“Family is a funny thing,” Evelyn said. Rachel could totally be on board with that.
“Amen to that.” Molly raised her travel mug.
Evelyn smiled, but it was of the variety that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Sometimes family bonds are the strongest thing there is—harder than granite, tighter than woven silk.” Evelyn paused. It didn’t seem like it was for dramatic effect, but rather so she could pick her words carefully. “But sometimes when pressure hits just the right spot, a small fracture forms.”
Rachel knew all about family fractures. She’d experienced it firsthand in her own when she’d found out she was pregnant and hers practically disowned her.
She’d learned two things from that experience. The first, she’d never do that to her boys. Ever. And the second? Always use caution when it came to family.
“That is not what Travis was doing.” Rachel crossed her arms because she didn’t have the energy to defend Travis’s kindness to Evelyn. Even with a full night of sleep under her belt.
“Hear me out,” Evelyn said.
Rachel nodded because she had a feeling Evelyn wouldn’t give her a choice.
“The crack, the frayed stitch, it’s tiny, but it threatens the integrity of the entire thing.” Lost in her own thoughts, Evelyn drew along the seam of the blanket with her fingertip in illustration. “When relationships are tested, or promises broken, it’s our job to ensure that we do everything we can to prevent those teeny tiny imperfections. Because with a small, frayed stitch, it takes only one quick tug for the entire fabric of the family to pull apart.”
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 10
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, they were doing 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 Dane’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.
