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“My stuff,” she said. “The essentials I need at your place. Our new place.” She stood and came down the steps, picked her way through the boxes, and threw herself into his arms.
Travis laughed as he lifted her right up off her feet and swung her around. Shay squealed, and Trav settled her on her feet and kissed her right there for everyone to see. He didn’t care at all, because he loved this woman with everything inside him.
He adored the shape of her mouth against his, and the way she always held a hint of coffee on her tongue. He could lose hours kissing Shay, but today, he pulled away before she did. “We can’t be late,” he said. “Ingrid is opening just for us.”
“So Gretchen has told me a thousand times,” Shay said.
“We don’t want her to regret telling us about The Culinary Cabin.” Trav looked at the boxes. “I’m assuming you want me to put these in the back of my truck right now.”
“Seeing as how I’m not coming back here until after the honeymoon, yes,” she said. “Get your muscles out, Trav.” She grinned at him, and Travis shook his head.
“I had to shove a Bertha into the chute this morning,” he said. “Several of them. This is nothing.”
“I’ll go get my dress.”
Trav got to work hauling her boxes from the sidewalk to the truck, and she came out with a black garment bag, much to his disappointment. “Still not gonna let me see it?”
“It’s bad luck,” she said.
“You know,” he said. “Most brides and grooms don’t even see each other on the wedding day at all. Not until the ceremony.”
“Yeah, so we’re already tempting fate,” Shay said, opening the back door of the cab. “Let’s go.” She helped with the last few boxes, and Trav sure liked how she hadn’t worn anything different for their wedding day breakfast. She existed in leggings and a tank top most days, as she owned an outdoor outfitters store and usually ran five miles before breakfast.
“You didn’t run today, did you?” he asked as he slid the last box into the bed of the truck.
“Nope,” she said. “I slept in and showered.” She grinned at him and headed for the passenger door. Trav beat her to it and opened it for her.
“You still gonna run with Will in the mornings?”
“If he’ll let me,” Shay said. “And if I can keep up.” She put one palm against his chest. “You’re sure it doesn’t bother you?”
“It doesn’t bother me,” Trav said. He knew Will only had eyes for Gretchen, and that his brother would probably hate a running partner. Trav wasn’t sure Shay would like it either, but he wasn’t going to stand in their way. She ran every morning; Will did too. They might as well go together. “He’s fast, and he’s kind of a grump. He won’t slow down for you.”
“I’m aware of you Coopers and your attitudes,” Shay said, pushing herself up and into the truck. “And just so you know, you and Will are like teddy bears now. It’s Lee we need to sweeten up.”
Trav closed her door, the urge to laugh gunning its way up his throat. He did let out a few chuckles as he went to get behind the wheel. “Good luck with that sweetening process. He’s Daddy to a T,andhe’s been burned by women before.”
“I know,” Shay said, because she had been out to the farm plenty in the past several months. She knew Lee, and she’d been there for some pretty spectacular arguments between him and Will, as well as him and Rissa. Lee seemed to pick a fight with everyone who dared look his way.
“The heart has a miraculous way of healing itself,” she said, and Trav couldn’t deny that. “Lee will figure things out, I’m sure of it.”
Trav didn’t argue, but he wasn’t sure he could say the same. He wanted to, because Lee was an amazing brother, an excellent father, and a good friend. His fuse was just really, really short, and he couldn’t hide how he felt.
So he’s about like you, Trav thought, and when he glanced over to Shay and saw her grinning back at him, he suddenly knew Lee would figure out how to cage his inner beast and make something work with a woman.
Maybe not Rosalie, but someone.
“Tell me what we’re gettin’ into at The Culinary Cabin,” he said.
“It’s getting,” Shay said. “With a G.”
“This is how I talk, baby,” Travis said, adding an extra drawl to the words. “We better not behavin’cheesy grits. I’m so over those.”
Shay shook her long, dark hair over her shoulders and looked out the windshield. “She said she’s making Texas Hill Country eggs Benedict.”
“You told her I didn’t want grits, didn’t you?”
“I may have mentioned it.”
