Good Girls Don't Date Rock Stars(59)

Charlie jumped Travis, and as the two wrestled around, Gemma wiped at her eyes, hoping they wouldn’t notice.



AFTER STOPPING OFF to grab some food at Jensen’s Diner, they headed back home.

Travis glanced over at Gemma and caught her watching him again, this time with a soft, dreamy smile.

“What’s the smile for?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

Travis looked in his rearview mirror at Charlie, who gave him a shrug.

“Smiles got to mean something,” Travis said.

“I just had a lot of fun today,” Gemma said.

Travis reached across the seat and took her hand. Gemma looked at him with wide eyes, and he said, “Me, too.”


Gemma’s surprise disappeared, and for the first time since he’d arrived, she looked at him exactly the way she used to. Like he’d hung the moon and the stars and slayed all her dragons, too. It had a heady effect on him.

“Man, I wish we had ice cream,” Charlie grumbled from the backseat, breaking the spell.

Travis parked in front of the house, chuckling as Gemma huffed, “We were just in town. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Travis climbed out of the truck, listening to his son and wife argue, and for some reason it was comforting. Or maybe just comfortable.

The last several days, he’d watched their easy affection and caught himself feeling wistful. He had no idea who his dad was, and the last memory he had of his mom was the day he’d found her on the floor of their one-bedroom apartment, not moving. Family had always been a foreign concept, an unattainable dream.

Until now.

“Dad, come on! Mom said she’d run back out to the store after our burgers.”

Travis, brought out of his reverie by his son’s shout, heard Gemma call out, “That is not what I said, Charles Michael! I said I’d think about it.”

He walked into the house to find Gemma wrestling Charlie in her arms, kissing him everywhere she could reach. The little boy protested but made no real attempt to get away.

Damn it. He was forced to admit Eric Henderson had been right about Gemma; she was a good mother, loving and protective.

Gemma looked up, and their gazes locked.

“I think your dad wants in on this.” Just like when they were kids, Gemma knew what he needed before he did.

She released Charlie, and the kid raced around the kitchen island before jumping on Travis and wrapping his arms around him.

“I had the best day today.”

Travis wanted to agree, but his throat had closed up with emotion. He struggled to control the wealth of feelings inside him, but he was about to lose it.

“Charlie, you need to see where Annie has gotten to.”

Charlie broke away from Travis and ran for the door, leaving his father with empty arms and an aching heart. He heard Gemma’s flip-flops on the wood floor and looked up in time to see her hesitate.

“I’m sorry, Trav. I’m so sorry.”

He wanted her to take those final steps and hug him, to make him feel like there was hope that this whole crazy mess could work itself out. That they might have a chance of becoming the one thing he’d missed out on.

But then the front door opened, and Annie barreled past Charlie into the house, letting loose with a loud bay. Travis looked up to see his son bound through the door and caught Gemma disappearing out of the corner of his eye. The moment was broken.

But he knew he wanted to get it back.



GEMMA SET UP her laptop, hoping to get in a few chapters while Travis finished reading to Charlie. She always seemed to write better at night, maybe because she could shut off her brain. Or try to, at least. Tonight it seemed to be fixated on the man upstairs and the wounded longing she’d witnessed earlier.

She wanted to fix it but had no idea how to repair the damage she had caused. Despite the times he seemed to have really pushed aside what she’d done, she knew it wasn’t that easy. People just didn’t get over things like that. Especially people with the kind of trust issues Travis had.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to get back into the swing of her story, trying to decide what her hero did after her heroine pushed him into the water. Where did they go from there? She supposed she could have Lady Emily run away as fast as her dance slippers would take her, but that wasn’t very mature. If she had any backbone, she would stand her ground and defend her actions.

Or she could apologize over and over and then avoid the man.

Hands fell on her shoulders from behind and she jumped in her chair, swinging around guiltily to face Travis.

“Well, that didn’t take long,” she said, her smile tight and nervous.

“Yeah, he was out before I finished the chapter. So, how’s the poor guy in the water?”

“Wet.” Trying to steer her mind away from the fact that his hands were burning a hole through her clothes, heating up the skin beneath and making her squirm, she said, “Charlie had a big day.”

His hands dropped and he took the seat next to her at the kitchen table, scooting his chair closer to hers. “Me, too. It was a really good day, too.”

She swallowed hard. “Yeah, it was.”

“So, it got me thinking. About us.”

Those two words sent her heartbeat into overdrive. “Yeah?”

“Why don’t we have a do-over date? Since our first one didn’t go so well, I was thinking we could try again and go from there.”