Travis went to bed with Scarlett on his mind, and she was still there when he woke. With every beat of his heart, their brief kiss played out in his head again. He had kissed plenty of women in his time, probably too many women by most people’s standards, but this was different. This kiss was the stuff of legends. There was still a very real fear that he was in over his head with her, but at the moment, he was finding it hard to care. All he wanted was to get some more time with her, preferably one-on-one.
Travis couldn’t get down to breakfast fast enough and had to fight back a stupid grin when he found Scarlett already there. Traditionally, breakfast on New Year’s Day was served buffet style, and today was no exception. Scarlett was already seated beside Denver, the two of them talking happily. There was no hint of the trouble from the day before, which did Travis’s heart good to see. He was so preoccupied with the scene that he almost bowled Alex over while he served his plate.
“Woah, there, cowboy,” Alex said, his attempt at good-natured ribbing. “Careful now. You’re currently around too many cripples not to look where you’re going.”
Travis flushed and he shook his head. “Sorry, man. I think I’m just tired.”
“I bet,” Alex said sympathetically. There was a flicker of mischief in his eyes, but Travis chose to ignore it. “Yesterday was pretty eventful for you and Scarlett both. I was thinking maybe the two of you might want to take today to unwind. Dad’s not here—he’s at a bridge tournament with his buddies at the senior center. And I thought Juniper and I would have a movie marathon with the kids. Show them all of the holiday classics whether they like it or not.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Travis said, favoring his plate with several biscuits and some strips of bacon. “Someone’s got to do it, right?”
Alex nodded. “Right. And while we’re busy doing that, maybe you would be good enough to show Scarlett around some of the property. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never gotten around to it in all of the time she’s lived here.”
Travis wasn’t a fool. He could see what his older brother was trying to do easily enough. Far from being annoyed, though, he was grateful for the opportunity. It was only breakfast time, and his head was already spinning with where the day might go.
“Yeah, sounds good,” he said, trying to keep his voice casual. “Maybe we’ll pack a lunch and take a trail ride to the old camping cabin.”
Alex nodded his approval. “I knew you would be the right one to show her the place the way it should be seen. Just do me a favor, will you?”
“Another one?” Travis did his best to sound put out, but he knew he wasn’t fooling anyone.
Alex leaned in closer before he answered. “Yup, another one. Just try not to mess this up, alright? She’s a good woman. Treat her like one.”
It was roughly the same sentiment Will had expressed before leaving for school, but Travis wasn’t half so annoyed this time. He knew that Alex was right. Scarlett was a rare kind of person, and he wanted to make sure she knew it.
The next step was getting up the courage to ask Scarlett to join him. When he finally got her alone, his heart hammered in his chest, and he was half-sure she would say no. Instead, her face lit up, and it felt as though the sun were shining just for him. “Seriously? Would you really take that much of your day just to show me around?”
“Well, sure,” he answered quickly. He wanted to get her to agree to the plan before she realized that out of the two of them, he would be the lucky one. “If you’re up for it, that is.”
She nodded eagerly. “I’m totally up for it. I can pack us something for lunch, if that sounds good to you. Only, you have to promise me one thing, if we’re going to be on horses.”
“Anything,” he answered without a moment’s hesitation. “Just name it.”
“You have to agree not to make fun of me when I fall on my face.” She spoke seriously enough, but her smile was radiant, and it was all he could do not to kiss her again right there in front of everyone.
He could feel her excitement as they walked to the barn, the winter air blowing cold and crisp around them. Even so, by the time they got to Snuffles’s stall, her face clearly showed her nerves.
“We don’t have to do this, you know.” He took a chance and reached for her hand. When she not only didn’t pull away, but held on tighter, he felt like throwing himself a parade.
She smiled shyly. “I know we don’t. But I want to. Just, please, make sure I don’t get myself killed.”
“I’m pretty sure I can manage that,” he agreed with a laugh, helping her saddle and then mount Snuffles. “And we’ll go slow. We won’t step outside until you tell me you feel ready.”
She nodded and once again, he led her around the perimeter of the barn. He took her in three full circles before she announced that she felt ready for them to start out on their adventure, which was fine by Travis. He wanted to spend time with her however he could get it.
Scarlett was both shocked and delighted to find that truly riding a horse, instead of just being led on one, wasn’t as terrifying as she’d thought it would be. She had half-believed that as soon as Travis stopped holding the reins, Snuffles would take off at a wild sprint leaving her with nothing to do but hang on for dear life.
Instead, the old mare maintained the same slow, easy gait. Meanwhile, Travis kept his horse right beside hers. He seemed perfectly content to walk beside her, maintaining the slow pace she needed to feel comfortable, and having the kind of conversation people had when they really wanted to get to know one another. She didn’t sense in him any of the previous bravado or over the top flirtation. He asked her real questions, and when she gave him answers, it felt like he was really listening. Despite being on horseback, it was the best time she could ever remember having with a man—friend, date, or otherwise.
Although their destination was on the other side of the property from the main house, it felt like the ride was over far too soon.
“We’re here!” Travis announced with a wide, boyish smile as he dismounted and held up his arms to help her down. “This was my most favorite place on property when I was a kid. Looks like it still is. Wanna check it out?”
She laughed breathlessly at the feeling of his hands moving over her body, if only for long enough to get her back on solid ground. “I do. Show me why it was your favorite place.”
He took her by the hand, leading her up a path so overgrown it was hardly even there anymore. His fingers felt warm and strong against hers, and her heart beat so quickly that she wondered if he could hear it. Everything about this little cottage and the mostly untouched nature growing up around it seemed pulled straight from a fairytale. It was like a dream, and one from which she had no wish to wake up.
Travis finally let her hand go when they got inside, handing the picnic basket over to her and moving toward a little fireplace in the back corner where he quickly got a fire going. The hearth radiated a low warmth, bathing the inside of the small building with flickering luminescence.
“Well, I know it’s not a whole lot to look at, but this is it. This is the old hunter’s cabin.”
Travis stood in the middle of the little building, hardly large enough to warrant being called more than a room. He watched her face expectantly, and she could see how badly he wanted her to like it. She did like it, too, both for what it was and for what it clearly meant to him.
She smiled, setting the basket down and tugging a blanket loose to lay out across the floor. “It’s really lovely, Travis. I wish I could explain how different it is from what I grew up with in Denver. People hear that I’m from Colorado and they think it must be nothing but land for miles, but that definitely wasn’t my experience.”
Scarlett lowered herself onto the blanket and Travis sat beside her, shaking his head. “I can’t even imagine not having wide-open spaces surrounding me. You seriously didn’t have that growing up?”
“Seriously,” she confirmed with a laugh. “We didn’t even have a backyard—just a slab of concrete with a pathetic little half-dead houseplant. I used to be afraid of too much space. It worried me, not knowing where I would hide if something bad happened.”
She bit her lip, wishing she could take that last part back. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him knowing about her upbringing. She was sure she could trust him with that. She just didn’t want to turn the mood between them sad. Not when being around him made her feel so good.
“Hey,” she went on before he could say anything. She pulled things out of the basket as she spoke, spreading it all out and making it look as nice as possible. “Why don’t you tell me more about this place? Why was this house so special to you?”
Travis shrugged self-consciously, but Scarlett could see that he was itching to tell her. “I spent time here with my brothers, having sleepovers without the parents when we were old enough. I think that’s kind of a rite of passage for all kids.”
“Sure,” Scarlett agreed with a small smile.
He reached for her hand across the blanket and scooted closer. It reminded her of being in high school when a boy tried to get close to a girl for the first time, and she didn’t mind it one bit.
“That part was cool,” he went on, “but it’s not what makes this place so special. My mom and I used to come here to go camping, just the two of us. She understood that I felt a little lost in our family. She was the one person in my life who was always in my corner, no questions asked. My dad saw me as a rodeo guy, and he was always behind that—”
“But that’s the only thing he could see you as,” Scarlett finished for him.
He stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “Exactly. My mom saw me for who I really was. That’s what made it so hard to come back home after she died. I actually tried once, a few months after her funeral. Drove all the way to the ranch and made it as far as the front gate, but I couldn’t make myself come to the house. I thought about walking through the front door and her not being there, then about the fact that she would never be there again, and I just couldn’t face it. I thought it would break me beyond fixing.”
She could see how painful the memory was for him, even now, years later, and wanted to make him feel better. But more than that, she just wanted to be near him—touch him, hold him, enjoy this time that they had together. She liked him and she wanted him, and she couldn’t deny those things to herself any longer.
There was no thought that went into what she did next. She simply did what her body knew was right, leaning forward and closing the little distance between them. The kiss started relatively innocently, no more heated than the one from the night before. But this time there was nothing to draw her away, nothing to remind her of the responsible thing to do. There was only her, Travis, and the heat building steadily between them.