Page 43 of Cherishing Happily Ever After

Oh no.She should have known better than to give her parents any little bit of information that they could get worked up about. “What?” Stephanie looked across the room to Travis, who had a small grin on his face, his eyebrows raised in question. She shook her head. “Mom? Who did Dad call?”

“He called the mayor of Glacier Falls, of course.”

“The mayor?”

Across the room, Travis almost spat out his coffee.

“Why would he do that?”

“Stephanie! We were worried. And your message didn’t tell us anything, so we looked into it. The bridge does not just need to be repaired,” she continued, more and more worked up by the minute. “It needs to bereplaced.”

“I know. But I’m—”

“And do you know what we were told?” Stephanie shook her head but didn’t bother responding as her mother continued. “That it could take weeks to replace.Weeks!”

“That’s what I’ve heard, Mom. And it’s okay. I have lots of supplies and I’m not—”

“It’snotokay, Stephanie. Not at all. But that mayor, well, she didn’t seem to care, so your father thought we should just call the—”

“No.” Steph froze. She knew what her mother was going to say before she even said it, and she didn’t want to hear it. If her mother even thought about callingThe Pulseor any other publication who made their millions off pictures of her and mostly manufactured stories about her life, everything would change. One of the things she loved about Glacier Falls was that the residents of the town didn’t care who she was. They never called the tabloids; they didn’t take pictures of her and sell them; they just treated her like a normal person. And if there was no story, the tabloids wouldn’t come. But if they were being purposelycalledfor a story?

Steph dropped her head and shook it a little before taking a deep breath.

And what a story it was.Stephanie Starzstranded across raging river.

“Please tell me you didn’t do that, Mom.”

“We didn’t.”

Stephanie let out a breath.

“Not yet.”

“Mom. Don’t call them, okay? It will just cause a whole bunch of different problems.”

Travis must have sensed something was wrong; he came to stand behind her and rubbed her shoulders lightly. It was such an intimate and caring gesture. Despite the stress rushing through her body, Steph couldn’t help but melt into his touch. Again, everything with Travis just felt right. Like it had finally, after months of trying to make the pieces fit, all just clicked into place and was perfect.

The speed with how quickly things had changed between them should have scared her. But it only made her feel a full-body sense of calm.

“Stephanie,” her mother was talking, “we’re concerned. You know we love you.”

She nodded.

“And a little press attention on the situation will only help, and you know it. They’ll be able to get things moving along and get you out in a few days.”

“A few days?” She turned to look at Travis, who only shrugged. “Look, Mom. Don’t worry, okay? It will all work out, and I promise I’m just fine.” She sighed. “I should probably get going now, though. I have to…well, we’ll talk soon, okay? And please don’t call the media.”

She finished up the call and set the phone down.

“Do you think they’ll call?” Travis asked.

Stephanie shrugged. “Hard to say. They’ve been acting strange lately. But if they do…it looks like we’re only going to have to find enough to occupy us for a few days, not weeks like we thought.” She couldn’t quite hide the disappointment from her voice.

His grin was sly as his hands came to rest on her waist. “Well then, I guess if we’re going to fit it all in, we better get started.”

ChapterEleven

As far asTravis was concerned, if being stranded in a cozy cabin in the woods with Stephanie was what he got—one week or one day—he was going to make damn sure he made the best of it. And that’s just what they’d done twice more before Stephanie, exhausted from their day of lovemaking, fell asleep on his chest.

---