“Hey, Everly. Busy out there today.”
“Yeah, it’s been like that all summer.”
“Great.”
I can feel that familiar need rushing through me and I try to hide it. After being in lust with Travis for several years and having to work closely with him, I have become a master at concealing it. He shifts behind me, and I can feel heat radiating from him to my back. I’m glad that Travis can’t see my face, but Everly notices. Her gaze zeroes in on me, but I stop her before she can say anything.
“So, you were in Colorado recently?”
She smiles. “Yeah. Had to get out of town for a vajacation.”
“Vajacations?” Travis asks and I smile.
I look over my shoulder at him and fight the urge to move away. He’s so damn close. It’s a blessing and a curse. “You’ve never heard about those?” He shakes his head and I turn to Everly. “Go ahead. Tell him.”
She smiles and without even blushing she says, “See, I learned early on that any relationship with a guy in town is complex. You run into each other after the inevitable break up, and there is no such thing as discreet with the LOLs in this town. So, I go out of town. A vacation for my vagina. A vajacation.”
I bite my lip as I watch the horrified expression on Travis’ face. I know he thinks of her as a little sister, so it is kind of weird hearing the explanation.
“I don’t want to even hear about that,” he says, his voice strained.
I laugh. “Didn’t you have another name for them at one time?”
“Oh, yeah. I wanted to call them fuckations, but Becca said that would be crass.”
“Good lord,” Travis mutters. “Do your brothers know about this?”
“Oh, you mean do my brothers know that I am a healthy twenty-seven-year-old woman who has no plans to settle down and still have a sex life? You know, like both of my single brothers? Yeah, they know. And if they don’t like it, they can go eat a bag of dicks.”
I laugh out loud. Sibling relationships are always hilarious to me. I have a few half siblings and step siblings, but I have no relationship with them. Not really. My friends all have insane sibling rivalries.
“I thought Syd was bad.” He points at me. “Don’t tell her I said that.”
I widen my eyes. “Me? I would never.”
He rolls his eyes. “Never mind. Going to check out.”
“Okay.”
Once we are alone, Everly smirks at me. “So, you have the hots for Travis.”
Not a question. Definitely a statement, and if I don’t stop her, it will end up a rumor and then I will die from embarrassment.
“I do not.”
She chuckles. “I should have picked up on it with a best friend who has had the hots for my older brother, but I didn’t.”
“I hate him.” But even as I say it, I recognize that my voice lacks conviction.
“There’s a thin line between love and hate.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Seriously? You have vajacations.”
Her smile widens. “No reason to get so defensive, babe. And I do that because I definitely don’t want to date anyone in town, or sleep with them. That gets awkward. Like really awkward. You know that. I don’t plan on getting married or having babies. It’s just easier.”
I don’t condemn her for her choice at all. It’s smart since she says she is not made for marriage or a family. Living in Juniper and running one of the most successful businesses would make it difficult to avoid whoever she’d slept with. But I don’t need anyone getting ideas about Travis and me. If they do, the rumors would start to fly and then we would have to put out a statement. That would be humiliating.
“Whatever,” I say, stomping off. Her cackle is her only response. My face is still burning when I find Travis cornered by Jenny Harper, who is all of seventeen. Her mother was a barracuda from what I heard and apparently, Jenny doesn’t fall too far from that crazy tree. I should leave him to her flirting. But the look of panic on his face is too cute. Lots of people think Travis is some kind of stud and has always been that way, but he wasn’t. He grew up poor and awkward and super nerdy. It’s hard to believe the sexy man I work with every day was ever like that. Although, he was pretty damned adorable.
There’s a part of me that wants to leave him to her devices, but since he’s my ride, I figure I better help him.
“Time to roll, Travis.”
Relief fills his expression. “Sorry, uh, Jenny? Yeah, sorry,” he says slipping away from her.
When we are on the sidewalk again, he says, “I owe you my first born.”
A rush of happiness hurtles through me before I can stop it. The idea of actually having that first born—and how to go about creating that baby—leaves my heart trembling. I clear my throat trying to dislodge the idea.
“Interesting. Why would I want your first born? I mean, that sounds like something you do to punish someone.”
He continues walking beside me and not saying anything. It’s weird because he seems to always have some kind of barb comeback. That’s how we work. It’s what has garnered us our many fans.
“Come on, you know you do. I mean, who wouldn’t want a little Travis or Travita to raise.”
I stop in my tracks. “Travita? What the hell, Travis? Don’t do that to a girl. That’s just horrible.”
He leans down closer to me, his mouth curving into his signature smile, the one I know he uses when he is truly happy. It isn’t the one he flashes at the camera, or the one that tells me he is just a few minutes away from killing someone. This one is the one I have known for a huge chunk of my life. His eyes light up, his dimples wink at me, and the breath I was just about to take seems to get backed up in my lungs. When I can finally gulp in a breath—it takes some effort—I draw in that sawdust scent of his. The one mixed with pine and Travis’ unique musk. Seriously, he should bottle that up and sell it. He’d probably become a millionaire overnight.
“Nancy?”
He’s looking at me like I’ve lost my damn mind, and maybe I have. I’ve gone over a year without sex, and if I remember the last encounter, it wasn’t anything to write home about. Hell, it isn’t anything I should even think about. It was bad. Or at least, I think it was. I guess the worst thing I could say about it is that it was unremarkable. Completely forgettable. Now, I know part of the reason I am like this is I have been in lust with Travis for a while, but part of it is the dry spell I’m going through. Fame doesn’t make it easy to find a man to sleep with, either for a fling or a long-term relationship. It’s hard to get involved with people outside of the business, and those in it…well, I don’t trust a lot of them. Travis and I have the most popular show on At Home. Lots of people would love to break us up and then snap us up. Although, I doubt I would do a show without Travis.
We make it back to his truck without having to stop three or four times. He isn’t saying much, and I don’t know what is going on with him. But, right now, I need to keep my head screwed on straight and think about myself. Otherwise, I’ll put his concerns before mine and, for the first time in my life, I have to be sure I consider my wants and desires before him. It goes against my nature, especially when dealing with someone I care about, but I’m at my breaking point.