Fix Her Up (Hot & Hammered #1)(93)

I’m going to tell him. I have to tell him everything. It won’t stay inside.

“You came.”

A frown marred his forehead. “Of course I came.” Something was wrong, though. She could see it. Dark circles cradled his eyes, tension riding along his shoulders. “You’re doing great, baby girl. I’ll be waiting at the finish line.”

Georgie nodded, relieved to have a better motivation than murdering Kristin. Taking one more worried look at Travis’s face, she turned and rejoined the women, doing her best to give them her whole focus. They deserved it. Once they’d completed all ten obstacles, they all crossed the finish line together and were immediately handed . . . beer? Bethany, Rosie, and Georgie shrugged and clinked plastic cups.

“We look like we just crawled out of a swamp,” Rosie said, laughing.

Bethany guzzled down half her beer. “We did.”

“But we did it.” Georgie’s laugh turned into a sob, the earlier rise of emotions catching her around the throat again. “You guys, I’ll be back. I have to do something.”

They gave her a mud-covered hug and sent Georgie on her way. Picking through the celebrating crowd on her own, the magnitude of what she was about to do hit. How would Travis react? Would he panic? Would it make him happy?

Either way, she couldn’t look him in the face anymore and water down her feelings. Every time she kept the words crammed down inside, it hurt. And there was a bone-deep knowledge inside Georgie telling her Travis wouldn’t want her to hurt.

The crowd parted and there he was. God, so absurdly good-looking in jeans and a navy-blue sweatshirt rolled up to his elbows. He was looking for her, too, and when he found her, relief etched itself on every line of his strong body. Georgie didn’t care that she looked like Swamp Thing; she could only gravitate toward Travis, and when he opened his arms up, she ran and leaped into them like they were the gates of heaven. To her, they were.

“You were amazing out there,” he said into her neck. “They got tired and you motivated them. You were the leader.”

Her heart lifted. “I promised them they could help me kill Kristin.” Travis’s laugh was so genuine, she wondered if she’d imagined how tired he looked. “Will you kiss me even though I’m covered in mud of questionable origin?”

His mouth found hers, gave it a teasing nuzzle. “I’ve never seen you more beautiful,” he rasped. “The way you smiled out there. The way you’re smiling now . . .”

The decision to come clean, the lack of the burden. It had to be showing on her face. “Travis, I have to talk to you.”

“I have to talk to you, too, Georgie.” The worry was back around his eyes, making her stomach clench, but his mouth continued to sample hers with distracting kisses. “Can we go somewhere—”

“Travis.” Stephen’s voice broke through the personalized fog surrounding them. “How about you put my sister down?”

Travis’s jaw bunched tight. “Not now. Please don’t do this now.”

“You haven’t given me a choice.”

“I can clear this up,” he said, throwing her brother a look. “Just let me talk to her first.” Travis faced her once again, pushing their foreheads together. “Ah, baby girl. I fucked up. This is going to get bad. Just promise you’ll give me a chance to explain.”

Georgie’s breath started to come faster, scraping along her eardrums. This seemed bad. Needing to get some distance from the comforting feel of him so she could be objective, Georgie eased herself to the ground, staving off Travis when he tried to tug her back into the cradle of his body. “Explain what?” Keeping her chin up, she transferred her attention to a glowering Stephen. “What’s going on?”

Stephen’s demeanor turned nervous—and that’s when Georgie started to become truly terrified. She’d rarely seen her brother look anything but self-assured, especially since they’d entered adulthood. “When Travis stood up for you at dinner, he was right. You deserve better. I realized I haven’t been treating you the way I should and I’m really sorry. And I just want to do right by you now. I wish that didn’t mean hurting you,” Stephen finished in a gruff voice. “I just thought . . . when he came to me about your relationship, I thought I saw a change in him.”

Bethany bounded up beside Georgie. “What’s the serious-face summit about?”

Concreted to the ground, Georgie ignored her sister. “Keep going.”

Her brother gave a deep sigh. “It was all fake for him. He was dating you to help land himself the commentator job. None of it was real.”

Relief landed on Georgie’s head like cement. “Oh God. Okay, Stephen. We have a lot to talk about. Now isn’t the time, but Travis and I both had our reasons for dating. At first.” She squeezed Travis’s hand. “It’s super complicated, but please trust me when I say this is real.”

Stephen’s frown didn’t relent. “I heard what I heard, Georgie. He called you a kid last night. Said he’s been using you to his advantage. I’m as surprised as you are.”

“Georgie, look at me,” Travis implored her. “I was full of shit when I said that.”

Georgie couldn’t tear her eyes off her brother. There was more coming. Foreboding made her hands and feet feel like they’d fallen asleep, made her lips numb.