“I’m just kidding. You don’t stink. Trust me. You could never smell so badly that I wouldn’t want you close to me.” Travis put his arm around her shoulder. Rachael laid her head back. “How are you holding up out here in this heat? I was worried about you earlier.”
“I’m tired. Really tired, but other than that, I’m doing well. What do we have left to do today?”
“I’ll have you help me hold the boards up while I nail them in place. It should go pretty quickly. Dad and I already set the posts. This is the easy part.”
When they got to the fence line, the work went as fast as Travis said it would. With them working together toting boards, holding them, and nailing them in place it was a breeze. Of course Travis did all of the hammer and nail work. Rachael wasn’t ready to try her hand at that part yet.
They worked in silence for a while until they were done. Rachael helped Travis load the buckets of nails, hammers, level, and post-hole diggers. Secretly Rachael was glad to be done. She was burning up. Her face felt fried from a combination of the intense Florida sun and the creosote fumes from the black boards.
I like to spend time with Travis and all but not like this.
When they got back in the truck Travis offered to run Rachael home so she could get cleaned up for tonight and pack a bag. She thought it was a great idea. She could check on Michael while she was there.
Rachael checked her cell phone which she had left in the truck while she had been working. There were several missed calls and a couple of texts. Rachael decided to read the texts first. They were from Ellery, her best friend in Palm Beach. She hadn’t been able to call Ellery as often as she would have liked to lately. Between her job, school, and helping out with Michael she’d been too busy. Over the past month email and Facebook had been their only communication.
Hey. It’s me. Call me. It’s important.
Me AGAIN. Where are you?
Rachael decided to listen to her voice messages.
Hey. It’s me again. Listen, I’ve got to talk to you.
Call me.
“What could be so important?” Rachael mumbled aloud.
“Something up?” Travis asked.
“I don’t know. Ellery has sent me a few texts and a voicemail. I don’t know what’s going on, but she said it’s important.”
Just then Rachael and Travis turned into her driveway. Rachael immediately recognized the Jeep. Colten. She knew instinctively that even though Travis had only seen it a handful of times last year that he recognized it too. She could feel an immediate change in his body language.
“What’s he doing here?” Travis parked the truck beside the Jeep.
“I don’t know.”
Rachael jumped out and headed for the front door with Travis in tow. When she went inside, the house was relatively quiet. She walked down the hall and found Michael and Colten in his game lounge playing video games.
Colten jumped to his feet as if startled by Rachael’s disheveled appearance. She’d been building fence for hours. No doubt she looked a bit rough.
“Hey, Rachael.” He smiled and then his eyes locked on Travis. He seemed to be taking him in and sizing him up all at the same time. “Travis,” was the only greeting he offered.
“Colten,” Travis said in return.
Before things could get heated, Rachael decided to intervene.
But Michael started excitedly talking. “Rachael. Can you believe it? Colten came to visit! It’s been really cool. He’s been here all day chilling with me in my game lounge!”
“Yeah. That’s great, Michael,” Rachael said snidely. She then turned her attention to Colten. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure.” Colten stood and walked out the door and into the hallway.
“I’ll play with you,” Travis volunteered, addressing Michael, although his body language toward Colten said something more along the lines of “Touch my girlfriend and die.”
Rachael walked Colten out to the front sitting room. “What do you want, Colten?”
She hadn’t seen or heard anything from Colten since last year, when he had stood her up at her Debutante Ball in front of a hundred of their closest friends in Palm Beach, which resulted in Rachael dumping him. His sudden appearance here today was unwelcome, to say the least.
“I’ve missed you Rachael. Terribly. I can’t do anything without thinking about you. I need you.”
“After six months of no contact you decided to come over here and ask me back? You suddenly decided you need me? Well, I don’t need you, Colten. I have moved on. I’m with Travis now.”
“So I saw. Don’t you think the eighteen months we spent together should mean more to you than that?”
“Eighteen months? We may have been physically dating for eighteen months, but I’d estimate the total amount of time we spent together since I moved here to be less than a month. I never saw you! And when I did, you were lying to me, to your parents, even to our friends.”
“That’s changed now, Rachael,” he said softly. “My parents have seen how miserable I’ve been without you, and they’ve given me their consent to us dating.”
“Their consent?” She was stunned. “So now you need their permission to stoop as low as me? No thank you! I’m not your less-than-desirable girlfriend any more, Colten! Please leave!” She strode toward the door and yanked it open.
Colten met her there and put his hand on her shoulder. “Someday soon he’ll hurt you, and I’ll be there waiting.” He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips.
“Don’t even.” She pushed Colten’s chest firmly, shoving him backwards.
“The lady asked you to leave, and I think you should listen to her.” Rachael turned to see Travis standing in the doorway to the foyer.
“Bye, Rachael.” Colten exited the door and headed for his Jeep.
Rachael slammed the door.
“You okay?” Travis asked, his eyes concerned.
“Yes, I am. And I didn’t need your help, Travis.”
“It didn’t look that way to me. He kissed you, Rachael.” Travis’s jaw was clenched.
“Yes, but I handled him. It’s not like he’s a Ty or something.”
“I don’t know. In my opinion any guy who would kiss a girl who doesn’t want him to kiss her isn’t a gentleman.”
“I’m not defending him. I’m just saying I had things under control. You can’t always be here to rescue me. You have to trust me to handle some things on my own.”
His eyes hardened. “I didn’t try to rescue you. I just didn’t like him closing in on you that way…going in for the kiss. I actually think I handled it pretty well. If he does that again in front of me, however, I think I may lose it.”
“Oh, quit it,” Rachael warned. “I don’t think we should talk about this right now. I’m angry, and so are you. It probably isn’t the right time for a discussion.”
Rachael stormed down the hall to take a shower, slamming the bathroom door behind her. When she got out and went into her bedroom, Travis was sitting on her bed holding a bunch of wildflowers. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.
He must have thought I had taken some clothes in the bathroom with me. Of course I wasn’t expecting him to be sitting in my room either. Surprise…for both of us!
Rachael stood there wearing nothing more than a bath towel. What was it with her and Travis? The first time she’d met him she’d been standing in a creek in only her underwear, trying to cool off. Now she was standing here wearing only a towel? How’d she get herself into these situations anyway?
“Let me try again.” Travis flashed a smile she couldn’t resist. “I can’t believe how well you handled that. It ticks me off he kissed you, but I really liked the part when you shoved him and he flew back a couple of feet. Next time I won’t jump in unless he’s about to maul you or something. Better?”
“Better. And I’m sorry for snapping at you. I was caught off guard by his sudden appearance here to
day. After six months? That takes a lot of nerve.”
“I know.” Travis looked at her standing there in her bath towel. “Now get dressed. I shouldn’t be back here while you are dressed like that. I’ll go outside now, even though one part of me really wants to stay.” He jumped up and virtually ran from the room.
So I finally made the incredibly confident Travis Baxter nervous.
Rachael got dressed as quickly as she could and packed her overnight bag. She went down the hall and found Michael and Travis ready to go.
“Mom said I could go over to Levi’s house. Travis said you guys could drop me off on the way over,” Michael explained.
“Okay.” Rachael walked over with her wildflowers in hand. She raised up on her tiptoes and kissed Travis on the lips. “Thank you for the flowers. I love them.”
“I’m going outside,” Michael announced. “I can’t take any more of this torture.”
“How old are you now, Michael?” Travis asked as they all walked outside together.
“Fourteen,” Michael stated proudly.
“Trust me. Any time now you’ll be begging for some of that torture.” Travis winked at Rachael when Michael only made gagging noises.
12
WHEN RACHAEL GOT BACK TO THE SLUMBER PARTY at Maysie’s house, she could already see Amber’s car parked in the driveway. Amber would have brought Alex with her because Alex was still only a sophomore while the rest of them were juniors.
Travis leaned over and gave Rachael a sweet kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You aren’t coming in?”
“Nope. I’m going to Jason’s for the night. I’ll see you in the morning. We’re going hunting, remember?”
“How could I forget?” she said sarcastically. “I wanted to spend some more time with you.”
“After the shower thing, I don’t think us together at a slumber party is the best idea.” Travis winked at her.
Rachael felt a tingle all the way to her toes. “Oh. I got it.”
Travis jumped out, then lifted her out. He kissed her good-bye…really kissed her good-bye. Then he was gone.
Rachael slowly walked inside. She’d never given much thought to her feelings on anything further than kissing. But that was before Travis Baxter. Maybe I need one of those purity rings too!
“Hey, RD,” Shannah hollered out when Rachael entered the house.
Rachael had really missed Shannah over the past few months when she had gone AWOL. She still felt badly for not being as good a friend as she should have been. Rachael vowed her days of being a loser friend had come to an end.
“What’s up, Shannah?” Rachael asked.
“Gabe and I broke up today. I’ll explain a little later. How are you and Travis doing?”
“Good considering,” Rachael stated.
“Considering what?” Maysie and Alex chimed in.
“Considering Colten was waiting for me when we got home earlier this afternoon,” Rachael announced.
“Wow!” Amber’s eyes widened.
“Yikes,” Alex exclaimed. “How did Travis handle it?”
“I’ll be anxious to hear this part. He has a temper,” Maysie warned.
“He didn’t. I did. I told Colten I had moved on and wasn’t interested any more. Then he kissed me and I shoved him, hard. That’s when Travis walked in and told him to leave. That’s pretty much it.”
“And Travis didn’t blow a fuse?” Shannah asked.
“Nope. He was very calm.” Rachael wasn’t lying. He was calm about it all.
“I said he has a temper, Shannah, not that he’s a raving lunatic,” Maysie joked.
“Yep, but put Adam in that same position. Do you think he would have been so calm?”
Maysie giggled. “Nope. He would have decked him.”
“Exactly. Rachael has the perfect guy,” Shannah said.
“In more ways than one.” Everyone shot Amber a questioning look, having caught the underlying message.
“Are you and Clay having problems?” Shannah asked. “Must be the week for it.”
“Not problems, really. He’s just been asking me a lot lately about it.” The way Amber emphasized the word it left no question in anybody’s mind about what it was referring to.
Well, no one’s mind except for Maysie who asked, “What’s it?”
Shannah rolled her eyes. “Sex, Maysie.”
“Oh!” Maysie winced. “I never would have thought of that.”
“We are juniors now. That’s all I hear the girls on the dance team talking about in the locker room before practice. Intercourse, outercourse, just about everything,” Shannah griped. “Why do you think Gabe and I broke up? Sex.”
“Really?” Rachael said.
“Yes, really. He wasn’t demanding it or anything, but he seems obsessed with it, and all of the other stuff that goes along with it. I’m not a prude or anything, but I’ve never been interested in sex. Not with Gabe. Not with anyone. Not yet. Maybe I’m just a late bloomer. I find guys attractive. But I don’t want to take any relationship to that level yet.”
“So you broke up with him over it?” Amber sounded shocked.
“Yep. I got tired of him bringing it up all the time, so I broke up with him. Enough is enough.”
“Wow.” Amber sat in silence and didn’t say another word. Rachael could tell she was reluctant to speak further on the subject.
“Adam has asked me one time. I explained my stance on it, and he’s never asked again,” Maysie stated matter-of-factly. “What about you, Alex?”
“Fred doesn’t bring it up. Thank goodness. I’m only a sophomore! There’s no way I’m doing it yet.”
“Guys…” Seeing Amber’s discomfort, Rachael decided it was time to interject. “I have thought about it. Never before Travis, of course. But now I find myself thinking about it.”
“You’re thinking about doing it?!” Maysie squealed at the top of her lungs.
“No!” Rachael said. “I didn’t say I wanted to do it, only that I’ve thought about it. Let me clarify. I have no intention of doing it. Not now. Not any time soon.” And in case your parents are listening, let’s make this crystal clear. I don’t want Mr. Baxter thinking I’m trying to lead his son astray. “Not with Travis. Or anyone else. Not at all, really.” Okay, now I’m rambling. I better stop while I’m ahead.
“That’s good.” Maysie grinned. “Besides, Travis is a good guy. He’s different. He would never pressure you to do it.”
“Travis? Of course he wouldn’t,” Shannah said. “He even wears the ring to prove it.”
“I don’t know about that,” Alex added. “I think all teenage guys think about it, dream about it, and are interested in it. Travis Baxter is no exception to that particular rule of human nature.”
“I don’t know,” Maysie claimed. “Look at this picture. Gabe was pressuring Shannah. Adam only asked me once. Clay is pestering Amber. Rachael, you seem to be the lucky one. I’m going to grab a snack. Anyone interested in helping?”
Shannah and Alex followed Maysie to the kitchen, leaving Rachael and Amber sitting alone.
“You’re keeping pretty quiet, Amber. Are you okay?” Rachael asked her.
“I guess so. I just feel differently. I’m not like you guys. I actually want to have sex with Clay. Does that make me a bad person?”
“Of course not.” Rachael wasn’t quite sure what to say or how to handle this situation. It was something that had never come up with her other friends before. Back home in Palm Beach she, Ellery, and Brittany had never even discussed this topic. When she was in school with them there, Rachael had only been a freshman and no one was particularly interested in sex then, at least as far as Rachael had been aware.
“Have you talked to your mom about it?” Rachael decided steering her friend in another direction would be best. She didn’t want to be responsible for giving her friend bad advice or coming across as judgmental.
“No. I’m afraid to. She may freak out, or she may b
e okay with it. I’m not sure how it would go.”
“Even if I was afraid of the conversation and end result, I’d probably talk to my mom about it. Maybe even my dad.”
“Your dad! I could never talk to my dad about sex.”
“I don’t know. I probably would have said the same thing a couple of years ago, but now we are really close and he usually gives me solid advice.”
“If you say so.” Amber laughed.
The other girls came back into the room and Rachael changed the subject to dance choreography. All of the girls decided it would be fun to choreograph a line dance routine. They went to Maysie’s room for props and came back with boots and hats. They stayed up late eating junk food and watching movies.
*
The next day was Sunday. Rachael was the first one up. She had become accustomed to rising early for school on the weekdays and work on the weekends. She walked downstairs, where she smelled bacon and eggs frying, and made her way to the kitchen. As she sat at the table, Mrs. Baxter greeted her.
“Good morning, Rachael. You look tired, honey. You girls stayed up pretty late.”
“I know. I’m glad Mr. Baxter gave me the day off. I think Travis and I are going hunting.”
“After church, of course.” Mrs. Baxter smiled sweetly.
“Yes. Of course.” Rachael took a big bite of bacon.
Rachael’s parents weren’t what you would call religious. She had been to church—just not frequently. Like on the occasional Easter Sunday, once every five years or so. Rachael sat there thinking about that and wondered if she should confess that part to Mrs. Baxter.
Were all the girls at the slumber party required to attend church this morning? Maybe so. Or is it just me who has to go? Has dating Travis made church an automatic requirement for me?
“Mrs. Baxter…” Rachael cleared her throat. “I’m afraid I didn’t come prepared for church this morning. I don’t have anything decent to wear.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure we can find something for you to wear.”
“Oh. Good.” But Rachael heard the uncertainty in her own voice.
Cowgirl Down (Redneck Debutante) Page 14
