~~~
Travis looked at the clock on the wall. It was 4:20P.M. He’d waited an extra twenty minutes to make sure that Libby hadn’t changed her mind. And here he still sat, alone. Scotty had been called in to work for the evening, and they needed every penny they could get to pull this off, so he’d gone in, glad of the extra hours. Which left Travis to do the best he could to find supplies for their Christmas Village.
Travis walked over to the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the living room and grabbed his keys. “May as well get a start on it,” Travis said. He opened his front door and walked out onto the porch just as a blue jeep pulled into his drive. The blood started rushing in his ears, and he wanted to shout his happiness to the treetops, but he didn’t. Instead he walked out into the middle of his yard, and waited for her to park and get out of her jeep.
~~~
Libby looked around herself and realized she’d been so lost in the past that she’d not even realized the direction she was driving in. Instead of going into town, she’d taken the turnoff and was only about a mile from Travis’s house. She glanced quickly in the rear view and realized she’d been crying again. She lifted the edge of her shirt and blotted her eyes and her face before running her fingers through her hair.
She steered her jeep carefully off the old, two lane highway and into the place she’d parked her jeep in for as long as she could remember when she used to feel welcomed here. When she turned off the engine, and got out of the car, she noticed Travis standing in the yard beside his truck.
“Hey” she said, getting out of the jeep and standing there looking as awkward as she felt.
“Hey,” he answered. He could tell she was nervous. “Decided to take pity on me so I didn’t buy pink and yellow decorations for Christmas?” he joked.
“Yeah, something like that,” Libby answered, offering a hesitant smile. “Where’s Scotty?” she asked.
“He got called into work this afternoon. We could really use the money, so, I’m flying solo. I’m really glad of your help,” Travis said.
“Oh,” Libby answered, looking around herself, glancing anywhere but directly into his eyes.
“So, I’ll drive?” he asked, taking a step toward his truck.
“Yeah, okay,” she answered. Then she made him really grin. “Shotgun!” she called out, getting to the truck before he did.
Once settled in the truck, Travis reached down to his right and started to move his papers and gloves, cell phone, and the things he carried with him from the middle of the bench seat. “Let me get these out of the way,” he said, gathering them up and sliding them into the storage panel on his door. When he was done, he glanced over at Libby with a bright smile, and found her watching him with her eyebrows raised. He realized at that moment, he’d cleared the space beside him for her to sit in just as she used to before he’d enlisted and been sent overseas — before he’d blown their relationship all to hell and back.
He looked down at the space between them, then directly into her eyes. He didn’t say a word, it wasn’t necessary. He simply faced forward and put the truck in gear.
They’d just begun to back out when he spoke again. “I’m really glad you decided to come with me, Libby.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d still be home,” she admitted.
“I waited in case you changed your mind,” he said, giving her a meaningful glance before looking at the road again.
“Good thing I decided to come then. It’s not much fun when you wait for nothing,” she said. The minute she heard her own words she squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“No, don’t be. It’s the truth. So, where to first? Craft stuff, building supplies, or grocery?” Travis asked, doing his best to make this afternoon as pleasant as he could.
“Building supplies, I think,” Libby answered.
“Building supplies it is,” Travis said.
Chapter 6
Maia stirred the pot of chicken and andouille gumbo. She took out a clean teaspoon and scooped up some of the luscious broth, bringing it to her lips to taste. “Mmm!” she moaned at the flavor of the rich tastes all combined into one. “Mama has made one hell of a gumbo, Bastian,” Maia said. She checked the rice and reduced the heat below the pot to simmer before turning back to Sebastian who was sitting in his infant carrier, watching her with his little eyebrows pulled down low over his eyes.
Maia chuckled at him. He was growling at her each time she tasted something he didn’t get to taste. “You’re not supposed to have it! It’s too rich for you.”
Bastian squirmed, kicking his feet out, and his tiny chest rumbled to let her know he was not happy.
“Here,” she said, “eat a teething biscuit.”
Maia handed Bastian one of his teething biscuits, and he looked at it critically before sticking the end of it into his mouth and beginning to gnaw on it.
“See? It’s a good biscuit, isn't it?” she asked as she spread butter on French bread.
“Unh!” he said, while thrusting his teething biscuit toward her.
“You want some butter on it?” she asked, looking around to be sure no one was watching. Then she pulled her own eyebrows down. “You know what? You’re mine. If I want to put a touch of butter on your teething biscuit, I can put a touch of butter on your biscuit!” she said, taking the hard cookie from Sebastian. She used the butter knife she’d been using and really just put the rest of whatever remained on the dull blade on the end of his biscuit, but it didn’t matter. He’d seen her add some of the food she’d had onto his biscuit, and that was all he needed.
As Maia handed it back to him, he cooed at her and took the finger shaped biscuit from her with his eyes alight like it was the best thing in the whole world, immediately shoving it into his mouth.
He gnawed happily away while Maia smiled at him. “I agree. Butter is life. Just saying.”
“Maia?” Riley called as he walked through the front door.
“In the kitchen,” she answered. Then she looked at Sebastian. “Daddy’s home!”
“Hey, baby,” Riley said, striding right up to Maia and pulling her into his arms for the kind of kiss that just thinking about it makes you breathless. “Missed you,” he said, finally pulling his mouth from hers.
“I missed you, too,” Maia answered.
“Hey, little man!” Riley said, reaching toward the infant carrier and unbuckling Sebastian’s safety strap. He lifted Sebastian from the carrier and into his arms. “How’s my little man?” he asked.
Sebastian, grinning from ear-to-ear with drool dripping from his chin and waving his teething biscuit over his head, launched into a minute long babble of serious sounding baby speak. He finally stopped when he showed his daddy his half-eaten biscuit.
“Really?” Riley asked. “Okay, alright. I see! It looks really delicious.”
The back door opened and Cristie burst through it. “Doddy!” she called out, running toward him with her hands full of leaves.