Page 25 of Willow Vale

“Who? Anyone I know?” Desi hadn’t been super huge on dating lately. The last guy she went out with had been in college but that ended once she moved back to Willow Vale.So, I was surprised she’d started seeing someone all of a sudden.

Desi told me about this guy who stopped by the bar over the weekend. He wasn’t familiar so she figured he wasn’t from around these parts. He caught her eye while she was singing with the band, sitting on the stool closest to her. He bought her a drink and they talked until it was closing time. They’d been texting non-stop for the past week ever since.

By the sound of it, she was utterly charmed by him and seeing my best friend happy made me happy for her.

“He’ll have to stop by while I’m working so I can meet him.”

“Oh, he will.” She grinned. “If Travis hasn’t scared him off, I don’t think anything will.”

By the timefive o’clock rolled around and more people started coming in, I was a buzzing mess. I’d never popped caps off beers as many times as I had in one night in my whole life.

People loved to chat at the bar, voices rising and falling in a sea of noise over the jukebox playing the upbeat tune of a Don Williams song. Since the band wasn’t playing tonight, people were going up to the jukebox every chance they got. Booming laughter carried across The Rusty Pint from the pool table where I spotted Finn and a couple of his friends gathered around, playing games and losing it over whatever Finn was saying while flashing a boyish grin. I think I saw one of his friends do a spit take of his beer at one point.

There was only one who didn’t look as rowdy as the rest of the group. The man was leaning against the wall with a beer in hand, grinning at Finn like this was his typicalbehavior when they were out. He looked familiar but I couldn’t really make out his face to place him.

“He’s still the same as always, huh?” I asked Desi when we finally had a lull.

She finished wiping the counter with a rag before peering up at Finn. She shrugged but smiled with affection when Finn made his friends laugh again, their voices overlapping despite the busy crowd around us. “Sometimes I can’t believe he’s related to Travis. Polar opposites if you ask me.”

I’d seen Travis weaving between the crowd earlier with his signature irritated scowl when he got catcalled by a group of old ladies sitting at a round table, hollering and whistling like a couple of horny young men. Apparently, that was a recurring theme with the ladies of Willow Vale.

I realized why they were making such a commotion when I noticed he was wearing a white t-shirt under an unbuttoned flannel and dark jeans that made him look good. Incredibly good. As in, it was hard not to stop and stare at him kind of good. I couldn’t say I blamed the ladies for gawking at him. When I caught myself becoming one of those ladies, I quickly looked away. I did not need to admire how attractive the man was.

We were going to be friends. Nothing more and nothing less, so I needed to stop staring.

And yet, I still felt my attention going to him whenever he was near. Like a beacon of light. Desi was right, he and Finn were polar opposites—but not in the way she probably thought. Finn was bright and welcoming at all times. But Travis had always held this comforting presence about him. An unmistakable sense of calm.

When I finally got a break, I wandered around the corner and walked down the hall to check my phone for any messages or calls that I might have missed from Amelia.There were a few missed calls from my mother again and a very angry text that she sent an hour ago. But I ignored it when I saw that Amelia had texted me a picture of River napping on the couch.

I was too distracted with replying to her to notice someone standing behind me.

“Everything okay?”

I startled and turned around to find Travis, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against his closed office door. His stance wholly tense, as if ready to take action at any moment. As if with one word from me admitting something was wrong, he wouldn’t hesitate to do something to fix it. I knew Travis had said we could start over and move past everything, but I still couldn’t help but feel surprised by this unwavering protectiveness he radiated my way.

I choked out an answer before he started questioning why I was gaping at him like a fish washed up on a shore. “Yep!” I cringed at the forced cheeriness in my voice. “Just checking in with Amelia. Sorry. I’ll head back over.”

Travis didn’t move. “You’re good.”

I should have just left it at that and gone off to the bar. That would have been the smart thing to do. Except it seemed that my mind was all out of smart ideas because I started rambling. “I just…it’s never easy leaving River alone for so many hours. It makes me anxious. I’m so used to being with him.”

Travis was quiet for a moment and then he rasped, “How was it? Raising a baby, I mean.”

Such a loaded question, and yet I didn’t feel burdened by it. I couldn’t help the smile that took over, the joy that warmed my heart at the memory of a baby River in my arms while I rocked him to sleep every night.

“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

He frowned. “Scared?”

I nodded. “I was terrified I’d do something to hurt him with one careless maneuver. When we took him home from the hospital, my grandpa and I tried to unbuckle him from his car seat and neither of us knew how to pull his little arms out from beneath the straps. We were too scared to hurt him because he was so small. He was born premature because of…Irene’s addiction, and that impression stayed with me for months after. I remember crying when we finally got him out.” I released a breathless laugh.

He smiled softly, listening to me as I continued.

“It was so silly, but it was truly terrifying. I remember thinking how fragile his little bones were when I carried him in my arms. Those first few days were exhausting when we finally settled him at home. He fussed and cried all the time if I wasn’t holding him, which made it impossible to leave the room for longer than a few minutes at a time.” My smile dropped and so did Travis’s when he noticed my mood shift slightly. I sighed. “I was young, had no idea what I was doing, and suddenly I was in charge of keeping another personaliveandsafe. Nothing can really prepare you for that, I guess.”

I don’t think it hit me until that night when I realized…realized that I was taking on a role to be a mother in some crazy, wonderful yet incredibly sad way. I’d become a mother to a baby who hadn’t been born from the roots of love. And then, Irene had walked away from him so easily.

So, I promised I would love River with everything I had because she couldn’t,wouldn’t, love him nearly as much as he deserved if she had stayed.

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