“Whatever store has clothes for kids,” she said, smiling down at her daughter.Kit was busy tossing food into the canvas grocery bags, practically licking her lips at the sight of all they’d bought.
Feeling the need to provide not only food, but a little fun as well, Travis thought about where else he could take them as they walked outside.As the cold of the store gave way to the heat outside, an idea hit Travis.“Hotter than fu-flaming hot dogs out here.”He said, looking at Kit to make sure she didn’t catch his almost swearing.“How ‘bout some ice cream?Place down the street has really good blueberry.”
Kit looked ready to shoot toward the place the minute Travis pointed her in the right direction.“I love ice cream.”She skipped toward the truck while he and Parker brought up the rear.
Parker chuckled, shaking her head at him.“Flaming hot dogs?”Her smile was so beautiful that he nearly tripped over one of the parking lot speed bumps.The simple joy she’d taken from his fumbled words wasn’t something he’d been expecting, and his heart melted because of it.“That’s a new one.”
Travis shrugged and piled the groceries into the cooler in the bed of his truck, feeling a blush come over his face as she kept her attention on him.“First thing I thought of.”
Parker nodded, helping him stow the food.Touching his arm, she smiled again, though this one was far more serious than before.“Thank you again.For everything.”
Travis nodded, his feet rooted to the spot even as Parker walked to the other side of the truck and hopped in.His fingertips trailed over where she had just touched him, a tingling sensation traveling through his skin and into his body.Touch-starvedwas not a word he would ever use to describe himself.He got plenty of hugs from his family and members of the community who knew him well enough to overlook his shortcomings, but this felt...different,a type of touch he’d never known before and suddenly never wanted to go without again.
“Are we getting ice cream or what?”Kit called from her open window.The sight of her surly impatience making another appearance reminded Travis enough of himself that he smiled.
With a nod at his tiny counterpart, Travis hopped inside, looking over to see Parker smiling at him.As he drove them toward the ice cream shop, he wondered just how many more of the light touches that seemed to have woken him from a deep sleep he would be able to take before he went and did something reckless like trying to give his heart to the pretty woman in the seat next to him.
****
By the time Mondaymorning rolled around, Travis was a bit of a nervous wreck.The anticipation of working with Parker had eaten at him all weekend, the thought of going over to the apartment to talk to her a little beforehand being brought up and dismissed in his mind at least a dozen times.After their shopping trip where he’d nearly bought out the store, he’d wanted to spend more time with them than he had anyone outside his family.Travis had refrained, not wanting to make her uncomfortable with the attention, instead letting his mom go over there and keep the women company.
Travis had seen the look in his mom’s eye whenever she had been around Kit, so he knew she would have a great time with them.Mama Kemp had always wanted a little girl, giving up trying after having him and his brothers.Now that she had access to one, Travis knew the prospect of spending as much time with her as possible would do his mom a world of good.
Missing out on more time with Parker and Kit had been tough, but he’d had issues with the orchard to distract him.A seasonal worker has spotted some apple scabs, though they’d turned out to be nothing but a bit of bird shit.After explaining the difference to the new guy, Travis spent the rest of the day trying to come up with a curriculum of sorts for when he showed Parker the ropes.He’d sat at his computer for so long that his eyes were as dry as the desert, but he hadn’t been able to come up with anything concrete, figuring he would just wing it when the time came.Well, the time was now and Travis wished he’d spent a little more time working on a plan.
Sipping his coffee that was as black as jet fuel and just as strong, Travis looked out the window.The sun had been up for an hour, but he wasn’t going to drag Parker and Kit out of bed that early, at least not on the first day.Working hours for Parker would have to change once Kit started school, but that was something he could deal with.Travis preferred to work inside during the hottest parts of the day, going over orchard maps and fertilizer orders while the sun blazed overhead, but he supposed he could adjust his schedule a little if it meant more time with the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about.
There was something about Parker that was just so disarming.It was clear that she’d had a rough life, but it hadn’t hardened her, at least not fully.Travis was at the opposite end of the spectrum, having had a relatively easy upbringing only to let a couple of unpleasant incidents in his youth erect a wall around his heart.He was teaching Parker about farming, and maybe in trade, she could teach him about living without the giant chip on his shoulder.
A block of white and blue streaked past the window he’d been gazing out of before the back door swung open and Kit charged into the kitchen.“Did I miss it?Did I miss the chicken feeding?”
Her white shirt and blue jeans were ones he recognized from their trip to the clothing store.Once again, he’d been tempted to buy everything the little girl set her eyes on, but he’d refrained, letting Parker use her gift cards instead.The urge to provide and protect were strong and instinctual, yet he’d never felt that toward anything other than his farm, anyone other than his family and the barn cat he’d adopted before.
Brushing aside his confusing feelings, Travis chuckled, smiling at the little girl.He’d never really thought of himself as much of a kid person since he’d been so unable to relate to them even when he was one, but Kit was an interesting mix of exuberance and defiance that Travis found endearing.It helped that she was also a sweetheart that treated the farm like the paradise it was.
“Didn’t miss a thing, Giggles,” he informed her.
Nodding at his dad who wandered in from the back porch, Travis smiled at the little girl and nudged her toward the older man.Kit stumbled, her head tilting back to look at his father.Nolan Kemp was tall and broad, but his smile was as charming as any prince from a fairy tale picture book.As intimidating as he looked, that smile and twinkle in his eye disarmed anyone he came across.
“Hey there, Kit.”Travis’s dad stepped around the girl and grabbed his second cup of coffee.“Let an old man refuel before you drag him out to the chicken coop.Okay?”
“Yes, sir,” Kit said.Her posture was so respectful and stiff Travis was surprised she didn’t salute the older man.“I’ll do everything I’m asked and I won’t complain.Well, not much.”
The two men laughed as Parker flew into the room.“Katherine Jane Collins.Don’t you dare keep running off without telling me where you’re going.”Parker bore her eyes into her daughter before pulling her into a fierce hug.“I need to know you’re safe always.Okay?”
Kit nodded and smiled sadly at her mom.“Sorry, Mom.I was just so excited to start my first day as a chicken farmer.”
Parker huffed a laugh before her eyes met Travis’s.Soon after they were trailing down his body, the look in her eyes so intense that it felt like she was reaching out and running her fingers over every inch of him, an action he would have welcomed wholeheartedly.“I know the feeling.”
Kit looked up at her mom with confusion.“I thought you were working with the apples.”
Parker nodded absently before shaking her head and looking at her daughter again.“You’re absolutely right.I am on apple duty and you are working with the chickens.”
“That we are,” Travis’s dad boomed before he slammed his coffee in the same manner his son had.“You ready to feed some chickens, Kit?After that I think Cora was going to try and talk you into making some chocolate chip cookies with her, if you think you can handle something like that.”
Kit smiled widely.“Oh, I can handle cookies just fine.”Travis’s dad led her out the door and over to the side of the house, Parker watching carefully out the window.
Travis stepped up beside her, catching a hint of something sweet and flowery.He closed his eyes to revel in it, but stopped himself.Don’t creep on the new hire.Travis watched Parker continue to look after her daughter, a look of trepidation on her face as she bit her lower lip.He had the strongest urge to tug it free and kiss the sting away, but refrained from doing so as that would definitely go against hisno creepingpolicy.
