“Were they confused when Dakota and Gavin had sleepovers?”
She shook her head. “It’s totally different.”
“Because I’m their uncle?” he asked.
“Because I’m their mom.”
He sauntered toward her. Well, he stalked, really. Then he wielded the southern. “Rach. I’m not goin’ to push you on this. But I want you to know that I want this, when you’re ready to give it. I want it all, and I’m ready to wait.”
She couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes.
“Rach,” he said, his voice serious.
She met his gaze, and he didn’t quite look like himself. “You just let me know, okay?”
Oh. Oh, no.
“I’m not…” She was so not ready for that. Not at all. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be…”
He didn’t seem disappointed. Not at all. And that was weird. It was weird, right? Yes, odd. Except, this just felt like a conversation, not a grand declaration of love.
“You just let me know.” he said, pinning her in place with his gaze. “I won’t ask again.”
Oh.
A lump formed in her throat.
He moved his palm against her jaw. She couldn’t help it, she turned her cheek in to his touch.
“Okay,” she murmured against his hand.
“Okay.” The conversation apparently done, Travis headed for the hallway. “Just toast?”
She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. “Yes. Nothing heavy. Just…toast. Maybe some tea?”
“All right then. Toast and tea.” He gave her a flash of a grin that made her seriously wish she wasn’t on a dry toast diet because she sorta wanted to jump him right then.
And given her previous day’s activities, that was a horrible idea.
So she went to shower instead. This time, she didn’t step on the scale first, because there was nothing it could tell her she didn’t already know.
She was probably always going to have her curves, and it didn’t matter, because she was finding she also had a whole heaping of happy. So she was going to hold on tight to it for as long as it let her.
The thing about perfection, she realized, staring at that damn scale, was that it didn’t really exist. It’s a phantom that drove her to try to do better when she was doing her very best to begin with.
Turned out, sometimes making a mess of things actually made her happier.
CHAPTER 30
RACHEL
“The Puffle Yum Momster poisoned you?” Molly said… well…really, she shrieked the statement. She punctuated this shriek by smacking two hands on the table in front of her.
Rachel shushed her. “The boys will hear you. And, no, she didn’t actually poison me, but she thinks she did. Thus, she’s now being super awesome.”
So far, Evelyn had not brought up Gavin plus Rachel equals true love since they’d been back. She also offered to take the boys for an evening so Travis and Rachel could have some time alone. More than that, she’d added Rachel to the family text chain.
This last one was both a blessing and a curse. Turned out, Evelyn texted her kids a lot.
