CHAPTER 20
Weston’s voice cut in. “All right kids, time to get back on track. I’ve got to get back to the station.” He strode to the door, stopping to ruffle Dax’s hair. “You two need to put this aside and remember the election is in twenty-one days. The work only gets more intense from here on out. I’ll see you two tomorrow.” He gave them a little salute and shut the door behind him with a click.
The sound echoed through the room.
Elaine inhaled deeply, trying to steady the riot of emotions swirling through her. The urge to run, embarrassment at the realization that Travis was right. She did hover over Dax. She couldn’t help it. Sitting in Dottie’s basement in the dark, wind screaming around them – her life had flashed before her eyes. More importantly, her life without her son had flashed before her eyes.
She covered her face, momentarily overwhelmed. “You’re right. I helicopter. And I don’t mean to. I’m just. So. Scared,” she said thickly. Hot tears rose up, and try as she might, she couldn’t stop them this time. “I couldn’t live if anything happened to him.”
Travis’s arms came around her, pulling her into his chest. His strength, the steadiness of him, was her undoing. The tears came freely. “You have no idea how terrifying it was. Sitting there, in the dark, not knowing if he was okay. If I’d ever see my baby again.”
“Hush, now,” he soothed, rubbing her back. “You’re both okay now. And I promise I’ll do my best to keep you both safe.”
The conviction in his voice drove right to her heart, twisting in the most bittersweet way. She loved him. And it hurt that this was the most she could hope for – a gentle hug and words of encouragement when she needed it. It could be worse. He could hate her. She sniffled, dragging in a rough breath. Her job with him would be over in three weeks. Maybe it was time to think about moving on. Travis would be elected sheriff. He’d have to move to Marion. And someday, he’d find some nice, respectable lady to settle down with. Someone without an embarrassing past who’d make a nice sheriff’s wife. And she wasn’t sure she could handle watching that. She had limits.
She stepped out of Travis’s embrace, instantly missing it. But it was for the best. She couldn’t torture herself this way. Wiping a finger beneath her eyes, she nodded. “Weston was right. We need to get to work.”
Travis gave her a hard look, then nodded slowly. “Right. I smell the burgers. C’mon Dax. Why don’t you help me put dinner out?”
The burgers were delicious, but did nothing to cut the tension between them. Even Dax remained subdued. Elaine studied Travis, sneaking glances at him throughout the meal. His face was alternately thunderous, then soft. The lines of his mouth would grow deep at turns, then soften. As if he was wrestling with some kind of inner beast.
After dinner was no better. Travis was distracted, missing every question she directed at him, and when he finally heard them, only answering in one-word grunts. “Enough,” she said sharply, pushing back from the table. “Please take us home. We’re not getting any work done here.”
He gazed at her intently, eyes inscrutable. “Weston was right.”
“About what?” Why did her heart pound when he stared at her like that?
“All of it. About needing to go with a classy date.”
“I’m not classy.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized it.
“Of course you are,” Travis objected flatly.
Fine. He wanted to go there? “I’m a high school dropout, Travis.”
“Who just earned her GED.”
“I had Dax when I was seventeen.” She shuddered at the memory. “You know what they called me in school? Slut. Whore.” She held out her scarred arms, unable to stop the barrage now that she’d let go. She was like a bubbling pot of shame and humiliation. “And I know you’ve seen these. I see the questions in your eyes when you look at them.” Her chest flamed. “Classy, isn’t it? A girl who slept around and cut herself? Who has a track record of shitty choices?” She stopped short of telling him the worst. The words were right there. But she couldn’t bear to see the disappointment that would surely cover his face. It would break her.
She brushed her eye and took a shuddering breath, diving back in to press her point home. “You know who’s classy? Emmaline Andersson. She makes beautiful dresses that everyone oohs and ahhs over.” She couldn’t stop. It was like he’d unscrewed a faucet. “Millie Prescott is classy. Look how she opened up her store after the tornado and gave everyone food. I’m just a single mom who works two jobs to barely get by. I don’t even know how to drive.” Her neck was on fire. Her cheeks too, from the feel of it. How pathetic was that? Twenty-four and she didn’t even know how to drive. She shook her head, lowering her gaze so Travis wouldn’t see the tears threatening to spill over again.
The silence weighed heavy between them. “All that shows is that you’ve done what it takes to support your son. You’ve never said an unkind word to anyone or about anyone as long as I’ve known you. And Dottie sings your praises. She doesn’t do that for just anyone.”
She glanced up at him through wet lashes, surprised by the gentleness in his voice. His expression took her breath away. His eyes lit with earnestness, his face a mixture of frustration and admiration. “You’re plenty classy, Elaine.”
Well, color her stunned.
First, he called her beautiful, now this? That he thought she was classy? She opened her mouth to object, but the fire went out of her. She snapped it shut. “Fine. I’ll consider going.”
The car ride home was quiet. Nobody felt like talking, and that was fine with her. She was all out of words anyway. Dax’s quiet snores filled the interior. Travis shut off the car. “Wait here.”
She laid a restraining hand on his arm. “You really don’t have to do this.”
“Of course I do,” he growled, and slipped out the driver’s side door.
Of course he did. He’d never let her enter a space that he didn’t know for certain had been secured. Not in a million years. Sighing, she stepped out of the SUV and leaned against the side, studying the stars. They were just enough on the edge of town, the sky was littered with stars. Not as many as on the ranch, where it was truly dark. But more than in town. She traced the few constellations she knew while she waited for Travis to complete his nightly ritual.
The first time he’d done it, she’d been mortified. She’d left a pile of laundry on the bed, including her underthings waiting to be folded. Now she didn’t leave the house until her room looked tidy. She turned toward the sound of Travis’s boots crunching on the gravel, heart thudding extra hard at the smoldering look he sent her way as he opened the rear passenger door to grab Dax. Her son still looked small, draped over his shoulders, snuggling into his neck. She shut the door behind Travis and followed them into the house, casting about for someplace to stand while Travis put Dax to bed, and finally settling for perching against the banquette where she and Dax usually ate.
Travis covered the few feet between Dax’s bunk and where she stood in three steps. He stopped in front of her, his bulk dominating the space. Something was different this time. Energy radiated off him and she couldn’t look anywhere but into his intense eyes. He brought a palm to her face, thumb caressing her cheek, before sliding his hand around to cup the base of her head. Her hand landed on his chest, drawn there as if by a magnet. His rough voice, skated over her skin, drawing it tight. “We need to talk. But first…”
She registered his intent a millisecond before his head dipped and his mouth came crashing down on hers, hot and possessive. Fireworks exploded in her head with the force of a Fourth of July grand finale. She softened and melted as his arm came around her, pulling her against his hardness. With a sigh of homecoming, she opened to his tongue, thrusting and licking against him in a timeless dance. Heat burst through her nerve endings, turning her skin to a sensitized, tingling mass. His mouth was at her throat, her ear. Every place he touched drove the flames higher.
Somewhere, in the recesses of her brain, a saner voice cut through the haze. “Travis, we can’t,” she gasped, fighting for some kind of control. “We agreed.”
“Mmmm,” he rumbled, peppering her face with kisses and sliding his hand over the curve of her hip. “Now who’s worried about the rules?”
She pressed on his chest, and he lifted his head, eyes hazy and unfocused with lust. “It’s not good for Dax. I won’t be that kind of single mom – where there’s a revolving door of men.”
The heat in his eyes scorched her before he took her mouth again, this time softer. Sweeter. “Has there ever been a revolving door of men?” he murmured against her lips.
“Not since… No,” she whispered, shaking her head.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
His mouth was on hers again, hot and insistent, and she surrendered to the sensations ripping through her, tearing down her carefully constructed defenses. Sweeping her up into his arms, he settled them on the couch.
Nestled in his embrace, engulfed in his masculine scent, her resistance melted away. How could she deny this when it felt so right? She twined an arm around his shoulder, fingers skating through the hair at his neckline, and slipped her tongue across the inside of his lower lip. His answering growl set her core throbbing, and he slid his tongue against hers, thrusting then teasing until her breath came in harsh puffs.
Travis lifted his head, running a hand down her arm. “I don’t know what to do with you, Elaine. You break all my rules and yet I can’t get enough of you. I think about you when I’m not with you. I’ve tried staying away and made myself crazy in the process. I’m all in, Elaine. And we can take things as fast or as slow as you like.”
He kissed her forehead with so much tenderness, her heart squeezed painfully. “I mean it when I say I’m not going anywhere. I think I fell for you the first day I saw you at the diner.”
She gasped, her heart taking off at a gallop, as she tried to wrap her mind around his words. He drew a finger down the bridge of her nose, giving her a funny little grin. “You looked scared, but determined. You made mistakes, but you kept going and didn’t break down. And you’ve raised a great kid who I happen to adore.”
It was too much to process. Her brain was going to overload from it all. “What are you saying, Travis?” she whispered.
He smiled all the way up to his eyes, and kissed her again. “That I love you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m crazy about you, Elaine. I want to be with you, and I want the world to know it.”
Was she hearing right? “But you said…” She cocked her head, half afraid at what he’d say next. “Are you sure about this?”
“That I love you? Yes.”
He angled his head to place a kiss in the hollow below her ear. The tingles went zinging straight to her nipples, hardening them into expectant peaks. At this rate, she’d lose what little rational thought remained, oh… in about six more kisses.
She leaned back, eyeing him. “But I leave the doors unlocked.”
He nipped her earlobe, breath skating across her neck. “We can figure it out.”
“What about the fact you think I’m too young?”
He kissed down the column of her neck, sending cascades of shivers straight to her toes. “Over it.”
“Or that I’m working for you?”
“Don’t care.” He kissed along the edge of her shirt.
“Or that I live in town?”
“So?” His hand slipped under her tee, finger pads skating across her bare skin.
She was so close to giving in. Heck, her body already had. But she owed it to him to try and explain. “Travis… I- I’m not perfect.” She took a shuddering breath, mustering her courage. “I-I did things when I was younger that I’m not proud of.”
He raised his head, eyes serious and intense. “We all have a past, sweetheart. And I’m not interested in swapping war stories right now.” He took her mouth, punctuating his words with a kiss that made it very clear what he was interested in right now. But his hands stayed planted on her hips, playing with the skin just underneath her shirt, as if he was waiting for a signal from her to move.
She loved him for that. And she’d give him that signal. Loud and clear.