“Damien?” Tierra’s expression was incredulous, disbelief blanketing her face. She was suddenly acutely aware of Travis’s hand pressed against the small of her back.
Pushing his way past Tingin, Damien swept Tierra up into his arms. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I don’t know what got into me, but I realize I made a horrible mistake. I love you, Tea, and I just had to come and try to make things right between us.”
Chapter 16
The two men pulled up to the bar, Tingin gesturing for the bartender.
“What’ll you have?” the burly, red-faced man asked, wiping down the oak structure with a damp rag.
“Two shots of Jack Daniels.”
“With two beer chasers,” Travis added, holding up two fingers and waving them in the air.
The bartender nodded, moving to prep their drinks.
“Well, it’s nice to officially meet you,” Tingin said, cutting his eye in Travis’s direction. “Mama Dee’s had a lot to say about you.”
Travis smiled. “She’s a sweetheart.”
Tingin nodded. “She has her moments.”
“That’s what your sister said.” Travis chuckled.
Both men paused as their two shots were dropped onto the counter in front of them. With a quick clink of their glasses, they tilted back their heads and downed the umber-colored fluid in one swallow.
“We’ll do that one more time,” Travis said as he pulled two twenty-dollar bills from his pocket and passed them to the man. “Thank you.”
Both men blew a deep sigh at the same time.
“Well, isn’t this something,” Travis said, reaching for conversation.
The other man nodded. “It’s a mess, is what it is.”
Travis nodded, not knowing what else there was for him to say. Mess didn’t begin to define what the situation had turned into.
Tierra had been visibly shaken to have Damien Porter standing in her living room. Travis had wanted nothing more than to be able to console her, to assure her that things would be just fine. But he knew that wasn’t something he could promise the woman. In that moment, nothing had felt fine. And then he realized that him being there, after having spent the weekend with her, had only made the situation even more awkward.
Damien hadn’t given anyone else much opportunity to say anything, chattering a mile per minute trying to explain himself to Tierra. It hadn’t registered with the man at all that she and Travis had been together, arriving at her home at the same time.
It had been Tingin who’d suggested that the two of them walk down the block to the bar for a drink to give Tierra and Damien time alone to talk. Travis hadn’t been much interested in giving them time alone for anything at all. The look on Tierra’s face had been daunting, the woman clearly feeling besieged by it all. Now all he wanted was to be back in Tierra’s living room staking his claim on the woman’s heart.
Tingin sensed his unease. “Hey, I’m sure Tea’s giving Damien his walking papers as we speak. There is no way she’d ever consider taking him back after everything he’s done to her. My sister’s way too smart for that.”
“Your sister has been on an emotional roller coaster for the past few weeks. There’s no telling what she might do.”
Another awkward silence settled over the duo. Travis twisted the chilled bottle of beer between his hands, palming it nervously.
“You really care about my sister, don’t you?” Tingin asked, cutting his eye at the man a second time.
His question cut through the thick silence that had filled the space between them. Travis turned to look the man in his eyes.
“Let me tell you a story,” Travis said. He continued to twirl his bottle of beer as he turned in his seat to face the man. “Do you remember the Yearwood Center that used to be down on Lafayette Street?”
“Yeah, we spent a few summers there. They had a great kids program.”
Travis nodded his agreement. “I was fourteen years old the summer I went. I’d come to Texas to visit with my cousins. It was the year before my aunt and uncle were killed, and they sent us there for the summer basketball program.”
“I played basketball,” Tingin exclaimed excitedly. “Coach Tolliver was the coach!”
“Coach Tolliver was in charge,” Travis said at the same time.
A wide grin spread across both their faces. Tingin laughed. “So we were probably there at the same time.”
“The year I was there, the girls use to cheer for the teams. There was this one skinny little girl who wore the same striped red-and-yellow socks for every game.”
Tingin burst out laughing, the sound rising from deep in his gut. “Oh, say it’s not so!”
“One day I scored the winning basket, and out of nowhere she came running over and hugged me. She was the littlest thing with the biggest, brightest eyes. I have never forgotten your sister’s eyes. She still has the most beautiful eyes.”
Tingin was still laughing. “Does Tierra know?”
Travis shook his head. “No. I haven’t told her yet.”
The two men lifted their bottles of beer and took sips at the same time. For a few quick moments they sat in quiet reflection, both amused by just how small a world it was.
“And I do care about Tierra. Even more than she realizes. I’ve fallen in love with your sister,” he said, finally answering Tingin’s original question. The conviction of his statement left no doubt in Tingin’s mind as the man repeated himself. “I love her very much.”
“Damn,” Tingin muttered. He took a swig of his beer.
“What’s wrong?” Travis questioned.
“I don’t mind having your back, brother. We’ll do whatever we need to do. To tell you the truth, I would really like to body-slam Damien into a deep hole, but hey, if we can toss him out peacefully, I’ll go for that.
“And for the record, I had my money on Tierra being an old maid until she was fifty, and you had to come along and throw off my odds.”
Travis laughed. “Sorry, guy, but that’s one bet you have definitely lost.” He tapped the neck of his beer bottle against Tingin’s. “I have no intentions of letting your sister stay single past next week.”
“Y’all are all crazy!”
“Love will do that to you.”
Tierra’s big brother nodded slowly. Then he changed the subject. “You do play golf, right?”
“I do.”
“And you hunt, fish, bowl…?”
Travis laughed. “Yes, sir, I do it all.”
“You, I like!” Tingin gestured for one more refill. “Drink up. If we have to carry Damien out ourselves, he’s being permanently evicted tonight.”
Travis chugged the last of his drink. “My future brother-in-law, I like how you think!”
Tierra had been locked in her bedroom for over an hour, Damien standing outside the door pleading his case. She couldn’t begin to fathom how she’d gotten herself into such a situation. Confusion was clearly weighing down her spirit.
For the life of her she couldn’t understand why Tingin and Travis had left her. There was absolutely nothing she wanted to discuss with Damien. All she wanted was for him to collect the last of his personal possessions and go as far from her sight as he could.
Damien tapped against the door for the umpteenth time, calling out her name. “Tierra, baby, please,” he whined.
She rolled her eyes skyward, shaking her head. “What?”
“Please, baby, we have to talk about this.”
“No, Damien, we really don’t. You said everything you had to say in your letter. There is no need for conversation now.”
“I was confused, Tierra. And scared.”
“I was scared, too, Damien, but you didn’t see me finding someone else to make me happy. Isn’t that what you wrote? That you couldn’t marry me because you had found someone else?”
“Tierra, open the door. We need to talk, and this is ridiculous. We can’t fix this with a door between us.”
There was a lengthy moment of s
ilence before the door finally swung wide open. Tierra stood on the other side with a cardboard box in her hand. She shoved the box, and its contents, into Damien’s hands.
“There isn’t anything between us anymore, Damien. It’s over. Now take your stuff and get out of my house! And leave my door keys!” Tierra moved back across the room and took a seat at the foot of the bed. She crossed her arms over her chest, her harsh gaze shooting daggers of ice in the man’s direction.
“Baby,” Damien continued to plead his case as he set the box down on the floor. He moved to her side, pulling both of her hands into his as he sat down beside her. “Baby, please! I know I messed up, but we can still make this right, Tierra. We can still be married next week before I have to go back to camp. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want us to be married, Tierra?”
A pregnant pause grew like weeds between them. Tierra’s expression was blank, her gaze like ice through the man’s heart. “No, Damien,” she said finally. “I don’t want to marry you. I did once, but not anymore. What I realized, Damien, is that you don’t care about anyone except yourself. I thought that if I loved you hard enough you would want to change, but I learned a valuable lesson. You can’t change a man. He is who he is, and I don’t like who you are.”
“But I love you, Tierra, and I know you still love me. Please, Tea!”
Before she could respond, Damien wrapped his arms around her torso and pulled her down to the bed, his mouth pressing eagerly against hers. Tierra’s eyes widened at the unexpected kiss, her lips pressed tightly closed as Damien tried to tease her sensibilities. As he tightened his grip, determined to make her remember what she used to feel for him, Tierra pressed both her palms to his chest and pushed.
Standing in the doorway, devastation painted Travis’s expression. Tierra lying across her bed kissing Private Porter was not what he’d expected to walk into. As Tingin came down the hallway behind him, the man turned abruptly, fighting the raw emotion threatening to make him do something stupid.
Stepping into the entrance beside his newly minted friend, Tingin gazed where Travis had just stared, his eyes widening with surprise. Tingin met Travis’s eyes, noting the hurt that lingered in the man’s stare. The glimmer in them had dimmed considerably. He dropped his hand against Travis’s shoulder.
As if he’d been burned, Travis snatched his shoulder away. His face was skewed in disappointment. Moving swiftly, Travis pushed past Tingin and made his way back to the front door. Before Tingin could call his name, Travis Stallion was gone.
The palm of Tierra’s hand still stung from the slap she’d given Damien. Pushing him from her, she’d slapped his face good, rage rising full steam as she told him in no uncertain terms what she thought about him. Tierra was too through when the man had the audacity to ask her for the money that had been in their joint bank account and her engagement ring back.
“I deserve half that money, Tierra.”
“For what, Damien? Breathing? Every dime in that account belongs to me. Consider anything you put into it my severance package. I was a fool to open a joint account with you in the first place, but I corrected that mistake. I have already given you more than you deserve. You won’t be taking another blessed thing from me!”
“I’d think you’d want to give me some of it! Why are you being so selfish?”
Tierra’s eyes widened harshly, her mind racing. Selfish? Did he just call me selfish? “You need to leave, Damien. You need to leave now.”
Damien crossed his arms over his chest, taking a hard stand. “What about my ring?”
Tierra laughed. “You gave it to me as a gift, Damien. Since you broke your promise to marry me, I get to keep it. Those are the rules. Consider it my bonus.”
“Whose rules?”
“Braddy family rules. Now, get out!”
“Not until you give me what I deserve.”
Tierra had something she wanted to give him, all right, throwing the small lamp that had rested on her nightstand across the room in his direction. The lamp shattered just inches from his head, Damien’s eyes widening with fright.
“You crazy witch!” Damien screamed at the top of his lungs.
“I’m going to show you crazy!” Tierra shouted back, reaching for something else heavy to throw.
It was only after Damien had turned tail, pulling his box of possessions back into his hands and dropping her house keys to the floor, that she noticed Tingin standing in the doorway staring at the two of them. As Damien brushed past her brother, Tingin had muttered “good riddance” under his breath, moving to lock the door behind his former friend.
The siblings sat side by side on the chenille sofa. Tears pressed hot against the back of Tierra’s eyelids, threatening to spill out of her eyes. Tingin sat strumming his fingers against the side of his leg.
“You okay, Tea?” he finally asked, weary with her silence.
Tierra shook her head.
“Is there anything I can do?”
Tierra continued to shake her head.
Silence again filled the air between them as both stared out into space.
Tingin broke the quiet. “You really should go after him.”
Her look was incredulous. “Damien?”
Tingin rolled his eyes at her. “No, Tea, Travis. You need to go after Travis. He clearly misunderstood what he saw.”
“He should have trusted me.”
“You were kissing another man, for goodness’ sake! A man you were engaged to!”
“He still should have had more faith in me.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows I love him. He should have trusted that I would never disrespect him or betray his love like that. He knows me.”
Tingin leaned forward, his elbows resting atop his thighs as he rested his chin against the back of his folded hands. “Does he, Tierra? I mean, really? Does the man really know that you love him? Or has he just been hoping that you might be feeling something for him? Think about it, girl. You two are just getting started with this thing.”
Tierra cut her eyes at her brother as he continued.
“Travis met you when you were being dumped by Damien. You and he started hooking up while you were still brokenhearted. Plus you’ve been fighting his attentions since day one, and that’s just the first week with you two. Do you really think he should trust that you love him? Hell, it was only a little while ago you swore you were in love with Damien. Even I might be a little skeptical.”
“So what are you saying? You don’t think it’s possible that I might be in love with Travis?”
Tingin took a deep breath, filling his lungs and then blowing the warm air out quickly. “I’m saying that if you truly love the man you need to go after him. He needs to hear that you weren’t kissing your ex-fiancé because you wanted to. If nothing else, Tea, he needs to hear how you feel about Damien suddenly wanting back into your life. And more importantly, he needs to hear you say something about him and you and your relationship.”
Tingin sat watching her, allowing his words to seep in and take hold. He rose from his seat, shrugging as he stared down at her. “But hey, that’s just my opinion.”
“Where are you going?” Tierra asked as her brother crossed to the other side of the room.
“To hang out my shingle… Tingin Braddy, romance therapist at your service.”
Tierra shook her head. “I hate you.”
Her brother chuckled. “You said hate. I’m gonna tell Mama Dee.”
Tierra threw him an indignant look. “I did not.”
“Did, too.”
She flipped her pinkie finger at him.
“What’s that for?”
“People who don’t deserve a full salute.”
“Girl, you are so stupid!”
Tierra came to her feet, reaching her arms around her brother’s waist. She dropped her head against his chest and hugged him tightly. Since they’d been little, her big brother had been her rock, not allowing her to fall too far astray. Whet
her as a prepubescent tomboy, or the swan she’d evolved into, Tierra had always dived headfirst into everything she endeavored. And when catastrophe hit, Tingin would reel her out to the best of his ability. This time was no exception, her big brother knowing she needed to hear what he had to say.
“I love you, big brother.”
Tingin hugged her back. “I love you, too, nuisance. Now please, go find Travis. He fishes, and I want a brother-in-law who fishes.”
Chapter 17
The ride back to the ranch felt like it was taking forever. The concierge at the front desk had hailed a cab for him. Travis sighed, a mournful groan that made the driver eye him curiously in the rearview mirror. Travis tossed a weak smile, his mouth bending ever so slightly. A slight nod of Travis’s head moved the man’s gaze back to the road in front of him.
Right then, as they sat in midday traffic, Travis was wishing he hadn’t sent the limousine back. He would have much preferred the solitude of a backseat with a privacy screen between him and the driver.
It had been too good to be true. Travis couldn’t help but think that he had been naive to imagine that he and Tierra could have had a happy ending. But he had been foolish to think that he could have been much more than just a rebound relationship for the woman. He had truly believed that the two of them could have made things work.
He heaved another deep sigh, his thoughts spinning through his head. There really wasn’t any reason for him to stay on in Dallas. He definitely didn’t want to be in town while Tierra and Damien headed off to the chapel to make their union legal. Just the thought of Tierra promising herself to that man splintered his heart into a million pieces.
Arriving back at the ranch, Travis was glad that none of his family was around to greet him. As he climbed the front steps and stood in the quiet of the foyer he had no desire to share what had happened with anyone, and the Stallion clan would have had a million and one questions for him to answer. Climbing the stairwell, Travis hurried to his room. Behind the closed door he wouldn’t have to pretend that he was okay with anything that had happened.
Promises to a Stallion (Kimani Romance) Page 12
