His hand pressed against her hair. His breaths jagged pieces of glass slicing through any hardening of her heart she’d used as armor.
“I would’ve called you first,” she whispered again. “I think Gavin will know that. I think he’ll know it if we tell everyone. And I think it’s going to hurt him.” She drew a deep breath. “If it hurts him and he lashes out, it could hurt the boys. I can’t let that happen.”
He pulled away from her, ran a hand through his hair,and paused as he saw the expression on her face. “We should go.”
Her lower lip trembled the smallest amount, a small bit of wet appearing at the edge of her eyelids, but no tears fell. She crossed her arms under her breasts, doing that thing she did to hold herself up.
“You wouldn’t have had to call me, because there’s no way I would’ve been able to walk out the door the next morning. I would’ve ordered pancakes—scratch that, I’d have made you pancakes myself. From scratch. We would’ve spent the whole day together. That’s what we would’ve done.”
She smiled a watery smile. “Are you really that good of a guy, Travis Frank?”
“Don’t let the word get out. I have a reputation to uphold.”
The tear that she’d been holding back finally fell, but it didn’t make it past her cheekbone because he wiped it away with his thumb.
Another fell.
He repeated.
Another.
Another.
“Don’t cry, sunshine,” he said, still swiping as she hiccupped. She pressed the back of her hand against her mouth.
She smiled then.
The fact that she was smiling—really smiling, not one of those fake ones she’d gotten so used to using—the smiling was a good thing, but that didn’t change that there was a whole bucket of water falling out of her face.
“What’s going on right now?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, wiping at the tears herself.
“First guess,then?”
“I think because I’m happy,” she said on a throaty laugh. “I’m happy,and I don’t know what to do with that when it could ruin everything for my kids.”
“We’re going to figure this out.” He sounded like he really believed that.
For now, for that moment, she decided to focus on the happy instead of the laundry. The dirty, messy, daily chore kind.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Sometimes I really wish I would’ve swallowed.” — Nicole, Utah, USA
Travis
Nearly a full three days since their date night and Rachel had been scarce. She wasn’t avoiding him; he understood this because they were still connecting for…entanglements…every night. But the amount of time she spent working was becoming cumbersome for even the boys.
They wanted their mom around, and even when she was present, the laptop or her phone was her constant companion.
He got it. Understood that she was worried she’d miss another request or make a mistake.
Her attention to detail was one of the things he liked most about her, because when it was just the two of them? Oh yeah, her attention to detail was meticulous, which led to other things that were exceptionally…thorough.
He was pretty sure he was becoming addicted to Rachel’s particular brand of precise.
“Hey.” Travis pushed the door closed softly behind him, pressing the lock with his thumb.
