“What can I do for you boys?”
Both Josh and I are over six feet tall and tower over her, but she will always see us as boys.
“I was wondering if you could email me your security footage from last night.”
“I would love to dear, but it crapped out.”
For a second, I’m trying to get over the fact that she used the word crapped in that soft voice of hers when what she says hits me.
“You already looked?” Josh asks.
“Yes. I saw Adela’s report and I wanted to see if it was just Sam walking again. But I went to look and realized the batteries were gone.”
Another chill slinks down my spine. Something is really off.
“Have you had any issues like that before?”
She shakes her head. “I just posted on the Express about it. I’ll let you know if anyone contacts me otherwise. It’s working now that I replaced the batteries. Since I’m leaving today, I wanted to make sure that they were working.”
We thank her again and then I walk Josh to his pickup. “This is growing weirder by the moment,” I say.
He nods. “Some of the kids in Juniper would know how to do that, but a lot of people wouldn’t. It’s a known problem with that doorbell.”
“Seems like a big ass flaw, if you ask me.”
He sighs and looks down the street. “I get this vibe. Something is really off.”
I don’t have to question that. His time in undercover honed his instincts, I’m sure. There is no way he would’ve survived that experience without them. “Definitely. I’m with you. The woman drives me crazy on a daily basis, but stalking her? That’s just insane.”
“Yeah.” He turns to look at me again. “But stalkers aren’t rational people. They’ve become obsessed with their subject. Usually starts as adoration, then morphs into something ugly.”
I nod. “There’s a reason I’m staying.”
His mouth curves up into a stupid smile. The dangerous light in his eyes tells me he’s about to give me crap about something. But he doesn’t say anything. He just continues to stare at me.
“What?” I finally ask.
“Dude, you sure it has nothing to do with the fact that you’ve been crushing on her for years?”
Fuck. I know a lot of my friends knew I had a crush on her when we were younger. Actually, I was just one of many guys who did. Nancy didn’t fit the mold even back then. Loud, funny, and down to earth.
“Get bent, Josh.”
He laughs. “My, you sure seem defensive about it. Why is that?”
I study him and wonder if he would charge me if I tried to punch him. I could probably get at least a right hook to connect with his face. Josh reads my thoughts though.
“Oh, don’t do it. I don’t want to have to pull you in. Especially when you’re needed here.”
That sobers me. “True. Let me know if you find anything.”
“No problem. Have to protect Juniper Springs’ favorite girl next door.”
He slips into his vehicle. After he starts the SUV, he winds the window down on the passenger’s side. “Hey, Travis.”
I step closer, my hands in my pockets. “What?”
“You know that the feeling is mutual, right?”
I frown. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He looks at Nancy’s house, then back at me. “Think about it. Don’t let Nancy be alone. I think this just might be some asshole fucking around, but it’s always best to stay safe.”
Then the window slides up, and he takes off. I know I’m probably overreacting but since Josh just told me to stick close, that’s exactly what I am going to do. First off, I need to know who is coming in and what At Home is going to do.
Me: So, you’re getting her some kind of security.
Not a question, that’s for sure.
Evil Sis: Yes. Grady is on the phone right now. Nancy is trying to refuse under the argument that she doesn’t work for us anymore.
That woman. Seriously, this is her safety. I know part of it is that she can’t stand getting special attention. At least, when we’re off camera. When we’re doing the show, she’s a ham. Granted, not as much as me and that’s why we work well together. She’s a very good straight woman for my comedic antics. There’s this chemistry when we’re working together…just thinking about it leaves me breathless. Although, it wasn’t as good this season. My fault, not hers. Well, and Garrett’s. That bastard made it difficult on set. It didn’t help that I was trying to come up with a way to keep myself shut off from my feelings for her. That’s on me. And I need her to understand that, but I have to come up with a way to explain it without revealing my feelings.
Jesus. I’m a sad sack.
Me: That’s bullshit.
Evil Sis: Yeah, it is. And I argued with her. Grady is still going to get everything set up. We’ll have them on standby just in case.
Me: Good. I’ll be staying here until this gets resolved.
No matter how hard it is on me. I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but damn if I’m going to let her stay by herself. Josh is right.
Evil Sis: She could just come stay with us.
Me: Josh said no. He said if it is a stalker, doing that could put you at risk. Also, he might just wait it out. She can’t stay there forever.
Josh had been pretty abrupt about that. Granted, I still think getting out of town would be a good idea, but then I’m not in law enforcement. All I do is swing a hammer and smile at the camera. Right now, it might just be some jealous jerk who wants to cause her some inconvenience. There’s no reason to really panic. It’s humming through my blood, my mind jumping from one horrible scenario to the next, but I have to keep it at bay. There is just no way I can freak out about this because then Nancy would freak out.
I find the woman in question sitting at the table, a cup of coffee in front of her, but she doesn’t seem to be paying attention to it. She looks defeated, lost. I hate it, especially because it makes me feel impotent. All I want to do is gather her close and tell her everything is going to be okay. That I will never let anything happen to her.
“So, I need to go get my things.”
She startles, as if she didn’t know I walked back in her house. That isn’t good at all. “What?”
“My things. I didn’t bring much, so we need to go get them.”
“Your things? You’re still insisting on staying with me?”
I nod. There’s no way I am going to let her stay alone.
“Then go get your things. You can stay in the guest room.”
I nod. There’s no way I am going to let her stay alone. Granted, the security detail will be here within a couple of hours, but I still don’t like the idea of leaving her after what happened.
“Okay, you can go ahead and get your things.”
I shake my head. “Nope. You have to go with me.”
She crosses her arms and frowns at me. “I’m safe here.”
“Don’t even try downplaying this, Nancy. We have to be extra careful here. Josh said that we need to make sure you aren’t left alone.”
Her expression congeals and I know that it isn’t just me. Nancy has control issues. I can’t argue with her. I have them too, but most of it has to do with her privacy. It’s insane that she loves Juniper the way she does, because there is no such thing as privacy here. Everyone is in each other’s business. But, seeing her like this, a little defeated and a whole lot unhappy cuts me.
“So for the rest of my life you’re going to hang out?”
Oh, if I thought she would go for it, I would tie myself to her in any way possible. Through the show, because of the stalker, proposing marriage…
The thought should scare me. I’ve never really kissed her—other than a kiss on the cheek. Marriage is something that I think about, but because I have been in love with her for so long, I just don’t get beyond just the preliminaries. I’m so tied up in her that I can’t see forever with anyone else.
She sighs. “Fine. But…
let’s not make that big of a deal out of it.”
Of course, that’s what she says, and I want to argue with her. Next to Syd, she is the most important person in the world to me. I’m not sure she understands that.
“Great, and I think we need to pick up some food.”
“I have food.”
She shakes her head.
“Let’s swing by the office and grab my stuff, then go shopping instead of waiting here for the detail. Does that work for you?”
She nods.
“Nancy.”
She looks at me, her blue eyes troubled. I want to chase away those shadows. People see her on the show and think she’s happy all the time. And she can be happy a lot of the time, but there are always those storm clouds from her past. Her inability to connect with her family is the main issue, and there is no fixing it. I know that. There will be no one checking up on her while she’s in town. That’s why she has Syd and me. We’re her family.
“No matter what, nothing bad will happen to you. I promise.”
“Thanks. Ah, let me go brush my teeth, then we can head out to for the food and grab your things.”
She hurries off and I watch her, my brain trying to remind my body to get itself under control. My phone buzzes in my hand and I look down at it.
Evil Sis: Now maybe you won’t take her for granted.
Me: WTF does that mean?
Evil Sis: You got close to losing her to a competitor, but this is different.
Evil Sis: Tell me, if something happened to Nancy, how would you feel?
How would I feel? Like my life was over. It would be worse than losing my hands, which are how I make my livelihood. I could probably come up with a way to do what I do without my hands but living without Nancy…that leaves me sick to my stomach and unable to breathe. It’s like I ran a marathon after eating five cheeseburgers while chugging milkshakes.
I blink. Fuck. Yeah, as I said, I am in love with her, but until this moment, I didn’t realize what it actually meant. Not really. The idea that something could happen to her has my heart all but stopping.
“Ready?” I glance up at her. She’s actually smiling at me. Like one of her genuine smiles. She hadn’t thrown one of those in my direction in a very long time. It reaches her eyes and, fuck, it makes her even prettier. And in that one moment, I realize why my sister asked the question.
She knows I love Nancy. Why did she say it to me now? Did she just realize it?
I think back to our conversations—in person and over text. Syd has made a few comments here and there, but she’s never said it that plainly. That tells me my sister is more than a little worried about both Nancy and me. I held myself back trying to protect our friendship. Then I blew that up this season. Really, I knew we were having problems before we started filming but my fear of being exposed ruined what little goodwill we had left.
“Travis?”
I shake my head, pushing those thoughts aside. “Let’s roll.”
We need to get my things and food.
It’s Wednesday night and there isn’t much traffic. The air is still sultry, humid. There’s an electric charge in the air, and I don’t know if it is between the two of us or the oncoming storm. Could be both. It’s one of those kinds of nights that can go to crap in a blink of an eye. Violent storms are normal this time of year, so I want to go as fast as I can and get us back to the house safe and sound.
I unlock the door to the office and wait for her to walk in before stepping over the threshold. I love this space. It’s big, but not overly so. It’ll make a good base of operations. Or it would have. The idea that we might not ever open it leaves my stomach a little unsettled. What if I can’t convince her to come back? Everything the two of us have worked for will evaporate and, worse, it’s all my fault. I disrespected her. Is it any surprise that she walked out after dealing with me?
Nope, can’t think that way. I need to do my best to stay positive, and I have to prove to her that we can work together again. But first, keeping her safe and figuring out just what the hell is going on is more important at the moment.
“Wow, you’ve made a lot of progress.”
“When was the last time you were here?”
“Hmm, three months ago. I meant to come by before we went up to Amarillo, but you know how things go.”
Yeah. I do.
“Well, the bathroom is completely done. Once I got all the plumbing in place, I decided to get that out of the way.”
“Good for you since you got stuck staying here.”
I say nothing to the comment. She’s not paying that much attention to me as she walks through the area. It’s all sheetrock and bare space in the office area. The bathroom is another matter.
When she designed this space, Nancy went more utilitarian than what she usually does on the show. Still, there are touches of her in there. White subway tile, seamless shower, dark blue walls. It’s a bit dramatic for a normal office, but then we’ve never been normal.
She doesn’t say anything as I stand behind her.
“What do you think?”
She doesn’t say anything right away, and I start to worry I screwed something up. She clears her throat.
“It’s really nice, Travis. Turned out just like I envisioned. Actually better.” Her voice is hoarse when she speaks, leaving me kind of confused. I’ve never heard that tone before, really. In all the years, she’s never sounded emotional like that. Oh, she does emotional—mainly anger and happiness and everything in between. This is different. If I didn’t know better, I would say Nancy sounds a bit melancholy.
“Why don’t you get your stuff so we can hit the market before it closes.”
She still hasn’t turned around, but she steps further into the bathroom, running her hand over the vanity.
“Sure thing,” I say. As I gather up my things, I notice that she’s taking pics of the space with her phone. She’s the one who does a lot of our social media work, although Syd says that’s going to change before next season. If there is a next season.
Fuck. Okay, I need to stop thinking that way. I need to stay positive. First things first: Keep Nancy safe and figure out who the hell targeted her. Then, I can deal with winning her back.
She steps out into the office area again, smiling, as if she didn’t get all emotional over the bathroom. I’m a man who’s especially close to his sister and has a female cohost who I count as my best friend—until I fucked it up.
“Ready?” she asks. And for a long moment I continue to stare at her, unable to respond. Time stretches out and she frowns at me. “Travis?”
I shake myself. “Sorry. Long day. Let’s get going.”
I follow her out the door, locking it behind me. I stow my gear in the backseat. When I get settled in the driver’s side, I feel her gaze on me. I look at her. The sun is almost set so it’s dark inside the cab of my pickup.
“Are you okay?”
I nod. “Like I said, long day.”
She sighs. “Tell me about it.”
I want to pull her closer, tell her everything will be alright, but I need to repair the bridge I trashed over the last year. Instead, I start up my pickup. I need to keep my priorities in line. Nancy needs to stay safe, then I can fix everything else.
Chapter Fifteen
Nancy
I hate shopping for food. HATE IT. I like shopping for other things, but food is just not fun to me. Mainly because I’m a sucky cook. Also, shopping in Juniper Springs is never fun. You can’t walk even a few feet without someone wanting to talk to you. San Antonio can be kind of impersonal because of the size of the city, and sometimes that is a good thing. Even if people recognize me at the HEB, they tend to keep a respectful distance. In Juniper Springs, no one keeps a respectful distance.
We’ve been stopped ten times. TEN TIMES. Sorry for using so many all caps, but jeez, a girl needs a break. Usually, I don’t mind chatting with people, but ever since I realized someone has it out for me—or maybe someone h
as it out for me—I have no patience for talking with people. In fact, Chris Pine could appear in front of me to talk about how sexy he thinks I am, and I would be irritated.
Part of the reason is that I am a little raw from our visit to the office. Yes, it was just a bathroom, but I almost started crying. It was perfect, just like I had designed it. But, that’s Travis. When we are working together and not fighting, it is one of the best feelings in the world. But it’s trashed because I was stupid and fell in love with my partner. Our best friends’ kind of status sort of went down the drain. At best, I would say we were frenemies.
So here we are again, stuck on the pasta aisle listening to Mrs. Petrie complain about everything we’ve done wrong or are doing wrong. Or something. Okay, I’ll admit that I’m not really paying attention. She’s been blathering on for what feels like a million hours, and she’s not looking at me. The retired substitute teacher was one of those types of subs you wanted to avoid. She was angry all the time, always writing all of us up for insane reasons. Back then, it seemed like she was the devil incarnate. Now, I look back and think I would be an angry sub also. Dealing with teenagers isn’t fun.
But even though she no longer works as a substitute, but she’s always complaining. About everything. Last city board meeting I went to, she complained about the sound of her neighbor’s sprinklers making too much noise. Yeah, she’s one of those.
She’s a tall, angular woman, with a perpetual frown. She can’t weigh much, as she has been skinny for as long as I can remember. Syd’s convinced that all she needs is a sandwich. Like that’s going to solve anything, but then, I do get nasty when I’m hungry, so maybe she’s onto something.
“So, are you two going to finally open up that office you’ve been talking about for the last few years?” Mrs. Petrie asks, her voice dripping with judgement. The old biddy.
I want to tell her to just fuck right off. I know. I was raised to behave better. I said I wanted to tell her. I didn’t say I actually said it. That would make me disrespectful.
Travis has no problem dealing with the LOLs though. They love him.
Love to Hate You: An Enemies to Lovers, Best Friend's Brother Romantic Comedy (The Fillmores Book 2) Page 14
