The Cowboy's Summer Love

by The Cowboy's Summer Love (mobi)

  “I didn’t think you felt the same. I knew you’d never see me as anything but another pesky brother,” Travis said, rubbing his hands lightly along her back. “I couldn’t bear the thought of having you laugh at me, throwing my love back in my face.”

  “I wouldn’t have laughed, Travis. Not at all,” Tess said, resting her head against his chest. “All the teasing and kissing you’ve done this summer has made me absolutely crazy. I thought you were just saying and doing all those things because we used to be such good friends, because you wanted me to feel good about myself. I never dreamed I’d have a chance with you.”

  “That teasing and kissing was because I couldn’t keep away from you, Tess. I’ve never been able to stay away from you. Even in the service, Brice kept me updated on where you were, what you were doing. I missed you every single day I was gone.”

  “Oh, Tee, I missed you, too.” Tess started to feel regret for all the years they could have been together, but decided they both had a lot of growing up to do in order to reach this place where they could say “I love you.”

  And love him she did.

  “I better take off that ice before you get frostbite,” Tess said, starting to get up, but Travis pulled her back against his chest. “It’s fine for a few more minutes. I want you to kiss me again, honeybee.”

  Tess didn’t kiss him immediately. She looked into his eyes, getting lost in the warm blue depths before she ran a finger over Travis’ lower lip. She caressed his chin and smoothed her hand across his jaw. Then she lowered her lips to his, teasing and tempting until she felt his arms tighten around her possessively, passionately.

  “I see Travis is feeling much improved,” Trent said, standing in the door with a goofy smirk on his face. Tess blushed and buried her head against Travis’ chest.

  “I am feeling better,” Travis said, rubbing his hand reassuringly across Tess’s back. “Love is the very best kind of medicine.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” Trent said, coming into the room and looking at them both. “I was wondering how long it would take you to realize it.”

  “Is that right?” Travis asked with a grin. “Why didn’t you write it in the sky or take out a billboard on the highway?”

  “We talked about doing that,” Trent teased. “Some of us made bets to see how long it would take the two of you to realize what we all knew.”

  “Who?” Tess asked, curious as to who had been talking about her and Travis.

  “Me, Trey, the hands, Brice, your dad, old man Reinken, and the guy who delivers the fuel, to name a few,” Trent said, devilment dancing in his eyes.

  Travis laughed and Tess looked between the two brothers, shaking her head. Instead of responding, she got off the bed, removed the ice from Travis’ legs, and headed to the kitchen with the bags.

  Trent sat down in the chair and studied Travis for a moment. “You look like you are feeling a lot better, bro, and I don’t just mean your legs.”

  “I am. It took Cass to bring me to my senses, but I think I’m going to be okay now,” Travis said with a smile.

  “Cass? What did she do?” Trent asked, wondering what the little red-head said to Travis.

  “She came in here this morning in tears because Trey and Cady were fighting and you were mad, muttering some nonsense about calling off the wedding. She’s was quite incensed her pretty dress would not be worn, mind you,” Travis said with a teasing grin. “From now on, I want life around here to continue as usual. Everyone needs to quit tiptoeing around me and treating me like I might break. I’m going to be just fine, so you better get back to planning a wedding. I promised Cass she could wear her dress and Lindsay could be princess for the day.”

  “Did you, now?” Trent said, digesting this bit of information. “What if you can’t walk by then? Will you still stand up with me, even if you have to use crutches?”

  “I’ll stand up with you even if you have to strap me to a hand-truck and roll me down to the pond. You just make sure the wedding goes as planned. Deal?” Travis stuck out his hand toward Trent.

  Trent smiled broadly and engulfed Travis in a hug.

  “Deal.” Sitting back in the chair, Trent grinned mischievously. “Now, I think you better fess up as to how long you’ve been buzzing after your little miss honeybee.”

  “Far too long,” Travis said, settling back on the pillows, feeling better than he had for a very long time.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Love is when you can be your true self with someone,

  and you only want to be your true self

  because of them.

  Terri Guillemets

  After dinner, Travis asked both Trey and Trent to sit with him for a while. He asked Tess, too, because he felt she deserved to know what had plagued him all summer and driven him to the cusp of a breakdown.

  He couldn’t quite bring himself to have Cady and Lindsay there, but knew Trey and Trent would offer them a watered-down version of what he needed to share.

  Tess sat on the bed next to him while Trent sat in the straight back chair and Trey took the armchair by his bed.

  “What’s up, Trav?” Trey asked, grateful to see his brother looking more like himself. From what Trent said, he thought a big part of it was the fact that Tess quit running from her feelings and told Travis she loved him.

  “I wanted to talk about what happened while I was in Iraq, what happened the day I… uh… got the scars on my thigh,” Travis said. He knew Trey and Trent were shocked when they first saw the scars and he realized at some point in the last few days, Tess had a glimpse of them as well. The scars, and how they came to be there, were a big part of what gave him nightmares. He hoped talking about it would help the emotions and the memories have less power over him.

  Taking Tess’ hand in his, he lightly squeezed her fingers. “What I’m going to say isn’t pretty, honeybee. If you’d rather not hear it, I understand.”

  “No, I want to stay,” Tess said, holding his hand tightly in hers. She looked at him encouragingly, so he began his story.

  “I was leading a squad down a street that had been bombed. We heard there were some children living in an abandoned house and we went to find them, see if we could help. One minute we were walking down the street, the next gunfire opened around us. We ran for cover and realized insurgents were firing from two empty houses on opposite sides of the street. We split the squad and fired back, riddling those houses full of rounds. The firing stopped and we waited. We took the first house and didn’t find any survivors. As we entered the second, we could hear crying. Those men had found the kids and who knows what they planned to do with them. Five children were stuffed in a closet and the one closest to the door had been hit by a stray bullet in the chest. He needed medical attention so I sent the guys out with the rest of the kids and asked them to call for assistance. I was afraid to move him, not sure about the extent of his injuries. While I was bent over talking to him, his eyes got huge and filled with terror. Before I could turn around, I felt a blade rip through my upper thigh. One of the rebels we shot dragged himself across the floor and sliced me with a filthy machete. He slashed me three more times while I was trying to gather up the little boy. Yelling, I ran out the door, carrying the child, blood streaming down my leg. One of my men ran back in the house to finish the job we started and that’s when a bomb exploded, killing him. The little boy, he didn’t make it either.”

  Travis looked down at his hand clasped in Tess’, remembering every detail of that day. He could feel the knife in his muscle, see the all-consuming fear in the little boy’s eyes, smell the burning stench as the bomb detonated.

  Trey leaned over, tears glistening in his eyes, and gently touched Travis on the leg. “Why didn’t you tell us what happened? Why did you always sound so happy and carefree on the phone when you called?”

  “I didn’t want you to worry. There wasn’t a thing you could do to help me,” Travis said.

  “We could have shared the burden with you,” Tr
ey said quietly. “What happened with your wound? I’m sure it was more than just a few stitches.”

  Travis laughed ruefully.

  “I spent a couple of weeks face down in a hospital bed fighting the infection from the dirty blade. The doctors at one point thought they might have to amputate to get rid of the diseased flesh. I think that is why being stuck in bed again has been such a challenge for me, although I admit I was having plenty of problems before the accident. When I close my eyes, I can see that little boy’s face and the faces of all those we couldn’t save. I see the faces of my friends who were shot or stepped on mines or didn’t run fast enough to get away from flying shrapnel. I finally realized this morning that keeping all that bottled up isn’t going to help me get over it.”

  “You can talk to us, anytime, Trav, about anything. I don’t care how awful it might seem, if it will make you feel better to get it off your chest, talk to us,” Trent said. “All of what happened is a part of you now, so don’t try to hide it.”

  “I know and I appreciate that. I also appreciate you putting up with me the last few months and taking care of me. I’m grateful,” Travis said with a humbleness that was new to him. Taking a deep, cleansing breath, he lifted his head and cracked a smile. “Now, according to Cass, you two need to stop fighting, especially if it is about me. Trey, you will go find your wife immediately and apologize for being, as Cass repeated it, a bull-headed horses’…”

  “Horses’ what?” Trey said, knowing he owed Cady a huge apology for his foul temper that morning. He should have apologized as soon as he made her cry, but he was still so mad about Travis and Trent, he couldn’t think straight. He behaved like a knuckle-dragging cavedweller and knew it.

  “That’s where I cut her off. She apparently was hiding in the kitchen while you were fighting this morning and was pretty upset by the whole thing. I have to say, I was too, because I realized all the anger and tension in this house is my fault. So I want it to stop today, right now. We’re generally a pretty happy-go-lucky family and I want us to get back to that. Please?”

  “Works for me,” Trent said with a grin, getting up from his chair. “Tess, if you don’t mind leaving the room for a bit, we’ll help Trav with his evening beauty rituals and then you can read him a bedtime story.”

  Tess mopped away her tears and released a choppy laugh as she got up from her place beside Travis. Stopping at the foot of the bed, Travis winked at her and she smiled before closing the door behind her.

  She was only starting to fathom the horrific things Travis had seen and experienced during his time in Iraq. It certainly explained his wild behavior and driven need for excitement. She didn’t know what exactly she could do to assist him, but she was willing to try anything to help him feel normal again.

  Lindsay and Cady were in the kitchen making treat bags for Cass’ birthday party. Cass had long ago been tucked into bed, so Cady was taking advantage of the child-free time to get some party preparations finished. They looked up at Tess expectantly as she came in the room and sat down beside them.

  “How’d it go?” Cady asked handing Tess a napkin as she wiped away the last of her tears.

  “Really well. Travis talked about some things that were hard to hear, but I think he needed to share them,” Tess said, helping fill a bright pink bag and tying it with a purple ribbon. “He knows Trent and Trey will give you the highlights. Respecting you both as much as he does, I think he was protecting you by not having you there as well.”

  “I understand,” Lindsay said, appreciating her future brother-in-law’s concern.

  “So do you think he’s going to get better now?” Cady asked, adding a fairy sticker to one of the bags. “Not just his legs, but his spirit?”

  “I think so. He seems so different this evening,” Tess said, admiring the way Cady decorated the treat bags and made them look so fun and special. “Cass is going to love these.”

  “You think?” Lindsay said with broad smile.

  “Have you decided what you’re going to do to make Trey pay for his bad behavior today?” Tess asked as they finished filling the last few bags.

  “No. I’m still mad at him, too. He could have apologized earlier, but the longer he’s put it off, the madder it makes me.”

  “Maybe you should give him a pillow and blanket and tell him to take those beautiful blue eyes, that nice square jaw and broad chest, and those fine-fitting Wranglers out to the barn to sleep for a few nights until he can find an appropriate way to make it up to you,” Tess said, causing both Lindsay and Cady to laugh.

  “Let’s not be too hasty,” Cady said, not liking the thought of Trey all the way out in the barn, especially in those Wranglers.

  “Hasty about what?” Trent asked as he and Trey came back in the kitchen. Studying the two brothers, it appeared they mended their broken fences and were back to their usual teasing and joking.

  “Never mind,” Lindsay said, getting up from the table. “It’s long past time for me to go home, so walk me to my car, cowboy.”

  “Sure, Princess,” Trent said, following her out the door.

  “I think I’ll go check on Travis,” Tess said, taking two heat packs with her as she went, leaving Trey to deal with his irritated wife.

  As she walked down the hall, she heard him say, “Darlin’ if I beg and plead for forgiveness and fully acknowledge I am a bull-headed horses’ something or other, will you please speak to me again?”

  Tess could picture Cady standing there with her hands on her hips. “Maybe. But it might just take a while, Timothy Andrew Thompson.”

  “What can I do to make this better, Cady-girl?” Trey asked. Tess envisioned him sidling up to Cady, a charming smile on his face and a determined gleam in his eye.

  “I think you need to take me out for dinner and a movie. Maybe even for a weekend away in Portland with shopping,” Cady said. “And it might help if you give me a kiss that makes me forget what I was mad about.”

  Tess was giggling as she walked into Travis’ room.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked, lifting up his head to look at her.

  “Trey is trying to redeem himself with his out-of-sorts wife,” Tess said, putting the hot packs on Travis’ leg and securing them in place. “I don’t think he’s going to have to try too hard.”

  “Probably not,” Travis said, tugging on Tess’ hand until she sat down by him on the bed. “Cady lets him get away with more than she should.”

  “She can’t help it. You Thompson men have some sort of power over the women madly in love with you.”

  “Is that so?” Travis asked, tucking away that tidbit of information for later use.

  “That is so,” Tess said, sliding down and resting her head in the curve of Travis’ shoulder. She thrilled at the feel of his arm around her, his warmth permeating her entire being.

  Travis wanted to go to sleep every night with Tess held in his arms, her head on his shoulder, her heart close to his. He kept thinking he’d wake up and have her love be a dream, but he was pretty sure it was real.

  “Trav? Is this really happening?” Tess asked, voicing his thoughts.

  “What happening?” he asked, knowing what she was talking about, but wanting her to say it.

  “Did you really say you loved me today? Did you really mean it?” Tess asked, turning so she could look into his eyes.

  “I meant it, honeybee. For now and always, I love you,” Travis said, kissing her nose, then the mole at the corner of her mouth.

  “But why me? You could have any girl you want just like that,” Tess said, snapping her fingers. “Why would you choose me?”

  “You’re a smart girl, Tess, you can figure it out.”

  When she continued to look at him, he rested his chin on the top of her head and rubbed circles on her back. “I choose you, honeybee, because you’ve always been my girl. Because I’ve spent years dreaming about you. Because your scent is imbedded in the recesses of my brain and looking into those big brown eyes of yo
urs makes my temperature spike. Because your laugh makes me smile and your tears break my heart. Because you are sweet and wonderful, sassy and fun, and the most desirable woman I’ve ever seen. Because you make me so crazy I can’t think straight. Because I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” Tess said, kissing his jaw, his chin, his cheeks, before settling on his warm, inviting lips.

  When she pulled back, Travis framed her face with his hands and smiled. “Do me a favor and bring me my wallet.”

  Tess got up and retrieved his wallet from on top of the dresser, handing it to him as she sat beside him. Travis opened it and pulled out a dog-eared photo that was so worn, it was hard to make out the image.

  Handing it to her, Tess gasped. It was her senior picture. One she’d given to Travis when she graduated, thinking he’d probably throw it away. On the back she’d written:

  To Tee,

  Be true to your heart.

  Love always, Tess.

  She looked at Travis, bewildered.

  “That photo was the only thing that linked me to you. Sometimes it was the only thing that linked me to sanity. ‘Be true to your heart,’ you wrote. I was, Tess. My heart was with you and I’ve been true to it all this time.”

  “Oh, Travis,” Tess said, putting her arms around him and crying against his neck, filled with sorrow for what had been lost, what might have been. “Why didn’t you write me or call me? I would have sent you photos, written you letters. I used to nearly die waiting for Brice to give me news about where you were and how you were doing.”

  “Looking back, I wished we would have stayed in touch, but then again, maybe everything worked out just like it was supposed to,” Travis said, wiping her tears and kissing her cheeks.

  Tess nodded and removed Travis’ heat packs. Making him turn onto his stomach, she gave him another back rub, only this time, she added in a few kisses that were making it hard for Travis to keep from rolling over and kissing her until they both lost the ability to think rationally. Since he couldn’t even get out of bed by himself, he thought it best to keep a tight rein on his thoughts, for now.