Chapter 4

Sometimes when I watch Travis make coffee and he smiles, I wonder who he just thought about pissing off today.

-Hannah’s secret thoughts

Hannah

Present day

I juggled the car seat, as well as held Reggie’s hand, as we crossed the parking lot and entered the store.

We were at the mall.

Reggie wanted something pretty to wear, and stupidly enough, I’d agreed to get it for her.

She was going to see her father this weekend, and she ‘wanted to look pretty for her daddy.’

I knew that what she really wanted was to impress Joshua, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Joshua wouldn’t even notice. Joshua was too interested in his secretary, as well as his work, to care about his little girl.

The only thing that would make Joshua notice her would be if Reggie suddenly knew the secret to the stock exchange.

But even then, he’d only notice her long enough to get her secrets. Then he’d leave her on her own again, just like he did every time he deigned to see her.

Sure, Jefferson was only two hours from our hometown of Kilgore, Texas. But that didn’t make much of a difference to Joshua. Anything over a twenty-minute drive was an inconvenience to him.

Which he let her know each and every time it was his turn to drive out here and get her for the weekend.

So there I was, with a two-month-old, and my eight-year-old, taking them to the mall on a Friday at four in the afternoon.

I’d forgotten TJ’s stroller, and I had to either carry him in his car seat, or carry him in the infant carrier that he absolutely despised being in. There was something about how he was restrained that he didn’t like, causing him to never quite settle down.

Which meant I was carrying my twelve-pound two-month-old, in his eight-pound car seat, juggling a diaper bag, as well as trying to hang onto Reggie who refused to cross the street still without holding my hand.

Not that that bothered me all that much. I loved holding Reggie’s hand.

It’d been me and her for so very long, and she was growing up so godforsaken fast that I would take anything she was willing to give me.

It felt like just yesterday when she decided that she was going to walk instead of crawl. Run instead of walk. Talk instead of gesture. Ask to be put down instead of being held.

Hell, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d helped give her a bath. It was like one day she decided that she no longer needed my assistance, and that was that.

“Ohhh!” she cried out the moment we crossed into the mall. “Can we get a cookie?”

I grinned.

I’d created a monster.

I loved Great American Cookie Factory. It was my guilty pleasure, and sure as shit, Reggie liked them, too.

My phone rang before we could so much as pass through the front doors, and I growled.

Before I could put down the infant carrier, though, it was taken out of my hands.

I gasped, my gaze snapping up as fear started to slice through me, and then closed my eyes in relief.

“You made it.”

I’d called Travis about halfway to the mall and asked if he could come get TJ. It was the day before I would start working full-time, and not only did I need to run by the mall for Reggie, I also needed to run by the scrub store to get some different scrubs that would fit my more voluptuous hips.

When I was pregnant, I’d been wearing a few pairs that I’d bought from the Goodwill. There was no way in hell I was paying the exorbitant amount of money for new scrubs that would only fit for just a few short months. However, now that I was down to my regular size—almost—I decided that maybe I’d spring for some scrubs that were a little prettier, and not so worn out.

Hence the other reason I’d decided to agree to Reggie’s pleading rather than tell her no like I’d wanted to.

“I did.” Travis’ deep voice had my heart fluttering.

Hell, anything the man did made my heart flutter.

We were right there, almost in this exact same spot, when I’d met him for the second time.

And the same thing happened then as it had today.

***

387 days ago

“You’re the one who has holes in her scrubs,” my new co-worker, Wednesday, commented dryly. “You asked where the best place to go was, and I, being the nice person that I am, volunteered to take you.”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” I told her. “Okay?”

She rolled her eyes and started walking away, not bothering to look back.

I looked in disgust at the mall.

I hated shopping. I hated crowds, and most of all, I hated being in a mall that had me only inches away from the most fattening food in the city.

My eyes kept going back from the cookie display, to the way that Wednesday headed without me.

I was having a long, stern talk with myself about how much I did not need a cookie. But I couldn’t help it.

They had my favorite. Double Doozies. With the chocolate icing instead of the white.

Oh, my God. They were so good.

And normally I could walk right past this display and not have a problem. Today, however, I was on my period. Today, I was feeling sorry for myself.

Today marked two entire days since I’d had one hell of a conversation with the hottest man alive.

I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Every time I turned around, my thoughts would stray to him. What was he doing? Where was he at? Would I ever see him again?

Annoyed with myself, I tried to take a step away but was held up by a male body sidling up beside me.

Which was the excuse I needed to stay.

Maybe just one tiny cookie. They made the ones they called the ‘Mini Doozies.’ Maybe just one…

“What are you getting?”

“I think one of the Doozies,” I murmured, then stopped and turned when I realized that it wasn’t the man behind the counter that had asked me that question, but the one standing beside me.

The moment that I saw his face, my breath stalled in my chest.

“I’m going to get a slice of the cake,” he murmured, winking. “Are you getting the big one or the ‘mini’ one?” He paused. “I’ve had both. They don’t taste the same. I think you should get the big one, and maybe just eat a quarter of it if you’re planning on going with the mini.”

I laughed.

“You think that if I have an entire giant-sized Double Doozie that I’ll be able to eat ‘just a quarter?’” I questioned him.

Was he crazy?

He shrugged. “You’re in incredible shape. Figure that you are able to control your appetite.”

I snorted. “Yeah, that’s a big fat no.”

He grunted.

“And it’s even worse when I’m on my period, like today,” I mentioned.

That was when I realized that I just told the man that was sexy as sin that I was on my period…like he would want to know that.

Oh, God.

If the ground could open up and swallow me whole, that’d be great.

“Good to know,” Travis said, not cracking a joke or even a smile. “My sister liked those.”

He pointed at the red velvet brownies, and I scrunched up my nose. “I’m not that fond of them myself.”

In fact, if there was one thing on this entire shelf display that I did not like, it was those.

When I was pregnant with Reggie, those had been the only thing that I could stomach for over a month, and throughout the rest of my pregnancy, I’d eaten them over and over and over again.

If I never saw another one of them again, it’d be too soon.

“Who’s next?”

I gestured for Travis to go—mostly because I wanted to check his ass out without him noticing—and he stepped forward. He said something quietly to the cashier who nodded, reached for two Double Doozies, took two slices of cookie cake, and then rang it all up.

When Travis turned around, my eyes snapped up to his and a guilty look crossed over my face at him catching me checking him out.

He didn’t so much as tease me.

Instead, he handed over the Double Doozies he’d just ordered and walked away without saying a word, leaving me to watch.

“Man’s hot.”

I turned to the chick behind the counter and nodded.

“He is.”

***

Present day

And he still was hot. Even a year later, he was hot as sin.

Sure, he was a little grayer around the temples, but a crazy ex-wife, a kid that hated you, and a newborn, would do that to a man.

Without even asking, he walked up to the cookie counter and ordered some cookies, even going as far as to have the worker make a Double Doozie with chocolate icing because he knew what I liked and they’d run out.

When he handed over my Doozie, as well as Reggie’s, he winked. “Where to now?”

I licked my lips and looked away, my heart starting to ache.

God, I loved this man.

I loved him with my whole heart and soul, but I couldn’t be with him.

It was the worst kind of situation anybody could ever be in.

And I couldn’t even leave at this point because I had a kid with him, and I’d be no better than stupid Allegra if I did that to him.

So I stayed, despite my heart hurting each and every time I saw him.

“Crazy 8, I guess,” I croaked. “If she doesn’t find anything there, we’ll go to Kohl’s.”

And that’s what we did.

To all passersby, we were like one nice, big, happy family.

Only, they’d be wrong.