“Ah, no.” I huffed. “I prefer not to throw myself out of a perfectly good airplane. Clothes are always optional, though,” I teased.
His gaze scorched me. It was as if he was seeing right through what I was wearing and liked what he saw.
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” he asked after a moment.
I loved the playful banter between us. He kept me on my toes and made me laugh. It was refreshing after going through my divorce the past few months.
“What’s college like? I didn’t go given I had Cara so young.”
“It was wild. For most of us, it was the first time away from our parents. I’d been apart from them before, but I was finally free, you know? I partied hard. A lot.” He flashed me a smile, but it looked brittle for a moment until he schooled his features. Then it turned genuine, reaching his eyes, the crinkles around them so damn sexy. “Jacques was a machine—he ate, slept, trained, and studied. Rusty was, and still is, pretty introverted. He didn’t party with us all that much. But we hit it off and have had each other’s backs ever since.”
There was something he wasn’t telling me about their relationship. It wasn’t that it was weird to live with other men—I had friends in their forties who were happily single, perfectly successful, and decided to share their homes with roommates. It was more the way Trav spoke about Jacques and Rusty with a familiarity and fondness that reminded me of the way a person spoke about someone they were head over heels in love with. Was that it? Was Travis’s love unrequited?
“So you were the party animal?” I asked, and he shrugged, his grin still firmly in place. “I see not much has changed, then.”
Trav barked out a laugh and pointed to the swimming hole. We led the horses there, and Trav took them down to the water to drink.
“What did you study?” I asked, trying to figure out what career I could see him in. It was nothing behind a desk. Trav was far too active for that. Fitness of some sort, maybe nutrition or physiotherapy, perhaps.
“Fire science. I’m a firefighter.”
Huh.
I hadn’t expected that. Then I looked beyond the tree line at the wide-open spaces filled with dry grasses and thought about the countless suburbs of houses we’d driven past on the way to the homestead. There were a lot of ways being a firefighter could go wrong, so many hazards and so much danger.
“I… didn’t expect that. But I can see you in the uniform. Or out of it.”
“Y’all just want me on a calendar.” He lifted his shirt and showed me the deep-V of his Adonis belt.
I pointed to it and exclaimed, “Damn right,” with a laugh. “Y’all—is that Texan?”
“I am Texan, yeah.”
“Is your family still there? Do you visit much?”
He winced at my questions, and I wished I could take them back.
“I wouldn’t know.” His answer was final, brooking no further discussion.
Not that he’d get any pressure from me. I was more than happy to respect his desire not to talk about them if family was an off-limits topic for him.
“Should we go skinny-dipping?” I asked, disbelieving the words coming out of my mouth.
Trav’s grin returned, and he peeled his T-shirt off over those broad shoulders and dropped it to the ground, uncaring where it landed. When he kicked off his shorts, I saw that he was going commando, his semi bobbing as he toed his sneakers off too. Naked, he stepped toward me and hooked his finger under my chin, lifting my face to his. I’d been busted staring at him, but I didn’t have it in me to care. He was gorgeous. Every inch of him was perfection.
“Don’t leave me hanging, darlin’,” he murmured before pressing a whisper-soft kiss to my lips.
I swayed toward him, but he was already gone, dashing into the water and diving in once he got knee-deep.
I stripped, nervous about getting naked in the outdoors, but the rock pool was private enough, and I trusted Trav. Hell, it couldn’t be crazier than getting drunk married to Jacques.
I held my arms out, trying to balance as I waded into the water, but I still faltered, slipping and nearly overbalancing. Trav strode out of the water without hesitation, his erection proudly saluting me.
He scooped me into his arms and said, “Y’all’re okay. I’ve got you.” Once I was steady on my feet, he pulled back and let his gaze travel slowly down every inch of my exposed body. “You’re fucking gorgeous.”
His words filled me, warmth tingling from my center to the tips of my fingers and toes. I hadn’t been called that in so long, and yet Jacques and Trav had said it to me over and over. They thought I was beautiful. Drunk or sober, their message had stayed the same. I turned them on. Me. The woman who’d lost every ounce of confidence I had. I had big boobs, a rounded belly, an ass that didn’t fit comfortably on standard-sized seats, cellulite, and stretch marks. I’d once loved my body. My ex’s betrayal had changed that. He’d swept my feet out from under me, and I’d felt ugly.
I’d only spent twenty-four hours with them, and they’d managed to restore much of the confidence I’d lost. They were giving me back a part of myself I genuinely wanted returned. Their appreciation was genuine, and I was beginning to find myself again.
