“I know. And I know that’s how Kodiak Bears operate. But she still isn’t yours. She’s Travis’s. Always has been,” Maia said.
“Then he should have treated her better,” Lucas said, taking a bite of French bread that he’d dunked in his gumbo.
“I agree. But, for whatever reason, he seems to have gotten himself together. If there’s a chance for them, you have to let her take that chance. Libby’s never gotten over Travis — as much as she denies it, she still loves him. If she was interested in a future with you, she’d have moved past the friend zone with you a long time ago.”
“I know that,” Lucas said. “Really, I do,” he added, looking up at Maia’s disbelieving expression. “She’s a friend, a close friend, and I’ve held her while she cried over him so many damn times. And yeah, maybe I’ve been getting a little too close to her. Been spending too much time with her, but I know the difference between becoming comfortable with her and being in love with her. Don’t get me wrong. I love her, I do. But I love her, I’m not in love, there is a difference. I miss her. I miss someone to watch television with, someone to eat dinner with. You know?” he asked, looking at Maia.
“I do know. And you’ll meet that special someone. You’ll run into her in town, or on the job, or in the diner one day when she stops for gas. It’ll happen,” Maia encouraged.
Lucas nodded. “I didn’t know that was what I wanted. I never, ever wanted to be mated before. In fact, I ran from it any time it looked like some female was trying to tie me down.”
Maia smiled. “Funny how the things we thought we’d never want are the things that end up meaning the most to us.”
“True,” Lucas agreed as he took another bite of his gumbo.
“You’re always welcome to have dinner with us. I don’t want any of you eating alone in your living rooms while staring blindly at the television. Come here after work each day. Just wash up and come on over. You hear?” she asked.
Lucas nodded. “I do. But I don’t want to be a nuisance,” he said.
“You’re not a nuisance. You’re part of our Pride. Until you find your mate, you will spend your evenings with us, you will have dinner with us. Now, if you want to have some alone time, that’s fine, too, but try to make it about fifty-fifty so I’m not out tracking your ass through the property at night to make sure you’re okay because I’ve not seen you in a couple of days,” Maia said with a grin and an eyebrow raised.
“Yes, Reigna,” Lucas answered chuckling.
~~~
Travis pushed the shopping cart behind Libby as she wandered the aisles of the grocery store. He smiled, content to simply follow his woman as she made her selections and placed them in his cart. She chose bananas, cocoa, nuts, chocolate chips, flour, sugar, food coloring, crystallized sugars and candy pearls for decoration, different flavors of coffees and all the ingredients to make a variety of banana bread, cookies, and sweet treats to go with the hot cocoa and the coffees they planned to offer. She even managed to find red and green marshmallows. When they moved to the checkout lane, she stood beside the cart, going over everything she’d placed in it to be sure that she’d not forgotten anything.
“I feel like I’m forgetting something,” she said to herself, more than to Travis.
“Whatever it is, I can run pick it up when you figure it out,” Travis said.
“We’ll need candy canes, too,” she said.
“Got them,” Travis answered.
“We did?” she asked, looking up at him.
“We did. Got them at the department store when we got the table cloths, five hundred cups - did we really need five hundred? — paper plates and napkins, all the glitter, ribbons, orange twine, sequins, and glue they had, and all the tempera paints and paintbrushes to go with them.
“Wipes! We’ll need wipes for when the kids get paint on their hands or their clothes,” Libby said.
“I got it,” he said, letting go of the basket.
“No, I’ll go. Could you start putting this on the conveyor?” she asked.
“Sure,” Travis answered, stepping around the basket to start putting their selections on the conveyor for the cashier to ring up.
A quick few minutes later and Libby was back, her arms loaded with non-bleach wipes so they’d be safe to clean the kids’ hands and clothes when they painted their ornaments.
After paying and loading it all in the back of Travis’s truck, they finally headed back to Travis’s house. They’d only driven a short while when Travis brought up the subject that she couldn’t get out of her head. His kiss in the feed store.
“Are we not going to talk about it?” he asked.
“Talk about what?” Libby answered, playing stupid.
“Our kiss,” Travis said.
“You mean your kiss,” Libby said.
“Our kiss. You kissed me back,” Travis answered with a tease in his voice.
“You were just putting ‘Little Miss I’m Better Than Everyone’ in her place,” Libby said softly.
“Is that what you think?” Travis asked.
“Does it matter?” Libby asked after an uncomfortable pause.
“For the record, Libby. Anytime I kiss you, it’s for one simple reason. I love kissing you. If I see an opportunity to allow me to kiss you, I’m kissing you.”
Libby rode along in silence for a few minutes before deciding to stop skirting the issues. If he brought ‘em up, she’d answer him truthfully. She was tired of the whole situation. Tired of pretending they didn’t know each other. Tired of pretending she was okay with him driving her out of his life. Tired of pretending that she only felt anger toward him. “It’s been a long, long time since you kissed me, Travis. There are a lot of opportunities you’ve intentionally passed up. Don’t forget, I was there, too. I know it for a fact.”
“You’re right. I did,” Travis agreed.
Neither said anything more until they made it to his house.
As he put his truck in park, and Libby reached for the door handle to get out, he finally spoke again. “It won’t be happening again.”
Libby froze with her hand on the door. “I didn’t think it would,” she answered.
“Fair warning. I will not allow another opportunity to kiss you to pass me by without taking full advantage of it,” he explained.
Libby whipped her head in his direction to find him grinning at her, before he got out of the truck and closed the door.
Libby got out and went to the bed of the truck where Travis was gathering bags to bring inside the house.
“Where are you taking those?” she asked.
“Inside,” he answered, lifting some of the bags over the side of the truck and turning toward home.
“No, I was taking them home to do all the baking there. I’ll just bring them back when I’m done. We can freeze the cookies and all, and thaw them as we need them. If we start running low, I’ll make more.”
“That makes no sense at all. Why take them to your house to make them, then have to bring them back. Just make them here,” Travis said.