Travis

“Fucking hell, Travis. Shit! I told you, Gage’ll be back today. That’s what he said when I talked to him this mornin’,” Kaleb exclaimed, clearly frustrated.

I couldn’t help myself, I grinned because it was gratifying to know I was back to my old self, getting my brothers riled up with minimal effort. Yes, I was enjoying the hell out of it, too. I had perfected the art of being a royal pain in the fucking ass, but in my defense, they expected it from me.

I was just trying to be consistent.

Hell, Kaleb should be praising me as it was. Sitting in the small construction office of Walker Demolition with my brother, I had managed to bottle the question for the last hour. Never mind that it was the second time I’d asked about Gage’s whereabouts since Kaleb walked in the door.

Okay, so yes, I was being a dick. Getting Kaleb pissed off by pestering him about Gage’s whereabouts was too easy. And a little amusing. Which only helped to take my mind off some of my questions. Like why no one had heard anything from Gage. Not since he passed out at the club, sleeping off a bender on the couch in my rented apartment.

Since I walked out the door after Gage began to stir in the early-morning hours, I hadn’t seen or heard from him. Not that I expected to because I was pretty sure Gage didn’t remember a thing. And I was almost certain he didn’t realize it was my apartment he had passed out in. It wasn’t like I had any personal items there that would give me away. I liked my anonymity, and since the apartment was little more than a recreation room when I was in town, I didn’t feel the need to clutter it up with personal shit.

Despite Kaleb’s steadfast denial, I was pretty sure he kept in touch with Gage regularly. Now, anyway. There for a while, Kaleb had been ignoring Gage because, according to my brother, bad behavior shouldn’t be rewarded—whatever the fuck that meant. Standing his ground, Kaleb had kept his distance from his best friend, but he wasn’t shunning him entirely.

I couldn’t be angry at him for that because loyalty was loyalty. As it should be.

Of course, Kaleb and the rest of them had pelted me with questions, wanting to know, to quote Zane: What the fuck? Not that I had answered any of the five dozen questions they had about Kylie or Gage. Nor did I intend to.

And somehow, over the course of two months, I had managed to retain some of my sanity.

Not that it had been easy. Not even close. And fine, I wouldn’t qualify all my actions as sane. For instance, the stakeout mission I’d endeavored to do in order to determine whether Gage was hanging out with my wife. Luckily, I’d only gone that one time.

Of course, my stupid ass still wanted to see how she was doing, but somehow I managed to argue myself out of that epic mistake waiting to happen.

Finding Gage at her house would’ve been the worst thing that could’ve happened, but much to my surprise, I had found no evidence to support that he was staying with her. I’d been a happy motherfucker after that little revelation.

Didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in going back, but I was focused on getting my life back to normal. There was no sense in throwing any additional chaos into Kylie’s perfect life.

Gage had handled that splendidly, and I saw where that got him.

Missing. That’s where.

Not that I expected her to embrace Gage with open arms, but if I knew anything at all, it was how painfully difficult it was to let a woman like Kylie slip out of my hands. I didn’t think Gage was immune to her sweet charm either, even if he’d pulled the most dumbass move anyone could come up with.

I had gone rounds with my own conscience ever since, wondering whether Kylie would even give Gage the time of day after that incident. Surely not, but then again, I had never expected her to waltz back into my world one day and blow my resolve clear to hell and back.

Now that I knew where she lived, it had been even more difficult to refrain from going to see her. She was a temptation I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to walk away from the second time. But Kylie Prescott deserved so much better than me. And that was the only valid reason I was keeping my distance.

I was having a hard enough time keeping my attention from straying where it shouldn’t in the first damn place. If my reaction to her after seeing her for less than five minutes was any indication, I knew that showing up on her doorstep would only make things worse for me.

And her.

“What time?” I asked Kaleb, doing my best to piss my brother off even more because I didn’t have anything better to do.

“Not doin’ it today, Trav. You can take your pissy attitude somewhere else. I’ve got work to do.” Kaleb didn’t bother looking up from his computer, and I knew I wouldn’t get anything more out of him.

Mission accomplished.

Truthfully, I was so fucking frustrated with the entire situation that irritating the shit out of my brothers, and anyone else who stepped in my way, had become my sole focus. I’d much rather turn my aggravation on Gage, but again, he was MIA.

I still wasn’t entirely sure what prompted Gage to react the way he did. Hell, we had shared a couple of kisses. Granted, we would’ve shared much, much more had we ever had the opportunity in the form of just a little more privacy. And since the timing was never right, Gage couldn’t pretend to be the scorned lover.

Standing, I decided I would go check to see what other sort of trouble I could get mixed up with. I hadn’t been by the resort yet today, so maybe I’d start there. They’d come a long way in recent months. Much further than I expected anyway. I figured my contractors were well aware of my temper, and considering I was riding their ass day in and day out, I had expected some serious progress. Just not this much.

They would be thrilled to see me.

Grabbing my hard hat off the small table in the minuscule kitchen area, I took off out the door. I could’ve sworn I heard Kaleb sigh in relief as I stepped out into the oppressive Texas heat. The thought made me smile.

I rounded the front of my truck and was just about to climb in when I noticed an unfamiliar truck pulling down the dirt driveway that led to the construction office. Glancing down at my watch, I checked the time and tried to remember if I was expecting anyone. I didn’t think I had any meetings, so I waited for the stranger to park.

The windows were tinted, and the bright morning sun was reflecting off the glass, so I couldn’t see who was in the four-door red Chevy pickup. I knew it wasn’t one of my contractors because one, their trucks didn’t look that clean and shiny—or new—and two, they wouldn’t bring that fancy shit on the property. Hell, Sawyer was even keeping his prized possessions locked up these days thanks to all the construction going on around us.

The driver’s door finally opened, and I watched as a woman got out. Long, golden-brown hair was all I could see because she was facing away from me, but I knew at once who the silky hair belonged to. My body had a strange reaction to the sight of her, and I was tempted to jump in my truck like I never even noticed her. I realized it was too late for that when Kylie turned and faced me, our eyes connecting over the hood of her shiny red truck.

So maybe there was a tiny amount of hope that swelled up from one of the dark, dusty corners in my chest, but when Kylie didn’t greet me with either a smile or words, I forced myself to think rationally. Why in the world would she have come to see me? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

As she approached, I tried to find words but came up bone-fucking-dry. I didn’t even know how to greet her.

Tucking my hands into the pockets of my jeans, my attempt at appearing cool and collected, I watched intently as she opened the passenger door and leaned in to grab something. Without contemplating the results of my actions, I let my eyes linger on her spectacular ass encased in a pair of tight denim shorts as she reached into the truck, her toned thigh muscles stretching beautifully.

Okay, shit. Now something else was stretching. Fuck.

I must’ve been admiring the view for a little too long because when I looked up, Kylie was glancing at me over her shoulder, and she didn’t look happy about being visually molested.

But hell, it made me feel better.

“Hey,” I said, finally finding my voice.

“Hey.” Kylie shut the door with a little more force than was necessary and then closed some of the distance between us.

Just like the first day I laid eyes on her almost eleven years ago, the woman stole my breath right out of my lungs without a please or thank-you. Not only was she stunningly gorgeous, remarkably little had changed about her appearance over the last decade. Her eyes were still a sparkling baby blue, her hair still long and silky, her eye-catching body still just as curvy and sexy as hell in those faded blue jean shorts and … boots.

Awww, fucking hell.

She was country from head to toe, and, truthfully, it wouldn’t matter what she was wearing, she still managed to give me a damned hard-on just by breathing.

“I brought you these,” she said, interrupting my perusal of her sinfully tempting body. Her sweet voice and sexy country drawl brought back an influx of memories, all of them a reminder of exactly how stupid I was.

How the hell had I ever walked away from her all those years ago? Looks aside, Kylie had been sweet and innocent, and so damned good to me; my heart still hurt with the memories that flooded my brain.

I glanced down at her hands, noticing for the first time the manila envelope she was holding out to me.

“What’s this?” I couldn’t imagine what she could possibly have for me.

There was a brief pause as she glanced down and then back up while I reached out to take the proffered envelope.

“Divorce papers,” she said sternly, and my eyes flew up to meet hers.

I didn’t move to open the envelope, but I managed to keep my fingers clasped on the edge, fighting the urge to squeeze.

“This should be relatively simple,” she explained without an ounce of emotion. “I found a lawyer, and he’s reasonable when it comes to uncontested divorces. The only thing you need to do is sign. After you read them, of course. If you have objections to anything, let me know. It’s cut-and-dried. No property, no children…”

I watched her mouth move, my heart pounding unusually hard in my chest, but I barely heard a word she was saying.

I’d never considered this day actually coming, and I didn’t know why. Not that I expected us to be married forever, but in reality, I had never envisioned myself divorced. Then again, I never pictured I’d have the balls to walk away from this woman, either. I’d been a coward, pure and simple, and I’d regretted my decision for so many years. But as each day passed and the pain eased marginally, I realized it was too late.

Nodding my understanding, I looked into her eyes, noticing the sweet innocence that I had once seen was no longer there. In its place was a void of some sort. As though she had steeled herself for heartache and didn’t expect anything else.

“My phone number’s on the last page, so if you want to call me when you’ve signed them, I’ll come back and pick them up.”

I couldn’t speak. There was a lump in my throat the size of a fucking beach ball, and I could barely swallow around it, much less talk.

“Well, I guess I’ll be seein’ you,” Kylie said quickly and turned to head back to her truck.

Before she could get too far, I reached out and grabbed her arm as gently as I could, my body working on instinct. When she turned to look at me, staring up at me with wide eyes, I couldn’t do anything more than peer into a sea of brilliant blue. I was searching for something, but I wasn’t sure what. Something to tell me that for the last ten years she had thought about me as much as I thought about her.

Nothing. I saw absolutely no emotion in her eyes. It was almost like she was a passerby and was shocked that I had stopped her in the first place.

Another nod and I let her go, my fingers gripping the envelope tighter, barely refraining from crushing it in my hand. I watched as Kylie rushed back to her gleaming fire-engine-red truck, never blinking until she disappeared inside, and then I watched until the truck was no longer visible down the dirt road.

Divorce papers.

Of all the places I thought I would be in life, this certainly wasn’t one of them. Now the question was what I was supposed to do next.