Chapter 25
RACHEL
“Travis, what are you doing here?” Evelyn asked innocently, like she didn’t know.
Rachel knew her well enough to know that after the momentary shock dissolved, she knew. Yes, the look on her face, that glint in her eye—Evelyn knew. She knew exactly what she’d just walked in on.
“Are you two?” She waved a finger between them. Travis shook his head. “Don’t get involved in things that don’t involve you.”
Rachel had just witnessed the start of the implosion of her company, Gavin may or may not be moving to Boston, the boys were fighting like they hadn’t in forever, and the only thing in her life that felt remotely like a rock was Travis. And that was about to be snatched away.
“What on earth do you think this will lead to?” Evelyn’s expression steeled. “Doesn’t this just take the tart?”
Rachel refused to feel ashamed over her feelings for Travis. Or setting boundaries with her clients. Or any of the other things she did because, dammit, she got to be happy, too.
“Even my cat can’t believe you’re considering this,” Evelyn said on a huff.
Oh, well, goodness, if it was the cat struggling with Rachel and Travis’s relationship, then they should absolutely dissolve it immediately. The difference was that this relationship was real where the cat was…not.
Perhaps the pretend cat might need real executive assistance. Oh God. Is this what my life has come to? These kinds of thoughts?
The room seemed to get too hot. Her skin too itchy.
“Mama.” Travis strode toward Rachel. “Rachel’s having a pretty rough day. Lay off a little?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Evelyn said. If Rachel didn’t know the Puffle Yum Monster and her innate ability to get whatever she wanted, she probably would’ve bought that line from her. As it was? She did not.
“I’m just looking for my son and the mother of my grandchildren so they can come enjoy ice cream with the rest of us.” Evelyn waved a hand between them. “But I find this instead.”
“What exactly did you find, Mama?” Travis asked. “Because all I see is Rachel having a rough day, me talking to her, and you barging in and yapping about your cat.”
“You two are in a bedroom.” Evelyn glanced very pointedly toward the bed. “Together. Alone.”
“Believe it or not, Mama, I don’t just drop my pants every time I enter a bedroom with a beautiful woman,” Travis said.
They continued volleying back and forth, but the room was getting too small, and Rachel couldn’t catch her breath.
She evacuated to get her boys, so she could take them for a long, long walk and try to figure out what came next.
How, without Cassie, she was going to make ends meet next month. And the month after.
Catching her breath got harder as she hurried down the hall and into the kitchen. She found Kellan, Brady, Bob, Dane, and Gavin all indulging in Evelyn’s homemade cinnamon toaster tarts and ice cream.
“Meemaw says cinnamon is the next it flavor,” Brady said with his mouth half full. “I don’t know what that means, but it’s yummy.”
“Boys.” She kissed them both on the tops of their heads. “I was thinking we might take a walk. What do you say?”
“My tummy doesn’t feel good.” Kellan started to push his bowl away. The residual bit of melted sugared cream and mushy toaster tart sloshed in the bottom like a reminder of Rachel’s present life circumstances.
Evelyn knew.
Rachel had lost any semblance of control of the situation. What was going on was definitely not perfection.
“Well, sweetie, you know that when you eat gummy bears, and ice cream, and pastry, it’s probably not going to feel too good on your tummy.” Rachel rubbed his shoulders. “Let’s go walk it off.”
Kellan apparently changed his mind about the tummy ache because he pulled the bowl toward him again. Then he dove right back in like he was in a food-eating competition. Evelyn’s voice slid down through the door to the kitchen.
“I’m just asking why you two couldn’t talk in the living room. Why the bedroom? This is not a hard question to answer.”
“Mama, stop.” Travis’s words were curt.
“Do you not understand what is inappropriate and what is not?” Evelyn asked, emerging from the hallway and glancing around the kitchen. “How are we all doing?”
“Dakota left.” Gavin had shoved his sleeves up to his elbows and continued to drown his sorrows in sugar.
“She left the ring, too,” Dane added, also diving into his ice cream.
“We’ll look for it tomorrow.” Gavin spoke to the bowl, not looking up.
Dane lifted a shoulder. “She tossed it in the lawn over by the stairs.”
Rachel made a mental note not to allow the dogs over there when they took their middle of the night bathroom break. Also, throwing the ring in the lawn was a tad bit cliché. If Dakota was going to throw a drama, Rachel expected a little better. Go all in and get creative.
Not that she’d ever thrown a drama. But she’d thought about it lots of times.
Evelyn was whispering to Bob about what she’d discovered in Rachel’s bedroom. Rachel’s chest was feeling tighter and tighter by the moment.
“Uncle Trav, did my mom lose her toothbrush again?” Kellan asked.
Rachel’s tongue turned to ash, and suddenly toaster tart ice cream seemed like an excellent idea. Maybe she’d even have some cake. And ask Travis to make her a pitcher of margaritas for her and Evelyn’s cat to share.
“Her toothbrush?” Dane asked, raising his eyebrows in the general direction of Travis.
“Yeah.” Kellan continued through his stomachache to dive back into the remnants of his not-so-much dinner. “I don’t know why he had to take his shirt off to find her toothbrush.” He lifted his little eight-year-old shoulder in a hell of a shrug.
“He what?” Evelyn practically shrieked.
Okay, so it wasn’t really a full shriek. It was more of a sound of surprise with a dash of high anxiety.
“Oh dear lord,” Rachel said under her breath. She rubbed at her skull, not looking at anyone.
“Uh,” Dane said, clearly unsure how to continue. Which was apt, because she had no idea, either.
“Mama,” Travis said, stepping toward his mother, who was taking a play out of Gavin’s book and opening her mouth, closing it, then opening it again like she was trying to catch any variety of flying insects.
“In my house,” she said finally.
“It is not what you think.” Rachel, still not looking up, gripped the back of Kellan’s chair until her knuckles turned white.
“I think you two have been carrying on right under my nose this entire time.” Evelyn shoved her hands on her hips, staring Rachel down.
“Well, then, I guess it’s exactly what you think,” Travis said.
Now it was Rachel’s turn to shove her hands onto her hips. “Trav…”
“What’s carrying on?” Brady asked.
“It’s like what Uncle Dane did with that lady at the park that one time.” Kellan was thinking so hard he was going to break his brain. “Back behind the dugout.”
“This is not about me.” Dane held up both hands. “I’m just here because Dakota took the car, so I don’t have a way to leave.”
“Rachel?” Gavin asked, his eyebrows falling. “Since when do you call him Trav?”
Okay, so Gavin got a little leeway, since he’d been involved in his own drama. But Rachel’s life was currently imploding, just like his relationship with Dakota. So she also deserved a little leeway.
“Since we became a couple,” Rachel said to the back of Kellan’s chair.
The room went silent. A heavy, wet blanket with weight even Dakota’s dramatic departure couldn’t touch.
Even both boys were quiet, and that never happened.
“Boys,” Rachel said. “Why don’t you head outside and play?”
“They are fine. They need to hear this, too.” Evelyn stuck her nosey nose right where it didn’t belong. “They’re old enough to understand that their uncle Travis and their mother are an item.”
“Like Dad and Dakota?” Brady asked.
Well, without the whole door slamming and the throwing of the ring.
“Both of you, go outside and play.” Rachel grabbed the bowls from the table and went to rinse them in the sink.
“C’mon boys, this is a grown-up talk.” Gavin gave Rachel a look with a subtle head bob. He had her back on this.
She wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. Mostly good. Unexpected. But good.
Thankfully, both boys seemed to get the vibe in the room and headed outside. The soles of her feet itched to follow them. Instead, she went back to cleaning the dishes.
“I care about her,” Travis announced. “A lot.”
Rachel stopped rinsing Brady’s bowl, seemed to stop functioning altogether. She glanced up at Travis. He was staring at her intently.
He cared about her, and he wasn’t afraid to say it in front of everyone.
She gulped. The water poured over her hands, over the now-empty bowl, to swirl down the drain.
“I’m not entirely sure how she feels about me, but I want to make it clear that I care deeply for her.” Travis continued his announcement like it wasn’t a big deal.
It was, in fact, a big deal. Huge, even.
“No.” Evelyn’s word was curt, to the point. “This is unacceptable.”
“Mama,” Gavin said, setting his bowl aside. “Let’s hear them out.”
Rachel turned to look at Gavin, and his warm brown eyes rested on her. They weren’t angry. She wasn’t quite sure what they were, but they weren’t upset.
“If they want to talk about it,” he continued.
Rachel didn’t. She didn’t want to talk about it with Evelyn, etc.
Not until she talked about it with Travis. They should’ve formed a plan when he’d suggested it. Then things wouldn’t have gone wildly off script.
“What will the boys call you now, Travis?” Evelyn was all piss and vinegar and southern sour. “Unca-Daddy? Unca-Step?”
“Mama.” Gavin set his bowl aside and stepped forward. “This is uncalled for.”
“What is uncalled for is your brother and your Rachel—”
“She’s not my Rachel.” Gavin stared down Evelyn in a way that Rachel had never seen before. Stared her down and stood right up to her.
“I’m no one’s Rachel,” Rachel said. “I’m my Rachel.
I’m the mother of Brady and Kellan. And Travis and I are a couple, and we’re figuring things out, and we were waiting to announce it because we knew this, this right here, is what would happen.
You’d lose your mind. It’d drip into the boys’ lives, and people would get hurt. ”
“Mom,” Brady squealed from outside. He ran straight to the door of the kitchen that led to the back patio. “Kellan’s sick.”
Rachel quickly dried her hands and hurried toward the door.
“He threw up all over,” Brady went on. “It’s like he ate gummy bear ice cream and it exploded everywhere.” He made dramatic hand motions to illustrate the point.
Wonderful. Ridiculous Evelyn and her toaster tarts, and ridiculous Gavin and his breakup drama, and her ridiculous clients with their demands—
All of a sudden, Brady’s face turned the funky shade of green it always turned right before…
“No, no, no,” Rachel said under her breath.
She reached for the trash basket kept under the sink.
Then she lunged toward Brady.
No one else moved, but Dane asked, “Is he going to—”
That’s when it happened. Brady followed in Kellan’s footsteps and, because he was Brady, his lack of aim was impressive when it came to all bodily fluids.
He did not hit the trash can. He did hit the floor. Also, Gavin’s shoes.
Mostly, Rachel caught the mess in her hand. She gritted her teeth.
But she did not break.