Family Camp (Daddy Dearest, #1)(3)
Geo knew Jayden wasn’t trying to be cruel. Maybe he was even trying to be funny. But it stung. It stung hard. Geo leaned down again to pat Lucy’s hair and wipe her heated face. “Honey, I promise you we’ll get your doggie back. Okay? It may not be today, but we will get it back.”
She continued crying as he shut the door and plodded around the car to the driver’s side. He got in, his heart in his shoes.
He took a deep breath and turned the key in the ignition. Come on, car. Just ten miles. If you ever loved me….
But the earlier hiccupping of the engine had not been a fluke. The engine caught, sputtered, and died. The out-of-gas light still worked, despite the gauge being broken. It flashed red, giving him the bald truth: He was screwed.
Chapter 2
“Synchronicity is all around us. When we open our minds and hearts, we begin to recognize the signposts everywhere. It’s that niggling voice that you choose to ignore. It’s that flash of thought: I wonder what’s down that road? Or: She looks like an interesting person. Or: Maybe that person needs my help. Learn to listen. Untrain your mind to ignore these thoughts.”
“Untrain my mind. Yup, I’m on it,” Travis said.
He sat up straighter in the driver’s seat and moved his head from side to side to stretch his neck. His sister Cindy had loaned him the audiobook for the drive, and it wasn’t bad. Except the man’s voice was a bit too soothing. It had been a long day, and Travis was getting tired. In the passenger seat his golden retriever, Max, was snoozing, snug in his doggie seat belt harness.
The audiobook went on. “When Ryan met Donna, he could have passed her by. Could have ignored the lone woman on a muddy hiking trail in Honolulu. After all, the rain was pouring down, and he was late—”
The console buzzed with an incoming call, pausing the audiobook. Travis glanced at the screen. It was his agent, Marcia. With a grimace he pressed a button on the steering wheel to answer the call. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Oh, Travis! Glad I caught you. Where are you?”
“I’m almost to Big Bear. What do you need?”
“I had a request today for you. It’s that Pros and Pitties calendar again.”
“Aw, hell.” Travis sighed.
Travis had donated to a pit bull rescue in L.A. a few years ago thinking nothing of it. But the owner had been a San Diego Padres fan and recognized Travis’s name on the check. The next thing he knew, the guy was emailing him all the time. He was a nice guy and he did good work with dogs, so Travis didn’t mind chatting back and forth now and then. Until the guy started asking Travis to be in this damned beefcake calendar.
“It’s for a good cause,” Marcia wheedled. “Puppies. Pupperinos.”
“I’m happy to write him another check. But if I did a calendar like that, I’d never hear the end of it from the guys! They’d rag me to death.”
“Yeah, but last year you had me tell them ‘maybe next year.’ And it’s next year. So. How’s your six-pack looking, Travis?” Marcia sniggered.
Travis growled. Tell him I can’t do it, he wanted to say. But then he’d feel guilty. Best to just procrastinate.
“Look, I’m on break. This is my family time. I’ll deal with it when I get back. I thought we agreed you’d only call if something was urgent.”
“Yeah, but I figured you weren’t there yet. Anyway, the real reason I’m pushing this is because I think it will help with the Padres management. A beefcake calendar would be great PR for you. Brings the mommy crowd to the games.” Her voice turned sing-song. “It might buy you another year on the team…”
“Hanging up now, Marcia. We’ll talk about it when I get back.”
“Just think about it! And do sit-ups. Just kidding. But do the sit-ups anyway. Have a good time!”
Travis hung up.
Might buy you another year on the team. God. It still rankled that during the last contract negotiations, management had only been willing to commit to one more year. He’d been hoping for at least three. Fuck. He wasn’t that old.
But no, he wasn’t going to stress about that right now. He wasn’t going to think baseball or the Padres this week at all. It was All-Star Week, and he wasn’t on the roster, so he got to take the only break he’d have until the end of the season. Nothing was going to stop him from enjoying the hell out of it.
He was about to turn the audiobook back on when he noticed a little car pulled off on the side of the road up ahead. The emergency lights were flashing.
Maybe they need help. The thought came to him, sounding vaguely familiar.
Oh, right. The audiobook had just said something like that. Listen to that little voice, etcetera.
The car’s emergency flashers were on, and he saw kids in the back seat, and, well, hell, what was the point of listening to a self-improvement audiobook and ignoring its advice not even five minutes later. That would be so fucking L.A. It wouldn’t hurt him to take two minutes to make sure those folks were okay.
With a sigh, he hit his turn signal, slowed down, and pulled off behind the car.
Cars whizzed past. The road up to Big Bear was always busy in the summers with everyone escaping the metro sprawl for the mountains. Travis set his parking brake and turned to Max. The dog was wide awake now and looking around eagerly.