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She stopped talking as Ellen got closer.
“Shouldn’t you be sitting down?” she said to Travis, knowing that he had taken a couple rather bad blows to his head. If she had taken those blows, she knew that her head would be pounding with a headache at the very least.
“I guess I was waiting for you,” he said easily, and he didn’t look at Shanna as he left the swing and walked over, sitting down at the bench that was situated beside the swing set.
“Are you just going to leave him on the swing?” Shanna said, acting like she wasn’t standing right there beside the swing.
“I think you can watch him while I put some ice on his jaw to help with this swelling and wipe off the blood.” Ellen didn’t realize that she could be so commanding and bossy as she listened to the words come out of her mouth.
They shut Shanna down, and she turned to the swing and took care of her child.
“Grr,” Travis said, humor in his tone.
“You’d better just shut up and let me see your face, or I’ll yell at you, too,” she said, although her voice didn’t hold any of the strident anger that she’d directed toward Shanna.
“Yes, ma’am,” Travis said, and she felt like he was eighteen again, and they weren’t adults, with adult problems and adult lives.
Like he hadn’t just bought Shanna’s lunch pail and committed to eating with her.
Of course, he had bought Ellen as well. She tried to remind herself of that, but he hadn’t bothered to begin with. Only moved to keep her from being dragged away by Chalmer.
“I take it Chalmer disappeared?” she asked, lifting her head and looking around.
“Yeah. I hope that’ll be the last of it. I should have called the police, but I didn’t want him to drag you away any further than what he already had.”
“I appreciate you taking care of me. I...didn’t appear very grateful, I’m sure, and I really was. I didn’t want to be with him.”
“So are you thanking me for buying you? Or just for having a fistfight over you?”
She laughed. That wasn’t exactly what happened. “Both,” she said as she dabbed at the blood on his face.
“Ouch,” he said, but the word didn’t have any heat and not much emphasis either.
“I’m sorry. I guess I don’t really need to get every single spot of dried blood off, but that’s what you see them doing in the movies anyway.”
He laughed. “I’ve never been confused about whether or not I belonged in the movies.”
“Me either. I wouldn’t want to be, although it’s not like opportunities are dropping in my lap either.”
“Can I say that I’m happy about that?”
Chapter 9
Travis knew his serious tone took the conversation in a completely different direction. He felt a little bad about that since he always enjoyed their banter and the easy relationship they had. He should just be happy getting that back, but he couldn’t seem to stop being serious.
He should have known she wouldn’t let him.
“Why? So you don’t have to start watching movies with your eyes closed?” She bumped her arm against his shoulder and then said, “Hold still, I don’t think this is going to need stitches, but I’ll know for sure once I get this dried blood.”
“It’s not bleeding; it won’t need to be stitched.”
“So I say hold still, and the man starts talking.”
“I haven’t seen you in five years. Of course I’m going to be talking.”
“Just wait another five minutes, and then you could talk all night if you want to.” She glanced over at the swing where Shanna’s youngest child was throwing a fit because his brother was being pushed higher than he was. “Except, you probably ought to be paying some attention to your date.”
One side of his lips pulled back, and he refrained from saying that he really didn’t give a flip what happened to Shanna, he just wanted to be with Ellen, but that wasn’t what he was supposed to do. He had bought her bucket, as much as he felt like he was forced into it, so that wasn’t the way he should be. He should be a little more charming than what he had managed to be so far. He almost snorted at the idea. Getting into a fistfight was not exactly being charming.
