His mom and dad nodded in unison.
He practically had to drag Kacey out of her chair. Once they were in the kitchen he very gently pulled the deed from her hands and made her sit in a chair.
She promptly burst into tears.
****
Kacey felt like such an idiot for crying. But since her parents had died a few years back, she’d always wanted to have a home. A real home.
A home like the one Jake’s parents had just given them.
And it was all a lie. She felt violently ill in that moment and placed her head between her knees, trying to take large gasps of air.
“Hey, hey, it’s fine, it’s okay.” Travis rubbed her back. “Just breathe. You’re just having a panic attack. You’ll be fine. There’s my girl. Just breathe.” He rubbed slow circles around her neck until she finally calmed down and laid her head on his lap.
“Wanna talk about it, Kace?”
She shrugged. She didn’t really want to talk about it to anyone, least of all Travis. She still wasn’t sure what alien species had taken over his body to make him both gorgeous and nice, but part of her felt like she couldn’t completely trust him.
After all, he did throw rocks when he was little.
Kacey shook her head as another sob escaped her mouth. This house was full of so many memories. How many family dinners had they shared together? The food was always catered by her parents’ restaurant. Her mom and dad would drink wine with Jake’s parents, and then all the kids would watch Disney movies in the living room. And now that she was back, it was as if a huge chunk was missing. She sat in the same chair, talked with the same family she adored, but a giant piece was missing. She wasn’t sure it would ever be okay. Not after repressing the pain for so long.
She shrugged. “I feel horrible. Your poor parents think it’s real and then to make everything worse, they give us this.” She hit the packet on the table next to her. “And it’s tempting, so tempting that I hate myself for it.” It was partially the truth. She did want it, but more than that, she wanted her parents to be alive.
Travis sighed next to her. “You don’t need a man like Jake to give you what you want. Believe me, when you have the perfect house and tons of money, you still won’t be complete if the man you share it with is out paying whores to do things you would never do.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Kacey joked.
“Kace! Jake isn’t worth it!”
“No.” She laughed. “I meant things that strippers do. Pretty sure I know how to please my man. I could drive circles around those girls. I just need the right guy.”
Travis tensed next to her. He cleared his throat and pushed away from the chair. He walked over to the counter and began cutting the pie.
What was his deal lately?
“Let me guess.” Kacey leaned over the counter. “Raspberry pie?”
“How’d you know?” He smirked, his voice was hoarse.
“It was the only pie your grandma taught you how to make, and if I remember correctly, you made it for your senior prom date.”
“Ugh.” Travis carefully cut it into eighths. “If I remember correctly she spilled it on her dress and blamed me for making raspberries red.”
“She always was such a charmer. What was her name again?”
Travis chuckled. “Oh no you don’t. That’s just what I need. You digging up my past girlfriends and making fun of them. Besides, I don’t date girls anymore. I date women.” He eyed her up and down before slowly licking the fork.
Kacey averted her eyes, mainly because the picture of him licking that fork was so erotic she nearly jumped across the table and assaulted him. Apparently this is what happens when you don’t have boyfriends, and the closest relationship you’ve had in the past year has been with your e-reader and a fictional duke named Henry.
“So…” Kacey nudged him a bit with her arm. “Women, hmm? What women are you dating? I don’t see any of them here for family dinner night.”
“There are no women.”
Kacey’s heart hammered in her chest.
“If you must know, there is one woman. One being the keyword.”
She clenched her fist and cursed herself for bringing the subject up. “What’s her name?”
“Oh no you don’t!” Travis placed the knife on the plate and grabbed Kacey by the shoulders. “That’s just what I need, you stalking the one woman I’m interested in.”
Did he say he was only interested in one? Damn the man. Be unattractive! She wanted to yell. “C’mon Trav, you know me. What harm could I possibly cause?”
“Junior year—” he began.
“Forget I asked.”
“—Junior year.” He held his finger into the air as he was making his point. “Somehow you discovered I had a crush on Ashley Willis. I still don’t know how, considering I’m a guy and I don’t keep a diary.”
“No.” Kacey dipped a fork into the pie and licked the tangy berries off of it. “But you did moan her name one time in your sleep. But carry on.”
He glared. “You told her.”
“Okay, Trav, come on. I did nothing of the sort. I merely hinted that you had a tiny bit of a crush on her.”
“Kace, making a poster with my face on it and heart stickers is a hell of a lot more than hinting. God, I don’t even think you know the meaning of the word discreet.”