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“You could get on your phone and work. Read a book. Talk to someone…”
He blew a raspberry. The train started to chug along, and the conductor began talking about the history of the area. Travis didn’t seem interested in listening and kept talking over him as we went through some switchbacks and began climbing up the mountain. “I’m just saying if you’re at home, there’s a million things you could be doing. People never turn that off. But you get on a train, and everything gets simple. You’ve got what you have with you, and sometimes that’s not much. It’s permission to just look out the window and take in the view.”
“Am I crazy for imagining that you don’t usually have trouble being in the moment, on or off a train?”
“Oh,” he chuckled. “I’m pretty good at it. But I like helping other people get there. Imagine if you just tried a piece of the best cake you’d ever eaten. Would you sneak it back to your room and hoard it for yourself? Or wouldn’t it be fun to give other people a bite? Watch their faces light up?”
“I’m not sure I understand how inserting yourself into my life, lying to my mother about our relationship, getting hired at my job, and convincing my boss you’re some charity case has anything to do with that.”
“I’m afraid the employment thing is confidential information, but I can tell you the other stuff was because I like you. I wasn’t ready for you to slip away, and you seemed determined to run. So, I chased.”
I ran my tongue across my teeth. “You’re using a fake name at my company and I’m the one who hired you. Your confidential information may very well come back to bite me in the ass.”
“You didn’t want to dwell on the part where I told you how much I liked you?” he asked.
There was that smile again. If conversations with Travis were some sort of duel, it felt like he could make me drop my weapon with even the hint of one of those smiles. I had to blink and gather myself.
“What do you make of Mrs. Glass, anyway?” Travis asked.
I shrugged. “She’s driven. A little odd. Talented with people.” I pursed my lips and gave a small shake of my head. “Why?”
“Have you noticed she’s preoccupied with something? That call she took after the meeting was suspicious. And there’s something in her body language, too.”
“Actually, yeah,” I said. I wasn’t sure if it was wise to confide in Travis, but he had a way about him that seemed to override my better sense. My lips were moving before I could take the time to decide. “She had this weird conversation in my office with me. Something about the man who got away and how she didn’t marry her husband for love. Almost like it was a strategic move, I guess? But she sounded like she was trying to convince herself she made the right choice and didn’t quite buy it.”
“Hmm,” he said. That was very interesting. Potentially useful, too. “Can you imagine Mrs. Glass flirting?” Travis smiled, and his damn smile made my stomach want to turn into mush.
I looked away. “I want you to explain what the hell you’re trying to do at Glass Design.”
He tapped his chin, searching the glossy red ceiling of the train car. “I’m afraid I can’t divulge my secrets just yet. Oh, look at that,” he leaned toward the window until his shoulder was against my chest. “You can see the back of the train.”
Mhm, I thought. And the man-puppy is distracted again. But seriously, what the hell was his real reason for working at my company? And did it have something to do with his interest in me? I needed to remember to keep my guard up. The man was clearly more clever than he let on, and the last thing I needed was to get distracted by his… physical qualities or manufacturing reasons to feel sorry for him. I needed to remember who I was and what I cared about. Travis just might be trying to jeopardize all of that.
16
TRAVIS
It was hard to beat a train ride. I felt completely relaxed. The day was beautiful, and my date was grouchy but full of delicious potential.
Elizabeth had seemed distant since our conversation, and I suspected I knew why. She was trying to puzzle out my mysteries, of course. But that wasn’t a bad thing. Women liked puzzles. They liked broken things, too. Too bad I was perfectly intact. She’d have to settle for the satisfaction of trying to solve me, then.
“So a train ride, hmm?” she asked.
“Not impressed?”
Elizabeth’s cheeks were flushed from the cold breeze we’d enjoyed on the ride. She looked stunning. Sure, she was a little stiff. A little too formal. A little stuffy. And maybe even a little uppity at times. But all those things only made it more satisfying when the real her peeked through the clouds. It was the way you could get tired of sunny days if it was all you ever got. But if you lived in Seattle and got an unexpected hour of sunshine in the park, it could make your whole week.
