Travis(3)

“She’s the one, huh?” Bree asked, and I detected the barest hint of…uneasiness? Concern? I wasn’t sure, and whatever had passed over her expression was there and gone in the blink of an eye. She bent her head and inhaled Averie’s wispy brown hair, sighing softly.

Bree had met Phoebe on many occasions. She’d never said anything unkind about her, but I’d also gotten the sense they might never be best friends. Which was okay by me. Bree was into baking and reading and mucking around in the rocks with her kids and dogs. All worthy pastimes when you were a mom. But Phoebe wasn’t a mom. Yet. She was into…well, besides me, she was into… What was Phoebe into?

She liked to shop, I knew that. And tan. She was very good at both.

“Well, when you know, you know,” Bree said, smiling softly, meeting my gaze and holding it for several beats.

When you know, you know.

I pushed off the counter just as the soft sound of the front door opening met my ears. The door clicked shut quietly and then Archer turned into the kitchen, looking unsurprised to see me. He’d obviously noticed my truck parked out front. Hey, he signed.

Hi, I signed back as Archer made a beeline for Bree and his daughter, his face lighting with such open joy that I almost looked away, as though I’d barged in on an intimate moment and had no business being there.

The baby kicked her chubby legs and grinned, two shiny white teeth appearing on her bottom gum. Averie reached for her father and Archer took her from Bree, kissing his wife on the lips, lingering.

“Well,” I said loudly, giving the papers sitting on the counter a tap. “There’s the data you wanted. I emailed it to you as well, but was in the area, so thought I’d drop off printouts. Tell the boys I said bye. I’ll pick them up Sunday.” We had a long-standing after-dinner ice cream date where I fed them too much sugar and then sent them home so their parents could deal with the aftermath.

Archer glanced at Bree, his hands too full to speak, and as though reading his mind, she said, “Travis can’t join us for dinner. He has plans with Phoebe.”

Ah, Archer mouthed, smiling at me and nodding.

“Good to see you,” I said. “Bree.” I smiled at Averie whose eyes narrowed minutely. She leaned toward Archer, her tiny fist clutching his shirt the same way she’d held on to her mother. “Okay, then. See you guys later.” And with that, I turned and let myself out of the little house on the lake that smacked of home and love and family.

***

The breeze smelled like peaches. I inhaled a deep breath of the air coming in my open window as my truck idled on the dirt road that ended at the edge of my property. Peace rolled through me. Hope for the future. The sun was just beginning its descent behind an old barn, the light hazy and golden. Unfortunately, I’d have to tear down the structure. It was right in the spot where I intended on building my home. Maybe I could use the lumber somehow though. Beams…or flooring, something to pay homage to what had once been but was no longer.

My father had bought this land on the very edge of Pelion, technically in the town of Calliope, the more touristy area on the opposite side of the lake. The land wasn’t massive, but it was prime lakefront property. It had once been an orchard, and several of the fruit trees remained: apples, cherries, peaches, and plums.

The water rippled serenely as my gaze went toward the place I’d just been—my brother’s house, too far to see from this distance. Archer owned and ran the town of Pelion, but I had this. In addition to the town, that eventually—rightly—went to Archer years before, my mother had been willed this plot of land from my father. Because it wasn’t part of Pelion, she’d been able to keep it. I’d given my mother every cent of my savings and purchased it from her. I’d received something important to me—something that was only mine—and I’d given her a lump sum of cash that she’d desperately needed since everything else—again, rightly—had been stripped from her. Archer might have gotten the lion’s share of the Hale inheritance, and it had always been obvious he had the lion’s share of our father’s heart because his mother had been the love of his life, while my own mother was a conniving manipulator who tricked him into impregnating her, but this plot of land belonged to me and no one else. Here, I wasn’t second best to anyone.

I couldn’t afford to build on it yet, but I was almost there. Someday…someday I’d raise a family on this land. Someday I’d live the life our father had wanted for himself. He’d loved Pelion, and he’d been the chief of police just like I was, but he’d wanted the distance from his brothers and, as a matter of fact, even though I only had one, I did too. There was only so much sainthood, so much look-what-a-perfect-family-we-are moments I could handle.

I sat there in the quiet peace of the evening for a moment, listening to the water lap the shore and inhaling the fragrance of sweet summer fruit.

Could I see Phoebe on this land? Pregnant? Walking out onto a dock that overlooked the water? A house with a porch shining in the sunlight rising above the trees behind her?

I squinted, focusing so hard I winced, trying to visualize it but coming up short. The misty image of a woman wavered, faded, and disappeared. I rubbed my temple. Did Phoebe even want kids? We hadn’t talked about it. Maybe I needed to start asking. Of course, if I did start talking about it, that was a move forward in itself. My breath suddenly felt constricted and I pulled idly at the seat belt still strapped around my body as though it’d somehow, inexplicably, grown tighter.