“I knew if I opened myself up to liking you, I’d go all in on it.” She didn’t seem to be able to meet his gaze. “That scared me. Gavin and I were trying at that point. Trying to make it work so Kellan and Brady would have stability. We were trying, and you were…distracting.”
“So it was easier to stay away.” The music changed to
another slow ballad. “You were distracting, too,” he said against her hair. “And I guess I didn’t really do much to prove to you I wasn’t a total dick.”
“Just a tad bit of a dick?” she asked with a little nose scrunch.
“I am a Frank.” He pressed a brief kiss to her forehead. “Some of it is genetic.”
“I don’t believe that.” She shook her head vehemently.
“Why?”
“Because my boys are Franks, and I don’t believe they need to be jerks.”
“Ahh…”
They didn’t speak for the rest of the song, but their bodies moved like they were made for each other. Made to move together.
“What are we doing, Travis?” she asked quietly, almost like she didn’t mean for him to hear the question.
“Dancing,” he murmured against her hair.
“I mean…”
He knew what she meant. They were new; this was precarious. Which was why he said, “Sometimes you can just go with it and not worry about every little thing. Makes life more fun.”
CHAPTER 21
RACHEL
Rachel pressed herself against Travis’s body. She adored the feeling of his strength as she nestled against him. The way her curves seemed to fit. How her body didn’t feel like something she should change or improve upon when they were together. Instead, her curves were something he enjoyed. Therefore, she enjoyed them, too.
Neither of them was even pretending to sway to the music at this point. Standing together, bodies molded to each other, was perfect.
She shuddered a breath. This brand of perfect had the power to ruin everything.
“I’m not ready to tell everyone about us,” she said, letting the words out before she had time to think and then overthink them.
“Okay.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “We don’t have to do that right now.”
“I don’t…I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.” She worried at the lipstick on her bottom lip. “What would we even say?”
“That things are good between us.” He traced her neck with his thumb, the path warming. He had a way of touching her that made her muscles release years of tension. The man’s hands were magic.
The tension building in this conversation was starting to make her whole body tighten up. He caught it. He remedied it.
This was life with Travis.
“We’d say that this is going wherever we want to take it,” he continued with that mesmerizing quality of his voice. “We don’t want it to end.”
“That makes it sound so simple,” she said, whispering into the cocoon they’d built around each other.
The muscles in her back continued to release with his touch.
“We can take the next step,” he said. “Just for us. The rest will fall into place when the time is right.”
“We’re doing this.” She couldn’t help it, she pulled herself up on her toes, so her nose brushed against his.
