Page 46 of Willow Vale

Travis blinked before a smile—unrestrained and full of something akin to relief—spread across his lips. He ran a hand over his face, and I spotted a glint in his eyes.

I frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because what I’m hearing is that you’re jealous.”

“I-I am not jealous.” My words only seemed to make his amusement grow, which started to annoy me. “Stop that! I’m not jealous, Travis.”

“Then why are you so interested if I’m dating Amanda? You were the one who pointed out that she couldn’t keep her hands off me.”

“Like I said, it’s none of my business. I don’t care. I have to get back to work.” I placed a hand on his chest, determined to shove him away from me and make my escape. Travis placed his rough callused hand over mine, trapping it to his chest.

“I care,” he said, his tone serious now.

“Why? Why do you care what I think?” My traitorous cheeks warmed, and I knew there was a blush spreading across them now. I couldn’t lose myself in him. I refused to let that happen again. Goose bumps invaded my skin as his thumb pressed into the center of my palm, dragging down to my wrist.

“Why do you think?” He almost sounded pained when he said the words. "I care, damn it. I care aboutyouto the point where I can’t think about anything or anyone else. You want to know the truth? Yeah, after you ended things, I did try to move on from you. I tried my fucking best, and it was all for nothing.” His laugh sounded bitter all while my heart ached to hear his words. “You want to know why?”

I shook my head, not wanting to know more about what he’d done or who he’d been with. I had no right to be hurt by this. It was to be expected. It was what I wanted.Because I couldn’t give him what he deserved in the first place.

Travis ignored me and continued anyway. “Because no one could erase you from me. No one could make me forget the way I felt when you touched me for the first time. No one could retrace the way your eyes took me in every time you saw me. They sure as hell couldn’t make me as happy as you did. Even now, there hasn’t been a single person who has ever made me feel the way you did, and I regret ever trying—fooling myself into thinking that was a possibility in the first place. You want to know why Icare?I can’t seem to stop. I don’t want to stop. Because you and me? We’re like a string that’ll never unravel. We were always meant to find each other. Don’t you get that?”

My breath caught in my lungs at his words. His earth-shattering words that struck my heart with the weight of his own.

He looked down to my hand resting against his chest before looking at me again. “Heart’s beating fast again.”

I didn’t know if he was referring to mine or his because they were both equally pounding. There was no use in hiding. I shut my eyes tight enough that I saw stars. “I—I can’t help it.”

“I know. I know you can’t,” he whispered.

My voice came out weak, but I needed to get away from him. I needed to say something to break this connection between us even if it physically pained me. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

Travis’s bright eyes turned a shade of midnight blue. My words seemed to have had the result I wanted because he slowly dropped my hand.

“I wantyou.I’ve always wanted you.”

I froze in place. His honesty and the frustration in hisgaze…they made it impossible to look away from the angry man before me who I’d hurt more than I could have imagined. All because I was a broken mess.

“You have no idea how badly you wrecked me four years ago, do you?”

My breath caught in my throat as his hands captured my face in a gentle yet firm grip.

“And you’re angry about that, right?” I breathed.

“I’m furious.Livid,” he confessed without an ounce of anger behind his words. “Want to know the worst part?” He breathed his next words against my lips. He was so close that all he needed to do was lean in just a fraction and our worlds would collide. I felt crazed and voltaic, his nearness making every inch of my body react to him in quick bursts of shocks. Feeding a fire inside me I couldn’t have stifled if I tried. “I love every second of it. There isn’t a single thing about you that I’m not crazy about. I’ve tried to forget you and I can’t, so I’m reduced to live in this mess we created together. All because you’re too afraid to admit that you haven’t stopped thinking about me too.”

“Travis.” My eyes fluttered closed, anticipating his lips on mine. Wanting to feel his lips more than I’d ever wanted anything.

“Please,” he begged on a helpless chuckle. “Admit it. Put me out of my misery.”

I struggled to find my voice. To tell him that I wanted to admit my feelings for him more than anything, while at the same time I was scared to open myself up to him. He seemed to see the battle waging in my head because before I could come up with a single word to say to him, he leaned down and placed a kiss on my forehead. It was a soft kiss that ended all too soon as he pulled away. I watched him run a hand through his hair before blowing out a breath. When helooked at me, I was surprised to find nothing but understanding on his face.

A tenderness in his eyes that felt like a gut punch, only made worse when he spoke again.

“I won’t push you. When you’re ready to finally talk to me about what’s going on in that head of yours, I’ll be here.”

I watched him turn and walk out of the stockroom. Leaving me with the weight of his words anchoring themselves deep in my heart.

CHAPTER 18

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