Oh yes, Rachel knew all about that kind of tug. That kind of damage. Which was why she kept her distance and held tight to her boys.
“I’m promising you, there’s no crack. No fray.” Or whatever mixed metaphor Evelyn wanted to go with. “Travis didn’t make a crack by being kind to me.” Of that, Rachel was certain.
“I don’t doubt that.” Evelyn passed off the baby to Sadie and stood, brushing the wrinkles from her slacks. “But the fray has been there for a while between my boys. I’m just asking that you aren’t the one to tug it free.”
Chapter Ten
“I’m just searching for the right person to raise my dogs with.” — Rachel Gibson, Colorado, USA
Rachel
They were leaving later than they’d originally planned, having to make accommodations for all the schedules involved. By the time everyone made it to the airport, the sun was starting to edge over the Rockies as the Franks loaded up the Puffle Yum corporate jet.
The boys had already boarded with their grandparents, while she did a final mental recheck of their suitcases.
Children’s Tylenol, swimsuits, socks, antacids, moisturizer…
She continued running through her mental list of items to keep her mind off the fact she was about to board.
Uh-huh, Rachel was getting on a plane. And, she was pretty sure, the only thing that could make this family vacation more intense was adding puppies to said plane.
Actually, theyweredoing that—the puppies and plane thing—so it was about as intense as it could get.
Rachel’s nerve endings had been mainlining bolts of anxiety straight into her bloodstream in the weeks since she’d agreed to the trip. She’d had to rearrange her summer schedule, and avoid any Frank who didn’t go by the name Gavin—all while wrangling clients, kids, and puppies.
Though she held firm that the puppies followed wherever the boys went. Gavin had learned to deal with it. The boys mentioned a baby gate in Gavin’s kitchen to keep the dogs away from his carpet.
As a bonus of Gavin being around more often for the boys, Evelyn hadn’t brought up anything about Travis’s cocktails. After Evelyn took off from the park with the lavender cleanser—Rachel hadn’t noticed Evelyn never swapped it back until Evelyn was long gone—she’d been utterly beside herself that Gavin and Rachel were in the same room more and more often.
Even if that “more and more often” was totally platonic, and Dakota had been there, too.
This trip was happening,though, and it included Travis. Rachel really hoped her ex-mother-in-law wouldn’t get weird about things and start ranting about fraying blankets.
Rachel had a hunch,though, as she walked up to the perfectly innocuous Puffle Yum corporate jet sitting on the tarmac at Centennial Airport, that Evelyn was going to get weird about things.
Travis moved behind her as they approached the steps leading to the aircraft.
He didn’t say anything, but she sensed him walking there. She somehow knew instinctively it wasn’t Dave’s footsteps.
She didn’t need to turn to confirm his identity.
“Kids, dogs, three suitcases, purse, house keys, laptop, charger, cell phone, charger, and sunglasses.” She continued her final inventory of everything under her breath.
“Would you feel better taking the car?” Travis asked, stepping beside her, the little creases between his brows deepening.
“Yes,” Rachel said, quicker than necessary. The answer to that question was simple because, fine, yes, she did not like to fly.
Also, fine, yes, she had a perfectly running Toyota Highlander with an abundance of room for herself and her children and their puppies. But the drive was a solid seven hours when she factored in multiple bathroom breaks, eating breaks, and one son who had a penchant for tossing up anything he’d eaten if he spent more than three hours in a moving vehicle.
Therefore, the corporate jet option with only forty-five minutes of actual flight time seemed like a natural fit.
Except.
The whole hating to fly thing. She didn’t have a fear of flying, per se. She just happened to hate doing it because it was scary. Call that whatever you’d like.
She took in Travis. He dressed remarkably fancy for the flight. Her mouth went dry.
Had she ever seen him in pressed slacks before? Truly, she couldn’t say she had. And a button-up white shirt? Travis knew how to do buttons. That was good to know.
