Oh.
That was…
Dane had never said anything like that.
He loved them. But…
“I promise you that,” he said.
Without saying anything else, and leaving her standing there like a statue, Travis turned to climb into the pilot seat, buckling in before slipping on his headset.
Okay, so that declaration totally did make her tummy do the flippy-do, howdy-ho.
She rolled her lips again and crossed her arms around her middle, holding herself up like she’d done so many times before since the boys were born.
CHAPTER 11
RACHEL
Despite Rachel’s intense discomfort, the flight was not awful. They didn’t even crash or anything.
The whole group arrived at the Frank residence in black SUVs that waited for them at the little airport. The place hadn’t changed since the last time she’d been there when the babies were first born.
Stone and wood with the rock-lined staircase leading to the front door remained the same. The huge bank of windows facing the mountain hadn’t changed either. They’d built the house with one thought in mind—make it massive and make it permanent.
Though the house was enormous, precise placement of the trees made it blend right in with the rest of the forest. Green pine and juniper trees everywhere with crisp mountain air that smelled amazing—clean and bright—but tended to make her light-headed, what with the lack of oxygen this high on the mountain.
Travis disconnected from a call and strode next to Rachel, where she stood at the base of the staircase leading to the enormous front door. The boys were going bananas running through the trees, kicking up the gravel of the driveway on their way across and making enough noise that it sounded like there were substantially more than two of them. She figured she’d let them get it all out of their system and blow off some steam with the dogs before they went inside.
Less opportunity to break Evelyn’s stuff, and all that. “I’ve been thinking about Brady,” Travis said as chauffeurs from the service that had picked them up at the airport unloaded bags and hauled them inside the house.
Rachel closed her eyes. Damn. She didn’t want to talk to Travis about Brady. Because she’d already used her quota of nos that day, and she had a hunch she was about to use a bunch more.
“What have you been thinking?” Rachel asked, tilting her head to indicate they should probably go inside.
He clearly wasn’t ready yet, because he didn’t head that way. Instead, he glanced at her sneakered feet.
What was up with that?
“Are you up for walking and talking?” he asked, pointing toward the copse of trees with an opening and a path leading through.
Oh. Okay. Sure. She could walk and say no at the same time. Except…
Rachel looked to the stairs leading to the entry arch, then to her boys screaming up an entire hour of pent-up third-grader energy. “I’m on duty.”
“I’ve got the boys,” Dane said from the top of the stairs. He waved Travis and Rachel away. “You two have a nice chat.”
Rachel turned a bit of side-eye toward Travis. He squirmed.
What could she say? She was a pro at side-eye. It came with being a mother.
“He’s in on whatever you’re going to want to talk to me about, isn’t he?” Rachel asked, not thrilled about the idea of taking off with Travis or having him and Dane tag team her on parenting choices.
“He is.” Travis apparently succumbed to the tug of the wilderness and moved toward a trail at the east edge of the property.
“The boys need to run around for a while longer before they go inside,” she said to Dane.
He nodded. “Got it.”
