TRAVIS CLOSED THE cabinet door under the kitchen sink and got to his feet. The fix was simple enough—the kitchen plumbing would have to be replaced and he imagined the bathrooms would be the same. He’d offer to do it, but with the haying coming up fast, as well as the wedding, it was possible that his grandfather would simply hire the job done. He could afford it. The ranch was doing well, and Will had been careful with his money, to the point that the McGuires offered a four-year scholarship to a deserving student every year. Cassie had been the first recipient, because Will had thought that giving it to Travis wouldn’t look right. But the ranch had helped pay for Travis’s education, and a rodeo scholarship had covered the rest. They’d both done okay, except that Cassie had used her education, while he only used facets of his.
As Cassie had said earlier when they parted ways, such was life. Situations cropped up; decisions were made. Cassie had chosen her career over family life and he’d done the opposite.
They’d both given up something.
Travis went upstairs to check the bathroom plumbing, his boots echoing on the wooden steps. Things looked good under that cabinet, but he was going to suggest that his grandfather change out all the sink plumbing to keep leaks at bay.
He came back down the stairs and stood for a moment in the living room, debating next moves. It was early and he wasn’t ready to drive back to the ranch. Cassie might have said no to a drink, but there was no reason he couldn’t stop by the Shamrock Pub and see if his old rodeo friend Gus Hawkins was tending bar. Maybe a beer would help take the edge off, because after his dinner with Cassie, he was just this side of tense. It had been difficult to carry on as usual when he really wanted to interact on a more personal level.
Why was he so drawn to her?
He’d decided long ago that it was more than the sense of protectiveness that had flooded him when she’d taken the facer during graduation, although that had been the turning point. After that, her face and mannerisms had become a source of fascination. He enjoyed the way her eyes narrowed and gleamed as she plotted strategy, and the suspicious tilt of her full lips when she thought he was playing her. More than that, he liked it when she let go and laughed and they shared a moment, however brief.
She hadn’t laughed much tonight, but he had enjoyed it when the old Cassie peeked out from behind the professional facade Cassie had erected. He hadn’t been kidding when he said that she came off as stiff, and that stiffness, he assumed, was a defense she’d developed to tamp down her natural impulses to accept every challenge, fight every battle. In the professional world, particularly education, an attitude like that might be a hindrance to career advancement, at least until a person reached the upper echelons, and Cassie was all about her career.
And there it was. Cassie. Career. That was what he was up against and a small part of him whispered that it was best to leave things as they were and not complicate both of their lives by engaging.
HAVING GROWN UP RURAL, Cassie did what everyone did when they made a trip to town—she stopped by Hardwick’s Grocery to grab a few needed items before driving back to the ranch. Walking the aisles had been remarkably soothing after being on high alert with Travis for over an hour, and when she returned to her car with a bag of life essentials—microwave popcorn, chocolate and the diet soda Katie didn’t like—she felt more in control. It was amazing how an hour with Travis had tilted her world. Even more amazing was the fact that she was still thinking about his fingers grazing her back and how she’d responded.
Unacceptable.
Right.
She started her car and headed out of the parking lot, telling herself that she had the situation under control and that tomorrow’s session with Travis and the horse was no big deal.
She was approaching the Gavin city limits sign, set a hopeful half mile outside what one would consider the limits of the city, when her phone rang. She answered via her sound system, then pulled off the road as a familiar voice said hello.
“Darby?”
“Yes! I’m in town and I’d love to get together tonight. Is that possible?”
“You’re in town? I thought you weren’t due until next week.” She had a note on her calendar.
“Kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
“Imagine that.” Cassie’s very best friend from high school was also her polar opposite. Darby used to joke that, between the two of them, they made a normal person. Maybe that was why they’d been inseparable.
“I got a call for an interview in Missoula earlier today, and given the current state of my company, I decided I’d better jump on this before my ship sinks.”
“I can understand that.” Darby worked in the corporate office of a major department store, but online shopping was putting a squeeze on them, and it was anyone’s guess as to whether the store would survive. “I bet the job being in Montana doesn’t hurt your feelings.”
Darby had never wanted to leave Gavin, but career opportunities in their small hometown were minimal. At least Missoula was only a couple of miles away.
“I have my fingers and my toes crossed,” Darby said with a laugh. “I know it’s a drive for you, but I’d love to talk face-to-face.”
“I think this was meant to be because I’m on the edge of town.”
“Excellent! I’m at my brother’s and he’s in the process of going over my car because it’s making a funny noise. He does not want to go out for a drink when he’s done, but I do.”
“I’m turning around now.”
“Are you talking on the phone while driving?” Darby asked sternly.
“No. I’m not. I pulled off at the city limits. I’ll pick you up in five.”
“I can’t wait to catch up.”
It’d be more a matter of Darby catching up with Cassie than vice versa. Darby emailed often, while Cassie kept waiting for the perfect moment to write back. And, stunner, the perfect moment rarely arrived. She communicated, but not as frequently as her friend. For that reason, she would be buying the drinks. One each, because she had a long drive home.
Darby was waiting for her in the driveway and Cassie was struck by how little her friend had changed. Her reddish-brown hair was caught up in the artless bun that suited her angular face, and her bangs brushed her eyebrows as they had since she and Cassie had become besties in the fourth grade. When Darby wore makeup, she was stunning. When she didn’t, she was striking. Tonight she was striking.
Cassie had barely gotten out of the car before she got a hug. “It’s been too long,” Darby said. “You look great.”
There was a scuffling sound from under Darby’s car and her brother Finn appeared on the other side. “Hey,” he said with his easy grin.
“Hey yourself. Are you sure you don’t want to come out with us?”
“Are you kidding? Every time I go out with you guys, I end up in trouble.”
“Not true.”
“Yeah?” He lifted his eyebrows. “Name a time.”
“Funny,” Darby said with a mock sneer. Then, as she walked with Cassie to the car, she said sotto voce, “You can think of a time, right?”
“Maybe...” Not really. Poor Finn had never done well with the two of them, having gotten into trouble more times than he should have. It wasn’t that she and Darby had made trouble...it was more like they’d stumbled into it and Finn followed.
“I’m a rule follower now,” Cassie said.
“You’ve always had a predilection for rules, but lately—” Darby opened the door “—I’ve noticed an alarming escalation.” She grinned at Cassie as she closed her door.
“I can’t be in charge of district-wide discipline policies and do some of the stuff we used to do.”
“Guess we won’t be toilet papering any houses or anything tonight.”
“Nope. Not unless I’m certain we won’t get caught.”
Darby laughed, and Cassie noticed that it wasn’t her full-on life-is-great laugh. Having a shaky job situation was stressful. “Where to?” she asked.
“Surprise me.”
Cassie put the car in gear. “One surprise, coming up.”
“YOU HAD DINNER with Cassie Callahan?” Gus Hawkins, half owner of the Shamrock Pub, set a draft in front of Travis, then wiped the polished wood with a damp towel, taking care not to make eye contact. Probably because he had a stupid smile on his face.
“Our grandparents are getting married, so Cassie and I are putting our rivalry behind us.”
“You went to dinner to celebrate this newfound peace?” Gus lifted a skeptical eyebrow, then reached for his water bottle.
“It’s a little early for celebration.”
“Still have a few kinks to work out?” Gus guessed.
“It is Cassie we’re talking about.” Travis picked up his beer.
“But things have kind of softened between you, right?”
“Can you imagine them any more tense than they’ve been?” Back when they’d fed off each other, acting and reacting.
“Not without one of you exploding,” Gus said before drifting down the bar to take an order.
“Is Thad okay?” Travis asked when he came back.
Gus frowned at the mention of his great-uncle, who owned the other half of the pub. “Yeah. Why do you ask?”
“I thought you’d given up bartending to ranch full-time.”
Gus gave him a self-conscious grin. “Lillie Jean is kind of pregnant and I’m taking the occasional shift to make extra money for baby stuff.”
“Kind of pregnant?”
“Not showing, but totally into it. The sewing machine is going full-time.”
“And you?”
Gus’s smile widened. “It’s scary, but exciting. And Thad...” He laughed. “He’s been waiting a long time for a great-grandniece or nephew. I think he’s going to change the big wooden ranch sign to include the baby’s name.”
“Better hope he or she wants to ranch.”
Gus tipped the water bottle again, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “My kid will want to ranch.”
A commotion at the far side of the room brought Gus’s head up. Raymond Quentin was being his usual asinine self, trying to hit on Vince Taylor’s daughter Mellie. Travis shook his head and focused back on his beer.
“I’ll be tossing him out before the night is over,” Gus predicted.
“My money is on Mellie. She’ll toss him out.”
Gus laughed. Mellie was a princess, but not someone to mess with. “More like neuter him. I think it’s going down now.”
Indeed. She said something to Ray, his face went red and then he made a sneering reply before heading back to his laughing group of friends near the pool tables. From the shoulder punching and finger pointing, it was fairly obvious that a bet had been made and that Ray had failed in his mission.
Travis turned back to the bar, but Gus watched for a few seconds more before turning his attention back to his friend. The place was busy, but not so much so that Gus couldn’t carry on a conversation.
“I hope he’s learned his lesson.” Gus leaned his shoulder on one of the decorative columns behind the bar. “How are things on the ranch?”
“Busy.” Travis tipped his mug. “And the wedding will be on the ranch, so that just adds to the...”
His words trailed and his beer mug didn’t quite reach his lips before he put it back down again.
“What?” Gus asked, automatically looking to the door.
“Nothing.” Except that his dinner date, the one who had to go home, wasn’t at home. She was here. Cassie and her friend Darby stopped inside the door, exchanged looks, then made their way to a table.
“Right,” Gus said. “Listen. If you guys challenge one another tonight, make it pool or darts. Not drinking, okay?”
Travis gave his friend a dark look.
“Old habits can be hard to break,” Gus said before tilting up his water bottle.
Travis’s mouth curled into a smirk. “Thanks for the moral support.”
“Anytime.” Gus punctuated the words with a couple of swipes of the bar rag, then headed down the bar to where a patron waited at the far end.
Travis had a couple of choices. He could have his drink at the bar and slip out, or he could amble over and have a pleasant word with Cassie. She hadn’t gone home. Big deal.
But why couldn’t she have simply said that she had plans?
Because her plans are none of your business.
He was about to turn back to the bar, when Cassie spotted him from across the room, and from the way her eyes widened and her lips parted for a brief instant, it appeared that she was having a small attack of the guilts. Travis stepped down off his stool. Best to clear the air. No hard feelings and all of that.
“No bar fights,” Gus said in a half-serious voice.
Travis lifted a hand to indicate he’d heard, then wound his way through the tables toward Cassie and Darby. This was an excellent time to practice the fake politeness of which they spoke.
“I DON’T BELIEVE IT,” Cassie said in a low voice. Darby—who was surreptitiously watching Ray Quentin, a man she’d once disastrously dated believing that he was misunderstood and redeemable—followed her gaze.
“Oh,” she said simply. “It’s Travis.”
“It is. I had dinner with him and told him I was going home.”
“I guess he knows that’s not true,” Darby said.
“Guess so.” Did she owe him an explanation? In the name of peaceful relations, she might.
Darby gave her a perplexed look. “You had dinner with him?”
Cassie gripped her drink with both hands, the ice in the gin and tonic the server had just delivered chilling her fingers. “We are on the cusp of developing a new working relationship.”
“Meaning?”
“When we’re around family, we’ll be nice to one another.” She didn’t mention the part about spending time together to practice getting along, because she was still mulling over the situation in her head.
“That will be new and different.”
Cassie gave her friend a look, then glanced up as Travis neared the table. “Hey,” she said when he was close enough to hear. “Guess I owe you an explanation.”
“Nope.”
He honestly looked as if he didn’t want to hear one, but she continued to explain, just so that the facts were out there. “Darby called as I was leaving town.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation,” he said firmly, which made her feel more self-conscious than before, as if she was protesting too much, which she was.
“Right.” She lifted her chin. “Would you like to join us?”
Travis shook his head. “I’m catching up with Gus. But thanks.”
“Why’d you come over?” She had to ask, even though she had a feeling she was going to regret doing so.
“So that you wouldn’t feel self-conscious about being here after saying you were going home.”
Her cheeks began to heat as she said, “Oh.” She wasn’t used to being thrown off her game by someone being nice, and it was kind of annoying. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. See you later.” He gave her a cool nod, then smiled at Darby. “Good to see you, Darby.”
“Yeah,” Darby echoed with a smile. As soon as Travis was out of earshot, she leaned closer and said, “How is he still single?”
“I guess,” Cassie said through her teeth so no one could hear her, “that the right woman hasn’t come along.”
“Huh.” Darby took a sip from her drink. She glanced at Ray again. “I hope he doesn’t notice me.”
“Do you want to leave?” Because Cassie wouldn’t mind leaving one bit.
“After my drink.” She lifted her diet cola. “I’m not going to let a blast from the past keep me from doing what I want to do.”
“Good for you.” But having Travis and Ray there had put a damper on their moods. “When will you be driving back through Gavin?”
“The interview is tomorrow at one, if Finn gets my car up and running. If not, I’ll borrow his. I’ll be back tomorrow evening or early the next morning. I’m burning vacation days for this, but I’m afraid that if I don’t, I’ll be getting those vacay days in a severance package, so I don’t mind.”
“That’s tough.”
Darby drew in a breath and exhaled. “It’s the way it goes. But maybe this is a silver-lined cloud. I’d really like to get something closer to home.” She picked up her drink, then sipped through the straw. “I’d like to live here, so that I’m closer to family, but I’ll never find anything in my field here.” Like Katie, Darby had built a career in the human resources department of her company, but specialized in recruiting. Unfortunately, as business decreased, so did recruiting opportunities.
“Do you like your field?” Darby frowned and Cassie continued, “Katie quit her corporate job and started fresh. She’s really happy.”
“She also has a ranch to live on rent-free.”
“True. I wasn’t trying to make it sound easy. But if you’re going to change jobs, you might take a long hard look at what you want to do for the next decade. Maybe you want to continue in your chosen field, maybe not.”
“My job is my job. I’m happy working nine to five and starting my real life after the workday is over.” She stirred the ice in her drink with the straw. “But you’re lucky to have found something you love.”
Something I love that is on the verge of giving me ulcers.
The thought crept into Cassie’s head, and she ushered it right back out again. All jobs had their ups and down, their pros and cons.
“I am,” she said simply.
“Hey, Darby. Knocked anything over lately?” Darby’s hand jerked at the sound of Ray Quentin’s voice from directly behind her, sending her diet coke flying. Ray started laughing as Cassie jumped to her feet while Darby sat staring at the cola-covered table as if in shock.
“Don’t just stand there laughing like an idiot,” Cassie growled. “Go to the bar and get something to clean this up.”
“I’m not cleaning up.” Ray gave her an incredulous look.
Cassie drew herself up to her full administrator height. “Yeah. You are. This is your fault. You need to help take care of it.” From the corner of her eye she saw Darby shake the cola off her hands and then get to her feet.
“I’ll get a bar rag,” she said.
“Don’t.” Cassie spoke in a no-nonsense voice. Darby did not need to clean up her ex’s mess, but her friend ignored her and headed across the room. But at least she was out of harm’s way.
Cassie brought her attention back to Ray. She had to tip her head back to do so, but she’d stared down more than one big blowhard in her career. Most of them crumbled. Eventually.
Ray puffed out his chest and stepped closer. “How is Darby’s clumsiness my fault?” he asked in a low voice.
Cassie raised her eyebrows. “You purposely scared her to get laughs from your friends. Kind of low-hanging fruit, wouldn’t you say? Can’t you do better?” All her training had taught her not to draw lines in the sand. Not to set up a situation where a person had to act in order to avoid being humiliated.
It felt good to ignore her training and go with her gut. This jerk had hurt Darby for the last time.
“You might be surprised at what I can do.”
She sensed someone coming up behind her and gave a quick glance over her shoulder before immediately reestablishing eye contact with Ray. “I’ve got this,” she muttered to Travis, who was now standing at her shoulder.
“You don’t,” he murmured back.
“Leave this to me,” Cassie said. She meant it.
“You are in over your head,” Travis whispered as they both stared down Ray. “Gus will take care of this.”
“Then why are you here?”
Ray had watched their between-the-teeth exchange with a look of growing amusement. “Are you here to help, Travis?” he asked in a loud voice.
“Travis, please. Let me handle this,” Cassie said without looking at him. She felt him move closer instead of farther away.
“Travis, please,” Ray said in a mocking voice. “Go back to your bar stool and let the little woman handle this. Or should I say...” His mouth twisted into an ugly smirk before he completed the sentence with a word that few people said in public. Even in a bar.
Something snapped in Cassie’s brain as the word left his liver lips, and before she was aware of moving, the contents of her glass covered the front of Ray’s plaid cowboy shirt. Ice cubes clattered on the table and fell to the floor at his feet.
Cassie’s gaze jerked down at her empty glass. Had she really just done that?
Another ice cube clinked to the floor.
Oh yes, she had.
Ray looked down at his shirt, took a moment to flick away the lime wedge caught on his trophy rodeo buckle, then slowly raised his gaze.
His eyes were like black bits of coal on the edge of igniting. Travis’s hand settled on Cassie’s shoulder as Ray shoved the table out of the way, leaving nothing between the two of them but air and anger. Travis pulled, Cassie dug in, more because her brain had frozen than because she wanted to stand in front of the human equivalent of an angry bull.
“Move!” Travis pushed her to one side and her shoe hit the spot where the drink had landed, causing her foot to skid sideways. She almost went down, hitting her elbow on the table before she clutched at it and righted herself. As she fought to catch her balance, she got bumped again, then heard the distinctive sound of a fist connecting with flesh. Travis’s flesh.
Ray reared back to swing again, but Travis launched himself at the man, catching him off-balance. He grabbed ahold of Ray’s arm as the man staggered and wrenched it up between his shoulder blades. Ray let out a roar, but Travis held fast.
“Back off, Cassie,” Travis said from between clenched teeth.
For once in her life, she did as Travis said, moving numbly away from the two men. Darby took hold of her arm and pulled her to the edge of the circle of people who were trying to get a closer look at the action.
“Don’t even think about it,” Gus Hawkins said to Ray’s friends as he came around the bar with his small bat. He needn’t have bothered, as they were in the process of drifting toward the rear exit, abandoning their buddy.
“If he’ll go peacefully, just let him leave with his friends,” Travis said, the strain of holding the man reflected in his voice.
“You have to call the authorities,” Cassie said. “You can’t let him get away with this.”
“Let him leave,” Travis repeated in a deadly voice.
“There’s a deputy on his way,” Gus said to Ray. “If I were you, I’d be gone before he gets here.”
“You gonna file charges?”
“Am I going to see you in here anytime soon?”
“No.” Ray practically spit the word.
Gus nodded and Travis slowly released the man.
Ray rolled his shoulders before turning to Cassie and giving her a look that made her back up a half step. Then the big man abruptly turned and stalked toward the door his friends had slipped out.
Travis was breathing hard. When the door closed behind Ray, he put his hands on his thighs and dropped his head to catch his breath.
“Sorry I didn’t get out here sooner,” Gus said. “I was dealing with a faulty tapline in the basement when Darby came barreling down the stairs to get me.” He, too, was breathing hard.
“No worries,” Travis said.
No worries if you didn’t count the fact that his face was swelling up at an alarming rate.
“You should have pressed charges,” Cassie said. “He assaulted you.”
Travis raised his head to give her a cold look. “And you committed a battery.”
“What?” She glanced at Gus, who nodded.
“Throwing a drink is assault,” he said grimly. “You’re an educator and with social media being what it is, and all his friends filming with their phones—”
Cassie raised her hands. “I get it.” There was nothing the people she’d crossed in her school district would like better than to have some ammo against her. “I...I’m so sorry, Gus.”
“You didn’t start it,” he said gruffly.
Travis said nothing. He simply stood with a grim expression on his rapidly swelling face. She couldn’t tell if he was angry at her or Ray or the way things had gone down, but he was definitely fuming. “Do you want to go to the clinic?” she asked in a small voice.
“I do not.”
“It’s over, folks,” Gus said to the gawking patrons who hadn’t resumed drinking. “Sorry about the disturbance. The guy’s lucky Thad wasn’t here.”
The mention of his elderly uncle got a few laughs and people once again settled into their seats. Darby and the server busied themselves wiping up the mess that Cassie and Ray had made, leaving Cassie to face Travis.
Before she could stutter out some of the words swirling through her brain, he met her gaze dead-on. “Don’t say a word.”
She said a word. “Fine.”
His mouth flattened as he once again ran a hand over his swelling eye, causing a wave of guilt to wash over her. She’d allowed herself to lose control and Travis had paid the price.
“I’m so sorry,” Darby said to Travis after the server had taken the wet cleaning towel from her and headed back to the bar. “I didn’t mean—”
“This isn’t your fault,” Travis interrupted in a gentler tone. He briefly met Cassie’s gaze, shook his head, then turned and walked back to the bar. Gus pushed the table back into place and righted a chair that had been knocked over.
“We need to leave,” Cassie said to Darby, who still seemed to be shaking off the shock of what had happened.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Gus said. “Just in case.”
“Thank you,” Cassie and Darby murmured at the same time.
As they reached the door, Cassie glanced back to see Travis accepting a plastic bag of ice from the pretty sever, which he then pressed to his face. He didn’t look at her, but he must have seen her in the mirror behind the bar, because she swore his shoulders tightened before she finally pulled her gaze away and went out the door Darby was holding open.
“Not your fault,” her friend said after they were safe in the car. “Things just...happened.”
“Thanks.”
But regardless of whose fault it was or wasn’t, she owed Travis McGuire one big apology and that was not a comfortable feeling.
TRAVIS MUTTERED A low curse when he rounded the last corner before the ranch and saw that the lights were still on. Of all the nights for his grandfather, who was usually in bed by nine unless he went to a county commissioner meeting, to stay up, it had to be tonight, when Travis was in no mood to answer questions. His grandfather wasn’t a man who was easily put off when he wanted answers, and Travis was fairly certain that he’d want to know why his grandson was returning from a date with a black eye.
Maybe Will had fallen asleep watching TV.
Travis shot a look at the dash clock. It wasn’t that late, but Will was a creature of habit. In bed by nine at the latest. It was ten thirty. A whisper of hope went through him.
If Will was asleep, then he could slip into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom undetected, and then he could deal with the inevitable black-eye questions in the morning, because they were coming. He’d still have the black eye, but he’d also have time to cool down. The slow drive home had allowed him time to fume and his anger was still simmering.
He was ticked at himself for not intervening as soon as he saw Ray Quentin leave his friends, his target obviously Darby, his former girlfriend. Maybe he could have headed the man off. And he was angry at Cassie for not backing down from a dangerous situation after Darby had removed herself from harm’s way.
How hard would it have been to step back when he got there instead of facing off with that mountain? He might have been able to defuse the situation if she had. It wouldn’t have been the first time he and Ray had exchanged pleasantries in the bar, and he’d always been able to bring the man around to his way of thinking. But no.
But he couldn’t blame Cassie for throwing the drink. It’d been all he could do not to throttle the man when the filthy word left his lips, but instead he focused on getting Cassie out of the line of fire—which put him directly into it.
Mostly, though, he was angry with Ray Quentin and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. If he’d had Ray charged, then Ray would have retaliated against Cassie, and Travis wasn’t going to have that.
Better to have Ray banned from the bar.
Travis eased open the kitchen door, hoping the blare of the television would drown out the sounds of him slipping through the kitchen, but instead he heard the distinctive heavy tread of his grandfather’s socked feet crossing the living room.
Excellent. Short of switching off the light and making a dash for the stairs under the guise of desperate times calling for desperate measures, he had no choice but to collect himself and calmly answer questions.
“How’d the date go?” Will asked as he walked into the room.
“Not exactly as planned.” Travis pulled off his hat and raised his chin, and Will let out a sharp exclamation.
“Did Cassie Callahan do that?” Will’s shocked expression would have been comical under different circumstances.
“Not purposely.” He’d give her that.
His grandfather approached slowly, as if a bruised eye was contagious. He put a finger to Travis’s chin and turned his head slightly.
“That’s going to be one nice shiner. Who did it?”
“Ray Quentin. Long story.”
“I have nothing but time,” Will said, standing back and regarding his grandson with a perplexed frown.
Travis turned to hang his hat on the hooks by the door, then succinctly outlined the events in the bar. Ray had picked on Darby; Cassie had jumped to her defense. Ray called her a filthy name and Cassie had then assaulted Ray with her drink. Shortly thereafter, Travis was the proud bearer of a swollen eye.
When he was done, Travis idly rubbed his hand over the sore spot. There really wasn’t much more to say than that he was pretty ticked off with Cassie taking her stubborn stand and Will didn’t need to know that.
“Want to put a steak on that?”
“Maybe an ice pack,” Travis allowed, heading to the freezer and pulling out a frozen bag of peas. Close enough.
“Do I dare ask how dinner went?”
“Well enough. Cassie didn’t start any fights. There.” Travis sucked in a breath as the cold plastic made contact with his tender flesh.
“Sounds like there were extenuating circumstances in the bar.”
“Yeah. And if she’d backed down instead of drawing a line, then maybe... I don’t know.” He wasn’t going to get into it with his grandfather. “It’s done.”
“Is it?”
Travis pressed the peas more firmly to the rapidly numbing side of his face. “For now. Yes.”
“And later?”
Good question. Excellent question.
“Don’t worry. We’ll work things out.” He pressed the peas more firmly to his eye as the cold numbed the flesh.
Will gave a short snort. “I can’t wait to see what that looks like.”
Travis’s mouth tightened but he refrained from giving a response, because frankly, he was of the same mind.