Page 9 of Willow Vale

I couldn’t help but be amused. I’d barely been here fifteen minutes, and I could see Jake and Manny were pretty content here, just like Desi.

Maybe I would be too. If I could get past the wholeTravis situation.

Neither of them seemed to recognize me as Irene North’s daughter like the rest of the locals in town who watched me grow up here. They didn’t treat me like a charity case or someone to steer clear from. Maybe Desi told them not to say anything. Either way, I was relieved. I loved Willow Vale, butit was hard being in a town where everyone knew your whole life story because of your messed up family. Some days I imagined what my life would be like if I left town and started somewhere new. A new home that River and I could call ours without the burden of our mother’s mistakes weighing down on us.

“That’s pretty much all I have for you today. Any questions?” Jake asked as he urged me to walk ahead of him to the steel doors that led back out into the hall.

“I think you covered it. Unless you think there’s anything else I should know,” I said as I pushed the door to my right.

“Oh, that’s?—”

Whatever Jake was about to say was interrupted by the sound of the door hitting something on the other side.Hard. Then I heard a deep muffled curse that could only belong to one voice I still recognized perfectly.

I tensed, turning to Jake with a panicked look at the same time he scratched the back of his head. “The wrong door. Crap…”

This time I followed Jake as he pushed the other door with the “out” sign clearly written atop the frame.

Nice going, Lila.

“Sorry, man, you okay?” Jake asked as he peered around, as if he was scared at what he’d find.Whohe’d find, even though I already knew. I looked over Jake’s shoulder and just as I’d expected, Travis was standing in the hallway with a glare aimed directly at Jake as he held a hand over his nose. The moment his eyes found me, they softened a tiny bit.

The intimidating look about him—all six feet and three inches of muscle, too handsome to look at for longer than a few seconds, and that damn scowl on his face—would make someone think better than to mess with him. Not me. I’d seen that look too many times growing up. I’d teased him for itconstantly too. We may not have seen each other in a long time—by my own design—but it was good to see there was one thing about him that would never change.

Travis dropped his hand, letting me catch a glimpse of the redness covering the bridge of his nose where the door must have slammed into his face.

Ouch.

“Sorry. That was my fault. Are you okay?” I murmured as I dropped my head to avoid those clear blues that used to make me lose all sense of time.

“Don’t worry about it,” Travis grunted. He sniffed before directing his next words to Jake. “I thought you were banished from the kitchen for knocking Manny’s pizza off the pan last time, Jake.”

The way he moved on so quickly from my apology, as if he were utterly disinterested in my presence, bothered me more than it should have. Which was ridiculous. I shouldn’t care about his indifference. That’s what I wanted after all. But damn, did that sting more than it should have.

Jake shrugged. “I decided I’d brave the trenches for my girl, Lila, here.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and jostled me playfully as he added, “I already got the okay from Manny that he liked her, and shedefinitelycaptured my heart. Try not to scare her away, boss. I’m begging you here.”

Travis’s eyes narrowed, and I followed his gaze to Jake’s arm draped over my shoulder. It was there and gone before I could make sense of it. He shot Jake a flat look. “If I’m going to scare anyone away, it’ll be you.”

“Don’t let that permanent sour look on his face intimidate you, Lila. He always looks like that. He’s a pretty nice guy on the inside beneath the bad attitude.” Jake winked at me.

Travis made a grunting sound—unimpressed or out of patience for his employee. Either way, he didn’t look toohappy. “Get the bar ready to open, will you? Otherwise, I might have to look for another bartender to replaceyou.”

Without another word, Jake hustled down the hall and disappeared around the corner, clearly not wanting to tempt his boss into firing him.

Leaving us alone.

“Sorry about that again,” I said awkwardly by waving a hand around his face. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t fire me for nearly breaking your nose.”

“It’s fine.”

If I expected him to crack a smile, I was sorely disappointed. The man didn’t so much as blink as he stared me down. Gone was the Travis who’d asked me questions as if it were his personal mission to figure me out.

Okay, I might have lied about not being intimidated by that look. It just hadn’t ever been directed at me up until now.

Back then it was all secret glances and stolen kisses, not wanting his family or our friends to make a big deal out of us starting a relationship the summer we were both back from college. Not when we were both going our separate ways once the summer was over.

At first, we were just trying things out. It was hard to put a friendship aside when starting something intimate with your best friend. That could have been our first mistake—forgetting what we were to each other. I knew I always cared about Travis, and I was sure he cared about me. We gravitated to one another like moths to a flame—ready to burn at any moment—because we couldn’t seem to stay away from each other.

Those years we were away from each other when he went off to college in Colorado had been hard. I’d missed him a lot. But we never drifted apart. Late night phone calls andtexts that ranged from full blown conversations to stupid inside jokes. Then I went off to college next.

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