“I see you in aquamarines,” T ravis said in a voice Kim had never heard him use before. It was soft and sultry , silky. “Really?” the girl asked, sounding about fourteen. “With your eyes, what else could you wear?” The young woman wasn’ t especially pretty and her eyes were a nondescript brown. On the other hand, the ring T ravis was nodding toward was one of the most expensive in the shop. “I’ve never thought of wearing aquamarines before.” T urning, she batted her eyelashes at her husband. “What do you think, honey?” Before the young man could answer , Travis leaned across the counter so his upper torso was in front of the girl. “But if you want something less expensive, those little amber rings would be all right. They don’ t sparkle in the same way , but the price is easier on the credit card.” The young woman was looking at T ravis’s neck, at the way his hair curled along his golden skin. She looked as though she were in a hypnotic trance. When she lifted her hand as though she was going to touch his hair , her husband leaned in front of her . Travis st epped back. “We’ll take that ring and the earrings too,” the man said, pointing to the aquamarines. “Good choice,” T ravis said as he turned and smiled at Kim. Part of her wanted to say thanks, but the lar ger part was disgusted by what he’d just done. “You ready for lunch?” he asked Kim. She nodded to Carla to write up the sale, then went behind the far counter with Travis following her . “It’s ten A. M .,” she said, her voice cool. “It isn’ t time for lunch.” “Are you angry at me?” “Of course not!” she snapped as she pulled out a tray of bracelets and began to rearrange them. Travis picked up one and held it up to the light. “Nice.” The bracelet was the smallest but the most intricate, and the stones were the best quality . It was also the most expensive item she carried. She took it from him. “Y ou seem to have learned something about jewelry .” “I’ve had a lot of experience.” He leaned toward her . “I have things to tell you, so let’ s go walk somewhere and have lunch.” “Travis, I have a business to run. I can’ t come and go at your whim.”
He looked at Carla, who hadn’ t stopped watching him, and smiled at her . “She looks capable of taking care of the place.” Kim lowered her voice. “Stop flirting with the women in my shop.” “Then come out with me.” “Where were you this morning?” His face turned serious. “I got up at five, drove into the wilderness, and went for a run. When I got back you’d left for work. It’ s nice of you to be concerned.” “I’m not,” she said as she locked the glass case. He was smiling at her . “All right! So I was worried. W ith the way you drive you could have run of f a mountain and no one would know you were there.” “Sorry,” he said, and he did look contrite. “I’m not used to telling anyone where I’m going or when I’ll return.” He hesitated. “Or anyone caring. Can you go out with me now? Please?” His dark eyes were pleading, enticing even. She gave in. She went to Carla and asked if she’d look after the store for a while. Carla bent down behind a counter and motioned for Kim to come down too. “Who is he? Where did you find him? Is he the emer gency you had Sunday? Does Dave know about him?” Kim stood up. “Does he know about Dave ?” Carla asked from her squatting position. Kim rolled her eyes, got her purse out of the back, and left the store with Travis. Before them was the entire town of Edilean, which meant there were two squares, one with a giant oak tree in the center of it. “Shall we go sit over there?” T ravis asked as he nodded toward the benches under the tree. He’d dropped his flirtatious demeanor and was again the T ravis she knew . There wasn’ t much traf fic in the little town as they crossed the road. Politely , he let her sit down before he sat beside her . “Your shop is nice. Maybe someday when there are no customers, you’ll show me around it.” “But would you enjoy it without customers?” “I promise, no more flirting with them. Although they did buy some nice pieces. I like your things better than what I’ve seen in jewelry stores in New York.”
She knew he was flattering her , but he looked so worried that she wouldn’ t forgive him, that she did. She smiled at him. “So what did you want to talk to me about?” When he didn’ t answer right away , she said, “Last night, how bad was it with your mother?” For a moment he looked ahead and didn’ t answer , and she got the idea that something was bothering him. “Remember that I said she could go either way , happy or angry?” “I know that you said women are unpredictable.” “And you promised me Star Wars disks.” “ Star Trek, and no they’re not the same. Which way did your mom go?” “Angry .” Kim looked at him in sympathy , and she could tell that there was more to what had been said than just for T ravis to stay out of it. “W as it very bad?” He was quiet for a moment. “My father bawls me out all the time. He has a vile temper and he uses it to scare people.” “Are you afraid of him?” “Not in the least.” T ravis gave a little half smile. “In fact, I like to do things to set him of f.” “But if he fired you . . . ?” Travis laughed. “Think I don’ t want him to? Which he knows. Anyway , Dad says things to me that should be demoralizing and I laugh at him. But my sweet little mother . . .” He waved his hand. “I understand,” Kim said. “My mother screams at me until her face is red, but I pay no attention to her . But one time when I was in the fourth grade my father said, ‘Kim, I’m disappointed in you.’ I got so upset my mother made him apologize to me.” Looking at her , Travis shook his head. “Y our family sounds so normal. I can’t imagine my mother ‘making’ my dad do anything. She crumbles in front of him.” Kim had some ideas about how his mother should have stood up to her husband when T ravis was a boy , but she didn’ t think now was the time to say so. “If your mother thinks this is none of your business, why did she call and tell you she wanted a divorce?” “That’s exactly what I asked her . Unfortunately , it was after I had made some rather unfortunate remarks about the man she wants to marry .” “You didn’ t!”
“I’m afraid I did. Between seeing all the equipment he’d bought for that new shop, and the sheer size of him, I jumped to some conclusions. And maybe I told her too much of what I thought.” “I told you Joe Layton was a good guy .” Travis picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “So you did. I wish I’d listened to you.” Kim was looking at him with wide eyes. He was holding her hand, massaging it actually , as he stared ahead. He didn’ t seem to be aware of what he was doing. “What exactly did she say?” “She told me to stay out of it. She said she’d get herself a lawyer and that she’d fight Dad on her own.” He took a breath. “And she said I was free to stop working for him because she no longer needed my protection.” “Oh,” Kim said as she looked at his profile. He was frowning. “Is that what you’re going to do?” “Certainly not!” he said as he put her hand back on her lap. In front of them was a mother with two young toddlers, a boy and a girl, probably twins. Kim didn’ t know the family . The children had balloons on long strings that they were looking at in fascination. When T ravis said nothing more, she looked at him. “What’ s your plan?” “I haven’ t made one yet.” A howl made Kim look at the children. The little boy’ s balloon had es caped his hold and was floating up into the tree. Seconds later , Travis stood up and looked up into the tree, as though surveying it. T o Kim’s astonishment, he grabbed a branch and swung up. Standing on a limb, he looked down at her . “I talked to Mom this morning and told her I wanted to meet this guy , so she’ s given me a week before she —” He walked out on the branch, then swung up on a higher one. “Before she tells him that I’m here,” he said down to her . By now the little boy had stopped yelling as he watched the man in the tree, and a couple of teenagers were also looking up at him. Kim was pretty much speechless. She stood up. “You think you could help me arrange a meeting with Mr . . . .” He glanced at the people near her . He didn’ t want to say the man’ s name in public. “W ith him?” He was now quite high up, on his stomach, and easing out onto a branch that didn’ t look lar ge enough to hold his weight. Kim held her breath as she nodded yes to his question.
“And I have to decide about the . . .” He was inching his way out on a very fragile-looking branch, his left arm extended toward the yellow balloon. Kim put her hand up, her knuckles in her mouth. “Who the hell is that?” came a voice in her ear . Turning, she looked at the wide, solid chest of her cousin Colin, Edilean’ s sherif f. Kim looked back up at T ravis in the tree. She couldn’ t get any words out. Colin stood by her and watched as T ravis moved forward until he reached the balloon string and grabbed it. “Vacation.” T ravis looked back down at Kim. “Good morning, sherif f,” he said just before the branch broke. A girl screamed, and everyone drew in their breaths. On his way down, T ravis grabbed a branch with his right hand while holding onto the balloon with his left. He twisted the string around his fingers, then threw his legs over the branch. He pulled himself up, straddled the limb, stood up, and walked his way back to the core of the tree and went down. He landed on two feet, walked a few st eps to give the balloon back to the little boy , and dusted himself of f as he went back to Kim. “What do you think?” She just stared at him. Colin said, “He’ s asking what you think he should do on his vacation in Edilean.” He seemed highly amused by what he’d just seen. “Travis!” Kim said at last. Colin snorted. “Y ou’re in for it.” When Kim started to speak again, he interrupted her . “You do that kind of thing often?” “I used to,” T ravis said. “I worked in L. A. as a stuntman for a couple of years.” Colin was looking him up and down. “Still ke ep in shape?” “I try to. What do you have in mind?” “Sometimes tourists get stuck in situations in the preserve and we have to get them out. I’m the closest, so I usually get there first. Sometimes I need help.” Travis smiled as he remembered the way Kim had gushed about this man and her brother being super -heroes in rescuing people. There was no way Travis was going to turn down the opportunity to help out—and maybe to
impress Kim. “Do you have your cell phone with you? I’ll put my number in it.” Colin handed him his cell, T ravis called himself, then put his name by the number . He returned the phone. “Any time, night or day , I’d be glad to help. I’ve had some experience with ropes and climbing, but I’ve never rescued anybody . Not for real anyway .” Colin smiled. “W elcome to Edilean.” He looked at Kim. “Glad to see you got a useful one this time,” he murmured, then started toward his of fice. “Say hi to Gemma for me,” Kim called after him before looking back at Travis. “I have three weeks’ vacation.” He still seemed to be waiting for an answer. “My son wants to say thank you,” the mother said, and T ravis knelt to the little boy . “Thank you,” the child said, and hugged T ravis. The little girl, not to be left out, hugged him too. The mother smiled at T ravis, her eyes lingering on him a bit too long. “Maybe we could have you over for dinner some night.” Travis’s dark eyes went to that smoldering look again. “That would be —” “He’s busy,” Kim said and her look told the woman to go away . Still smiling, she took her children and left. “Can you arrange a meeting?” he asked. “Travis,” Kim said, “what you just did was very scary . You could have been seriously hurt. Y ou could have—” Bending, he kissed her cheek. “I find that having someone worry about me feels good.” “Does that mean you’re going to pull more stunts like that one? It doesn’ t make sense to risk your life for a balloon.” “At no time was my life in jeopardy and I couldn’ t care less about the balloon. It was the look in the eyes of that little boy that made it all worth it.” Kim had no r eply to that, as he was right. “So what about a meeting with the man my mother wants to marry?” “This is Edilean. Y ou don’ t need an appointment. Mr . Layton’ s probably at his store right now , so we can just go over there and you can talk to him.” “What excuse will we give him for showing up?”
“To say hello,” Kim said, frustrated and somewhat annoyed at his formality—and the way he had flirted with the pretty young mother . “I’ll ask how Jecca is or something. Uh-oh.” “What is it?” he asked. “Here comes my brother . I bet Colin called him. The snitch! Now you’ll be grilled within an inch of your life. This won’ t be easy .” Travis couldn’ t help smiling at her words. In courtrooms all across the U. S. and in a couple of foreign countries he’d been interrogated by some of the most brilliant lawyers in the world. He had no doubt he could hold his own against Kim’ s physician brother . But when T ravis saw the man walking toward them, he turned pale. He’d seen Reede Aldredge before, and not under the best of circumstances. Travis and his mechanic had been in a car race in Morocco. As they came around a corner outside a remote village, they saw a man leading a heavily laden donkey right across their path. Travis had done well in not hitting the man. He’d turned his car so hard that it had spun in a circle. It had been dif ficult to ke ep it under control and not turn over , but he’d done it. Unfortunately , in the near crash, the boxes on the donkey had hit the ground. When T ravis got his car heading back in the right direction, he saw that there was liquid se eping out of the boxes and the man was shaking his fist at them. His furious face was embedded in T ravis’s memory . As they drove away , he’d told his mechanic to call Penny to find out who the man was and to r eplace whatever had been lost. Days later she’d mentioned that the man was an American doctor and that she’d sent him r eplacement supplies. And she’d also made a donation to his clinic. She’d not told T ravis the doctor ’s name and he hadn’ t asked for one. That man, the doctor who’d yelled obscenities at him in Morocco, was now walking toward him. “Can I tell him the truth about you?” Kim whispered. For a moment he thought she meant about the race, but she was talking about their childhood. “Sure,” he said, “just don’ t say that Lucy Cooper is my mother .” “Wouldn’t dream of it,” she said under her breath as she smiled at her brother. “Kimberly ,” Reede said rather sternly . “I hear that you’ve been causing some commotion this morning.”
“Travis rescued a kid’ s balloon,” she said as she looked up at him, but he had his hand up by his face. “This is—” “Not the Travis,” Reede said. “Not the boy you’ve fantasized about since you were a kid?” “Reede!” Kim said as she felt her face turning red. “I never did any such thing!” “It’s good to meet you at last,” Reede said, extending his hand to shake. Travis shook it, but he k ept his left hand by his eyes. “I’ve seen you somewhere,” Reede said. “I’ve done a lot of traveling. You weren’ t ever a patient of mine, were you?” “No,” T ravis said as he turned his head away . Kim looked from one man to the other . Reede was staring intently as he tried to remember where he’d last seen T ravis. And T ravis was acting like some trapped animal that desperately wanted to hide in its burrow . “We have to go,” she said. “T ravis has to go see Mr . Layton about opening a sporting goods store.” “This area needs one,” Reede said. “What do you plan to carry?” “Things for sports,” Kim said quickly , wanting to get away from her brother as soon as possible. “Is that one of your nurses waving at you?” “Yeah,” Reede said. “I left two exam rooms and the waiting room full. Let’s get together for dinner .” He started to walk away but turned back to Travis. “I look forward to hearing about what you’ve been doing since you were first in Edilean.” As soon as she was alone with T ravis she said, “What was that all about?” “I, uh, I do believe I may have seen your brother somewhere.” When it didn’ t seem as though he was going to say anything else, she turned and started walking toward her shop. Travis caught up with her . “What are you doing?” “If you aren’ t going to be honest with me I might as well go back to work. I have a new necklace I’m designing right now . I’d planned to use Australian opals in it, but maybe I should get more aquamarines since they go so well with brown eyes.” “All right,” he said. “How about if we go somewhere and talk? Maybe you can help me figure out what to do about my mother .” An hour later they were sitting at a picnic table in the preserve. They’d stopped at the grocery and bought sandwiches, salads, and drinks, but it was
still too early to eat. “This is beautiful,” T ravis said as he looked out over the lake. “Y ou live in a nice place.” “I like it,” Kim said. It was so peaceful there that she could barely remember what had made her so angry . Something about Reede. But then lately everything about her brother seemed to make her angry . He didn’ t want to be a doctor in his little hometown and he complained often—and she was tired of hearing about it. “I’ve never actually met your brother before but I nearly killed him,” Travis said, then briefly told the story , including that he’d r eplenished Reede’s supplies. “Reede never mentioned the incident in his letters,” Kim said. She could imagine how angry her brother would have been. “Reede thinks everyone should for go fri volities such as car races and dedicate himself to worthy causes.” Travis was watching her . “Doesn’ t know how to have fun, does he?” he asked softly . “Hazards of growing up,” she said. “What have you done since I met you?” “Lived by what you taught me,” he said, smiling. Kim didn’ t smile back. She was noticing that he evaded her questions, skirted around them. T oday she sensed that something was bothering him. He’d been quite flippant about what had gone on between him and his mother, but she was beginning to think there was a great deal more to it than he’d told her . “Tell me more about your talk with your mother . What exactly did she say?” Travis turned away but not before Kim saw his dark brows furrow into a de ep frown. It looked like whatever had been said between him and his mother was too unpleasant for him to talk about. When he looked back at her he was smiling. “She assured me that Joe Layton was a good man and that he loves her . He doesn’ t know my mother has any money and she doesn’ t know how he financed the remodeling of that old building.” Kim could tell that he was concealing something from her , and she had an idea that he wasn’ t going to tell her what it was. All right, she thought, if he could ke ep secrets, so can I. “When do you want to visit Mr . Layton?”
Travis could tell that Kim had closed down on him and he knew why . The truth was that he’d love to tell her about his talk with his mother , but he couldn’ t because the worst of it had been about Kim. Last night he’d met his mother in the garden of Mrs. W ingate’s house, and after several minutes of hugging and tears of joy at seeing each other again, T ravis had taken on the task of trying to find out about Joe Layton. But from his first word, she had been dif ferent from the way he remembered her . She wasn’ t the quiet, browbeaten little woman he’d grown up with. She thanked T ravis for coming to her rescue but she’d made it clear that this was a battle she needed to fight for herself. Travis had used his best lawyer voice to point out the error of her thinking. He thought he’d made his side clear until she told him he was sounding like his father . That had so completely taken the air out of him that he’d slumped in the chair and stared at her . In the next second she’d asked him what he was doing with Kim and why hadn’t Travis told her the full truth about his father . “Does Kim even know your last name?” Her words made them settle back into the roles they’d always played, that of mother and son. “I just . . . I’d like a woman to car e about me, not be dazzled by the Maxwell name,” T ravis said. “And you know what, Mom? I’d like to know if I can handle being normal. My isolated childhood didn’ t exactly pr epare me for an or dinary adult life.” Lucy winced, but T ravis k ept on. “And since then the women—” “Please don’ t elaborate.” “I didn’ t plan to,” he said. “It’ s just that I’ve not had the possibility of . . . well, love.” “So what if you do make Kim fall in love with you?” Lucy asked. “What then?” “What if I fall for her?” He was teasing, trying to lighten the mood. But Lucy was serious. “T ravis, you have been in love with that girl since you wer e twelve years old. What I want to know is what happens if she falls for you. W ill you look into her eyes, say , ‘Wait for me,’ then go skiing down some mountain? W ill you expect her to be like me and spend every day in fear that I’ll r eceive a call saying you’ve been paralyzed or dismember ed or killed? W ill you expect her to shar e your vagabond life and never settle anywher e?”
“I don’ t know!” T ravis said in frustration. “My life—” “Hasn’ t been normal,” Lucy said. “I know that better than anyone.” “I went to work for my father to pr otect—” “You cannot put that bur den onto me,” Lucy said loudly . “Travis, you have thrived working for Randall. The excitement, the money , the . . . the power. You’ve blossomed in it.” Travis fell back against the chair har d. “Are you saying that I’m becoming my father?” he asked softly . “No, of course not. But I’m afraid . . .” “Of what?” “That you could be.” He took his time befor e speaking. “That’ s my worry too,” he said at last. “Sometimes I see things in myself that I don’ t like. Whenever I please him I displease myself—and I worry that my displeasur e is as str ong as his pleasur e.” He looked at her . “But I’m not sur e how to get away fr om the part of him that’ s inside me.” Lucy took her son’ s hand in hers. “Spend time with Kim. For get about Joe and me. W e’re fine. He’ s not after my money and wouldn’ t be if he knew I had any . He loves me.” “You’re sure of that?” “Absolutely and positively .” “But didn’ t you once love Dad?” “I was a girl fr om a very shelter ed upbringing and your father went after me just as he does those companies he buys.” “I’d like to go after Kim like that,” he said under his br eath. “Well, don’ t!” Lucy half shouted. “Don’ t do it to her! Don’t use the Maxwell charm and money and all you’ve learned with those awful women you date on Kim. Don’ t dazzle her . Don’t fly her off to Paris to wine and dine her so she’ s swooning over you. She doesn’ t deserve tr eatment like that.” “Whose side ar e you on?” “Yours!” she said, then made herself calm down. “T ravis, I love you much mor e than life. I’d die for you, but I want what’ s real for you. Don’ t just take this girl to bed and show her what you learned fr om some ambitious starlet. Find out about her . See if you r eally do love her . Or is it just gratitude that she showed you how to ride a bicycle? Get to know her now. And let her know you—the r eal you. Not the slick, smooth lawyer who
can outtalk anyone. Let her see that boy who was awed by a little girl who put a string of beads ar ound his neck.” “I’m not sur e I know how to do that.” He looked at Kim. She was staring out at the lake, and he didn’ t know that he’d ever seen anyone as pretty—or more desirable. If she were any other girl he’d be making a pass at her and using anything he could to get her into bed. But then, as his mother had said, he’d leave her . It seemed that all his life he’d had to rush of f to somewhere else. If it wasn’ t to some business meeting for his father , it was to some race or to a climb, or to do some other thing that could possibly , as his mother said, dismember him. “I guess we should go,” Kim said into the silence, startling T ravis back into the present. He didn’ t move. “I don’ t mean to be so secretive.” “Then tell me what’ s bothering you!” she said. “Are you concealing some horrible thing you’ve done? Y ou couldn’ t be a wanted criminal, because by now I’m sure Colin has looked you up. If you have a record he knows about it and he would have warned me.” Since neither the sherif f—nor Kim—knew T ravis’s real last name, nothing would be found, he thought. “No criminal record,” he said, and smiled at her . “The truth is that I’m not proud of some of the things I’ve done in my life.” “Does that mean being a stuntman or running down doctors in Morocco?” He laughed. “Morocco for sure. But why the hell was your brother leading a donkey across an area that had been marked of f for a car race?” “My guess is that Reede thought everyone should stop for him. His work is important; yours is not.” “I have to agree with him on that. Kim . . . ?” “Yes?” “I have some big decisions to make in my life right now .” “About what?” “What I’m going to do with the rest of it. In three weeks I’m going to stop working for my father .” “What do you do for him now?” “Put people out of work,” T ravis said. Kim looked at him sharply .
“It’s not as bad as I’m making it sound. The businesses were going under and all the employees were going to be fired. My father buys the company and fires a mere two-thirds of them.” He looked out at the lake. “I’m tired of it and I need some changes. Y ou have any openings in your jewelry store? I think I could sell things.” “By flirting with the customers? No thanks. What do you want my help with?” He wanted to say , To run away with me, but his mother ’s words rang in his head. Get to know her now . And let her know you—the r eal you. “To be my friend,” he said. “W e were friends as children, so maybe we can be again.” “Right,” Kim said as she looked back at the lake. Friends. Story of her life, it seemed. Her last two boyfriends had broken of f with her because she was more successful than they were. Whenever Kim got a new contract from a company that wanted to sell her jewelry , there would be a fight. She’d calculated that it took just three major ar guments to end a relationship. She was sure that the only reason she and Dave had lasted for six whole months was because she hadn’ t told him that Neiman Marcus wanted a trial run of a display of her jewelry . “Now you’re the one being silent.” “I need a friend too,” she said. “In the last couple of years every friend I have has married and most of them are pregnant.” “Why aren’ t you?” he asked solemnly . She knew that if she told him the truth it would sound like self-pity and she couldn’ t bear that. “Because my doctor brother refuses to tell me how a woman gets pregnant. I don’ t think it’ s from swallowing a watermelon seed, which is what he told me when I was nine. After he said that I refused to eat anything with big seeds in it for two years. My mother threatened to force- feed me. But then I found out that French kissing—which I thought meant kissing in France—made a person pregnant.” Travis was smiling. “And who told you the truth?” “I’ve held on to the French idea, since I’ve never been there and never been pregnant.” “How about if you and I—” He cut himself of f as he’d been about to suggest that they fly to Paris for a few days. “If we what?” “Eat our sandwiches?”
She knew that yet again he’d held back from telling her something. She handed him a sandwich and began unwrapping hers. It seemed that T ravis’s idea of friendship was a lot dif ferent from hers. Oceanof PDF . com
When Joe Layton saw Kim and the young man get out of the car , he knew two things. One, the man was related to Lucy , and two, he was in love with Kim. The first one made him frown and the second one made him smile. Since Joe had met Lucy he’d tried to get her to tell him about her past, but she would say nothing. If he were a dif ferent kind of man he would have enjoyed her attempts to redirect his inquiries. But he didn’ t like her discomfort, so he was careful not to ask. But it was easy to see that this young man was connected to Lucy . Her son? he wondered. They had the same eyes, only his were darker . The way his hair curled around his neck was just like hers, and the way he held his hand as he closed the car door was pure Lucy . So she had a son, he thought. The real question was, Who was the father? As for the second observation, Joe had felt bad for Kim as all her friends got married and moved on to a dif ferent life. She and Jecca had k ept in close touch over the years, and Joe had heard how , one by one, all Kim’ s friends and cousins got married. Even Jecca had left. She’d gone to Edilean to visit Kim but had ended up spending all her time with Dr . Tris. Now, it was good to see some man in love with Kim. She deserved all the best life had to of fer. Joe cleared his throat and put his shoulders back. It wouldn’ t do to let his sentimentality show . He opened the front door . “You here for the job?” “What job?” Kim asked as she kissed Joe’ s cheek. She’d known him for many years, had spent several nights at his house in New Jersey . One night when she was in college he’d stayed up listening to Kim cry over what some fraternity guy had done to her . “To help me get this place set up. I had to fire the first one I hired.”