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“Perfect! Sounds good. I’ll be right there. Like I said, I’m just touching up my makeup. Nothing too exciting here.”
“Are you ok?” Mia asks wearily.
“Yep. Perfectly fine. Nothing new here!” I open the door to prove all is good.
“Ok. You’re acting kind of strange, but you look great. Let’s go eat.”
The ladies are filing into the dining room. I take my seat between Mia and Travis at the head of the table. I feel a lot of tension. Travis will hardly look at me.
I decided I needed to keep up appearances to keep him safe from Barb. Every time my hand brushes his, he flinches ever so slightly. It couldn’t have been that bad of a kiss, could it?
I gradually move my leg over so it’s gently touching his. He doesn’t move his leg away. Ok, I’ll take that as a good sign.
Barb, of course, is sitting next to Travis. I think she can sense something because she seems to be laying it on stronger than usual. She kept grabbing his hand, leaning in close; she even tried to feed him a bite of food off her fork!
By the time Trina and Roberta brought out dessert, Travis had scooted his chair closer to me. Then he draped his arm across the back of my chair because Barb kept getting closer to him. I’m hoping he’s coming around to the idea of us, for real. I wonder if the kiss ignited the same fire in him because I am burning up for him.
After dinner, I helped Roberta and Trina clean up. Travis retreated to his office, and Mia returned to the porch to play chess with one of the ladies. Once things were cleaned up, I got my laptop and set myself up in a quiet corner at a table. I have got to get something down for this story. Ryder is going to want some proof soon.
I’m immersed in a brainstorming session when Travis plops down at the table with me.
“Are you almost ready to go, babe?” he says loudly, startling me. Did he just call me babe?
“Uh, yeah, I am.” I look around and see Barb glaring at us. Now the babe makes sense. “I can finish this later. I was just waiting for you.” I smile sweetly at him and pack up my laptop.
“Great. Let’s go. Good night, ladies.” He pushes in our chairs and places a gentle hand on the small of my back. He guides me out of the dining room and back to our private quarters.
He pulls me into his bedroom and closes the door. “Listen, I’m really sorry about earlier. I had no right to kiss you like that. You’re a guest, journalist, and my best friend's little sister. I was totally out of line. I promise it won’t happen again.”
“Oh.” I’m not quite sure how to respond; I’m just trying to hide my disappointment.
“I feel awful that I might have made you feel uncomfortable. And I’m sorry, but I will need you to stay in my bedroom again. Until we figure out who this prowler is and what they want, it’s not safe for you to be alone. I can sleep on the couch, though.”
“No, no, that’s fine. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. You barely fit on the couch.”
“OK, I promise I won’t do anything inappropriate. I just got a little mixed up.”
“What do you mean mixed up?”
“Oh, nothing.” He shrugs it off.
“No, please tell me.”
“It’s just–after you saw that guy in the woods–it really freaked me out. For Mia, of course, and for you–I’m just so relieved the two of you are ok. Not only would Ryder kill me if anything happened to you, I’d be pretty upset, too.”
“Oh?” I take a step closer to him.
“Yeah–too bad you’re Ryder’s little sister.” He takes a step back. “I promise to keep things totally on the friends level from here on out. Except for our pretend thing in front of the ladies.
Ugh. Ryder is ruining my life again!
I’m trying to decide between throwing myself at Travis and hoping for the best or holding on to some of my dignity. Travis is right. We need to keep our relationship pretend. At least until I prove to Ryder that I can write and manage my own life.
I take my stuff into the bathroom to get ready for bed. I’m exhausted. I change into an oversized T-shirt and shorts instead of my cute pajamas. I wash my face and brush my teeth. At the last minute, I decided to change into my cute pajamas. Just because I’m Ryder’s little sister doesn’t mean I have to look like a slob.
I step out of the bathroom and feel Travis look me up and down. Good call on the cute PJs. I lie down in his bed without looking at him and grab my book. He goes into the bathroom to do his nightly routine.
When he comes out, I pretend to be engrossed in my book. He stretches loudly before getting into bed.
