Becky
Rain pelted against the thick glass panes of the living room window the next afternoon. I was sitting on the sofa, leaning forward and contemplating my next move in the rather intense game of Jenga that Aiden and I were playing.
It was a dreary day, and Aiden was bummed out about it. He’d wanted to go up to the property for the day, and instead we were stuck inside, exhausting all means of entertainment at an alarming rate. My son could be amused for a little while with Lego and video games, but he preferred being outside.
I carefully selected a wooden block, using my index finger and thumb to slowly pull it out. The tower wobbled dangerously, so I slowed my movements, letting it settle again.
Thunder boomed, startling me, and pieces of the tower flew everywhere.
“Jenga!” Aiden giggled. I smiled at him indulgently.
“You win this round,” I said as he began to pick up the pieces. I fought a yawn while he set up.
When I returned home from my date with Travis late last night, Braden still wasn’t home. I didn’t get reception at Travis’s house, so I had missed a call from Krista. She left a voice mail, letting me know that Braden’s truck had been parked outside of O’Riley’s for hours.
I’d waited up for him, fearing the worst—that he’d started drinking again. When he finally walked through the front door, I sagged with relief when I realized he wasn’t drunk, but our conversation had done little to ease my concerns.
He admitted that sometimes, the thirst overwhelmed him. After that, he decided to head to Brock’s cabin for the next few days. He took Hunter with him, at my insistence. I didn’t like the idea of him all alone in the state he was in.
A new game of Jenga began, but as I expected, it didn’t hold his interest for very long. “I’m bored, can we go somewhere?”
“It’s raining really badly, Aiden. I’m pretty sure most of the roads are flooded,” I told him. I stood up again, racking my brain. “We could play Pie Face.”
“But, you said that was only on special occasions,” Aiden’s face lit up with excitement. Usually, I didn’t volunteer to play that game. It was needlessly messy, and the clean-up was a pain. But Aiden loved it, so I was determined to suck it up.
“Well, being bored on a Friday night counts as a special occasion, doesn’t it?” I asked, looking over my shoulder as I pulled the game out from the front hall closet. Just as I was pivoting to head back into the living room, someone rapped on the door.
Elle had stopped by earlier, looking for Braden. Thinking that it was her again, I opened it quickly, worried that something had happened.
But it wasn’t Elle, it was Travis, and he was even more soaked than she’d been. “Hey, so…could I borrow your phone?” The rain was coming down in thick rivets.
“What’s wrong with yours?” I asked, stunned and almost a little irritated to see him standing there. Last night’s date had been incredible, and I was looking forward to many more of them…but I wasn’t ready for this particular step. I cast a worried glance into the living room at Aiden.
“I took the Porsche out for a spin, and I forgot it on the counter when I made a sandwich,” he admitted sheepishly. The sound of his voice had me turning to look at him again. “It’s raining pretty badly, I need to see how the access road is.”
“Of course, come in,” I stood aside to let him pass and closed the door, looking at Aiden.
When Aiden realized who was in our house, he jumped up with excitement. “Travis! What are you doing here?”
“Seeking shelter from the rain,” Travis laughed lightly. “Mind if I borrow your phone, little man?”
“It’s in the kitchen, I’ll show you!” Aiden said with importance, leading the way. Ever since they had raced the day we’d gone ATVing together, Aiden had talked nonstop about how cool Travis was.
“Remember to give Travis his privacy while he makes the call,” I reminded him. Aiden nodded, returning to the living room with an excited grin on his face.
“Can we ask him to stay and play Pie Face with us?” he asked in a hushed voice, his eyes pleading with mine.
My breath caught in my lungs, and I hesitated, recognizing the urge to throw up my walls and protect our hearts. But, if I was going to start building trust, I needed to stop running.
“I’ll see if he wants to. Tidy up Jenga and set it up,” I instructed, passing the box to him. I walked into the kitchen, catching the tail end of Travis’s conversation.
“Alright Mom, you be safe too. I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about it. Yeah, I’ll wait until it slows down a bit. Love you too, bye.” He flushed a little when he saw me standing there, almost like he was embarrassed to be caught telling his mom he loved her. I thought it was sweet.
“Everything okay?” I asked, arching a brow and leaning against the doorway, my arms folded across my chest.
“The access road is flooded,” he replied, pushing his wet curls out of his face. “Look…I can head to Gordon’s. I’m really sorry for showing up. It was getting worse out there, and—“
“It’s okay,” I sighed. I didn’t want him to leave, not when his access road was flooded. “You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. Aiden wants you to stay and play some board games with us,” I shrugged, biting my lip. This situation was entirely new to me, and I had no idea how I was supposed to find my footing.
“Really?” he grinned with elation. “Yeah, I’d love to. I’m a little soaked though,” he added, glancing down at his jeans with apology.
I arched a brow with amusement. A puddle had formed beneath his feet on the linoleum.
“You can borrow some of Braden’s clothes and I’ll toss yours in the wash,” I suggested hesitantly. “But, you’re here as a friend today, okay?” I added, keeping my voice hushed as I glanced through the service hatch into the living room. Aiden was tidying up the Jenga game to make room for Pie Face.
“Of course,” Travis agreed willingly.
“All set up!” Aiden called out.
“Okay, we’ll be right back bud. Travis needs to borrow some of Uncle Braden’s clothes. Why don’t you grab the whipped cream?”
“Whipped cream?” Travis repeated, sounding perplexed as he followed me down into the basement.
“It’s for the game, Pie Face,” I explained, my lips twitching with a smile.
He waited by the stairs while I rooted through my brother’s dresser drawers, finding a pair of old sweat pants and a t-shirt I hadn’t seen him wear in months. I handed them to him, looking down when his hands covered mine.
“I can put them in the wash, you know,” he told me, his lips kicking up in a humoured smile. “I do know how to do my own laundry.”
“Our machines are old school,” I replied. “And they need a special touch to work. You can change in Braden’s bathroom,” I pointed in the direction of the bathroom, wishing I could join him.
“You don’t think I have a special touch?” he asked, his voice deep. He brushed some loose tresses of hair from my face.
“Go change,” I laughed, pulling away because I knew if I didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to stop. Last night, Travis had been the perfect gentlemen. To say that I’d expected sex was an understatement; that’s what the two of us did best, after all.
Travis smirked, knowing where my thoughts had gone. He changed quickly, and insisted on carrying his bundle of soaked clothes to my prehistoric washer. I wasn’t kidding about our washing machines, they were almost as old as I was and they’d only lasted as long as they had because of Braden’s mechanical skills. As it was, the dial button was broken so we had to twist it with pliers.
Once the washer was running, we went back upstairs. Aiden had grabbed the aerosol can of whipped cream from the refrigerator and was impatiently waiting in the living room for us, bouncing on his heels. He held it up with an excited grin on his face. “Travis, you’re first!”
I closed Aiden’s door gently. He was having so much fun with Travis, so I’d let him stay up a little later than usual. He’d been so tired that he almost fell asleep on the couch during the game of Monopoly.
Pausing in the hallway, I stared into the living room with my mouth agape. Travis had been busy cleaning while I was putting Aiden to bed. The games we’d played were stacked up neatly on the coffee table, and our plates from the frozen pizza I’d made for dinner were gone too.
He was waiting for me on the couch, and he patted the vacant space beside him, motioning for me to join him. I was bone tired, so I sank willingly into the cushions, curling up into his side.
“Not exactly how I imagined our first time using whipped cream together,” he remarked, a playful smile on his lips as he looked down at me. “But, excellent none-the-less.”
I snorted with laughter, then flushed with embarrassment. He titled his head down to mine, capturing my lips in the sweetest, briefest of kisses imaginable. He caught himself, wincing with apology. “Should I not have done that?” he asked with uncertainty.
I felt bad. I could see what my hesitation was doing to him, and I didn’t like it. He was cautious, afraid to rock the boat lest I hightail it away like all the times before. I had to admit, he was right to worry.
“You know…when you first showed up, I was a little mad,” I admitted, adverting my eyes. I was trying to take everyone’s advice to heart. I knew we couldn’t build trust if I didn’t start giving him more of myself. “I was scared, more than anything…and I still am. It’s not just my heart in this, Travis. It’s his too,” I looked at him as my eyes filled with tears that I refused to shed.
“I know that, Becs,” Travis assured me, his hand came up to cradle the side of my face. I leaned into it, biting down on my lip, trying to hold back the floodgates. His eyes didn’t leave mine, and they didn’t waiver. In that moment, I knew he did.
That knowledge stilled the erratic racing of my heart. “I see that now,” I told him, my eyes dancing with his. My chest rose and fell, the air thickening between us. “I’m in therapy. I go weekly. What he did…it affects me every day still,” I admitted, baring my truths to him…baring my soul.
Pain flickered in his hazel eyes, and he nodded slowly. “It breaks me. What happened to you, to Aiden. I wish I’d—“
“It wasn’t up to you to save me, and it wasn’t up to Brock either. It was up to me, and I did it, Travis. I was leaving him that day. My bags were packed, and my keys were in my hand. I was going home. I came home,” I said, needing him to understand something that I’d only just come to understand myself.
I drew in a breath, smiling softly at him. “And you make that bearable. I can forget, for a little while. You give me hope again, and it’s scary and invigorating all at once,” I laughed, brushing away the wetness from my cheeks.
He gazed at me with wonderment. “You’re my home, Becky. This thing may have started out as sex, but it’s kismet.”
I kissed him then, exhausted by words and overwhelmed with need. I climbed onto his lap, my fingers weaving through his curls. I straddled him, our lips and tongues clashing in the most breathtaking way.
His fingers gripped my ass, and he let out a low moan as I ground against his erection, seeking relief of this deep ache within me.
He pulled away, laughing a little, his eyes never leaving mine and the molten desire never fading from his. “I’m trying to do the right thing and not make it all about sex, but damn it Becky, I want to bury myself so deep in you that you feel me for days afterwards,” he all but growled.
“Can’t it be a little bit about sex?” I asked innocently, bringing my lips to the side of his neck, just below his chin. His cock twitched in response, and I smiled into his neck.
He stood, taking me with him, his fingers gripping me tightly. My legs wrapped around his waist, finding purchase there. “Is this still your room?” he whispered, nodding to the door on the far left of the hall.
I nodded, biting my lip. “You remembered that?”
“Let’s just say you took centre stage in more than one of my adolescent fantasies,” he said, the corner of his lips darting up in a playful half smile.
Travis left in the early hours of the morning, knowing that I didn’t want to throw a new relationship in my son’s face without talking to him about it first. He kissed me on the cheek, leaving me in the warmth of my bed with a contented smile on my face, a lightness in my heart and plans to meet up with him later.
Friday’s storms had given way to sunny skies, and I knew that Aiden would want to go to the property. At nine o’clock, I heard him stirring so I got out of bed myself. I put on a pot of coffee and tossed a couple of waffles in the toaster for Aiden and some toast for me.
He ambled down the hall, sitting heavily in one of the worn kitchen chairs. He yawned, wiping the sleep from his eyes. “Can we go to the lake, Mom?”
“Sure!” I smiled, smothering his waffles in butter and syrup. “Breakfast first,” I placed his plate down and went back for my raisin toast.
“Can we see if Travis wants to come?” he asked in between hurried bites.
“I think Travis has plans today, but we could ask Max,” I replied. That appeased Aiden, and he smiled widely at me.
“Okay! I can’t wait to tell Max that Travis played Pie Face with us!” he exclaimed. I wrinkled my nose, and his expression fell. “What?”
“We probably shouldn’t tell anybody that Travis was here,” I said, drawing in a deep breath.
“Not even Uncle Braden and Uncle Brock?”
“We’ll tell them when the time is right,” I assured him.
We finished breakfast and grabbed everything we’d need for the day, stopping off at Max’s to pick him up. The boys were boisterous the entire drive to the property, filled with excitement and energy. I rolled up to the beach, and had barely put the car in park before both of them had leapt out and were racing toward the water.
I set up my chair and grabbed the worn paperback I’d been trying to read for the last several months, setting up camp with my bare feet on the cooler. I had high hopes of scoring a tan.
Keeping half an eye on the boys splashing around in the lake, I exhaled, breathing in the fresh air and taking in my surroundings.
Since our grandfather had died, the care of the waterfront had fallen to the wayside, and for a while there—it’d been a little overgrown. With Brock back for weeks at a time, he’d managed to do some cleaning up and had added sand to the beach, restoring it to its former glory.
“You guys are here early,” Braden said, startling me. My paperback fell to the ground when I jumped, and I leaned sideways to grab it.
“Yeah,” I said, gratefully accepting the cup of coffee he’d brought out.
Braden stole the cooler from beneath my feet, moving it a little so he could sit beside me and still look out at the lake. “I was talking to Brock last night. Their flight gets in at midnight.”
“I know, I spoke to Tessa the other day. They’re coming over for dinner on Monday,” I responded, my stomach lurching uneasily. I was a grown woman—I knew that, but my brothers were the only family Aiden and I had left, and I wanted them to approve. I couldn’t help but worry a little that they wouldn’t.
“Yeah,” he replied, looking at me curiously. “Am I not invited?”
“Of course you’re invited, you live there too,” I answered, arching a brow.
“What about Elle?”
I arched a brow. “Are you guys back together? I thought she wasn’t answering calls…” I trailed off, remembering the look of steely determination on Elle’s face the night before. I knew she was back in town, but I didn’t know the context.
“Yeah, we are. She forgot her phone at home, and tying up her loose ends took longer than she expected. She messaged me on Facebook a few times, but I don’t ever go on Facebook,” Braden shrugged with a rueful grin. I knew he was thinking about all the energy he wasted being upset.
“Okay, well dinner’s at seven, I’ll pick up the food and you’re barbequing,” I added, knowing that’s what he was waiting for.
Braden’s grin widened.
“Don’t be surprised if I bring a guest, okay?” I remarked, thankful that my sunglasses hid my eyes.
Braden’s eyebrows shot up with surprise. “Is this the mystery dude you were with the night of the wedding?”
“We’re not talking about it now,” I retorted, my lips pulling down in a slight frown.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he laughed, his eyes twinkling a little. When his laughter faded, he looked at me again. “Does Aiden know?” he asked, peering out at the lake. Aiden and Max were taking turns jumping off the floating dock.
“He’s been introduced as a friend,” I replied. “It’s better that way, so I’d appreciate it if everybody didn’t make a big deal about it in front of him. Save your commentaries for when he’s not around.”
“Don’t worry, we’d never put you on the spot. Besides, it’s a good thing, Becky. I’m glad you’ve decided to date again and I’m sure Brock will be too.”
Yeah, until he sees who I’m dating, I thought.
Tessa pursed her lips at me thoughtfully. She was sun-kissed and glowing, her week in paradise having done wonders for her complexation. “I just don’t know why you’re keeping it a secret. Why can’t we know his name?”
She leaned against the counter, watching me scoop out the potato salad from the plastic container into a serving dish. I wouldn’t deny it came from the grocery store if I was asked, but I didn’t want to advertise my lack of skills in the kitchen.
“You’ll know it soon enough,” I replied evasively, glancing at the clock over my stove. Travis would be pulling up at any moment. A small part of me deeply regretted inviting him tonight, and I wondered if perhaps it would have been easier to just tell everybody individually, without him there.
The welcoming committee out front did little to ease my anxiety. Brock and Braden had decided to stand on the front yard and check out the roof, as the next thing on Brock’s hefty to-do list was replace the leaky, rotten shingles. Of course, this gave them a wonderful vantage point of both the neighbourhood and the driveway from where they stood on the front lawn. They would be able to spot Travis before he even hit my street. I hoped they would have hid in the backyard, manning the barbeque.
Elle stood at the other counter, making a Caesar salad. She glanced over her shoulder at me, a knowing look in her eye. I wondered if Sue had let anything slip to her. If she did, Elle was doing a wonderful job keeping the secret.
The distant sound of the rumbling diesel engine had my head swivelling, and I stepped out onto the porch just as Travis’s truck came into view. I could see the confusion and surprise on both of my brothers faces from where they stood. Braden turned to speak lowly to Brock when Aiden flew across the yard to greet Travis.
“No freaking way!” Tessa exclaimed, turning to me with the widest grin on her face. “Travis?! How? When?”
“It’s a long story, I should probably tell it another time,” I said, casting a pointed look toward the driveway. Travis was stepping out of his truck, a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of champagne in his hand.
My suspicion of Elle’s knowledge was confirmed by the unsurprised smile on her face. She tucked a strand of her wavy dark hair behind her ear and smiled. “That’s awesome! I’m happy for you guys!”
I breathed a little easier, feeling their genuine excitement for me.
Brock, on the other hand, was noticeably less thrilled about it. He had a hard set to his jaw and a somber look on his face.
Luckily, Braden heeded my warning from the other day. He put his hand on Brock’s bicep to slow him down enough to say something. Brock nodded reluctantly, and although the air was still thick with tension, he stopped stalking toward Travis.
I watched warily while Travis and Aiden started walking up the sidewalk to the house. Travis didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Aiden was chattering happily to him, reminiscing about the night of the storm, all the while being his smiling, charismatic self. He paused before Brock and Braden, tucking the champagne under his arm and shaking each of their hands in turn. “Hey man! How was the Dominican?”
“Great,” Brock replied, his tone clipped.
“Alright, let’s get those steaks on the barbeque, fellows,” Tessa instructed, breaking up the terse moment and giving her husband a pointed look.
Travis let my brothers walk ahead, and paused before me. The smile on his face was genuine contentedness, and his eyes swept tenderly across my face. “Hey Becs,” he murmured, his eyes pausing to rest on my lips. “These are for you, and I brought champagne to celebrate the newlyweds. It’s non-alcoholic, so Aiden can partake in a toast too,” he added, making me fall for him a little more.
I accepted the bouquet from him, and held my breath when he purposely brushed the back of his hand against the back of mine when he passed. The subtle gesture had my heart stuttering.
Taking a stabilizing breath, I followed him inside.