Travis (Pelion Lake) by Mia Sheridan

“Where?” he parroted.

“Where are you moving?”

He gave his head a slight shake. “Just . . . down the street a ways. The landlord’s cousin is moving in so I got kicked out.” He was standing so still, watching me carefully. “What are you doing here?”

I ran my finger along the chair rail, walking closer. I spotted Clawdia stretched out near a window, basking in a pool of yellow sunshine. I looked back at Travis, raising my eyebrows in question.

“I, uh, took her off Betty’s hands,” he said in explanation. “She dropped her off this morning. Said I was doing her a favor.” He glanced at the cat in question. “Clawdia gets skittish around so many moving feet. A B&B isn’t the ideal place for her.” His gaze flickered away, and Clawdia meowed from her patch of light, as if corroborating his obvious lie. Little accomplice.

My lip trembled. It turned out this big policeman was a cat lover.

But I’d already suspected as much.

I cleared my throat. “My brother came into some land.”

His eyes moved over my face. “Oh yeah?”

“He won it from a guy down at the firehouse last night. The firehouse where they’ve all but offered him a job.” I paused, giving Travis a sideways look. “The funny thing is, those guys asked Easton to go to a certain town meeting that I heard was . . . well, memorable.”

He kept staring. “I . . . see,” he finally said.

I nodded, sucking on my bottom lip. “It’s as if they knew what was going to happen at that meeting. As if they’d been told in advance.”

“I . . . see,” he repeated.

“And then, shocker of all shockers, my brother won some money and a plot of land later that night from one of those same firemen.”

“Lucky,” he all but choked.

“You’d think, right?” I tapped my finger on my chin. “Only . . . we’ve never exactly been the lucky types. So I got to wondering . . .”

“Uh-oh.”

My lip quirked, but despite his joke, he still looked mildly ill and as though everywhere except his mouth might have suddenly turned to stone.

“I remembered you mentioned owning a plot of land. And I got to wondering what I’d find if I looked up the deed to the one Easton now owns. When might it have been transferred to that fireman so he could ‘lose’ it in that poker game? And by whom?”

He watched me silently, finally moving as he shoved his hands in his pockets but not before I noticed they were trembling. “Don’t do that,” he said.

“No? Why?”

“Because . . . I won’t take it back. I’m moving to a smaller house near the lake, right down the street from Archer, Bree, and the kids. The owner said she might be interested in selling at some point. Which will be great if I still have a job and can save up some money. It’s in Pelion. Close enough to the gym. But I’ve found I enjoy running on the shore more anyway.” He let out a whoosh of air as though saying so many words had winded him.

“What in the world will I do with that land?” My God, he looked like a statue, as though if he moved at all, he would shatter.

He squinted past me. “Seems like the perfect place to help others plant ten thousand gardens,” he said after a moment, meeting my eyes again. Oh.

It’s what my brother had suggested too. But how could I accept it? How? “That land was yours,” I said. “Why would you do that, Travis?”

He shrugged. “I can’t do anything with it anyway. See, I came across this amendment that clearly states the Pelion chief of police has to live within Pelion town limits, which I am. The chief of police, that is. For now. Anyway, Archer agreed with the bylaw. He filed it this morning. There’s no turning back now. I would have had to sell that land anyway.”

“But you would have gotten the money!”

“I don’t care about the money, Haven,” he said softly. “And I don’t think you do either. But if you’d prefer to sell it and settle somewhere else, that’s your decision to make. I hope you do though. Settle.”

I sighed. This man. He’d gifted us his land. His roots. The ones that went back hundreds of years. I was still reeling. About that. About so many things. “You sent Gage to me. Why?”

He paused. “I want you to be happy,” he said. “I want you to have the perfect life, everything you want.” He looked down. “Even if that’s not me.” The wince was slight. He almost hid it.

“Gage is pretty perfect. I concede.”

He looked to the side. “You deserve perfect.”

I moved closer. “He has the perfect family.”

Travis nodded. “He’s looking to settle down. If things . . . progressed, he’d be able to provide you security for life . . . a family . . .” God no one had ever looked more miserable than Travis Hale in that moment.

“I’m going to kill you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Why would things progress with Gage when I’m in love with you?”

Blatant hope bloomed across his handsome face. “You’re in love with me?”

“I am.” I put my hands on my hips, attempting to look stern. “I have some decisions to make though,” I said. “Considering the circumstances.”