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“I know who it is,” I snap, my hand even tighter on my cell. I’ve finished for the day and am considering killing time waiting for Brandi to finish up because I am thinking of maybe taking her out for dinner as some kind of gesture. And now that all shrivels into nothing. The only thing I can see and taste is dusty betrayal that still holds a sharp edge.
“Travis, it’s so good to hear your voice. It’s been so long.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “What do you want?”
“To see you.”
“Yeah? You’re the last person I want to see or hear from, Jessica,” I say. “Go talk to your husband.” And I hang up on my ex-wife.
Fuck.
I am shaking. The wind rips into me in the late afternoon outside dispatch and I lean back against my personal vehicle and close my eyes, shoving my phone and my hands into the pockets of my jacket, placing one booted foot against the boost. I don’t want to see Jessica and I don’t want to see Tyler.
No… I might like to see my brother, if I can get everything else under control. But they come as a pair and I am not about to step into that ring.
Especially as the first man. Shouldn’t that be my brother?
No, instead, Tyler has sent his dear wife for me, as if that will get me to come to them. Or maybe as a test? I don’t know. I really want to say I don’t care at all, but that is a lie that even a baby can see through.
Shit, I have to do something. Tell someone. Brandi smiles at me in my brain but I am not doing that to her. Not when things are still a little shaky. Not when things are so damn new. And not when she is pregnant.
No matter what my mom says about reaching out, or would say, I correct myself. I need to call her back, too. Christ, it seems my life is one giant avoidance act and it’s pissing me off.
Logan told me earlier I am acting like a bear surrounded by traps and maybe I am. Brian—well, I manage to avoid him because I know the man will take one look at me and know something is up and he has a way of getting things out of me. But he’s busy with his own family right now so that will help for the next day or two.
But I need to talk to someone, I know that.
Right now, things are good on the surface, but strain lurks. I don’t know how to act at times around Brandi as she will get all emotional over nothing at all. Last night she cried at an ad on TV about cereal.
The door to dispatch opens and Brandi bounds out, her coat hugged tight. I raise my hand and smile, ignoring the buzz of my phone in my pocket. “Hey you.”
“Hey! I didn’t expect you,” she says as she hurries up to me and I lean down and kiss her.
“Surprise,” I say, tasting her lips again. I can keep doing that and be a happy man, I think. “I thought we could go and try that new restaurant in Bangor.”
“Or we could go home and get naked,” she says, placing her hand on my chest.
I catch it with my own. “We could do both?”
“Go home, get naked, and go out to dinner?” She giggles.
I sweep her up in a hug, loving the softness of her against me. “I was thinking we could do it the other way around? I mean sure, we could do it your way but the weather…”
“There’s shrinkage to take into account.”
I smack her on the ass. “Evil. I married an evil woman.”
She smiles up at me, her whole face shining, those gorgeous green eyes sparkling with a joy I’ve missed, I realize. “It’s true. Okay. Dinner then naked.”
“Deal.”
It isn’t until later, after dinner, after sex, that I remember the call. But it doesn’t matter. I am not about to call Jessica back. I am not about to call my brother, either. But as sleep starts to creep up on me, Brandi softly snoring in my arms, her leg sprawled over mine, pinning me on my back, which I don’t mind, I will.
See my brother.
Not Jessica. She can go burn in hell.
Because what the hell is she even doing, calling me? After everything she’s done, after the havoc she’s caused.
