Unbridled (Unlikely Lovers) (25 page)

Thankfully, he didn’t have to
make that decision because Levi beat him to it. “Mom! You lost your ring!”

Travis smiled at
Levi, his respect for the boy increasing with each passing moment. “Don’t miss much, do you, Levi?”

“No, I don’t,”
Levi replied. “She never takes her ring off. Ever.”

Miranda
nodded toward her son, arching an eyebrow. “Have I mentioned how observant he is?” Although her tone was light and teasing, Travis could’ve sworn she was blushing. “No, I didn’t lose my ring. I took it off and put it away.”

“How come?”
Levi seemed puzzled, and Travis couldn’t blame him for that. He was a little puzzled himself—but hopeful.

“
I should have stopped wearing it years ago. Your father is gone, Levi. I have to accept that and move on.”

Levi
stared at her in frank disbelief. “Of
course
he’s gone. He died a long time ago. Didn’t you
know
that?”

Evidently,
Levi had a better grasp of the situation than his mother did. For an instant, her face seemed to crumble, then she lifted her chin ever so slightly and met his gaze head on. “Yeah, I knew that. I just never had a good enough reason to believe it until now.”  

Levi
cocked his head, eyeing her askance. “You must’ve been really crazy, Mom.”

His matter-of-fact tone had Travis biting back a chuckle as Miranda’s hand flew to her lips,
although not quickly enough to cover her smile. “You got me there, Levi. I probably
was
a little crazy. I’m over it now.”

“Good,”
Levi said with a firm nod. “Now you can marry Travis.”

Travis
shouted with laughter. “I like the way you think, Levi. How about us guys have a talk while your mom fixes dinner?” With a wink at Miranda, he shepherded her son into the living room. If things turned out the way he was beginning to suspect, he’d be having the birds and bees discussion with Levi one day—possibly sooner than Miranda realized.

Might be a good idea to get to know him better first.

Miranda stared after the two men, still not quite sure what had just happened.
Had Travis asked her to marry him, or did Levi do it for him?

Reviewing the conversation, she decided that while
Levi had been the one to bring it up, Travis certainly hadn’t tried to shoot down the notion—a pertinent detail that ignited all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings in her heart. He hadn’t pressed her for an answer, though, which was probably a good thing. She wasn’t sure how many momentous developments she could take in one day.

And I was worried about
Levi…

After
all this time, he could still surprise her. He’d gone off with Travis like they were old buddies—although the fact that Travis had encouraged him to talk about Tabitha was probably responsible for his easy acceptance.
He
hadn’t been the one to burst the kid’s bubble or try to let him down gently. He’d encouraged him to talk about the girl, even going so far as to prompt him for a list of her attributes. The possibility of a broken heart was never mentioned—although that discussion might be occurring now that they were out of earshot.

She’d been looking forward to their meeting, and yet dreading it at the
same time. Obviously she needn’t have worried. Levi was as blunt as they came, but Travis didn’t seem bothered by it. Then again, he hadn’t told Travis he was a terrible person for trying to steal his mother’s affections from his late father. No, he’d bypassed the bullshit and told her
she
was crazy.

Another thing she hadn’t anticipated was how cute they would be together.
With very little effort, Travis had managed to bring out the fun side of Levi, and they were both so charming when they smiled. Miranda couldn’t help being pleased by this, because the kid wasn’t always happy. Sometimes he seemed downright melancholy, which made her wonder how he acted around Tabitha. Did he follow her around like a lovesick pup? Or did she make him giddy to the point that he couldn’t stop laughing?

Despite having grown up quite a bit in recent months,
Levi was by no means a typical twenty-two-year-old. Tabitha had to realize how immature he was. Surely she wasn’t seriously considering marriage, and knowing Levi’s blunt tongue, he’d probably already asked her. Miranda doubted his ability to deal with having a girlfriend, let alone a wife.

She hoped Tabitha had enough sense to realize that, and she also hoped that m
oney wasn’t the issue. Miranda had used most of Kris’s death benefits to pay for the farm. Being naturally frugal, she’d managed to hold onto a nice little nest egg, which she’d been advised against putting in trust for Levi, since it would’ve rendered him ineligible for support services.

There
fore, there was no tempting trust fund for a spouse to siphon money from, and now that Levi had a full-time job, he wasn’t even receiving Supplemental Security Income money anymore. If Tabitha was truly interested in Levi, she needed to be aware of that, plus the fact that Miranda was not only his parent but his legal guardian. She had to give her permission for him to marry, and it would take a lot more than cookies to convince her to do that.

Chapter 25

Travis hadn’t expected to take an instant liking to Miranda’s son. Nor had he expected the boy to make him laugh quite so much. And he especially didn’t think Levi would turn out to be his best ally in his quest to win Miranda’s hand. But damned if he wasn’t turning out to be just that.

“Mom needs a husband,”
Levi insisted. “I don’t know why she never found another one after Dad died. She’s very pretty.”

Travis nodded. “I know she is
. I’m glad she didn’t find a guy before me, though. I’d be pretty upset if I fell in love with her and she was already married.” Actually, upset was too mild a word. Stronger terms like heartbroken, torn up, and devastated were more appropriate.

“Good
point!”

Levi
’s style of speech seemed to put an exclamation mark after everything he said. Miranda had described him as entertaining, and perhaps he was simply “on” because Travis was a new acquaintance. He certainly kept the three of them chuckling for the greater part of the evening. If he’d been at Miranda’s Christmas party, Travis would’ve had a hell of a lot more fun—and not only because meeting Levi then would’ve made it quite plain that he was Miranda’s son, rather than her husband. Levi was a hoot.

He didn’t even mind that
Levi’s presence curtailed the plans he’d had for that evening. There would be other opportunities to make love with Miranda, and the more he and Levi talked, the more he realized how much he was hoping to be in this for the long haul. He had every intention of marrying Miranda and looked forward to claiming Levi as a stepson.

The fact that a stepson would be all he
would ever have should’ve bothered him, but it didn’t. He’d told Miranda before that having children wasn’t a high priority in his life, and he had an idea that there might be some grandparenting in their future. That is, if Levi and Tabitha could convince Miranda that marriage was appropriate for them.

He opted to reserve judgment on that until he knew
Levi better—not to mention Tabitha—aside from the fact that Levi was Miranda’s responsibility, not his. He had no claim to Levi unless he and Miranda were to marry, and perhaps not even then. There was also the possibility that they might not see eye to eye on such a touchy issue. After all, Miranda had known Levi since birth; Travis didn’t have that advantage.

Although
Levi was obviously immature in some ways, in others, he seemed very wise—particularly in light of what he’d said to his mother about moving on after his father’s death. She’d had other reasons for remaining single, and Travis certainly couldn’t fault her for wanting to keep her son safe. Still, he hoped she wouldn’t flatly refuse to give her consent to the marriage if it ever truly became an issue. Like anyone else, Levi deserved his shot at happiness.

For the moment, however,
he had no say in any
of it. Levi was Miranda’s son and she was his legal guardian. Travis was nothing more than a friend of the family.

Well…maybe a little more than that…

Should he stay the night if Levi didn’t go back to his apartment? Miranda hadn’t dated anyone before; therefore, Levi had no experience with any of his mother’s boyfriends sleeping over. Sighing inwardly, he realized he probably needed to go, and not only because of Levi.

Although
Stuart hadn’t said anything about wanting Travis to come home, he
had
been pretty needy in the wake of his divorce. There was always the chance that if he got lonely enough, he might actually go out and meet someone new—a step he’d been very reluctant to take. Stuart hadn’t done any dating since high school. Now he had an ex-wife in addition to a broken heart, two kids, and a mortgage, his marriage having taken several years longer to turn sour than Travis’s had.

Given their
collective experience, Travis was surprised he believed happy marriages were even possible. Stuart’s attitude was still iffy, and although his self-esteem was at an all-time low, finding someone would probably be much easier than he thought. Girls had been drooling over Stuart since grade school, and as far as Travis could tell, they were
still
drooling. 

In the end, he waited until ten o’clock and
then kissed Miranda goodnight, not a bit happy knowing that a kiss would have to suffice.

Miranda
, on the other hand, seemed to appreciate the gesture. With a nod toward her son, she smiled her thanks and gave him a hug that kept him warm all the way home.

Travis was halfway
there before he realized he hadn’t mentioned that condom he’d spotted on the kitchen table when he arrived—or the fact that it was gone when they’d sat down to dinner. Perhaps Miranda had already had the birds and bees discussion with Levi—maybe even while he’d been up at the barn feeding the horses.

Bet that was
interesting.

* * * *

For a first meeting, that didn’t go too badly.
Having been the other half of a two-person family for so long, Miranda couldn’t have predicted how Levi would react to a new addition. She’d hoped he wouldn’t see Travis as an intruder—and he hadn’t, at least not yet. Perhaps he never would. “So, did you like Travis?”

“Yeah. He’s nice.
You should marry him.”

She rolled her eyes.
“Come on now, Levi. Marriage is a lot more complicated than that, and you know it.”

“But if you love someone, you should marry them. It’ll work out. Trust me.”

Miranda suspected that he was simply parroting something he’d heard someone else say—perhaps even
a line from a movie, since he had a tendency to do that. “Where’d you hear that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s true, isn’t it?”

“Sometimes.” She blew out a sigh. “And sometimes it doesn’t work out no matter how much two people love each other. There are other problems that make it hard.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that I’m nine years older than Travis.” The sharpness of her reply shocked her into softening her tone. “He’s never had any children of his own and I can’t have babies anymore. He might say it doesn’t bother him now, but someday, it might. Aside from that, I’m not sure I can stand having anyone tell me what to do. I’ve been my own boss for too long.” Travis might not seem like the controlling type, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t turn out that way eventually.

“But aren’t you lonely living out here all by yourself?”

“Maybe. I didn’t used to be.” Travis had probably already spoiled her. Likely as not, she’d think about him every time she climbed into bed, or fixed dinner, or smelled brownies baking in the oven. Then there was the whole peanut butter issue. She’d never look at a jar of peanut butter the same way again. “Are you lonely living by yourself in town?”

“Oh, no. I like it.”

That wasn’t too surprising. Levi had never had the slightest difficulty keeping himself entertained. On the other hand, Travis was the most fun
she’d
had in years. “Well… I do like having Travis here.”

“Marry him, Mom,” he urged. “It’s the right thing to do.”

His firm conviction made her smile. Everything had always been black or white with Levi—gray areas simply didn’t exist. This was one area, however, that seemed pretty murky to Miranda. “We’ll see.”

* * * *

Tuesday morning, Travis parked his truck at Nigel’s and hurried inside, itching to get the day over with. He only had one horse to do there and another job at one o’clock. After that, he was free until eleven the next day. Stuart had seemed pleased to have him home again, but Travis could hardly wait to get back to Miranda.

Nigel led
out a chestnut gelding that was favoring his left forefoot. “He could barely walk on Thursday,” he said as he snapped on the cross-ties. “He improved quite a bit over the weekend.”

“Probably an abscess.” Travis
ran a finger around the coronary band, just under the hairline at the top of the hoof. Sure enough, there was a soft, open place where the pocket of infection had burst open and drained. After cutting the clinches, he pulled off the shoe, the dark hole in the toe plainly visible. “It’s not in a nail hole, but yeah, it’s an abscess. See where it blew out here?”

Nigel leaned down and nodded. “
I figured as much. Can you still reset the shoes?”

“
Sure. Now that the abscess has run its course, I can pack the hole before putting the shoe on. He might be sore for a few days, though.”

“Not a problem,” Nigel said. “His owner hasn’t
ridden him in ages, and she hasn’t paid her board bill since November. I’ve been using him as a lesson horse off and on. The girl who rides him the most has canceled her lesson the past two weeks—it’s been too cold and icy.”

“No shit.”
Travis knew quite well Miranda wouldn’t be riding today, but force of habit being what it was, he couldn’t help glancing up as a truck and trailer pulled into the drive.

Evidently,
Nigel had noticed that same tendency. He nodded toward the truck. “If you’re looking for Miranda, she won’t be here for a few weeks. She slipped on the ice Saturday morning and wound up with a concussion and some broken ribs.”

Obviously she hadn’t told Nigel
who’d driven her to the hospital—or the details of anything else that had happened that weekend—when she’d called to cancel her lesson. Travis had been trying to figure out how to bring up the subject on the way over, but Nigel had given him the perfect opening. “Yeah, I know. I was there when she fell. Been taking care of her ever since.”

Nigel
’s eyes widened, then his jaw dropped as the full meaning sank in. “You don’t say.”

“Oh, yes, I
do
say.” Scowling, he added, “And would you mind telling me why you never mentioned the fact that she was a widow?”

“Bloody hell
,” Nigel swore, clearly aghast. “D’you mean to say you didn’t know?”

“How the devil was I supposed to know when she was still wearing
her wedding ring?” Travis snapped. “Jesus, Nigel. After all the carrying on I’ve done about women who were all wrong for me… I was nuts about Miranda! Why didn’t you say something?”

“Dunno. I’m not very good with women
, you know.” He paused, rubbing the side of his nose in a contemplative manner. “Wait. Why didn’t
she
tell you?”

“
Because she thought I was too young for her.”

“Well, you are, aren’t you?”

“Oh, don’t start that crap,” Travis said, rolling his eyes. “She’s only nine years older than me.”

Nigel tipped his head to the side.
“Is that all? Really? I’d have guessed more.”

Travis snorted a laugh.
“Better not let her hear you say that.”

“Oh, I know
exactly how old she is,” Nigel said with a brisk nod. “She’s forty-five. I remember that because she said something about having five years on me when I turned forty.”

“Then what the hell did you mean, you’d have guessed more?”

“You’re the one with the baby face. You tell me.”

Travis bit back a snarl. “I’m thirty-six! I can’
t help it if I don’t look my age.”

“Yes, well,
neither does Miranda.” Nigel sniffed, pursing his lips. “D’you know, I believe you’d be perfect for each other.”

Slightly mollified, Travis couldn’t help but agree.
Nevertheless, he was curious to hear Nigel’s take on it. “How so?”

“She’s such a
sensible woman. Never gives me a bit of guff when I tell her she’s doing something incorrectly. Always tries her best. Never argues.”

Doesn’t sound like the woman I know
.
“That’s only true during a riding lesson. The rest of the time, she’s pretty opinionated.”

Nigel went on as though Travis hadn’t spoken. “She never cries
—just laughs at me when I fuss. Wish all of my students were like her.” He hung his head, sighing deeply. “Love that mare of hers, too. Awesome ass.”

“
Oh,
yeah
… What? Wait a minute, whose ass are you talking about?”

“The mare’s.” With a dreamy look in his eyes, Nigel heaved another sigh. “
Absolutely incredible. If Miranda could ever get her to engage that big engine, she’d be spectacular.”

Travis cleared his throat with an effort as he recalled an even more spectacular ass bouncing up and down on his lap. “I’ll take your word for it.”

* * * *

Thankful that the horses had spent most of the night outside,
Miranda did her best to take it easy while cleaning the stalls. While she worked, she listened closely, half hoping one of the horses would make a comment. However, after hearing only the usual snorts and nickers, she sighed with regret as she gave Kira a pat. “Too bad that wasn’t permanent. I’d be one helluva horse-trainer if we could actually
discuss
how to do a flying lead change.” 

As the rest of the day dragged on, she tackled another long-overdue
chore. Sitting on the floor in front of the woodstove with her file box, she went through old bills and bank statements, tossing any unnecessary documents into the fire. By the time Travis arrived, she’d sat there so long, her legs were completely numb.