The cabin seemed so silent with them gone, and Will met Trav’s eyes. “Do you think that’s true? Do you think he’s goin’ out with someone?”

  Travis shrugged, not sure why Will cared. He never dated either. “I don’t know,” he said. “From his reaction? Yeah, I think there’s probably some teeth there.”

  Will grunted, and Travis wondered if he was thinking about Gretchen Bellows. He hadn’t meant to make things worse for him. Or awkward. Or whatever.

  “Listen.” He cleared his throat. “You and Gretchen⁠—”

  “Nope,” Will said. “That’s not a thing.”

  “Okay.” Travis opened the dishwasher and started to load in their plates. “Maybe you can help me figure out how to kiss Shayla then.”

  “No can do,” Will said. “You’re the one with all the lady luck, Trav. You’ll figure it out.”

  Travis did not figure out how to kiss Shayla the next time he saw her. He’d met her at the October First Fest, and they’d wandered the rows of booths, trying on ridiculous hats, laughing at the old fashioned pictures, and eating entirely too much junk food. He’d had to go inside her house to wash the caramel and chocolate from his hands, and Sweetie had had an accident in the house, which had distracted Shayla.

  He’d hugged her, sure. Said he’d call her later.

  Another week passed, and Travis almost felt like he was living two lives. Farm-Travis, who got up early, milked cows, and ate dinner with his family. And Boyfriend-Travis, who texted flirty things to Shay, drove to town to see her on leftover night, and suggested things for their next date night.

  She canceled on him for that Friday, citing one of her employees had called in sick and she’d had to stay at the store and run the showroom. Travis couldn’t blame her for her dedication to her job, and she answered his texts lightning fast.

  With nothing on the horizon for them, and not knowing when he’d see her again, Travis showed up at the farmhouse one afternoon, looking for something cold to drink before he had to get back to the milking stalls and all the Berthas.

  He found Daddy there with Lee, the two of them pouring over a folder on the dining room table. Travis didn’t wear glasses, but he didn’t need them to see the maps, the trailer rentals, and the itinerary.

  Daddy never did anything without a plan.

  “Hey, son,” he said, hastily closing the folder. “What are you doing here?”

  “I know you’re going to California to buy cattle,” Travis said, opening the fridge. “You don’t need to hide it from me.”

  “I told you Will would tell him.”

  “Of course Will told me,” Travis said, shooting a look in Lee’s direction. “Y’all are goin’ without me.”

  “I need you to stay here and run the farm,” Daddy said, stepping between Lee and Travis.

  “Sure,” Travis said. “I’m so glad you asked.” He twisted the lid on his bottle of lemonade. “Just getting a drink. See you later.” He walked out despite Daddy and Lee both saying, “Trav, come on.”

  He didn’t need to blow up at them today. He didn’t like the seething, snaking feelings inside him that came when he thought about being left out, left behind, and he’d rather just avoid the conversation for now.

  His phone rang, and his heart tripped over its beat when the ringtone indicated it would be Shayla. “Hey,” he said, sighing into the phone. “I’m so glad you called.”

  “You are? What’s going on?”

  He cast a glance over his shoulder to the farmhouse, a place that had always been a safe haven for him. Now, he had to go help Mama out of bed almost every morning, and he couldn’t even stop by for lemonade without the possibility of walking in on something he’d rather not.

  “Nothing,” he said. “Any chance you’re free for dinner tonight?”

  “No,” she said, her tone light and flirty. “I was calling to ask if you’d come over for dinner tonight.”

  “To your place?”

  She giggled, and he could picture her dark eyes glinting with the laughter. “Yes,” she said. “Elaine’s boyfriend just had a client cancel, and he has a vat of barbecue pulled pork he’s trying to unload.”

  “A vat, huh?” Travis laughed, everything better in only half a minute. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Tell me what time.”

  “I’ll be home around six,” she said. “I’ll make sure Sweetie is all taken care of. Elaine isn’t going to be there. It’ll just be me and you.”

  “Me and you,” Travis echoed, his imagination running wild as his heartbeat picked up speed. “I’ll see you soon.”

  The promise of a date with Shayla—just him and her—sustained him through the rest of the afternoon milking. His mind riddled through how he could kiss her tonight. Was she even waiting for him to kiss her? What if she didn’t want him to?

  He showered, shaved, and sped on the way into town. By the time he pulled up to her house, he was still no closer to a romantic idea to take their relationship to the next level.

  He climbed her steps and rang her bell, and when she pulled open the door, he lost his ever-loving mind.

  Shayla wore a dark purple dress that went from shoulder to heel, and his mouth watered at the sight of her. Maybe that was from the scent of spicy and sweet barbecue sauce.

  No matter what, he took a couple of steps into her house as she said, “Evening, Trav,” and then took her into his arms.

  “Evening,” he murmured, reaching up to swipe his cowboy hat off his head. “Shay…” He searched her face, trying to find any indication that she wanted to kiss him. Yes or no? He couldn’t tell, and humiliation streamed through him.

  “Is kissing allowed tonight?” he murmured, letting his eyes drift closed.

  “Mm, I think so,” Shayla whispered, and Travis dipped his head and touched his mouth to hers. Flames licked up through his chest, and he took the gesture from a touch to a full-blown kiss, his desire and excitement for this woman climbing and climbing with every second she kissed him back.

  14

  Shayla would only admit to herself and Sweetie that she’d called Travis and invited him for dinner simply to experience her first kiss with him. The past few weeks since the Fall Ball had been stressful for her at Sweetspot, and she’d only seen Travis a few times anyway.

  With her dog being sick, and Elaine showing up whenever she wanted—which Shayla had never minded in the past—they hadn’t been able to make this kiss happen.

  She sank into his stroke now, every muscle in her body turning to melting chocolate. He held her up, because Travis was strong and capable. He kissed her like she was his girlfriend, and he never wanted someone different to fill that role.

  Shayla hadn’t kissed a man in a long time, and Travis Cooper was a cowboy-man-god among men. She couldn’t stop herself from matching him stroke for stroke, pressing closer to him, and threading her fingers through his hair.

  He broke the kiss and slid his lips down her neck. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I missed you too.” Shayla hadn’t invited him only for this, but she told herself to save her conversation—and her ask—for later. She sighed and smiled as he lifted his head and looked into her eyes.

  Travis wasn’t like anyone she’d ever been out with before. He was a cowboy; the salt of the earth. He loved his momma and his land, and he wouldn’t treat her the way some of her ex-boyfriends had. She wouldn’t have to run from him, and now that she’d kissed him, her hopes of having a stable life in Sweet Water Falls doubled.

  She put her arm through his. “Come in,” she said. “Let’s eat. I have the food in the oven.” She closed the door behind him and led him into the kitchen. “I’m not much of a cook, but even I can reheat food and put out sauce.”

  “I like meals in thirty minutes or less,” Travis said, smiling at her. Shayla bore the weight of his gaze as she flitted around the kitchen getting out the aluminum foil container of pulled pork. She’d already set the quart-sized bottle of barbecue sauce on the counter, and she opened the fridge to get out the cole slaw.

  “He sent buns too,” she said, glancing at Travis. He frowned at his phone, his shoulders up and boxy. “You okay?”

  He looked up and flipped his phone over. “Yes. Yep. I’m just dealing with Lee, and he’s annoying me right now.” He pushed his breath out, obviously trying to shake off the bad vibes.

  “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “We’ve got to get the red winter wheat in,” he said. “I’ve got that this weekend, and he and Will are going with my dad to California next week.”

  “California?” Shayla’s eyebrows went up as she put the bag of buns on the counter. “You said you guys don’t travel much.”

  “We don’t,” Travis said. “Daddy’s got it in his head to get some California dairy cows and see how they do here, with our herd.” He rolled his eyes. “He, Will, and Lee are each driving a trailer of them home next week.”

  “How many new cows is that?”

  “Eighty-five,” Travis said. “I told Daddy he better be hiring someone new to help with the milking. I’m stretched to the max as it is.”

  “And now you have to do the red winter wheat planting.”

  “Our cowboys have been getting the fields ready for a couple of weeks,” he said. “Since the summer harvest ended.” He ran his hands through his hair, and Shayla wasn’t sure where his cowboy hat had gotten to. “I swear, I need a vacation.”

  “Do you ever get a break?” Shayla asked.

  “Not really.” He put a smile on his face. “You don’t seem to either. You know how it is.”

  “Yes,” she said, her voice dropping. “I do.”

  Travis cocked his head, his eyes starting to dazzle her. “What’s on your mind?”

  “I have a couple of things,” she said. “But let’s get our food first.” She picked up a plate and handed it to him. “Come on. Get up, cowboy. Are you too tired to fill a plate with barbecue?”

  “No, ma’am,” he said, his grin finally relaxing into something genuine. “Tell me how Sweetspot is going.”

  “Good,” she said with a sigh. Truth be told, she was tired. “The happy-family-camper tents will be done on time, thank goodness. The launch is set for the first week of November.” She piled pork onto her bun and reached for the sauce after handing him the tongs. “I lost a couple of employees, so I’m working on hiring new ones. I’m going to need them for the holidays.”

  “Mm, I’ll bet.”

  She put cole slaw on top of her sauce and pressed her bun crown over all of it. Glancing up, she smiled at Travis. “Table or counter?”

  “Wherever.” He focused on building his sandwich—two of them, actually—and joined her at the dining room table. “I like how these chairs are different colors.”

  “I painted them myself,” she said, smiling at the robin egg’s blue one next to her. She’d chosen the coral-colored one, and Trav sat in the mint green one.

  “And the tabletop?” he asked.

  “Yep.” She picked up her sandwich and took a bite. The salty pork combined with the cool, crisp cole slaw, and the spicy-hot barbecue sauce complemented it all. A groan started in her stomach, and she was definitely Texan for how much she loved barbecue.

  “So things at work are going well,” he said, leading her toward something. “Or well enough. So why did I see that trepidation in your face earlier?”

  “I have a couple of things,” she said, pinching off a piece of her bun and popping it into her mouth. “Might as well get this one out of the way first.” She took a breath and met his eyes. “My mother adores Halloween. Like, picture the people you know who put out giant skeletons in their yards, huge blow-up pumpkins, and lights as if it were Christmas. That’s my mother.”

  Travis gave her a wary look, because he’d already told her he despised Halloween. Their texting sessions had told her a lot about him.

  “She invited me to her party,” Shayla said, pushing the words out so they couldn’t poison her anymore. “She said I should bring you, and honestly, Trav, I can’t go alone. My brother will have his family there. My sister and her husband, and she’s starting to show.” Desperation clogged Shayla’s throat, and she tried to swallow it back. Tried, and failed.

  “It might actually be fun if you’re there,” she said.

  “So let me get this straight,” Trav said, and he polished off his first sandwich. After he’d chewed and swallowed, he wiped his mouth with a paper towel. “I’m going to have to dress up for a party—two things I don’t really like.”

  “Hogwash,” she said, teasing him. “You love parties.”

  He kicked a grin in her direction, some hidden meaning behind it. “I tolerated the crowds at the Fall Ball, because your dress was so fantastic.”

  “Okay, mister.” Shayla laughed while he continued to smile at her. “I’ll wear a great dress to the Halloween party.”

  “Yeah? What are you going to go as?”

  “I don’t know. Cruella?”

  “Can I be a cowboy?”

  “Does Cruella date a cowboy?”

  “Sure,” he said.

  “Maybe you could be Mister Darcy.”

  “I don’t even know who that is.”

  “Shut your mouth, Trav,” Shayla said, blinking at him.

  He shrugged and took another huge bite of his pulled pork sandwich. “I’m a dairy farmer, Shay. Not a reader.”

  “Just the fact that you know he’s a character from a book means you know who he is.”

  “I’m not wearing some fancy-pants, English dandy outfit.”

  Shayla didn’t think he would, no. But she had to try. “It’s my mother’s Halloween party.”

  “Which leads me to the second thing,” he said. “I have to dress up and go to a party, which is bad enough. But I have to meet your parents at the same time?”

  Shayla had an argument for this too. “There will be a lot of people there.”

  “And your brother and his wife. His kids. Your sister and her husband. The whole she-bang.”

  Shayla took a big, deep breath. “I’ll come to one of your family dinners.”

  “I—” Travis’s voice muted as he searched her face. “You will?”

  “You invited me,” she reminded him gently.

  “You said you might not be ready.”

  “You kissed me.”

  He blinked, his food forgotten. “That’s what you were waiting for?”

  “I thought you might not be as serious as I am.”

  “I—you’re serious?”

  “Aren’t we serious?” Shayla didn’t mind the rapid-fire nature of the conversation. A lot of things with Travis were this way.

  “I—yes.”

  Shayla looked down at her food and picked up her sandwich. She met his gaze with a cocked eyebrow. “If you start another sentence with I—and then move to something else, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  He grinned. “Blow up?”

  “Probably.” She took a bite of her sandwich and chewed, giving him some space and silence to consider what she’d said.

  He finished his second sandwich and wiped his fingers and mouth again. “When do you want to come to dinner?”

  “When you’re cooking, of course,” she said. “Maybe we can even cook together.”

  “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into,” he said.

  “But I have some idea of what kind of hot water you’ll be in at my mother’s Halloween party. I’m willing to make this trade.”

  Travis leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. If he had any idea how attractive that made him, he didn’t show it. “So this isn’t about how serious we are at all. This is a trade. One horrible, loud, probably-full-of-yelling dinner at my farm, and I’ll dress up as a stuffy Englishman and attend your mother’s Halloween party.”

  “No,” she said.

  “Sounds like a business transaction,” he said, those bright green eyes sparkling like emeralds and diamonds.

  “It’s not a business transaction,” she said, standing and picking up their plates. As she took them into the kitchen to put in the sink, she added, “It’s the next step in our relationship.” She turned back to him and returned to the dining room table. He took her onto his lap, and Shayla breathed in the scent of his cologne, and the soft, clean smell of dryer sheets that came with his clothes.

  She watched herself comb her fingers through his hair. “Don’t you think?”

  “Mm.” He kept his hands solidly on her waist, but he bent forward slightly and kissed her again. Shayla had gotten everything she’d wanted from tonight’s dinner date, so she focused on the best thing that had come from the evening.

  Kissing her boyfriend.

  Shayla turned her humongous truck off the highway, the quaintness of the century-status farm expanding before her. She couldn’t see the main farmhouse yet, nor the cowboy cabins where she’d found Travis lounging pond-side with his brother.

  A small smile touched her lips as the road beneath her tires turned into dirt. It wasn’t just normal dirt, either, but some sort of perfectly packed and meticulously manicured dirt road. She wondered if Travis had to do road maintenance as part of his job description, and she determined to ask him.

  He’d told her he was in charge of the health of the dairy herd, and that he milked cows in six shifts all day long. She suspected he did a lot more than that around his family farm, and she admired his work ethic.

  All of the Coopers, actually.

  Today, on this quiet, sleeping Sunday afternoon, Shayla came to the T-junction in the road and looked right and left. The farmhouse sat to the left, almost gleaming white in the sunshine. Trav would be there. He’d driven his father and two brothers to the airport in San Antonio that morning, but he’d be back at the farmhouse to make sure his mother was cared for.

  He’d told her via text that he wasn’t sure how to sleep in the cabin alone, and he might crash at the farmhouse until Will returned on Thursday morning. His daddy and brothers were each planning to drive an eighteen-wheeler packed with dairy cows back to Sweet Water Falls, mostly in the middle of the night to avoid traffic.