Chapter 17
Travis
"I can’t believe you drove all this way just for this." She shakes her head at me, and I can’t help but smile at her. The minute I saw her, all I could do was smile.
"Well," I start to say. "I really, really wanted to see you." I give her a second to answer, suddenly nervous that she is actually going to say no. "Does that silence mean a yes?"
"I need to change." She points at the blue scrubs she’s wearing.
"That’s fine," I say. "I have to check into the hotel anyway."
"Hotel?" She tilts her head to the side. "You booked a room?" she asks, shocked.
"Well, yeah." I look around her waiting room and my heart can’t calm down. Did I want to rent a room? No. Did I want to stay with her and take her in my arms the minute I saw her? Yes. Was I going to let her push me away? No. Was she going to fight me the whole way? Probably. "I’m going to go check into my hotel and then I’ll swing by your house in about an hour and pick you up, okay?" Every single second that I wait for her to answer feels like an eternity. My feet move to her, and my hands go out to grab her face. My thumbs rub her cheeks. "Do you think you can unblock me now and send me your home address?" I smirk at her as my heart echoes in my ears. "It would be hard to explain if I have to go door to door and knock, looking for you."
She chuckles and looks down. "Fine," she says, reluctantly. "I’ll unblock you." I can’t help but lean forward and kiss her lips softly. Definitely not the kiss I really want to give her but I know that it’s baby steps. "But only because I’m afraid that you’ll knock on my father’s door or my brothers’, and then they’ll shoot you."
I can’t help but put my head back and laugh. "Fair enough." The burning starts in my stomach. I don’t know if I would blame them for shooting me. I hurt her, and it’s unforgivable.
My hands drop from her face when she pulls up the phone in her hand and adds me back as a contact. She starts to type something, and then the phone pings, and I take it back out of my back pocket.
Harlow: 2145 Villas Street
I text her back.
Me: I’ll be there in an hour.
I press send, waiting for it to beep in her hand, and when it does, I just smile. "And just like that, you're back." She makes me laugh.
I kiss her one last time before I turn and walk out, taking a step before turning back. The door opens, and she stands there. "This isn’t your father's house address, is it? Or your brothers’?" I ask, and she rolls her lips. "Why would you lead me to the lion’s den?"
"Come to think of it." She puts her hands on her hips, and her eyes light up so bright everything settles inside me. "I should have."
I shake my head. "See you in fifty-five minutes, Harlow." I turn, finally making my way into the car and only when I sit behind the wheel do I finally breathe a little sigh of relief. I take one look back at her practice and smile. She did everything she said she was going to do. I can’t be sorry that I let her go because of that, but ever since I laid eyes on her last Saturday, the regret has hit me harder than a wrecking ball hitting a concrete wall.
Checking into the little hotel is a breeze, and when I dump my overnight duffel bag on the bed, I walk over to the window, looking out. From the minute I found out she left on an emergency, I knew that I was going to go after her. There wasn’t even a question in my mind. I acted normal the whole time, I laughed when I needed to laugh and listened when I needed to listen, but the whole time, I was making my plan.
It took me a couple of days to make sure everything was covered with my shifts, but as soon as it was, I packed a bag and headed out. Sitting in the car for eight hours gave me time to play everything over and over in my head. The reunion went a lot smoother than I thought it was going to go. I thought she would have said no, but I think I caught her off guard. Looking down at my watch, I see that just ten minutes have passed, and instead of just standing here waiting, I walk back out toward my car.
I make a pit stop at a flower shop before heading to her house. Stopping in front of her house when the GPS tells me that I’ve arrived, I take a second to take in her house. The white house looks modern, but the four windows have brown wooden shutters, and the awning in the front is held up with the same wood posts. Two chairs are off to the side of the house with a table between them, and I wonder if she spends time out there sitting. I pick up the flowers wrapped in white paper before getting out of the car. My palms are sweaty, my knees are weak, and the whole time I walk toward the front door, I feel like my heart is going to come out of my chest. I walk up the two steps facing the two big brown doors. My hand shakes while I ring the doorbell as I try to calm myself.
"Coming." I hear from the other side of the doors when I hear the sound of the locks open. A smile creeps onto my face, only becoming bigger when I see her. Her hair is piled on top of her head, and I can see that the bottom looks wet. She must have just gotten out of the shower and my cock suddenly wakes up. "It’s been thirty-five minutes,” she jokes with me, moving aside so I can step in.
"I couldn’t wait any longer," I admit to her and bend down to kiss the side of her mouth. "I got these for you."
"Aww." She reaches out to grab the bouquet from me, and our fingers graze each other. "These are beautiful," she says of the white and pink peonies and roses that I picked out. "Come on in." She motions with her head, and I watch her ass sway right to left in the light gray joggers that she has on. She leads us toward the big family room that is attached to the kitchen. "So I know that you want to take me out to dinner," she says as she grabs a white wooden stool to open the cabinet on top of the stainless-steel fridge. "But I thought it would be nice." She grabs a big square glass vase. "If we could stay in, and I’ll cook something." I look at her, wondering if she is joking, and when she doesn’t even crack a smile, I know she is serious.
"Harlow, I don’t care what we do as long as we’re together," I say, without adding in that we should just order something instead.
"Wow," she says, putting water in the vase and then placing the flowers in them. "You would sacrifice your life just to have dinner with me?"
I shake my head when she laughs and brings the flowers into the living room and places them in the middle of the wooden coffee table. I look over at the mantel on top of the fireplace and see that there are five picture frames. She bends over and my eyes go to her ass once more, and when she snaps back up and turns around, she catches me staring. "Okay." She claps her hands and walks to me. Her smell of honey fills me when she gets close enough, and my hand shoots out to bring her closer to me. The softness of her long-sleeved white cashmere sweater feels like silk. It hangs low in the front and falls off her shoulder a bit, and I bend to kiss it. "I put my grandmother's chicken potpie in the oven when I got home," she informs me and I still don’t let her go. "We can have a glass of wine outside while we wait."
"That sounds like a plan," I say, kissing her lips softly as my arm lets go of her waist. She walks back into the kitchen and I’m suddenly fucking jealous and angry that she grew a life here and I wasn’t here with her. I know it’s stupid since I was building my own life, but seeing her in her environment just makes it so much more real. She grabs two wineglasses and then walks to the fridge, taking out a bottle of white wine. "Do you want red?"
"I’m good with whatever you are having," I say and she pours white wine into the two glasses.
She hands me a glass and takes hers in one hand and the bottle in the other.
"Let’s sit outside. The potpie shouldn’t be long, and I’ve been cooped up in the office all day."
"Lead the way," I say and she turns toward the side where the back door is. She looks over at me to open the door for her since her hands are full. I step forward and lick my lips, kissing her again before opening the door and holding it open for her.
"Thank you," she says, walking past me. "Welcome to my oasis," she says and I look around at the big wooden deck that is covered with a round table with six chairs. "Let’s sit over there." She points at another level of her deck where there is a couch area that is also covered. I walk down the step and look around at the trees that are surrounding her.
A hammock in the corner of the yard sways back and forth. "This is relaxing," I say, looking around, seeing her slip her legs under her on the couch as she sits.
I sit down on the couch facing her, even though I want to sit next to her and touch her. "This is paradise," I say, putting my ankle on top of my knee and leaning back in the couch. My arm opens to drape across the back of the chair. "Do you spend a lot of time out here?"
She shakes her head, taking a sip of her wine. "Sadly, not as much as I want to."
I sit back and watch her. Fuck, I could watch her for hours, days, weeks, months, years. Fuck, I want to watch her forever. "Why are you staring at me like that?"
I shrug and take a sip of my wine. "You’re beautiful," I say as the sun slowly starts to set on one side. The sky is turning a soft pink. "It’s going to be a nice day tomorrow?"
"It’s supposed to be nice all weekend long." She stares back at me and I smile, bringing the glass to my lips. "I’m going to go and check on dinner." She gets up and finishes the rest of her wine. "I’ll be right back."
"I’m not going anywhere," I say, and she looks down and walks back into her house. "Not anytime soon."