Page 17 of Cherishing Happily Ever After

“Travis!”

It took him a minute to realize it was his name that was being called, and another moment to respond appropriately. He turned to see who’d called for him, and immediately smiled. If he considered anyone in town true friends, it would be the Langdons. He’d grown up going to school with Logan and his cousin Levi, but it wasn’t until Travis had taken a job as a ranch hand at the Langdon ranch after Levi’s father passed away that he’d gotten to know the other man as a friend. Logan had been gone for most of that time, but as soon as he’d returned to Glacier Falls, he, too, had been easy to be around. In fact, it was Logan who’d recommended him and his work to Stephanie to do the work on her cabins.

He’d raised a hand and in what came as a bit of a shock, even to himself, he looked forward to chatting with them as he crossed the bar toward their table. “Hey, guys.”

“Hiding from the rain?” Levi asked as he gestured to an empty seat.

“Or more likely a certain redheaded movie star?”

Travis almost choked as he sat down. “Why would you…what do you…” He shook his head. “What?”

Logan laughed. “Didn’t mean to actually hit on something.” He gave his cousin a glance. “Only that Steph just moved back out to Lynx Creek, and if she’s anything like her sisters…”

“Which she is,” Levi added with a chuckle.

“She’s probably keeping you on your toes.”

He had no idea.

“We’re just friends.” Travis shrugged and tried to play it cool, because Logan and Levididn’thave any idea. At least, he assumed that Steph hadn’t said anything about the kiss they’d shared the night of Charlotte’s attack. And there was no way she would have had time to check in with her sisters about what went down the night before.Probably.

“She had a bit of a scare with the alarm system last night, but nothing serious.” It was easier to be honest, but maybe nottoohonest.

Travis caught the waitress’s attention from across the room and held up a finger to indicate he’d take a beer, before turning back to the guys.

“Steph was pretty worried about heading back out there,” Logan said.

Levi shook his head. “What happened was pretty crazy, but definitely not normal. We tried to tell her it won’t happen again.”

Travis nodded along with them. He agreed. He didn’t think anything crazy would happen out there again. Glacier Falls was a very safe town. Still. He’d seen how frightened she’d been the night before. He’d held her in his arms and felt her tremble. He’d seen the way she’d bit her bottom lip to keep from crying. He’d seen...

No.He forced the images of Stephanie out of his head. It was only going to torture him, anyway. There was no point in going down that road any further.

She wasn’t interested. And he…well, hewas.

Whether he should be or not.

“Hello? Travis?”

He shook his head away from his thoughts of the sexy redhead and focused on Logan, who looked at him strangely, and Levi, who straight out laughed. “Sorry,” he said. “I was—”

“Oh, we know what you were doing.”

“You do?”

Levi nodded and managed to swallow his laughter long enough to say, “You were thinking about a certain movie star who just might be scared enough in the middle of the night to give you a call.”

“How did you know?”

Logan raised his brows and looked at his cousin before looking back at Travis. “We didn’t.”

“Did that happen?” Levi asked. “Already? That was the alarm issue last night?”

Travis widened his eyes and pressed his lips together in answer as the waitress set a beer in front of him. He nodded his thanks.

“She set it wrong,” he said. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

Logan chuckled and shook his head. “I think you underestimate how big of a deal it really is.”

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