The Bet (21 page)

“So?”

He shook his head. “Nope, not gonna tell you. You’re just going to have to see, but aren’t surprises the best?”

“No. No they aren’t,” she said dryly.

He blew her a kiss and then smacked her on the butt as he walked out of the bathroom. Cocky one, Travis Titus. Who would have ever thought that the little boy with the stutter had game? Or kissed like a movie star? Not that she’d ever kissed a movie star before, but she figured kissing Johnny Depp was pretty much like kissing Travis.

It had to be.

It was too good to be anything but that.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror. Every piece of skin visible was flushed. Her fingers clutched the side of the sink. A clanging noise sounded as she gripped the sink harder. The ring. Jake’s ring to be exact, stared back at her, mocking her. Instead of guilt, she felt minor annoyance. Kacey reached down and slid the ring off.

Decision made, she padded over to Jake’s old room. Everything was just as he left it. Trophies were scattered across his dresser. A few pictures of The Pussycat Dolls hung on the wall, and his bedspread was the same faded red. So many memories were part of this room. But it was over. Done. Tomorrow she had to leave, but she hoped Travis would ask her to stay. Actually she hoped he would make the big gesture. One thing was for certain. She was saying goodbye.

Goodbye to Jake, goodbye to the pain and the memories, and hello to a bright future with the boy next door. She bit her lip to keep from squealing with excitement as she thought of her time with Travis. She set the ring on the dresser and ran to her room to put on some fresh clothes. Whatever surprise Travis had waiting for her, she wanted it, as soon as possible. Especially if he was giving and she was receiving.

****

Kacey bounded down the stairs in the general direction of the kitchen, where she assumed Travis would be located. After all, they hadn’t eaten anything but cookies all day and it was nearing lunchtime.

The sound of a pot clattering confirmed her assumptions. She walked into the kitchen and burst out laughing.

Travis was on his hands and knees, putting bits and pieces of hard macaroni into a bowl.

“Trouble cooking?” She tilted her head and smirked.

He looked up and scowled. “Nobody ever said multi-tasking was so difficult.” He threw one last piece of macaroni into the pot and stood. “Luckily, we have more than one box of this stuff.”

“You do know you’re supposed to boil the water first.” Kacey pointed at the dry macaroni.

“I know.” Travis laughed unconvincingly and dumped the noodles into the trash and placed the pot underneath the sink.

Kacey took full opportunity to gaze at his tight jeans. She felt herself smile when he reached forward and grabbed a towel to wipe off the table. It was almost like she was in a trance. So much, in fact, that when Travis turned around she had to snap her head back up.

She felt her face flame with heat as a knowing smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Find something you like?”

“No.” She looked away and began inspecting her nails. “So why macaroni?”

“Why not?”

Men.

Travis shrugged. “I have it on good authority that it was the only food you’d eat until you turned eight.”

“Please.” Kacey rolled her eyes. “I ate other things too.”

“Name them.”

Kacey searched her memory, but the only thing she could come up with was even lamer than macaroni. “I may have had an obsession with Spaghetti-Os.”

“With or without meatballs?” Travis asked as he lunged for her and wrapped his arms around her body, trapping her within his hold.

“With.” She leaned up and kissed his chin. “Why? Are you going to make me those too?”

He shrugged. “If I burn the macaroni, we may have to rely on the microwave to fix up some Spaghetti-Os.” He kissed her forehead then moved down to her cheek. “I have a confession to make.”

“What’s that?” Kacey shuddered beneath his touch.

“I can’t cook.”

No,
but you can kiss.
“Well, I guess that means I can’t sleep with you.”

“Thought you’d say that.” His mouth found her neck as he tilted her back. “But we had a good run, didn’t we?”

She wondered if that was a rhetorical question as his lips pressed against the base of her throat.

Travis pulled away. “Sorry, I tend to get carried away when I’m hungry.”

Kacey raised an eyebrow.

“For food,” he clarified and then cleared his throat. “Um, anyway, let’s, uh, let’s just finish this up and we can get going.”

“Get going?” Kacey grabbed the next box and began pouring it into the now boiling water.

“Yeah, I have a plan.”

“Oh,” Kacey said laughing and threw the box at Travis. “So the food wasn’t the surprise.”

“Hell, no.” Travis shuddered. “I’m not sure if I should be offended or thankful that you think I lack that much originality.” He seemed to think about it a moment then nodded. “Thankful. I’ll take thankful. Now pour in that orange stuff so we can get on to the surprise.”

“Carbing up for something, are we?” Kacey teased.

Travis growled and pushed her against the counter. “You have no idea.” His lips found hers in an aggressive kiss. Just as Kacey wrapped her arms around his neck, she heard steam hitting the stove.

Travis cursed and turned to the pot of macaroni, which looked pretty pathetic with the orange stuff in it. “I forgot to drain the water.”

“Yup.” Kacey nodded.

“Pizza?”

“Chinese?”

“Thai?”

“Italian,” they said in unison. Kacey went to the house phone while Travis got on the Internet on his phone to find some Italian take-out.

A quick thirty minutes later and they were sitting over chicken alfredo and opening up a bottle of red wine.

“So… good,” Kacey murmured between bites.

“I can’t cook, but I can order…” Travis boasted as he held out a piece of bruschetta with goat cheese to her lips.

It was the type of meal she would never eat on a first date.

Possibly not even on the second.

Way too much garlic.

It was comfort food at its best, and she couldn’t imagine a more perfect meal to share with Travis. They’d ordered enough to feed a small country, but there was something about having so many choices laid out around them.

“I can’t do it,” Kacey said as she exhaled and took a gulp of wine. “I’m done. I seriously cannot eat another bite.”

Travis put his hands behind his head and leaned back on his chair. “That’s too bad.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Part of your surprise is dessert.”

Did his version of dessert include lots of skin, whipped cream, and chocolate? Because at this point Kacey was beginning to think she would really like some more food. Mouth watering, she leaned forward. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

“So, you’re game then?”

He was talking about going upstairs, right?

“I am if you are.” Her heart skipped a beat as Travis walked around the table and pulled her into his arms.

“Music to my ears. Now, go grab a sweatshirt.”

“Huh?” What the heck kind of foreplay was this?

“For dessert,” he clarified, a mocking twinkle in his eyes.

Kacey bit her lip and stepped out of his embrace. “Fine, but this better not be a trick.”

“Please.” Travis held up his hands. “Like I’ve ever tricked you.”

“Says the one who put frogs in my bed when I was ten.”

“In my defense, they were dead.”

“Yes, Travis,” Kacey said, rolling her eyes. “That makes it so much better. Dead frogs. Seriously?”

“Just grab your sweatshirt.” He suddenly looked nervous and insecure as he stuffed his hands in his jeans and looked at the ground.

“Okay.” Kacey took off at full speed and grabbed the first sweatshirt she could find in her bag. When she ran back down the stairs Travis was already grabbing the keys and leading her outside. “Okay, where are we going?”

“It’s all part of the surprise.”

“Right.” Kacey hopped into the truck.

“And my charm.”

Rolling her eyes, she pulled a piece of gum out of her purse and waited while Travis’s truck pulled out of the long driveway.

It took all of ten minutes for them to reach their destination.

And Kacey honestly couldn’t have guessed it.

Not even if someone had given her hints.

Because it was the place where Prom had been held her senior year of high school. It also used to be her parents’ restaurant before they’d died. So many memories threatened to escape from her. She had to hold her breath to keep them in. Swallowing, she forced herself to exhale slowly as the lights flickered in front of her. It looked exactly as she remembered it.

Nestled beautifully on the Columbia River, it had been one of the hot spots for locals. The beer selection had been legendary. It had had so many wines from around the Columbia River and Yakima Valley that people often had joked that the best place for all-day wine tasting was a table at River’s Edge.

“River’s Edge,” she whispered and looked down at her hands. They were clenched together as if to keep the pain in. All the memories… her parents’ death, the times she and Jake would come here and try to convince her dad to have just one glass of wine, even though it was illegal…

He never would, but still.

Her many stolen kisses by the waiter’s entrance in the back.

It was also the only place Travis and Kacey had talked in the last five years.

She remembered it like it was yesterday. Her parents had left the business to her, naturally, but she’d wanted nothing to do with Portland or her old life, so she had sold it to a family friend and taken the money to buy a car and pay off her parents’ debts. It had also been an escape, which is exactly what Travis had told her the day she’d signed the papers.

“What the hell are you doing,
Kacey?”

She remembered the rabid look in his eyes, like he was ready to tear something apart but couldn’t find an object. Now that she thought about it, he had been really good-looking at the time, but she had been so frustrated with him, so angry that he would make light of her pain, he seemed ugly and unbearably frustrating.

“It’s my life!”
she’d
screamed.

“It’s their legacy!”

“I don’t want it!” She’d
beat against his chest over and over again. But he
hadn’t
budged. Instead, he’d
held onto her as if he’d
never wanted to let her go. He’d then
whispered in her hair that it
would
be okay.

“Let it out, baby girl.”

“I’m not your baby.” She’d
sobbed into his chest.

“Don’t I know it,”
he
had
said sadly as he wiped large alligator tears from her puffy cheeks.

“Everything okay back here?” Grandma Nadine
had
called,
right before she’d
walked around the corner.

“Fine, it’s fine.” Kacey
had
frantically wiped her cheeks and
had
pasted a smile on her face. “No biggie.
You know how Travis and I can get.” She’d
lamely punched him in the shoulder and walked off. But she hadn’t remembered until now what Grandma Nadine had said to Travis when she’d
thought Kacey was
out of earshot.

“She’ll come around one day,
Travis.
Don’t give up.”

“Damn,
Grandma,” Travis
had
mumbled.
“That girl wasn’t ever mine to give up in the first place.”

Chapter
Twenty-eight

Travis watched the display of emotions wash over Kacey’s face. Hell, as long as he lived, he would never get tired of watching those eyes squint when she was thinking, or the way she held her lip captive between her front teeth when she was trying to keep herself from saying something she’d regret.

And finally, the worst of all, her tells. The way she clenched her hands in her lap as if that simple gesture would hold all the walls firmly in place.

“Kace, say something.” He reached for her shoulder and gently placed his hand across it.

“The last time I was here was with you.”

“Yup.” Figures she’d remember that first.

“You were so angry at me.”

“Kace,” Travis said, turning off the truck. “You were angry at yourself. I was angry at you for giving up — or at least in my mind, giving up something that I thought you wanted. But mainly, Kace, I was angry that when things got rough, you ran.”

“What did you expect me to do?” Kacey screamed, causing Travis to jump.

“Fight. I expected you to fight.”

“Against what, Travis? Myself? There was nothing left to fight for! I lost my parents, I lost my best friend. I lost everything!”

Travis scowled and pulled back his hand. He couldn’t touch her, not with what he had to say. “You didn’t lose everything. You still had my family, and you still had Grandma. Geez Kacey, you had me. You lived! But that was the day I watched part of you give up, and you let a part of yourself die. Maybe that’s why Grandma wanted you here in the first place. You really do need to find yourself, Kace. And if that means I lose you… again, in order for it to happen, so be it.”

“What?” Her head whipped around to face him. “What do you mean lose me again?”

Shit. “That day, the day you walked away from me, from us, from everything. I uh… I followed you.”

“To?”

Travis gulped. “Seattle.”

“Why?”

Travis closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the seat. “To bring you home, Kace. To bring you home.”

“I don’t understand.”

Of course she wouldn’t. Travis groaned aloud and fought the urge to hit the steering wheel or at least strangle something. “You never belonged apart from us…” He gulped. “Apart from me. You never belonged apart from me.”