implosion magnitude.
“I think we should mind our own business,” he said, turning to follow Dane, the boys, and the dogs, who were always ready and willing to go into the kitchen because that’s where the good stuff happened for them.
“Maybe I should go in. See if I can defuse things.” Rachel had her arms crossed at her chest again. Travis felt the pull to go to her, help hold her up, so she didn’t feel like she had to hold the world up herself.
“I think the one thing that could make this relationship ending worse is the ex-wife stepping in,” Travis said. He tilted his head toward the kitchen.
“Then I should go in.” Evelyn started toward the door.
Right, so Rachel was probably not the worst thing to add to the recipe of their relationship destruction.
Bob shook his head. “No, sweets. Let them figure it out.”
Instead of going to the kitchen, Rachel headed toward her bedroom.
Travis gave her a few minutes, made an appearance in the kitchen, and then followed her.
He found her sitting on her bed, laptop in front of her, clicking away.
“You’re exhausted,” he said. She was gorgeous, of course, but the smudges under her eyes were becoming more and more prominent.
Also, she looked like she was ready to cry.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He stepped toward her, carefully, because she looked easily spooked at the moment. She shook her head, a little too quickly, a little too jerky.
“Is this about Gavin? Did he say somethin’ to you?” Because if he did, Travis would need to have more than a word.
“No, it’s Cassie. She called when Gavin and I were talking. I didn’t pick up. So she sent me an email detailing her concerns about my availability.” Rachel gulped, pasting on a smile. “I’m so tired of this, Trav. So freaking tired.”
Fucking hell. This Cassie was a piece of work. “It’s fine, though. I’ll fix it. Somehow.”
“You get to have a life, too.” He continued moving toward her, keeping his voice even. “And you get to spend time with the boys, with me, with whoever you want.”
She nodded.
“That’s why I wrote this.” She turned the laptop toward him.
“I wrote this after we got back from dancing the other night. But I wasn’t sure if I should send it,” she continued. “I figured if I doubled down on my dedication, I wouldn’t have to.”
Rachel had drafted an email laying out her office hours, the time required to respond to requests, and guidelines on the best ways to communicate.
It included scheduling links, bullet points, and an abundance of organization. Not that he’d expect anything less from her.
“I couldn’t bring myself to send it.” She turned the laptop back to herself and scrunched her forehead while she reread the message.
The message, for the record, was perfect. Firm, but not terse.
“Limits don’t mean you’re weak.” He traced his fingertip down her forehead, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
She hadn’t bothered taking out the knot she’d put it in when he came into the room.
“They actually mean you’re strong enough to recognize the importance of the other things in your life.
” He nodded to her screen with the blinking cursor.
“This lays out the terms of the relationship. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Isn’t this what we did that night? Doesn’t make us weak. ”
“I don’t want to tick her off.” Rachel squinted at the screen and then scowled at it.
“Isn’t she ticking you off?” Travis asked, because Cassie sure ticked him off on the regular.
Rachel nodded. “I should send this to everyone I work with.”
She inhaled. Exhaled. Glanced to him. Worried her top lip with her teeth.
Her finger hovered over the button.
He wanted to make this easier for her, but there was nothing he could do except stand there like a doofus with a stone in his stomach, waiting for her to make the call.
She pressed the button and closed her eyes.
“Do you want to take a minute and send it to everyone. Or do you want to do that later?”
“Now.” She clicked through her screen. “I should just do it all now.”
He sat on the bed beside her, running his palm up and down her back while she finished clicking send.
“There,” she said.
“There,” he echoed.
She stared at her screen, unmoving. He continued what he hoped were reassuring brushes over her back. “The world didn’t end.”
The edges of her lips twitched. “It didn’t.”
He pressed a light kiss against her temple. “How do you feel?”
“Scared.” She adjusted how she sat on the bed, so their mouths were close. “But I had to do it.”
He deleted the space between their lips, brushing his lightly against hers.
The commotion of Dakota and Gavin—mostly Dakota, since Gavin wasn’t fully participating in the scream fest—passing in front of the open bedroom door in the hallway had Travis pulling away.
Then the front door slammed.
“I think she left.” Rachel’s wide eyes met Travis’s. “Where are the boys?”
“Kitchen with Dane, last I checked. Mama was showing them how to crumble cinnamon sugar toaster tarts over ice cream for a special topping.”
“Great.” Rachel rubbed her forehead. “Gummy bears and cinnamon.”
The motion made his stomach cramp. He didn’t want this for Rachel. She deserved easy for a while.
“Maybe I can drag them out with me for a run?” Travis asked. “Give them a way to burn off all the sweets?”
Rachel’s email chimed, and Travis’s gut turned over on itself again. Rachel seemed to feel the same way, because her skin had gone chalky.
“It’s from James,” she said. “He said he understands the changes and is happy I’m working with him.”
“Who’s James?” Travis asked.
He’d heard all about the guys in Australia, and Cassie, but she’d never mentioned James.
“James makes these sandal things. They’re pretty neat. We started working together recently, and we have a pretty set schedule. He doesn’t veer from it very often.”
“Does he pay on time?”
“So far. He’s got it automated with his bank.”
“So he’s an A-list client.”
She laughed. “I guess so. That’s one way to think of it.”
“If you had to assign a designation to Cassie and the other guys, what would you give them?”
“The guys get a solid C. But we’re still getting used to understanding how we can work together.”
“Cassie?” he asked.
Rachel picked at the bedspread. “I don’t even think she’d get a letter.”
She followed this with a light chuckle, but it was pretty clear she meant it.
Her email dinged again.
“So far you’re one for three; let’s see who that is,” Travis said, squeezing her hand.
Rachel sucked in a breath. “Shit.”
He glanced at the screen, and it was an email from Cassie dissolving the contract with Rachel’s company.
Yes, that really made Travis’s gut turn over. Rachel slumped a little.
“No matter what, you’re going to be okay.”
She nodded, but didn’t really seem to believe it.
Another email chime, and this time he had to stand because the unknown was totally making his stomach cramp.
“The other guys want to have a meeting tomorrow to ‘discuss the nature of our future projects.’” She read aloud from their email.
“Rach.” Travis shoved his hands in his pockets. “You did the right thing here.”
“That leaves me just the one.” Her expression seemed to freeze.
“You don’t know that.” Travis started to step toward her—
“Rachel?” his mother called from down the hall.
Rachel looked at Travis, then at the open door. It wasn’t like they were doing anything inappropriate.
Rachel tilted her head toward the bathroom, her expression earnest.
Today was probably not the day to fight that battle. Travis started toward the bathroom to hang out until his mother skedaddled.
“Trav.” His name on Rachel’s lips stopped him cold.
He turned. His mother stood in the doorway. And the Puffle Yum Momster—as Rachel called her—looked like she was ready to eat her young.
That would be him.