“Ready for the shittiest two weeks of your life?” Travis mutters as he kills the engine.
“I like your dad,” I say, keeping my voice neutral. “I don’t mind staying at his place until you go back to your mom’s for the holiday.”
Him. Not us.
“Of course you don’t mind,” Travis sneers. “You just get to sit around watching the men work while you read your little porn books on your phone and call it romance.” He lets out this smug laugh, completely oblivious to the fact that he’s just pissed me off six different ways in one sentence.
“Romance isn’t porn, Travis, but if it were, you’d still be the guy who forgets there’s someone else in the room.” His eyes narrow, and I let out a long, slow breath, already regretting every life choice that landed me here. “Besides, the most I’ve ever seen you do is shuffle papers and pretend you’re busy. You know your dad could use some real help around here.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” he grits out. “That’s enough. I don’t owe him more than that.”
“You know he’s never been anything but nice to me, so maybe cut him a break.”
“You don’t know him.”
“Do you?” I snap back. “You’ve spent what, seven whole minutes with him in the last decade?”
His expression darkens, his lips pressing into a tight, thin line. “Shut the fuck up, Piper. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Whatever.” I grab my bag from the back seat, already over this entire conversation. “Let’s just go.”
The tension between us crackles like a live wire, and not the good kind. It’s not the kind of tension that makes you want to rip someone’sclothes off. It’s the kind that makes you want to tear their head off instead.
Travis’s door slams shut before I can even unbuckle my seatbelt, his latest tantrum in full swing as he stalks toward the house without looking back. My fingers tighten around the strap of my bag as I force myself to look up, and silhouetted in the porch light stands six feet something of pure, rugged sin. Broad shoulders fill out worn flannel, his jeans hang just right on long, muscular legs, and his boots are planted like he’s part of the earth itself.
Christian watches his son approach, radiating the kind of big-dick energy that makes my mouth go dry.
I force myself to move, stepping out of the car and pulling open the back door to grab the rest of my bags. I’ve probably packed too much for a two-week stay, but who the hell cares?
I set the bags down beside me, brushing off my jeans, but before I can even think about lifting them, I hear the shuffle of boots, and suddenly the bags are off the ground and in the hands of the man I’m spectacularly obsessed with.
“Let me…”
“Thank you.” The words barely leave my mouth before he spins away, my bags looking like they weigh nothing in his capable hands. But when he reaches Travis, I hear exactly what he growls under his breath.
“Since when do you let your lady carry her own bags? Thought I taught you better than that.”
“I’m doing her a favor.”
Oh fuck no, he didn’t.
Christian’s glare could melt steel, and when Travis opens his mouth—probably to make some smartass comment about my weight—he catches the murder in my eyes and thinks better of it, snatching the bags from his dad’s hands like the petulant child he is.
“I would’ve gotten them eventually.”
Christian grunts, pulling off his hat and running a hand through chocolate-brown hair that’s just starting to show silver at the temples. You’d have to really be looking to notice those gray strands, but those threads only make him more devastating.
“Have you guys eaten?”
“No,” Travis mutters, actually sounding civil for once. “What do you have?”
“Ivy brought over a meatloaf when I told her you were coming up.” Christian’s already moving toward the kitchen, not waiting for a response. “Come on, eat. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow, so I’m not gonna be up late.”
“Can I help with anything?” Christian half turns, those storm-dark eyes finding mine for just a heartbeat before he gives a small shake of his head.
This is the Christian I see whenever Travis is around, the one who’s forgotten how to exist in his own skin, and it hurts to see him shrinking just to keep the peace.
Chapter 6